Ipswich

They've well and truly cemented a place in the top 6.

As for the top 2, I still have my doubts.

They have won a lot of games by the odd goal and on the eye they don't even look that great (not for a team with the amount of points they've amassed).

I still think Leeds will catch them to that 2nd spot.
 
While clearly I would rather have points on the board, to win the playoffs you ideally need to be going in with momentum, so if we remain top half till say March and then stop our run of bad luck through injuries, we will have a decent chance. Thing is that could apply to several teams who will be looking to do the same. Last season we were able to take our foot off the gas once automatic was out of the question, and coupled with injuries never really got going for the playoffs.

If we do play Ipswich in the playoffs, self-evidently their good run must have come to an end, as even a modest return now puts them in with a great shout of automatic promotion.
 
Alzi said:
They did enough to beat us pretty comfortably. That's two good away wins against teams wanting to be in the playoffs this week alone.

Even if we had our best 11 fit all season (do we even know who that is?) it's highly unlikely we'd be anywhere near them in the league table so they'd still be favourites to beat us again, in my opinion. We are of course a good team on our day and can beat anyone, but are no where near consistent enough.
Click to expand...
They did beat us comfortably but we had lads playing out of position, Clarke who is returning from injury and played more minutes than he should have and Fry who I would argue played through an injury.

Why wouldn't our best eleven be up there near them? We are 6 points behind Sunderland going into tonight's game and have gone through the worst injury crisis I have ever known our club to have. I would fancy our chances against them over two legs if we had everyone to pick from.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
I haven't said they have fluked a start, they are your words, not mine, I just wasn't impressed by them.

On Saturday they had a couple of players missing and we had two thirds of our starting eleven missing and fatigue caught up with the players we could field. I honestly feel the outcome would have been different if we could have included the following in our squad - McNair, Lenihan, Smith, Djsteel, Jones, McGree, Hackney, Forss, O'Brien and you could even add Coburn to that list.
Click to expand...
We'll see what happens in the reverse fixture but they're beating better sides than us
 
Norman_Conquest said:
Why wouldn't our best eleven be up there near them? We are 6 points behind Sunderland going into tonight's game and have gone through the worst injury crisis I have ever known our club to have
Click to expand...
Well our start to the season, when we didn't have that many injuries, was atrocious. Ipswich have also made one of the best starts to a Championship campaign in recent history. Fair play to your optimism but who is our best 11 in your view who would see us breaking Championship records?
 
Alzi said:
Well our start to the season, when we didn't have that many injuries, was atrocious. Ipswich have also made one of the best starts to a Championship campaign in recent history. Fair play to your optimism but who is our best 11 in your view who would see us breaking Championship records?
Click to expand...
It isn't about our best 11, it is about us fielding players who are not good enough due to injuries and other players becoming fatigued through having to play so many minutes. We had an awful start to the season but then started putting a very good run together when injuries hit. Since then, we have stalled but are still only 6 points outside the play-offs. We even had kids on the bench the last couple of games.

Don't you agree that having O'Brien, McGree, Forss, Hackney, McNair, Lenihan, Smith, Jones and Dijsteel to choose from on Saturday would improve our fortunes and maybe the results in other games?

Djeng, Engel, Fry, Lenihan, Smith, Hackney, O'Brien, McGree, Crooks, Jones, Coburn or Latte Laths.

I don't think there is a great deal of difference between the front two players we can choose from and both bring different things to the table. This is our problem position.
 
We are miles away from being a top two squad or side.

Ipswich are showing the importance of fantastic organisation, discipline, commitment, consistency. They are making the whole very much greater than the sum of the parts.
They are also enjoying luck and ther benefit of many of their players flying under the radar somewhat having been in League 1.

I wasn't blown away by their quality, or the brilliance of any player in particular, but they fully deserved to win at our place and just keep on doing it.

I really hope they go up. The manager has worked wonders, the players are all on the ride of their lives and a good fanbase has been starved of any success for decades.

Good luck to them.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
It isn't about our best 11, it is about us fielding players who are not good enough due to injuries and other players becoming fatigued through having to play so many minutes. We had an awful start to the season but then started putting a very good run together when injuries hit. Since then, we have stalled but are still only 6 points outside the play-offs. We even had kids on the bench the last couple of games.

Don't you agree that having O'Brien, McGree, Forss, Hackney, McNair, Lenihan, Smith, Jones and Dijsteel to choose from on Saturday would improve our fortunes and maybe the results in other games?

Djeng, Engel, Fry, Lenihan, Smith, Hackney, O'Brien, McGree, Crooks, Jones, Coburn or Latte Laths.

I don't think there is a great deal of difference between the front two players we can choose from and both bring different things to the table. This is our problem position.
Click to expand...

I think we'd be a bit higher in the table but still a long way behind Leicester and Ipswich. I think we have a few positions where the options aren't really good enough. Full backs is the obvious one for me. Smith is solid but I don't think Engel, Bangura or Dijksteel are the required level we need. Early days for Engel and Bangura of course. We also look very exposed when Hackney is not in the middle as I don't think Barlaser is good enough and Howson obviously not getting any younger. Agree about upfront, I really rate Coburn but don't think Lath is good enough to be starting games for a team looking for Promotion (good impact sub).
 
Alzi said:
I think we'd be a bit higher in the table but still a long way behind Leicester and Ipswich. I think we have a few positions where the options aren't really good enough. Full backs is the obvious one for me. Smith is solid but I don't think Engel, Bangura or Dijksteel are the required level we need. Early days for Engel and Bangura of course. We also look very exposed when Hackney is not in the middle as I don't think Barlaser is good enough and Howson obviously not getting any younger. Agree about upfront, I really rate Coburn but don't think Lath is good enough to be starting games for a team looking for Promotion (good impact sub).
Click to expand...
Nail on the head with the players who aren't strong enough for promotion.
 
Alzi said:
I think we'd be a bit higher in the table but still a long way behind Leicester and Ipswich. I think we have a few positions where the options aren't really good enough. Full backs is the obvious one for me. Smith is solid but I don't think Engel, Bangura or Dijksteel are the required level we need. Early days for Engel and Bangura of course. We also look very exposed when Hackney is not in the middle as I don't think Barlaser is good enough and Howson obviously not getting any younger. Agree about upfront, I really rate Coburn but don't think Lath is good enough to be starting games for a team looking for Promotion (good impact sub).
Click to expand...
You failed to mention the difference O'Brien, McGree or Forss would have on the team. We have certainly missed the impact that Forss brings coming off the bench and the movement of McGree. I envisaged O'Brien playing in the middle with Hackney.

Personally, I think we could be 9 points better off if we hadn't had the injuries and that is taking into account the poor start we had. That would put us up to fifth and not a bad position to be in at this time of the season.

We can only play what is available.

Regarding Ipswich - I expect them to strengthen in January and the position they are in would attract top loan players.
 
They’re remind me of Adkins’ Southampton and Wilder’s Sheffield United, even Lambert’s Norwich. You build an honest, hard-working squad in the third tier and start winning and you don’t really stop until you’re knee-deep in the Premier League. They obviously have a bit of quality about them as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept their run going for the rest of the season tbh.
 
indeedido said:
We are miles away from being a top two squad or side.

Ipswich are showing the importance of fantastic organisation, discipline, commitment, consistency. They are making the whole very much greater than the sum of the parts.
They are also enjoying luck and ther benefit of many of their players flying under the radar somewhat having been in League 1.

I wasn't blown away by their quality, or the brilliance of any player in particular, but they fully deserved to win at our place and just keep on doing it.

I really hope they go up. The manager has worked wonders, the players are all on the ride of their lives and a good fanbase has been starved of any success for decades.

Good luck to them.
Click to expand...
Luton did similar last season. There's still not many from their squad that you'd want to get your hands on but they're a team.
 
Linny said:
Apparently they will be found out and aren’t that good. Even after beating us comfortably.
Click to expand...
Everytime I check on them they seem to be behind and I chuckle to myself thinking the wheels are coming off. Then I check at fulltime and they've won. They're incredible. Sam Morsey with the winner last night (although it was playing out from the back suicide by Watford).
 
Gramsci said:
One factor in their success is that they have had very few injuries and ten of their players have appeared in at least nineteen or more of their twenty one games to date. If they get injuries or if they run out of steam by playing every game their form may well dip for they have a thin squad.
Click to expand...
Carrick talked about it a the Press Conference yesterday. It's not having to bring in 'understudies' that's necessarily the problem, just the constant chopping and changing meaning that the players don't get to know each other's games well enough to develop the consistency required.
 
They play Leeds at Elland Road in a few weeks time. Win that game and it will be a mammoth task for Leeds to catch them.

I've been predicting that Leicester and Leeds will finish top two for a while now but at the moment Ipswich aren't showing any signs that they're about to capitulate.
 
  • Like
Reactions: B_G
I said last week that I thought Leeds would beat them to autos but even last nights results have swayed me to thinking Ipswich will make it now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top