we need a RB and a striker to start with !

playing Cb`s at full back is just not on. They are too slow and cumbersome. And peters is not good enough as a RB . He is ok in midfield/ supporting the striker but thats all.

we are just one central midfeilder short

These are the best 'standards' we've had at the club in the last 5 years or so (although i was loving Magilton's 1 defeat at home several season's back). Mediocrity? Were you spouting that word when we were third? Nah...didn't think so.

And JBB's right, we were playing 4-3-3 although a lot of people labeled it 4-5-1. For me that has been the problem. We've lost that bit of work rate and shape in the middle at times recently which allowed that system to be a bit more of a fluid 4-3-3/4-5-1. Now there's a bit more emphasis on defending from the wide players and we've become a bit flat across the middle.
For me though the wide men in a 4-3-3/4-5-1 need backing up with good energetic or solid full-backs so they don't need to worry about what's behind them as much. Maybe the problem has been here seeing as we've now used Edwards, Brown, Eastman, Smith, O'Connor, Kennedy and O'Dea in 13 games!!

Either way, time to change up to a 4-4-2 with Connor dropping into the hole and Edwards and Townsend hogging the touchline. Whatever happened to overlapping full-backs as well? Get by the wide midfielders from time-to-time it poses another threat and takes men away saving them doubling up...

Food for thought...although what would i know about standards of football!?

Ok im not even reading any other posts,Keane just vanish,Im so fed up with your negative football,tactics and comments you are poisoning even the most avid town fan,id normally be really be looking forward to tomorrows match but no i wont be going cos i simply cant bare to watch anymore,the players are not motivated to win at all and your continious 1 upfront will never work,please just walk and let a decent manager in now before its too late,another loan signing now......pffffffft,just about says it all.........boooooooooooo

Good grief what chance to our players have when our own fans and hitting each other with handbags, what a load of old women you lot are. How about we get behind the team, become the twelth man and let the manager situation take is natural course. If wew get back to winning ways he stays if he doesn't he goes simple as, but its not for us to destroy and little team spirit we may have!

If ME had total faith in RK he would have put up the money to buy players required when we were in the transfer window, not keep getting players in on loan; loan players by their nature are easier to off load if the manager is replaced.
I still hope RK can turn the season around, I was never in favour of some of the things he did as a player, but as a leader he was second to none.
If he was a poor man-manager why would some of his ex-players want to join him again, Colback is a good case in point.

I would happily settle for a home loss tomorrow night if it guaranteed the end of the over rated under talented over paid thug that is Roy Keane.

Curbishley and Holland are the answer......get them now!!

Sorry Keaneish, there is a world of difference between 4-3-3 & 4-5-1. 4-3-3 does not require wide players - Ref: Sir Alf Ramsey 1962 & 1966. Our formation currently includes two wide players. In recent games where both have been deployed neither have played far enough forward to warrant being described as part of a front 3. Sir Alf Ramsey was astute enough to realise that wide players in the formation traditionally employed at the time were somewhat of a luxury and reinforced the midfield with players who were fit enough to take up the wide positions when necessary. He also encouraged the full backs to go forward more to support the attack.

OK this is history, and 4-3-3 is now pretty much obselete as a starting line-up. Teams may go for this in desperate circumstances but it is not a widely used formation in its traditional format.

The game has moved on and Sir Alf's wingless wonders are now out of time. Most teams employ wide players but just look at their deployment in other teams as opposed to our tactical set-up. Look at Aaron Lennon at Spurs, Ashley Young and Stewart Downing at Villa. Look at Adam Johnson at Man City, Nani and Giggs at Man U; even Hoolihan at NU. They all attack the goal, support the front players and set up chances. How many times this season have our wide players done that this season even though they may have individually and collectively had good games?

I don't disagree with you in general but in no game at PR this season have we set out to be to be ultra offensive. It's good to play the wide players but until we start using them to hurt the opposition as opposed to stopping the threat from the other team's full backs we won't see a massive improvement in fortunes.

One further point, it's no good playing centre backs as full backs because in the modern game full backs have an increasing obligation to support the attack. Centre backs by definition cannot fulfill this role. It may be fine defensively but is not going to win us games.

big gaz 67 call yourself a supporter wanting your team to lose people like you we can do without no wonder PR is quiet with idiots like you here KEANO KEANO coyb

naa - actually a very good post. Personally what I find annoying (and this in no way applies to you), is after a poor run of results a select few are on here moaning. What should be noted is after a good run of results (earlier in the season) - the same posters REFUSED to post. I am afraid this works both ways - if people want to moan - great/fine. But surely they should have posted to congratulate/praise after a decent result? Unfortunately it is very annoying and sadly I can't take these 100% negative guys seriously.

That said, no one can argue that the recent run of results is very disappointing - just as August was very very good. It is difficult to justify a pro Keane argument at the moment - just as it was easy to praise a pro Roy argument just a few weeks ago. I will continue to speak as I find. Currently I feel deluded with things - just as I felt elated earlier in the season. That's football I guess. I agree with your key point - we should all be pro-Ipswich. Let's get behind the team whether we like Roy Keane or not.

He actually meant two areas of the team need extra players, as his purchases in those areas have not been successful thus far..........fullbacks and strikers!!!!

Just like to make a point about 'keane playing under the countrys best ever managers' and 'the raising the profile of the club' comments. All I say is....so what?

RK is only allowed to get players who will accept the conditions applied by the senior managers ( SC & ME ) which could be worse than they are already have and if you can honestly say you will change employment for less benefits then keep complaining about the signings !

Yep, that's what we need, more players that aren't our assets, whilst our biggest asset sits on his backside every week! What we don't need is to keep throwing new players at things, last season it was through a weight of money, this season through the loan market. What about actually working with what we have & doing the little thing that is after your name Keane, MANAGE!

We are far too negative, isolating poor Scotland far too much, and whilst he was a lone frontman at Swansea, they actually had width and kept the ball on the floor, which is what we simply don't do enough of.

I don't expect to win every game, I don't necessarily expect us to get promotion, but some entertainment along the way is surely not too much to expect is it?

Down among the lower end of the table plodders again!! Nothing is going to change until we 'get up and at 'em' from the kick-off! No attitude shown at Forest until it was too late - AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!

So Jolly Roger what is more important - getting through another round of a competition we cannot win or the long term future of our club?

I personally care very deeply about Ipswich and will not be force fed drivel and be told I must agree with it or be an idiot. Surely somebody who accepts their club being financially raped by a no hoper fits more under that description.

big_gaz67....the 1 problem with your argument is that even if we lose the next 10 or 20 games, unless Evans or Keane himself decide a change needs to be made then Keane would still be our manager. Whether we like it or not Keane is our current boss and if he is successful then ITFC are which is what we all want. I just cannot see how ITFC losing a game, in whatever competition is good and as a fan I have never and never will want us to lose a match.
Yes I wish we would play nice attacking football every week but at the moment all I can do is get behind the team each game, hope they win and hope for some more attacking football

runaround is right. In spite of all of this arguing, hoping for your team to lose is just ludacris.

Because surely what we all want for this club is Success. I think everyone has to honest and say that this awful week on the pitch has highlighted Keanes tactical inexperience with certain sides of his decision making. But I couldn't care if it was a baboon that took over the club, if he got us promoted, I'd still support him!

Queue the "a baboon would do a better job than Keane right now" jibes!

I was a pro Keaner, I've now switched to a not so sure, and if the bad run continues for maybe 4-5 games then I will start thinking enough is enough.

But we also can't ignore Keanes comments about the clubs (ME and SC'S) poor work with transfer targets etc.

Ahem, whoppit! "We are no better today than this time last season and you cannot argue with the table surely??"

25/10/2010 - 14th - won 5

25/10/2009 - 24th - won 0

So our current position (in late October) is slightly better than our best position in the whole of last season.

It remains to be seen whether we continue to drop down, or bounce back up the table. The next few games (up to the Norwich derby) are very important. If we are in the relegation zone at the beginning of December (as we were last year), then a decision may have to be made.

Blue041273 - i meant the system we played at the start doubles up as 4-3-3 from a 4-5-1 not that we intentionally started out with a 4-3-3 and three attacking players. Pretty sure no team has deployed three strikers in that mould since the 70s or 80s.

How do you measure success? If we were to win the European Cup with Keane as manager then to me, whilst I would enjoy it, it would be a hollow victory. And more importantly what happens is Marcus Evans ever gets bored and withdraws from the club.

I value true success as the club being in safe hands with a fully effective academy playing high quality football in the true Ipswich ethos. For that to happen it may take Evans, Clegg and Keane to do one, us to enter administration, take the pain and then regroup without a £ 40 million debt (which we still have to Evans now it must be remembered) over our heads.

If Keane is worth the £ 25 million recently stated and he is that confident of his ability why doesn't he offer the club at £ 10 million loan - terms no promotion by end of season written off, promotion 50% interest all monies to be invested in players?

He's a chancer - he recently said that we don't have to worry, if he doesn't succeed this season he will be off - oh so the fact that you will be £ 1.5 million better off for having achieved naff all and providing poor entertainment leaving us no further forward than the last clown we had in charge is ok then. Wish my bosses offered me terms like that.

So I will be there tomorrow night, I want us to win - but again I state I would accept defeat if I knew it would result in the end of this poor era for the club. Sometimes you have to take pain for the best overall effect. That is strategy and does not make me an idiot.

It is said that you can read two sides to every statement. Analysing everything that Keane says to suit your arguments is a case in point. So, I hope, is my reading of the above as the way I have read it is such a load of drivel . We are 3 points outside the play offs for christ sake. get behind them instead of wallowing in this negativity. We all have our opinions but there is surely never room to hope Ipswich lose whatever the consequences. Just another quick point, just because someone wants Keane and therefore ITFCto succeed doesnt naturally make Keane their hero!!

would be good if we have kevin phillips. if we can get rid of priskin and sign phillips i think that wickham and murray will benefit greatly from the experience that both he and scotland. they are both in their 30's!

Ahhh, normalcy has resumed - I thought I was in a dream land:

A run of good results at the start of the season, the message boards were positive and behind the team and the Ipswich world was talking about promotion (hyperbole surely...).

Now a run of bad results and all the flood of whingers and whiners are back and the Ipswich world is talking about relagation (overly pessermistic surely...).

This website needs to be renamed Phil - howabout Bipolar Blues? Maybe some of the fans take the song 'singing the blues a little too literal...!

Get a grip boys - Things are getting a little testy again, but this is the time that WE the fans either need to get behind the team (and yes that includes Keane) or take your ticket rip it up and spend yout Saturdays at Homebase (other DIY chains are available)

Other than the past few games where the players have seemed a little lethargic at the start and giving some poor goals away Keane has created a fairly solid unit with approx 5 - 6 youngsters coming through to take starting positions. This bodes well for the future and with no cash coming through is the best we can hope for at present.

So get behind the team tonight and be the teams 12 man, or if this doesn't float your boat don't go - it's a simple choice...

And Big Gaz, your comment about winning the European Cup with Keane as Manager being a hollow victory? re-read that sentence again, think about what you've written, re-read it again and then slap yourself! That sentence encapsulates everything that is wrong with modern football support and more importantly this comment thread! :-)

DOCTOR -ALBRAN - exactly as i wanted to say only couldn't put it without using many expletives!!!