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Thread | The task ahead
at 09:53 7 Apr 2025
Firstly, I do think we should be a bit kinder to ourselves than I've seen from some people. It's been frustrating and there have certainly been some avoidable elements. But a year ago ITFC did something it hadn't achieved for more than two decades and Ipswich had its biggest party ever – none of that has been diminished. We've come up short, perhaps a little shorter than we'd hoped, and the outcome is fair – but progress is rarely a straight, smooth line and the job now is to build on everything that's happened in the last couple of years.
Us, Saints and Leicester will all in theory have the jump start on rivals already in the Champ in terms of preparation, although in practice there will be transfer targets who fancy testing the water for a Prem move and existing players whose futures may drag til August. You'd expect we already have a couple of things lined up. We'll be a very attractive proposition in the loan market and that's increasingly a big factor. Key for me is to get a central midfield in quickly, and get it functioning – you can have two outstanding players in there but if they don't quite read each other or master the intangibles then you're scrapping with Watford and whoever. I do wonder if we try to keep one of Phillips and Cajuste on. Either way it is the most important task we face in terms of shaping the squad. Get that wrong and there'll be problems. I won't be especially worried about our attack as things stand.
I'd assumed this season was the last we'd see of McKenna but increasingly suspect he will stay. I don't go along with those who say his reputation has taken a hammering – it's a slowing of his momentum and he's more than bright enough to use it well. I can't see many Premier League vacancies coming up – Bournemouth maybe, if Iraola goes to Spurs, but suspect they'd look abroad. That's about it. His people will want to get him out of here, as they have since pretty much day one, but I'd say the smart money is on him sticking around. That would be very good for us.
Won't be a procession to the title next season. We know very well that momentum is a huge thing and we'll need to rediscover it. Birmingham will come up with it i bundles and clearly aren't messing around, they'll fancy consecutive promotions. Wrexham will arrive in good financial health and will be cheered on by the media. One of Saints and Leicester will sort themselves out. Whoever of the current top four doesn't go up can be confidently backed to challenge again. It'll be a scrap but we should be in there. I think most of our fans understand that.
Somebody mentioned Fulham yesterday – it's taken them three promotions and relegations to become the excellent side they are now. That unfortunately is the level. Let's enjoy trying to get back there and see if we can make a closer-run thing of it next time.
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Thread | Good to see Will Hughes is missing for Palace
at 14:35 7 Mar 2025
He's been very important for their tempo and speed of passing, had a cracking season. Palace have a decent squad but will miss him and Mateta. Obviously we've plenty of issues too but this levels things out a touch.
Hopefully we can go there, set up not dissimilarly to vs Forest, force them into a stodgy and frustrating day & nick something later on in the game. We have it in us, we really have to start doing it now. [Post edited 7 Mar 14:36]
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Thread | Midfield
at 11:09 16 Feb 2025
Know it's hard to be concrete about these things in the PL when we look convincing in one game and struggle in the next, but feels like time to roll with Phillips and Cajuste for a while doesn't it? Their performances were a lot of the reason why, until the red card yesterday, that game looked 50/50. Phillips was the best midfielder out there for the first 40 minutes and put in a real shift afterwards – I do think a lot of his work off the ball isn't always appreciated – and it felt a real plus to get 80 very good minutes out of Cajuste. We are more fluent and mobile when both are playing well. Not pensioning Morsy off at all – the big argument for playing him is how crucial to our identity he has been. But games like yesterday show the benefits of having your best players out there. |
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Thread | Like the incurable fool we all are ....
at 09:15 19 Jan 2025
... I've woken up convincing myself we can get something today. We're going to need the defensive focus we showed for an hour against Brighton, plus the ability we showed against Chelsea to get among them and ask questions – but more of both. Not much point just sitting in, they just pick you off, we need to show them we're there. This season City do give you a chance so we have to hope it comes at the right time of the game and we take it. They don't particularly like runners from deep and I also think Hutchinson/Philogene can cause some real problems if we work them into space. From there it requires the right pass/shot selection. Huge ask for us though – really hope we can just produce something that stirs people. [Post edited 19 Jan 9:16]
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Thread | Frustrating on several levels
at 09:43 17 Jan 2025
No word of a lie, when the teamsheets came out my main worry was about how those latter stages would look. The dynamism and power they could bring off their bench really stood out, and ultimately made a massive difference. Elements of the last half hour felt a little like one of our games from last season – just able to bring legs & quality off the bench and run opponents into the ground.
Obviously they had the leg up of a sloppy opening goal directly before that. Really frustrating because we'd done well and limited them to pretty much nothing. Looked the more threatening and perhaps unlucky not to score. Thought Broadhead in particular was great between 20 and 55 min. Much like in the Fulham game, we'd taken a game against a very good side to pretty much where we needed it – but without being able to make it count.
Think we saw again that, at the end of the day, while we have a lot of good players we are relying largely on two great but fairly raw 21 year-old forwards for those moments of attacking inspiration. Omari looked bright for periods but his choices in some really good positions, one stands out in each half, were way off – it's to be expected and we have two weeks to get these guys the help they need, I suspect it may be the difference for us.
Maybe a few issues about what we do with the goalkeeping position. It was fair enough that we sussed Brighton out for 20 min before testing them but a lot of their most possession-heavy spells came after we hadn't found that ball from the back. Love Walton but he's not really the guy to provide it. We defended well for an hour but on the ball were a lot more scrappy back there than we'd want to be and it affects the rest of our patterns.
Can't be devastated about it, there were good elements, the table shows we are in with a proper chance and it probably won't look hugely different in 10 days' time. Hopefully we can bring in what we need before then, McKenna was pretty clear afterwards that we're after one or two more who would start games for us.
Oh, and can I just say one thing. *This is not the reason we lost* and *I don't want anyone to take this personally* and *yes you pay your money you can do what you like* ... but it felt really, really quiet in there last night! I know we didn't start with a bang but we should all know what the deal is this season and what the stakes are. This was a big game and we largely did well in it. It feels to me that, if we're not playing one of the top few teams, we're reverting to expectant "entertain me please". Maybe that'll be OK if we stay up for a couple of years, but it isn't now! We'll need it to be much better for a massive game with Saints in a couple of weeks – no doubt many will want us to be three up by half-time but a cursory analysis of their away results shows nobody is blowing them away. I'll leave it there.
[Post edited 17 Jan 9:52]
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Thread | Hope it is buzzing tonight
at 08:45 16 Jan 2025
Surely every member of our fanbase now understands that it's there for us. Quite something that we could lose by a goal tonight and remain outside the bottom three – with Wolves' following couple of games just as hard as ours.
So hopefully we can really go for it. Feels a shame that we'll have to try with a pretty light attack and it'd be really nice to see Hutchinson on that teamsheet in some capacity. It's a really, really difficult game but should be a belter and any kind of positive result puts us in a fantastic position in my opinion. Could not have foreseen us being out of the bottom three this quickly four weeks ago so what a boost it'd be to capitalise. [Post edited 16 Jan 8:48]
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Thread | A lot to work with there
at 00:18 28 Dec 2024
Says plenty to me that I've come away frustrated that, bar one moment of looseness, we may have executed pretty much the perfect away performance in the circumstances.
Think we saw the value there of getting our best players on the pitch. Phillips and Cajuste looked very good together, real authority, mobility and balance; Greaves was fantastic in there, I thought, and is absolutely the real deal much as I love Burgess. His timing and positioning are exceptional. With Axel available we probably don't concede that goal and quite possibly don't lose.
Keep these guys fit and roll them out every week, and we should have a good chance. It doesn't look a relegation-bound team on nights like this but we need to add some variety and power in the final third early in the window. Some frustrating moments there although I was ready for the net to bulge when Broadhead let fly at the end.
Hopefully a showing that cools off some of those who had grandly proclaimed that going down is a fait accompli. |
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Thread | Just enjoy tonight
at 07:51 27 Dec 2024
See it as yet more proof of how far we've come. Assuming we lose, it looks pretty sure that we will be three points from safety at the turn of the year – which is further evidence of the distance we've travelled. Anyone giving up now needs their head checking.
For what it's worth I've a funny feeling we will give them a game, although they should ultimately be too strong. Physically, Arsenal are a different beast to almost anyone. Their size and power in the spine is insane. Seeds of hope lie in being able to select an experienced international midfield of our own (assuming he goes for Phillips) and the fact Muric, for all he divides people, is one of the better goalkeepers at collecting set pieces. Not too excited about Saka being out, if Martinelli starts down that side he has the directness to punish any Davis forays ruthlessly. It's one where you just want to be in with a sniff going into the last 20 and then see if you can bother them. Hopefully everyone has fun.
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Thread | Need to stay on the same page now
at 22:48 21 Dec 2024
If you'd told me it would be 17 games til our first one-to-90 shellacking I'd have signed up for that. It could have been a lot worse. And I think most of us know both the wider context and the very specific situation in which we entered today.
Those that booed at 3-0 and half-time? Not having you, not after the two years we've had. Much more of that and you'll end up with the club you deserve, it's pretty safe to say that, and the rest of us will be there to judge you heavily for it.
A bad day, the first goal the most annoying for me because we shouldn't be done like that after 20-odd seconds, but if that's as bad as it gets this season we'll be ok. Everyone needs to stick together and have an appreciation of the context. It's got us a long way and will take us further. |
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Thread | A few thoughts in light of day
at 08:57 4 Dec 2024
There's a low point in most seasons and it very often comes on a gloomy Tuesday night in the guts of autumn or winter. Hopefully that was ours. Just a non-event from our perspective really and a rare example of a game passing us by. Everton was frustrating at the time but there were a couple of misses and a penalty flashpoint; last night very few complaints at all.
I thought things might work out OK in the first 10 minutes – Greaves found Leif in some good space with a ball he couldn't quite control and J Clarke/Delap marauded a bit. Looked like we might be alright on the transition. But from about 20 minutes onwards I didn't seriously think anyone bar Palace could win the game. The spine of their team is huge and they are all good on the ball; they shut us down, didn't do anything too complex but had a wonderful player in Eze to float around and work things in the pockets, and looked much the better for long spells.
Frustrating though that the goal came at a time when we were, if just huffing and puffing really, on top and under no real threat. I thought Greaves had a good game overall but he's got to do better there. A shame we couldn't see whether we might build on the foothold we'd gained. But as we often say now, these are the margins.
This is highly arguable and H Clarke did absolutely nothing wrong for the goal but I wonder if, with Tuanzebe's recovery speed and timing in there, he does something to at least complicate things for Mateta.
Think our reliance on Hutchinson and Delap is very evident on days like that. They are both wonderful and as a minimum they'll be a meal ticket to serious investment in a promotion campaign next year. But we are asking a colossal amount of them and struggled to offer either any real support. A scrap like last night exposes a lot of the raw edges. Getting out of trouble with two 21 year-olds in their first PL seasons leading the way would be tantamount to a miracle. They are going to need some help and need looking after, too.
Not that we've seen much to judge, but also think Ogbene is probably missed on this kind of occasion – presence and directness on that side. We lacked out there and that's not to dump on Clarke and Burns.
We are also at a point where we really need a run of games from both Phillips and Johnson – two fine, highly PL-experienced players who were showing very good things until their recent injuries. This is the calibre we badly need. I think it's crucial they both start getting out there on the pitch
This is a tough month through to January and it's vital we get these guys some help then. The target must be to fall no further adrift. I imagine we will largely have to look at loans. A striker with some presence and pedigree is a must and we need to be looking at either flank too.
All really is not lost though. If we roar back on Sunday I doubt anyone will remember last night much. The next two or three are all surmountable in isolation and should be games that suit us more, which brings its own challenges as we do seem better when it's a bit hectic. Sat in the west stand last night for the first time in a long time, and have to say the vibe felt very flat in there from the start and didn't pick up much. Temperatures? Kick-off time? McKenna seemed to acknowledge afterwards that at HT we just needed to get the ball forward more quickly and start scrapping for stuff to get people enthused a little. Hope people keep the faith because there is a very long way to go.
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Thread | Masterclass from McKenna and co today
at 21:25 10 Nov 2024
I'm sure the higher-ups at Spurs took some note of what happened there. That was a battle won through planning meticulously and seeing it executed brilliantly. You won't get a better first half from an underdog at Spurs than that. The shape, the movements, the distances between (for example) Tuanzebe and Johnson, the line breaking from Cajuste and Hutchinson, the ambition to throw men forward at the right moments – all came off perfectly and so well earned after the near misses recently.
Loved the minutes 75-99 too. We must have all feared the worst when Bentancur scored and the little spell after that was dicey. But after that we seemed to consciously step 5-10 yards up the pitch, boxed them in their half a little and caused a spell where nothing much really happened. Big save from Muric near the end but that was pretty much it and the game management was a really pleasant surprise all round.
So wonderfully well deserved for everyone with any interest in the club – and some effort to be out of the bottom three in the November international break, that's really been hard won. Can't overlook that we have taken four points from aways with Spurs and Brighton; very tough six months ahead but we are starting to look like a team that might cope. |
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Thread | Chaplin
at 11:28 3 Nov 2024
Sometimes the starting XI you land on ends up being one the management hadn't necessarily banked on, and I wonder if Ogbene's injury has facilitated that here. We look far more "us" with Chaplin back in that 10 role; more joined-up, more aware of the connections, more instinctive, a little more aggressive. Helps if he's playing well, of course, but the last two games suggest he can probably make the step to a decent degree. Think any really competitive version of this side will need at least three or four of those Championship survivors playing regularly, for this season anyway. [Post edited 3 Nov 2024 11:29]
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Thread | Worst refereeing (/VAR) calls at Portman Road
at 10:34 3 Nov 2024
I've slept on it and, no, I can't quite shake how awful that was yesterday. The call itself and then the non-application of the VAR recourse for something that was absolutely clear & obvious. And then the borderline call on Phillips seconds later.
I rarely dwell on reffing decisions and hate discussing them to be honest, so have probably forgotten most. But I'm trying to remember any worse ones than this that stick in my head from attending games at Portman Road. I've got Bob Hamer's incredible awarding of a penalty to Liverpool for Phil Whelan's brilliant tackle on Dean Saunders early in 1992-93 (very big deal at the time!), and maybe the Marcus Stewart/Ian Harte fiasco in 2001 that perhaps cost us a Champions League place. Any others? [Post edited 3 Nov 2024 10:34]
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Thread | Quick belated thoughts on yesterday
at 15:25 18 Aug 2024
Not sure how much you can extrapolate from it in either direction – the occasion itself was always going to play some part, and both teams clearly aren't quite ready. Felt overall it went as these games tend to: good, punchy first half with a couple of oohs and aahs before class eventually told. We showed enough to suggest we can keep games alive at home.
One obvious positive: a month from now, if McKenna sees on 55 minutes that we are in trouble he should be able to look at his bench and make two or three quality changes that really freshen things up. If that had been an option for him yesterday, perhaps we still lose the game but equally perhaps we ride out that gathering storm. Barring a significant injury crisis we shouldn't look thinner than this at any point from now.
On that note though – hope it's only a three-weeker for Burns, whoever comes in it's going to really hurt us to have all three of him, Broadhead and Hirst out for a while. It also highlights the phenomenal amount of work our attackers have to get through, can't be a coincidence that hamstrings are going.
Greaves – this lad is the real deal, will make an England squad within a year I reckon.
Not especially concerned about this purely on the back of yesterday but in future we will need to be far more efficient in making the most of what attacking space we're able to find.
Can't imagine anyone went home feeling particularly unhappy and we clearly have a lot of build on – no question this team will pick up some decent points.
[Post edited 18 Aug 2024 15:26]
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Thread | An underrated moment in our season ...
at 08:24 8 May 2024
... was, I think, Kayden Jackson's equaliser at home against Sunderland. We'd been in that (by our standards) sticky patch over Christmas/New Year, looked like dropping out of the top two, didn't have a centre-forward anymore and there certainly looked a danger we might slow down. When Jack Clarke put them in front I remember the vibes around the SBR lower, I've heard them often enough through the years, it was very much "that's that then ..." for a few minutes. Then Jackson makes a nice run behind, finishes well when he needed to and we push on to win that match, by the end the energy around the ground was as high as it had been all season. Nice example of how pretty much every player in that squad came up with a big performance or moment when it was really, really needed. |
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Thread | Furthest anyone is travelling from?
at 10:04 3 May 2024
Morning all, this is what would be called a #journorequest on Twitter ... is anyone on here coming from far flung climes without a ticket tomorrow just to take in the (potential) vibes? Or does anyone know of anyone? Don't need their names or to speak to them – just interested to know the lengths people are going to in order to join in. |
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Thread | My god …
at 22:22 26 Apr 2024
The amazing thing is that as a *very worst case scenario* we’ll be looking for two very achievable results at PR and Elland Road on the final day. How is anyone meant to sleep in the next week?! [Post edited 26 Apr 2024 22:22]
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Thread | Probably easiest to let Leicester go now
at 14:53 20 Apr 2024
They're clearly going to squeak it (though we're the ones who get all the luck apparently ... ) and reap some heavy consequences next season that will presumably send them back down in worse shape. Our battle is with Leeds, maybe with Saints, and Monday night at Boro is the really big one for me. |
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