| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason 09:13 - Sep 23 with 8870 views | DJR |
Whenever there is adverse reaction on TWTD, I always like to ask myself "What would Stuart Watson say?"
Well here's his measured response after the Blackburn game.
"I've seen some comments along the lines of 'this performance proves that the 5-0 win against Sheffield United papered over the cracks'. The glass-half empty brigade now suggest that some kind deflections and the Blades being in disarray made that a gift of a result.
Personally, I don't buy into that at all. Everything wasn't broken during a frustrating four-game winless start when the squad was still very much in a state of flux. And everything wasn't suddenly rosy after a confidence-shot side were ruthlessly put to bed late on at Portman Road. The truth, as so often is the case, is somewhere in between.
What more did this game at Ewood Park tell us? In truth, I don't think an awful lot. How can you make any real judgement on a game affected so much, from start to premature finish, by the weather?
In the first half, when the conditions were testing but playable, Town were far from free-flowing but still able to test the keeper three times. They stood up to a series of long throws and corners too. On another day, it would have been set up nicely for the subs to make a difference against tiring legs and the 'classic away day display' headlines to be written.
I'll come onto the second half events shortly. Ultimately though, Ipswich are what they are right now; a relegated club with a talented group of players for the level collectively finding their feet, both on and off the pitch, under a bit of pressure."
As I've said before, I can't imagine there are many (if any) local journalists who come close to Stu. We are lucky to have him.
EDIT: I didn't mean to slight Phil. I was referring to journalists who work in the "printed" media.
[Post edited 23 Sep 11:51]
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| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 09:00 - Sep 24 with 550 views | SheffordBlue |
| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 08:59 - Sep 24 by Swansea_Blue |
All sensible points that can’t be argued against. It just comes down to a time issue now for me. At the moment we’re average. If we keep playing like this we’ll be a mid table side, which I suspect will not be acceptable to anyone. Hopefully things will improve though and we’ll look back and wonder why there was any doubt.
I do have an issue with some of the players playing in roles they don’t look familiar with. Akpom looks lost especially (very early for him tho). And I hate Leif being inverted just because Philogene or Clarke operate best from out wide. Leif’s being blunted, not just by that but also because as more play goes down the left now and it’s more congested we’re not creating the space for him. But again, hopefully things will improve over time as players learn roles and form better partnerships. |
I thought both going outside and coming inside Leif was back to his old Championship levels of form on Saturday. Think it was his best attacking performance for ages. |  |
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| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 09:07 - Sep 24 with 503 views | Swansea_Blue |
| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 09:00 - Sep 24 by SheffordBlue |
I thought both going outside and coming inside Leif was back to his old Championship levels of form on Saturday. Think it was his best attacking performance for ages. |
I nearly expanded on that by saying Leif has the footballing intelligence to adapt around Philogene. They were working together quite well weren’t they, at least in making space for each other. I suspect we’ll see lower attacking numbers from Leif this season, but that’s ok if we get a good return from Philogene. |  |
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| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 09:13 - Sep 24 with 465 views | Herbivore |
| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 08:56 - Sep 24 by SheffordBlue |
I think where I'm at is that all of the games so far this season (except Sheff Utd) have been close enough that any of them could have been a win, draw or loss and the result has been the outcome of fine margins. We could have been at 1 win and 5 losses and feel quite hard done by or be at 5 wins and think that we'd got away with it in a few tight games.
BUT with the squad we have available we shouldn't be relying on the outcome of fine margins to decide many games. |
We've all been disappointed with performances overall as we know we can be much better, but there's also little doubt we've been on the wrong side of fine margins so far. We've got the second best xG difference in the league (link below) so should reasonably expect to have more than one win from five based on the balance of chances in our games to date.
https://footystats.org/england/championship/xg |  |
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| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 10:54 - Sep 24 with 261 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 08:59 - Sep 24 by Swansea_Blue |
All sensible points that can’t be argued against. It just comes down to a time issue now for me. At the moment we’re average. If we keep playing like this we’ll be a mid table side, which I suspect will not be acceptable to anyone. Hopefully things will improve though and we’ll look back and wonder why there was any doubt.
I do have an issue with some of the players playing in roles they don’t look familiar with. Akpom looks lost especially (very early for him tho). And I hate Leif being inverted just because Philogene or Clarke operate best from out wide. Leif’s being blunted, not just by that but also because as more play goes down the left now and it’s more congested we’re not creating the space for him. But again, hopefully things will improve over time as players learn roles and form better partnerships. |
I don't know what games you've been watching but to me Leif has been one of our best players in the last two, is finding plenty of space and doesn't remotely look blunted. |  |
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| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 10:55 - Sep 24 with 254 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Stuart Watson: the voice of reason on 09:13 - Sep 24 by Herbivore |
We've all been disappointed with performances overall as we know we can be much better, but there's also little doubt we've been on the wrong side of fine margins so far. We've got the second best xG difference in the league (link below) so should reasonably expect to have more than one win from five based on the balance of chances in our games to date.
https://footystats.org/england/championship/xg |
And this while the team's gelling.
Very early for some of the nervousness on here. | |
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