| A bit of context required... 09:47 - Sep 5 with 1252 views | IPSWICHFANITFC | Our opening 3 games have been against teams who last season finished 7th, 3rd and 5th. We have 3 points from 9 available in what is a tough start on paper. That is a good points return for a newly promoted team. Our performances over those opening 3 games have shown signs of good and encouraging moments/spells, but we have also seen the other side of it too. We have looked competitive and honest, and with Enciso in the team, we have shown flashes of quality that can cause a problem at this level. We are in a relegation fight at the end of the day, despite the money we have spent, we will still be fighting with 5 or 6 other teams to stay up. It is a squad with 14 new signings. They are learning and adapting to a new manager, system and playing style as cliche as it sounds. Relationships and partnerships are developing on the pitch. Some partnerships will click. Our next 3 league games are Crystal Palace, Everton and Fulham. Based on what I have watched so far, I think we will get points, possibly 4. Keep the positivity. Let's not turn on individual players. There's 35 games to play, we have had a better transfer window than last time out, a more competitive start and faced 3 teams who finished in the top 7 last season and will be playing European football this season. |  |
| |  |
| A bit of context required... on 09:52 - Sep 5 with 1205 views | Mark | Yes, it has been a good start to the season and we can be pleased how the club has invested heavily in the squad. Let's see where it takes us. The important thing is to beat our relegation rivals and to try to average a point a game, which we are achieving so far despite the tough start to the season and all the new players we are working to integrate. |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 10:10 - Sep 5 with 1128 views | LankHenners | Hate sounding like a 'football centrist' but a bit surprised by some of the wild reactions in both directions to last night. We did play well at times and showed some good combinations but ultimately we didn't trouble Alisson and it's daft to ignore the context of Liverpool going into 'energy conservation' mode pretty much straight after they scored the 2nd. Equally, we were comfortably beaten by a time miles better than us. It's what I and many others thought would happen and the panic about what the rest of the season will look like after two losses to two of the biggest clubs in the world is really unnecessary. Not that there aren't some issues that need ironing out but I think some people have forgotten what playing in the Premier League is like. |  |
|  |
| A bit of context required... on 10:14 - Sep 5 with 1091 views | Dubtractor | An entirely sensible take. |  |
|  |
| A bit of context required... on 10:20 - Sep 5 with 1047 views | BelsteadCav | Exactly this We will see where we really are in the next 3 games |  |
|  |
| A bit of context required... on 10:24 - Sep 5 with 1014 views | Guthrum | If we can average a point per game against the top half teams, then better that against the rest, we will put ourselves in a good position to be comfortably safe in May. In the last ten Prem seasons, average points for 17th place has been 37.1 and 33.1 for 18th place. We are currently on target to beat both of those. |  |
|  |
| A bit of context required... on 10:42 - Sep 5 with 940 views | Blue_Uprising | If you accept we are in a relegation fight - we are If you accept we are not expected to win against Man U / Liverpool of other top 6 - agree Then my only gripe is go into those games backs to the wall and see if you can eke out a very lucky point not toe to toe. When GON was being appointed someone shared a video of his analysis on sky about how wolves played vs Man City. It was one of the videos that made me think he could be what we need. I thought last week and last night might be like that and have been surprised we were not set up like that. That’s all really. Hopefully with more time on the training pitch by the time we play Man City that is what we will see. As a lucky 3 points in that game would be massive, massive lol Fingers crossed. |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 10:51 - Sep 5 with 877 views | Simonds92 | Just realised I've basically posted the exact same thing as this post. Although yours is probably more eloquent! |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 11:10 - Sep 5 with 814 views | flykickingbybgunn | Also remember that it is mostly a bunch of strangers. They will not be a "team" for months. I feel positive. The only way is up. |  | |  | Login to get fewer ads
| A bit of context required... on 11:13 - Sep 5 with 780 views | Swansea_Blue | And of those 3, Liverpool look much better than they did last season and the Man U now is a lot better than the one that started last season. Along with Arsenal and Man C we won’t face many tougher games. Next 3 are crucial to build a bit of momentum. |  |
|  |
| A bit of context required... on 11:35 - Sep 5 with 695 views | Guthrum |
| A bit of context required... on 10:42 - Sep 5 by Blue_Uprising | If you accept we are in a relegation fight - we are If you accept we are not expected to win against Man U / Liverpool of other top 6 - agree Then my only gripe is go into those games backs to the wall and see if you can eke out a very lucky point not toe to toe. When GON was being appointed someone shared a video of his analysis on sky about how wolves played vs Man City. It was one of the videos that made me think he could be what we need. I thought last week and last night might be like that and have been surprised we were not set up like that. That’s all really. Hopefully with more time on the training pitch by the time we play Man City that is what we will see. As a lucky 3 points in that game would be massive, massive lol Fingers crossed. |
Liverpool have a massively capable attack and a somewhat weaker back-line at the moment. Going all-out defensive is to invite their strongest element to take repeated goes at us without challenge. The result is most likely to go their way. By going more toe-to-toe, we are unlikely to do much worse and stand a chance of cutting them open and scoring (which we nearly did, had shots been stronger or more accurate). He also learns a lot about the team early in the season, highlighting problems and perfecting systems which we want done before facing less strong opponents from whom we need to be picking up points. |  |
|  |
| A bit of context required... on 12:22 - Sep 5 with 576 views | ClareBlue | It's been a tough week as a fan as we don't like losing but if those games were separated by 3 months and we had beaten our relegation rivals inbetween, we wouldn't think much of them in the big picture. There is no doubt this team looks much more like a Premiership team than last time. We just need to do whatever is required to stay up. Then we can spend 100million a year improving a Premiership squad as apposed to 200million to just try and assemble one. That's the big challenge. Some of the play in both defeats was way better than anything in 2024 and we hope can only get better. But you can see why having 100 million Striker gives you a huge advantage. But only 6 or so teams have this massive advantage so there's plenty of teams we can beat. I think that we have a team that can stay up and we have a bit of real quality in the team that we need. Not disheartening at all so far. |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 12:25 - Sep 5 with 566 views | Smoresy |
| A bit of context required... on 10:24 - Sep 5 by Guthrum | If we can average a point per game against the top half teams, then better that against the rest, we will put ourselves in a good position to be comfortably safe in May. In the last ten Prem seasons, average points for 17th place has been 37.1 and 33.1 for 18th place. We are currently on target to beat both of those. |
Suspect we've played two CL teams and a relegation rival so far - Sunderland available at 5/1 to finish in the top half). Keep up a 3 PPG average against our closest targets and we could be alright too lol so I didn't intend this as a negative point. |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 12:30 - Sep 5 with 535 views | jas0999 | Thought we were excellent against Sunderland and very good first half against United. But second half we worryingly folded like a pack of cards and were defensively poor. Last night was the biggest disappointment. Home game over within ten minutes. Defence looked very poor and the keeper not great. On the face of it we shouldn’t be surprised to lose at home to Liverpool, but it was certainly disappointing for the game to be over after nine minutes and then watching as Liverpool dropped to first gear and coasted. We didn’t lay a glove on them. That’s a worry. |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 14:42 - Sep 5 with 403 views | OldFootball | Considering the money we've spent, that's very negative. Sunderland spent £100m last season after promotion and finished 7th. So it's certainly not an automatic promotion fight. It's how we perform. |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 14:55 - Sep 5 with 369 views | BloomBlue |
| A bit of context required... on 14:42 - Sep 5 by OldFootball | Considering the money we've spent, that's very negative. Sunderland spent £100m last season after promotion and finished 7th. So it's certainly not an automatic promotion fight. It's how we perform. |
Sunderland spent £155m |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 14:58 - Sep 5 with 365 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior | So Sunderland are now miles out of league? We just spent more than they did! 14 new signings, 2 of them were here last year and one of them is in Valencia. So it’s 10 new outfielders players and some of those are obviously on then bench. The season score so far is PAR but there’s obviously questions marks at the back and most teams stay up with having a solid base first. No one is turning against that players that would equate to booing them in the stadium, people are talking about said concerns that are a bit familiar for 2024. As you say we will know a lot more after the next couple of games but I wouldn’t equate Sunderland at home as a tougher game than Everton away for example. |  |
|  |
| A bit of context required... on 15:09 - Sep 5 with 324 views | OldFootball |
| A bit of context required... on 14:55 - Sep 5 by BloomBlue | Sunderland spent £155m |
Thanks, so roughly in our ballpark then. So there's no good reason why we couldn't finish top half. |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 15:09 - Sep 5 with 324 views | Bellevue_Blue |
| A bit of context required... on 10:42 - Sep 5 by Blue_Uprising | If you accept we are in a relegation fight - we are If you accept we are not expected to win against Man U / Liverpool of other top 6 - agree Then my only gripe is go into those games backs to the wall and see if you can eke out a very lucky point not toe to toe. When GON was being appointed someone shared a video of his analysis on sky about how wolves played vs Man City. It was one of the videos that made me think he could be what we need. I thought last week and last night might be like that and have been surprised we were not set up like that. That’s all really. Hopefully with more time on the training pitch by the time we play Man City that is what we will see. As a lucky 3 points in that game would be massive, massive lol Fingers crossed. |
We haven't really recruited to play that way though have we. We tried to sign Khalaili (now RWB for Palace) before Fatawu so maybe that was the plan but the market opportunities available to us meant we built a team around a 4-2-3-1. Maybe it will change but it feels like GON wants to play this way. |  | |  |
| A bit of context required... on 15:14 - Sep 5 with 302 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
| A bit of context required... on 15:09 - Sep 5 by OldFootball | Thanks, so roughly in our ballpark then. So there's no good reason why we couldn't finish top half. |
Ipswich net spend considerably higher |  |
|  |
| A bit of context required... on 16:19 - Sep 5 with 168 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| A bit of context required... on 14:42 - Sep 5 by OldFootball | Considering the money we've spent, that's very negative. Sunderland spent £100m last season after promotion and finished 7th. So it's certainly not an automatic promotion fight. It's how we perform. |
If you consider like-for-like, we spent ~£192M this summer transfer window and Sunderland spent ~£186M last summer window. So nothing in it. |  | |  |
| |