 | Forum
Thread | Carl Rushworth, Jason Knight & Flynn Downes
at 08:17 29 Apr 2025
There's 3 names that I have a feeling we will be making moves for.
I'm in two minds about Palmer, plus Rushworth has been linked before.
Knight & Downes would be a brilliant engine room in the Championship behind a front 4. |
| Forum
Thread | Line up tomorrow
at 10:38 25 Apr 2025
I can't see a thread on this already, but it's quite a selection headache given the LB situation. I don't think we'll throw the young lad in from the off, but we'll pinned back in if Greaves plays there.
Not really sure what we do here to keep the balance of having a left footer. The logical option for me is Godfrey, but I don't know if he will appear for us again despite being on the bench last week.
EDIT: Before someone points it out, I know Godfrey is right footed.
[Post edited 25 Apr 10:39]
|
| Forum
Thread | Wide areas
at 11:57 22 Apr 2025
The threat this season from opposition wide men and the number of chances created from wide areas has probably been the biggest eye opener of the PL for me this season. It sometimes feels like we concede the same goal every week (cut back in the box) but that has been our bread and butter under McKenna in L1 & the Championship, so we know how good the passage of play is.
I thought Arsenal were brilliant at shifting the ball to create a lot of winger vs full back opportunities on Sunday. I thought Spurs (in particular Son) were another team who were very good at it at Portman Road too. Bournemouth were brilliant down their left at Portman Road. The quality we have faced has been unplayable at times.
We haven't had the quality to match that type of play at this level and cause a threat in wide areas. The players we had already and brought in haven't been good enough to step up to this level. It's a hard area to address as it's an expensive position to recruit with quality, but the gap in quality in the wide areas between the PL & Championship is massive.
|
| Forum
Thread | PSG
at 08:28 10 Apr 2025
What football was all about last night. Entertainment.
Wingers getting the ball and looking to beat the man every time - no passing a ball backwards to the full back. Entertaining people and getting you off your seat.
The midfield 3 playing with personality and roaming the middle of the pitch without holding down a systematic position. Playing forwards and not the 5 yard sideways/backwards safety first ball.
Really enjoyed watching them last night compared to the Manchester derby at the weekend. Complete contrast from the robotic game on Sunday, to allowing players to express themselves with personality last night.
A dying art of the game, but it's nice to see it still within the game somewhere.
|
| Forum
Thread | Cameron Burgess
at 08:53 3 Apr 2025
3 of our 4 wins have been with Burgess starting the game alongside O'Shea. If we are to do the unthinkable, he has to stay in the team for the remaining 8 games. These two want to defend and defend well and they look like our best partnership.
11 points won when they've partnered each other in the team, 9 points without.
His passing range down the left channel is brilliant. It's not an easy ball to play that he's executing with ease either. His passing range compared to Greaves is definitely a lot cleaner.
Nothing against Greaves as I think he's been ok overall, but I actually think Burgess is our better option on the left side. I couldn't tell you which one we had spent £16m on if I was a neutral.
[Post edited 3 Apr 8:54]
|
| Forum
Thread | Looking at the results so far this season
at 13:48 2 Apr 2025
Tried to give a fair assessment of the season so far as we approach the final block of games.
Games we were outclassed and went on to lose:
- Liverpool home (the 2nd half)
- Man City away
- Everton home*
- Newcastle home
- Man City home
- Liverpool away
- Forest home
*On the Everton game, I thought they did all the basics really well and were much better than us on the day. Not necessarily outclassed technically, but they did the basics very well
To summarise - Everton aside, the rest of these are the current top 6 in the PL and there's no shame in being outclassed.
Games we were poor
- West Ham away
- Crystal Palace home
- Brighton home
- Southampton home
- Man United away (2nd half)
To summarise - I don't think we did enough in these games to win / we were poor on the day / it ended up being another opportunity we didn't take control of
Games where fine margins have gone against us:
- Brentford away - late goal against us
- Leicester home - late goal against us
- Bournemouth home - late goal against us
- Fulham away - late goal against us
- Southampton home - late goal against us (we didn't do enough to win regardless)
- Palace away - late ish goal against us
To summarise - All evenly contested games where we've just conceded a late goal and dropped points. It's football, but the points gained would've put us in a better position going into the final block of games.
The rest where we've rightly deserved something or rode our luck and been on the fortunate side of the fine margins:
- Fulham home
- Brighton away (rode our luck with their poor finishing)
- Villa home (performance wise we were brilliant, but I think Morsy was lucky not to be sent off)
- Spurs away (best performance of the season for me)
- Wolves away
- Chelsea home (deserved win, would have been annoyed if the Delap penalty was given against us)
- Fulham away
- Villa away (was almost a perfect away result getting the goal with 10 men, superb Palmer save at the death)
To summarise - Some brilliant performances in all of these games, individually or collectively as a team and came away from these games definitely deserving of all 3 points or at least, a share of the points.
Wasn't sure where to put Arsenal away - not outclassed as we were always in the game based on the scoreline, didn't really fall on the wrong side of fine margins as they controlled the game well but also didn't deserve a point or more. Just one of these odd games which is hard to categorise.
I think there's a lot to be pleased with, despite the reality of relegation kicking in for many now. We always had a tough job on our hands but ultimately, we've fallen short because of a lack of quality, but there's games where you look back and appreciate the other team and their class, but there will always be those 'what if' moments where we let ourselves down late on.
[Post edited 2 Apr 13:49]
|
| Forum
Thread | Jens Cajuste - wishful thinking, or a realistic possibility?
at 12:47 19 Mar 2025
Whilst I appreciate the likelihood of Cajuste playing Championship football next season is fairly low, it isn't impossible. If we agreed with Napoli a £10m transfer fee if we stayed up, then I can't see any movement in that increasing this summer, so is a £10m fee in the Championship possible? I think so.
Just based on transfer dealings last summer/January, Joe Rodon joined Leeds for £11m (Archie Gray the other way so perhaps the figure isn't quite a true representation of Rodon's value). Tom Cannon joined Sheff United from Leicester for £10m. Mark McGuinness joined Luton and Morgan Whittaker joined Middlesbrough reportedly for £6m+ as well.
So the fee seems possible in the Championship, but the only thing I'm unsure of is his wages - does anyone know what Napoli pay him and what we are covering in respect of that now? And also, the obvious one being whether Cajuste would want to play for us in the Championship too. Not an impossible deal to do if you weigh it up. Delap sale will generate some extra funds too. |
| Forum
Thread | Physicality
at 12:01 17 Mar 2025
I hope one thing we address in the summer is physicality. I looked at our 3 behind Delap at the weekend and never once thought they're going to win this ball back for us. On the contrary, watching Gibbs-White, he won the ball back if he lost it and wasn't afraid to put his body on.
I know he's a player who will split opinions, but I'd love to see Flynn Downes back here. If we want to go back up, we need some steel in midfield. |
| Forum
Thread | Adam Wharton
at 08:34 9 Mar 2025
Champions League quality - very refreshing to see a young English midfielder play forwards and wrap a ball into the attackers feet. I’ll be amazed if he is ever dislodged from the England starting 11 once he gets his breakthrough. Once he’s in, he will stay in.
On another thought, watching Wharton yesterday, I saw glimpses of what I thought Andre Dozzell could have gone on to become. Funny old game. |
| Forum
Thread | How not to play against 10 men
at 09:38 27 Feb 2025
I thought we ended up frustrating ourselves rather than frustrating the opposition. Golden chance against 10 men for 45mins away at Old Trafford... But we played that second half into United’s hands. I’d be surprised if any of their lot came off that pitch at full time feeling like they had a tough 2nd half and had to really work for that win.
Old Trafford is a big pitch. We lacked touchline width to stretch the pitch, we didn’t move the ball quick enough or play anything penetrating, we didn’t switch play enough to keep them running side to side (if at all?), we didn’t have any runners in behind (I don’t think their back 5 got turned once and had to run back towards their goal in the 2nd half). I’m totally bemused by what we were trying to do against 10 men? Or did their 3rd goal completely rock us and we just panicked knowing our golden opportunity meant we needed at least 2 goals now to win? Either way, we showed everyone how not to play against 10 men last night.
Another thing but I really didn’t understand the Davis sub. You had 2 strikers on the pitch together and you take your best crosser of the ball and player with most chances created off the pitch? Unless he was injured, it seemed odd to me.
Tactically that sub was all wrong for me. I felt we lacked width and needed to overload the play in wider areas, but instead we left Clarke out on the left on his own with no underlap/overlap run and no left back backing him up. That made it comfortable for United to defend down their right and could compact the midfield as Mazrouari could deal with Clarke 1 v 1 and De Ligt didn’t have to be dragged over. Like I said, their back 5 had a very comfortable 2nd half without being dislodged positionally. It was really poor.
|
| Forum
Thread | FA Cup
at 11:10 11 Feb 2025
Tell you what, if I was a Newcastle, Villa, Forest* or Bournemouth fan, I'd be fancying the chances of some FA Cup silverware looking at the draw. All of them have home games to get through to the Quarters as well.
Must be one of the weakest last 16's for some time? Both Manchester clubs are beatable these days and those 4 I've mentioned above are having strong seasons.
*Assuming Forest win tonight |
| Forum
Thread | The mystery behind Kalvin Phillips
at 10:09 4 Feb 2025
Apologies if there is a thread on this already that I've missed, but I just want to make a point on our use of Phillips.
Since the sending off against Leicester (2nd November), he's only played 322 minutes of PL football. That's the equivalent of 3.5 games in 3 months. I know he had an injury along the line shortly after the Leicester game, but I can't remember how long it kept him out for.
If you include the FA Cup game, he featured in all the matches in January bar the Man City game he was ineligible for, and had 90mins against Arsenal in late December. It looked like we were starting to give him a run of games that he needed and go with him from the start of matches for the second half of the season.
So why is it, when it looks like we're starting to use him from the off over the past month, that he has no involvement in a must win home game against bottom of the league? I don't understand it.
He's a very experienced player, with international pedigree, a healthy number of appearances at PL level, but why is he not being used in these important matches? Why is he here if he's just going to be an expensive back up? Do the management team feel like he hasn't done enough in those games he's featured in? |
| Forum
Thread | Louie Barry & Cameron Humphreys
at 12:57 30 Jan 2025
Watching Villa pull Louie Barry away from promotion chasing Stockport to loan him out to relegation battling Hull, albeit, a league above, is such a poor move. He was flying at Stockport and they'll do well to replace the goals in their promotion bid, but he was playing for a team full of confidence and is not going into a team with a lack of confidence.
I'm pleased to see we haven't interfered with Cameron Humphreys and his loan at Wycombe in order to force the acceleration of his development in the league above. His next steps in the summer will be in the Championship - whether that is with us or out on loan again, but it's good to see we're not interfering like Villa did with Louie Barry.
|
| Forum
Thread | Front 4 for Saturday
at 10:25 30 Jan 2025
Delap
Broadhead Enciso Omari
I hope we go with this 4 on Saturday. We looked exciting against Chelsea and Fulham when Broadhead played, but unless Philogene goes out on to the right, then I think Omari will be out there and we look like more of a back 4 out of possession.
I can't see Johnson starting this one given the importance of a the attacking threat we need on the pitch.
[Post edited 30 Jan 10:27]
|
| Forum
Thread | Goalkeeper
at 10:15 28 Jan 2025
Will keep banging the drum on this one, but I really think we have to sign a new goalkeeper this window.
Neither keep you up in this division. I think it's as simple as that. Right now, it's 3 teams battling for 1 magic spot to keep you in this league and decisions like this matter. Be ruthless or fall short. |
| Forum
Thread | Hirst over Delap tomorrow?
at 11:21 24 Jan 2025
Would anyone be going with Hirst over Delap tomorrow?
I think I would. Get some more minutes into Hirst in a game where it won't really favour Delap and he will probably pick up another cheap yellow out of frustration if he was playing the majority of the minutes. |
| Forum
Thread | Performance analysis in football
at 13:22 22 Jan 2025
Does anyone have a background in this? Or has tried to get into this and/or on the journey to becoming qualified, and if so, what were your first steps?
Performance analysis, analysing data, video analysis, talent identification etc within football is something that really interests me, yet I've never taken the opening steps into learning more, taking courses and obtaining the relevant qualifications.
Perhaps my underlying doubt has always been about finding an opportunity to turn into it a career - is it a niche market whereby opportunities at a professional level are hard to come by? I'm not sure, but any advice or knowledge that you are able to share would be welcomed please. |
| Forum
Thread | Atmosphere
at 11:14 17 Jan 2025
Very poor last night. I get the first 20mins we didn't have much of the ball so it's hard to hang on to something, but aside from the usual pockets that try and get something going, it was poor.
It's not the first time the atmosphere in a more favourable home game has been poor. It's easy to get up for the big teams, but the lads on the pitch need us more on the Brighton, Everton, Palace at home's etc.
We must do more somehow. |
| Forum
Thread | Osman Foyo
at 15:02 3 Jan 2025
Decent spell for Chelmsford at NLS level. For those who know more about him as I have never seen him play, I imagine the plan is to get him back out on loan to a NL side? |
| Forum
Thread | Elijah Adebayo - Luton
at 10:43 2 Jan 2025
No link or rumour, but after seeing us supposedly linked with Josh Maja for £10m, I think I'd prefer Adebayo from Luton.
Always felt he's similar to Hirst. Big, strong, physical, can run etc. Maybe not high on the goals, but someone who can be a handful.
With Luton where they are in the league, I doubt they can demand as high of a fee compared to had it been the summer. |
| | IPSWICHFANITFC
|
Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 273 | | Comment Votes: | 0 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 273 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.