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Some interesting and valid views of our team and the way we played yesterday on Owlstalk.co.uk
Also a wider comment about the style of play we use which is hard to disagree with.
‘It’s so strange why League 1 managers adopt this way of playing.
League 1 players are usually in League 1 for a reason and that usually means technically they are not the best players. So to have them passing around their backline is absurd. What is even sillier is that hardly any of the best teams in the world play like this. Yes they play it out from the back, but it's into the midfield or out wide quicker than you can blink. League 1 sides just do it all so slowly that by the time they can do anything they are under pressure.
Bit of a daft comment from them really - the reason the best teams in the world can play like that is because they have really good players. They don't need to spend ages building up if they've got the quality to do everything at high speed.
League 1 teams can get stuck playing like that if they don't have the relative quality in the division and so are forced in some degree to play more rugged. Look at the top 6 right now - Wigan, Sunderland, Oxford, MK Dons all play with the ball on the floor to an extent and Rotherham aren't just total cloggers either. Coventry were Champions last season through playing a very slick style which has seen them do alright in the Championship.
This style is clearly what McKenna wants us to have, and he's only been here a few weeks so expecting us to pass every team off the pitch is unrealistic and shouldn't be held against him as a criticism at this stage. Plus, you get the impression he's got a very clear idea about where we need to improve and how he's going to try and do that.
Gillingham are obviously woeful but we blew them away by passing from the back, and against the likes of Wycombe and particularly Accrington we showed we could 'earn the right' to play how we wanted.
Clearly we didn't play very well yesterday and Wednesday did a good job of sitting in after getting an early goal which restricted how much space we had to play in in the final third. In a very small sample of games you could make an argument that against teams that do sit in tight and in numbers we find it hard to break them down, particularly if players that are usually very good at playing in tight spaces with little time or room on the ball in Celina and Chaplin aren't on it.
Getting to a level where we can play more like we did against Gillingham against more of the teams in the league will take time, but I'm more confident that McKenna can find a way to get the balance of being a tough nut to crack whilst also having a real almost constant goal threat than I was at any point under Cook.
Tl;dr - the comment by the Wednesday board isn't particularly relevant and it's way too early to start going in on McKenna's style of play, especially as it's seen us get 4 wins out of 6 so far.
Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand.
Without Sam Morsey the defensive side is weakened, so less attacking threat is the trade off propping up the defence, it is way too early in KmK's career at Ipswich to start worrying about set-up too much, Sam Morsey is enjoying a nice Winter break so this should set us up for a strong run in. What price an Ipswich playoff semi in May?
It’s one game (and hopefully more for K-Mac to think about and learn from) but pretty fair analysis on the threads I read.
Interesting that they see Moore’s style having evolved from that earlier in the season, with their new willingness to mix it up.
I really think that was our main issue yesterday. Not that we tried to play it out from the back but that our inability/unwillingness to mix it up more often meant we were frustrated and rarely got enough players up the pitch. And on the other side, Weds were comfortable with the predictability of the game and what they needed to do, and always looked the side most likely to score the next.
I think this is a big question, can we play out from the back like this with League One players? I think we can with the current back 3 but as Mick Mills said in commentary at Wimbledon we don't seem to know when to bail out on it and just put a foot through the ball. Once someone's first touch isn't great he ends up giving someone else a tricky pass to deal with and that's when we get in trouble. I think they should be told, once it isn't going to plan then just whack it.
"League 1 players are usually in League 1 for a reason and that usually means technically they are not the best players."
Some of our players are technically excellent tho, and with us in L1 for different reasons - ie we have new owners who are in a hurry to get us promoted, be Champ ready, & who are willing/able to spend on quality players accordingly.
Must admit I find the passing around our backline very frustrating tho.
I think this is a big question, can we play out from the back like this with League One players? I think we can with the current back 3 but as Mick Mills said in commentary at Wimbledon we don't seem to know when to bail out on it and just put a foot through the ball. Once someone's first touch isn't great he ends up giving someone else a tricky pass to deal with and that's when we get in trouble. I think they should be told, once it isn't going to plan then just whack it.
On the flip side, against Accrington I thought we took far too long hurling long balls forward rather than playing out from the back, which was the best way to put pressure on them.
I thought we moved the ball out from the back pretty well. I don't recall a time the back three gave the opposition the ball trying to pass the ball between themselves / into midfield (there were a few shanks out of play). Edmundson was halfway in our half right out on the flank when he got dispossessed. He had options other than to take a man on and made the wrong decision, but there was a still a lot of work for SW to do. The goal came because Wes unfortunately didn't track his man when one of his three centre backs got caught upfield.
The bloke next to me was effing and jeffing all day about us playing out from the back. He let one stream go towards the end of the first half and then we went all the way from our six yard box, through the middle of the pitch and had one of our best chances (the Celina shot I think).
Every time we lumped it Bonne either got beaten in the air or flicked to no-one as Celina / Chaplin were not close enough. Chaplin in particular was really poor and I'm surprised he didn't get hooked earlier. We were ineffective and ponderous in the final third. We didn't make enough runs around their box / play it early enough. Our wing backs didn't time their runs correctly (Thompson has one bounce just over his head) or the runs were effectively tracked, whereas we switched off for one.
Bit of a daft comment from them really - the reason the best teams in the world can play like that is because they have really good players. They don't need to spend ages building up if they've got the quality to do everything at high speed.
League 1 teams can get stuck playing like that if they don't have the relative quality in the division and so are forced in some degree to play more rugged. Look at the top 6 right now - Wigan, Sunderland, Oxford, MK Dons all play with the ball on the floor to an extent and Rotherham aren't just total cloggers either. Coventry were Champions last season through playing a very slick style which has seen them do alright in the Championship.
This style is clearly what McKenna wants us to have, and he's only been here a few weeks so expecting us to pass every team off the pitch is unrealistic and shouldn't be held against him as a criticism at this stage. Plus, you get the impression he's got a very clear idea about where we need to improve and how he's going to try and do that.
Gillingham are obviously woeful but we blew them away by passing from the back, and against the likes of Wycombe and particularly Accrington we showed we could 'earn the right' to play how we wanted.
Clearly we didn't play very well yesterday and Wednesday did a good job of sitting in after getting an early goal which restricted how much space we had to play in in the final third. In a very small sample of games you could make an argument that against teams that do sit in tight and in numbers we find it hard to break them down, particularly if players that are usually very good at playing in tight spaces with little time or room on the ball in Celina and Chaplin aren't on it.
Getting to a level where we can play more like we did against Gillingham against more of the teams in the league will take time, but I'm more confident that McKenna can find a way to get the balance of being a tough nut to crack whilst also having a real almost constant goal threat than I was at any point under Cook.
Tl;dr - the comment by the Wednesday board isn't particularly relevant and it's way too early to start going in on McKenna's style of play, especially as it's seen us get 4 wins out of 6 so far.
'In a very small sample of games you could make an argument that...'
This is an ongoing problem on a wide range of issues, and towards all extremes. We're always too keen to jump to immediate conclusions and spout our 'proven' opinions about everything.
I think this is a big question, can we play out from the back like this with League One players? I think we can with the current back 3 but as Mick Mills said in commentary at Wimbledon we don't seem to know when to bail out on it and just put a foot through the ball. Once someone's first touch isn't great he ends up giving someone else a tricky pass to deal with and that's when we get in trouble. I think they should be told, once it isn't going to plan then just whack it.
I've said this, and I think both Edmundson and Woolfy are guilty of it. I like that they try to play it out but sometimes you need to just get rid (more often than they do). It's caught Edmundson out too many times recently.
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