| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... 17:44 - Jan 1 with 2405 views | Funge |
.... that was, in all honesty, carnage. My brief take on it, if anyone cares....
Leeds - horrid game, at a horrid ground, full of horrid people. Yep, ref didn't help, and perhaps if those early Chaplin/ Broad chances go in.... in all honesty, though, a stinking day at the office, akin to the WBA game. Not too many positives, other than McK will take the experience and learn from it.
Leicester - Hirst injury highly unfortunate, and highlighted how important he is to this team. Possibly a little intimidated by the Winks/ Ndidi/ KD-H midfield first half, but we looked fine second half, and a draw was fully justified. Our full-strength 1st XI can compete with the best in this league....
QPR ..... whereas our 2nd XI struggle to compete with the worst. Yes, QPR were quite a lot better than I expected them to be, and Begovic had a blinder - but Ladapo and Ball are big steps down from Hirst and Morsy. As discussed previously, no idea what is going on with Williams - I can't recall such a dramatic tail-off in form from a Towun player. Humphries looked good 2nd half, out of position - but a hugely frustrating night.
Stoke - annoying not to do more with a man advantage for 25 minutes, but Schumacher is a very different (for which read, better) manager than Alex Neil, and I'd wager that Stoke will become difficult to beat at home, as with Plymouth before. Broad not quite at it, nor Burns - but this small squad of players have excelled for 4 months now, and they need some help....
.... and so I guess now its over to Ashton, to mirror KMcKs achievements on the pitch. Time for him to step up.
I thought we fell short in the summer - Scarlett in as a replacement striker on the last day of the window cannot have been the plan, and obviously the pursuits of Ellis Simms and Auston Trusty were unsuccessful - and, of course, FFP is geared towards seeing Saints and the Yorkshire grime promoted alongside Leicester. That said, you would expect that backing will be there if needed; can we replicate the success of last January's window?
If so, then the 2nd half of the season will be a sensation.
Uppa fckin Towun. [Post edited 1 Jan 17:46]
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 17:57 - Jan 1 with 2295 views | Jimmy86 |
Definitely a fair analysis of recent games, covering the festive period!
Norwich, Leeds and Leicester was always going to be a tough run of games... Today's point away at Stoke, in isolation, is not a bad point - however I'll add the caveat that, it wouldn't have been a bad point, had we beaten QPR at home.. but that was always a tough ask with the players we had missing and also the tragic events in the stands...
We need to be active in the window, as much as is possible regarding FFP.. COYB!! |  | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:01 - Jan 1 with 2257 views | blueislander |
Do you think that you will always get the players you want.? This is real life not a computer game. | | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:03 - Jan 1 with 2231 views | burnbudgiesburn |
I agree we fell short in the summer transfer market, not for lack of trying obviously. Even then Scarlett was not a like for like Hirst backup.
Perhaps being newly promoted counted against us, whereas we are sat 2nd this time. It's not even Hirsts goals we need, its the similar type of player to hold the ball up, close down and bring others into play. | | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:03 - Jan 1 with 2225 views | Funge |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:01 - Jan 1 by blueislander |
Do you think that you will always get the players you want.? This is real life not a computer game. |
An excellent and succinct rebuttal of the points made in my OP. | | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:04 - Jan 1 with 2212 views | chicoazul |
Plucky Ipswich with a team of misfits cast offs weirdos youth players and a couple of judicial acquisitions against mighty opponents who have spent loads and loads? It’s 92 again blud. The Town are going up. |  |
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:05 - Jan 1 with 2186 views | Funge |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:04 - Jan 1 by chicoazul |
Plucky Ipswich with a team of misfits cast offs weirdos youth players and a couple of judicial acquisitions against mighty opponents who have spent loads and loads? It’s 92 again blud. The Town are going up. |
Get Phil Whelan in to cover Burgess and we're sorted. | | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:07 - Jan 1 with 2146 views | MK1 |
Still 2nd. Play the long game. |  | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:12 - Jan 1 with 2089 views | chicoazul |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:05 - Jan 1 by Funge |
Get Phil Whelan in to cover Burgess and we're sorted. |
The Southampton home game in April is gonna have the Kiwomya v Newcastle moment trust fam. | |
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:18 - Jan 1 with 2031 views | Illinoisblue |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:12 - Jan 1 by chicoazul |
The Southampton home game in April is gonna have the Kiwomya v Newcastle moment trust fam. |
Burns slotting home the winner and then running over “to our boys in the West Stand”. |  |
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:25 - Jan 1 with 1976 views | Blue_In_Boston |
Frustrating game today. Never looked under too much pressure from Stoke but equally never looked like scoring either. I think I only remember their keeper having to make one save.
Hugely concerning, we have got ourselves into a position that we could only have dreamed of back in August but the chasing pack are closing in, and all with Premier League experience (Southampton and Leeds). | | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 19:10 - Jan 1 with 1840 views | Swansea_Blue |
It’s been bloody awful  . There’s no other way to describe it and it’s funny to see the straw clutching going on in some threads. There aren’t any ways to positively spin the crash in form, a goal drought and the loss of key players. Who knows what will happen next though. We’re capable of turning it around and KM will be backed in the window. |  |
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 22:24 - Jan 1 with 1578 views | witchdoctor |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:03 - Jan 1 by Funge |
An excellent and succinct rebuttal of the points made in my OP. |
😂😂😂..HNY mate…. [Post edited 1 Jan 22:26]
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 08:39 - Jan 2 with 1315 views | glasso |
I think your point about FFP is the biggest issue here. Such an unfair system and we might really be on the bad end of that in this transfer window, which is a shame.
How the football authorities can favour a system that allows that kind of inequality is beyond me - Leicester winning the Prem was the fairytale that league needed, and yet the system in this league is almost created to stop that happening.
I honestly think that Leicester winning the league bought the Prem a decade more of interest than it would have had if City keep winning year on year. There's that little snippet of hope for all the other teams, which had slowly been ebbing away. Give it 20 years and 18+ Man City wins and I think people will see the Prem for what it really is - a closed shop | | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 08:49 - Jan 2 with 1275 views | textbackup |
We’ve taken 13 points from Dec (and Stoke away) 8 games, possible 24 points.
So fallen slightly behind on the 2 ppg… but factoring in who we played, and the injuries, I think that’s still pretty decent.
Not perfect of course, but we’ve put in the hard yards early in the season to allow for a drop off.
We REALLY need new signings. |  |
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 09:05 - Jan 2 with 1182 views | Herbivore |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 19:10 - Jan 1 by Swansea_Blue |
It’s been bloody awful . There’s no other way to describe it and it’s funny to see the straw clutching going on in some threads. There aren’t any ways to positively spin the crash in form, a goal drought and the loss of key players. Who knows what will happen next though. We’re capable of turning it around and KM will be backed in the window. |
You're better than this kind of bed wetting hyperbole, Swanners. It's disappointing we've not picked up more points but it's hardly been 'awful' and I think describing it as a 'crash in form' is also rather strong given how most of the games have actually gone and some of the mitigating circumstances.
Largely agree with the OPs assessment. Leeds was a day where pretty much everything went wrong, we had no luck, made some uncharacteristic errors, and got punished for pretty much all of them. Leicester, we matched the best side in the league by a mile and we're the only side to hold them in their last 8 games. QPR and Stoke are the disappointing ones and despite the mitigation of lots of injuries and illness in the camp, I feel like we still had enough about us to have picked up two more points in at least one of those games. QPR we had three good chances, yesterday we had spells of dominance but couldn't find the right final ball. That extra two points would have made it a decent festive period overall and would have enabled us to maintain a very healthy gap to third. So for me it wasn't an awful period (aside from the Hirst injury) but could and perhaps should have been a bit better. [Post edited 2 Jan 9:36]
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 09:29 - Jan 2 with 1053 views | Sawtrich |
Four games in ten days and we have to get through with injuries to Hirst and Davis and a sickness bug in the camp. It's truly remarkable that we've still only lost 3 out of 26. We know what a tough, competitive league this is. Of course it's frustrating we haven't been able to turn draws into wins and the gap has closed. However, we've got through a very difficult period and we're still 2nd with all to play for, exciting times. Two years ago we were looking to string some wins together to try and sneak 6th place in League One. |  | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 09:35 - Jan 2 with 1016 views | ElephantintheRoom |
Don’t want to ruin your Xmas but even Man City don’t win every game, especially with a few injuries and a virus running through the squad.
If you try being rational they’ve been doing quite well over Dec under the circumstances - not too many defeats and still seem to be in second place. The idea that a small town club like Ipswich can magic 22 top of the championship calibre players at the drop of a hat after 20 years of decline and 4 years in the third division is way beyond unreasonable. Most would be more than happy with how things have gone and pleased to see back up players given a chance.
Yes Southampton look capable of catching Town while they are in a good run. But Leicester supporters probably thought the same thing about Town three weeks ago. Even if reality intervened and Town slip into and out of the play off positions this has still been a remarkable season. | |
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 09:36 - Jan 2 with 1006 views | itfcsuth |
The 4 game block has been a really difficult period, there is no doubt about the fact that it was a period where everything seemed to catch up with us - and I think this was reflective with both injuries and a dip in form.
It's a good time now to take stock, use this period to recruit well and kick back on from 13th Jan.
COYFB!! |  | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 09:48 - Jan 2 with 965 views | Steve_M |
"I thought we fell short in the summer - Scarlett in as a replacement striker on the last day of the window cannot have been the plan, and obviously the pursuits of Ellis Simms and Auston Trusty were unsuccessful".
Yes, we clearly wanted another striker so we weren't so reliant on Hirst and a better defensive option than Tuanzabe who has taken three months to get up to speed (albeit now looks ok - except for Leeds). Lots of talk about ambitious central midfield targets last Summer too and we're left with three capable players for two positions - that isn't enough.
Williams is a case where we have been a bit unfortunate as I think we would have done far better in the last two matches with the Williams of September and October to fill in for Leif. Evans getting injured/Dom Ball not being good enough aren't unlucky. |  |
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 10:06 - Jan 2 with 910 views | tractorboy1978 |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 09:48 - Jan 2 by Steve_M |
"I thought we fell short in the summer - Scarlett in as a replacement striker on the last day of the window cannot have been the plan, and obviously the pursuits of Ellis Simms and Auston Trusty were unsuccessful".
Yes, we clearly wanted another striker so we weren't so reliant on Hirst and a better defensive option than Tuanzabe who has taken three months to get up to speed (albeit now looks ok - except for Leeds). Lots of talk about ambitious central midfield targets last Summer too and we're left with three capable players for two positions - that isn't enough.
Williams is a case where we have been a bit unfortunate as I think we would have done far better in the last two matches with the Williams of September and October to fill in for Leif. Evans getting injured/Dom Ball not being good enough aren't unlucky. |
That striker position has been a bit of an issue almost the whole time McKenna has been here. We've had two summer windows in a row where we've not got our main target and been fortunate the 'back up' option we did sign has managed to do well and stay fit until (or very nearly until) the January window. | | | |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 10:22 - Jan 2 with 864 views | Steve_M |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 10:06 - Jan 2 by tractorboy1978 |
That striker position has been a bit of an issue almost the whole time McKenna has been here. We've had two summer windows in a row where we've not got our main target and been fortunate the 'back up' option we did sign has managed to do well and stay fit until (or very nearly until) the January window. |
Yep, picking up Ahadme as a cheap punt at the end of that Summer clearly wasn't where we were looking.
It's not an easy position to sign the right player for but one we've critically failed at twice in a row. | |
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| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 10:34 - Jan 2 with 824 views | Melford |
| So, farewell to the Christmas period.... on 18:05 - Jan 1 by Funge |
Get Phil Whelan in to cover Burgess and we're sorted. |
Baggott will be this season's Whelan. |  |
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