Premier League - Ipswich Town vs Manchester United Preview & Matchday Thread

[Charnwood]

Muric isn’t a Premier League keeper either and to be honest not many of our players are. Most of our team are youngish players with the potential to be Premier League stars of the future who McKenna thinks he can develop. Muric is just one of them. If you look at his career previous to his one season at Burnley, apart from keeping goal for Kosovo he’d done nothing, no experience whatsoever apart from 40 to 50 games at 5 different loan clubs in various countries over a period of 4 years.
Just like McKenna is taking risks with players like Omari, Jack Clarke, O’Shea, Cajuste, Greaves, Delap etc …. Muric is just another learning at this level. He may make it he may not but chastising him every time he makes a mistake isn’t going to help.
Just to bring some balance Delaps missed open goal was just as costly as Muric conceding at the other end but I don’t see many blaming him for us dropping 2 points on Sunday.

[Bluemike]

Delap missed because their goalkeeper did his job, that's the bloody difference lol.

[Bluemike]

Delap missed because their goalkeeper did his job, that's the bloody difference lol.

And to be honest comparing Muric with Delap is ridiculous, without Delap we'd be bottom and all but down, without Muric we'd have at least 3 more precious points.

[valleyroad]

Muric isn’t a Premier League keeper either and to be honest not many of our players are. Most of our team are youngish players with the potential to be Premier League stars of the future who McKenna thinks he can develop. Muric is just one of them. If you look at his career previous to his one season at Burnley, apart from keeping goal for Kosovo he’d done nothing, no experience whatsoever apart from 40 to 50 games at 5 different loan clubs in various countries over a period of 4 years.
Just like McKenna is taking risks with players like Omari, Jack Clarke, O’Shea, Cajuste, Greaves, Delap etc …. Muric is just another learning at this level. He may make it he may not but chastising him every time he makes a mistake isn’t going to help.
Just to bring some balance Delaps missed open goal was just as costly as Muric conceding at the other end but I don’t see many blaming him for us dropping 2 points on Sunday.

I agree.
Muric is a work in progress. Yes he is costing the odd goal but there is huge potential there that the club will work on.
Far too much Muric bashing going on to the point where its not constructive.

I would disagree on the "not too many of our players are" at Premiership level. I think they are and I also think Town will stay up.
Town will be bottom 5 or 6 but that is enough at this stage and gives a huge platform to build on
For me they are improving game by game and should have more points than they currently have.
There have also been injuries to key players over the last month which hasn't been great.

McKenna is an outstanding young coach. His recruitment since the minute he has arrived has been first class for the budget he has. For me the number one factor in determining the level of a coach.

[Bluemike]

Sorry to disappoint you but if you think this is "Muric bashing" you are very delicate, I also doubt very much he reads this forum, but if he does it may explain why there is massive need for improvement as not enough time is being spent on the training ground whilst reading forums.

I doubt there is anyone that gets behind the boys and cheers them from start to finish where they can indeed hear it, that includes Muric, do you?

[marko69]

The only real plausible explanation for how Muric went about his business in that passage of about 5 seconds is......, "Aw f*ck Kay-Juice missed him, sh*t, ball's coming over, my god, is that THEEE Marcus Rashford?" --->> Starstruck....., forgets to "goalkeep" --->> 1-0 Steaming-dung-pile.

That's about as much "slack" Muric can get cut for that one.

[Blue Wilf]

Muric isn’t a Premier League keeper either and to be honest not many of our players are. Most of our team are youngish players with the potential to be Premier League stars of the future who McKenna thinks he can develop. Muric is just one of them. If you look at his career previous to his one season at Burnley, apart from keeping goal for Kosovo he’d done nothing, no experience whatsoever apart from 40 to 50 games at 5 different loan clubs in various countries over a period of 4 years.
Just like McKenna is taking risks with players like Omari, Jack Clarke, O’Shea, Cajuste, Greaves, Delap etc …. Muric is just another learning at this level. He may make it he may not but chastising him every time he makes a mistake isn’t going to help.
Just to bring some balance Delaps missed open goal was just as costly as Muric conceding at the other end but I don’t see many blaming him for us dropping 2 points on Sunday.

But every time he makes a mistake it costs us 2 points or more as being a keeper does tend to have high consequences - certainly more than a striker missing a chance. For that reason, we cannot afford a keeper who costs us regularly with what should be bread and butter saves for a prem keeper. I don't want to have a downer on the guy personally but I keep saying it - he is not good enough because....he isn't! I wish he was, but he is a liability every single game!

[Blue Wilf]

Muric isn’t a Premier League keeper either and to be honest not many of our players are. Most of our team are youngish players with the potential to be Premier League stars of the future who McKenna thinks he can develop. Muric is just one of them. If you look at his career previous to his one season at Burnley, apart from keeping goal for Kosovo he’d done nothing, no experience whatsoever apart from 40 to 50 games at 5 different loan clubs in various countries over a period of 4 years.
Just like McKenna is taking risks with players like Omari, Jack Clarke, O’Shea, Cajuste, Greaves, Delap etc …. Muric is just another learning at this level. He may make it he may not but chastising him every time he makes a mistake isn’t going to help.
Just to bring some balance Delaps missed open goal was just as costly as Muric conceding at the other end but I don’t see many blaming him for us dropping 2 points on Sunday.

I agree.
Muric is a work in progress. Yes he is costing the odd goal but there is huge potential there that the club will work on.
Far too much Muric bashing going on to the point where its not constructive.

I would disagree on the "not too many of our players are" at Premiership level. I think they are and I also think Town will stay up.
Town will be bottom 5 or 6 but that is enough at this stage and gives a huge platform to build on
For me they are improving game by game and should have more points than they currently have.
There have also been injuries to key players over the last month which hasn't been great.

McKenna is an outstanding young coach. His recruitment since the minute he has arrived has been first class for the budget he has. For me the number one factor in determining the level of a coach.

The odd goal?? 2 at City, 2 at Brentford, 1 v man utd... I could go on...!

[Bluemike]

Arguably 3 at Man City

[Bluemike]

The Watkins header from 6 yards, defender all at sea and Muric rooted to the line.

[Bluemike]

The error at West Ham when lost control of the ball for Bowen to score, we'd have lost that one anyway but an error all the same

[ashfordblue]

I would like to see if we can get 6ft 3 Nick Pope back here from Newcastle the one we let go when he was 16 now at 32 he is still a solid keeper, and he would secure our defence with a safe pair of hands, whether Howe would let him go remains to be seen, but they are still interested in Burnley's 21-year-old James Trafford we could then have Muric as a backup keeper, but I'm pretty sure Howe would sell him if they can secure Trafford.

[hallamblue]

Adh, I've often thought the same re Nick Pope. I think he could do a job for us for sure.

[valleyroad]

Sorry to disappoint you but if you think this is "Muric bashing" you are very delicate, I also doubt very much he reads this forum, but if he does it may explain why there is massive need for improvement as not enough time is being spent on the training ground whilst reading forums.

I doubt there is anyone that gets behind the boys and cheers them from start to finish where they can indeed hear it, that includes Muric, do you?

I seem to remember you giving Hladky a bit of a kicking when he first came. Look how that turned out.
I'm well aware of how many goals Muric has shipped so far but he won't be going anywhere soon.
Looking at him I think there is huge potential in him and he could develop well in time which is probably part of the reason he was brought to the club.
Time will tell on it but a new keeper is not what i think Town will be recruiting in Jan

[Cabanas Blue]

We knew Muric had mistakes in him but he's young for a keeper so hopefully we can sort that out in time the one good thing is him taking crosses, I don't think Hladky caught as many all last season, and he is on the bench for Burnley again tonight.

[Blue Wilf]

We knew Muric had mistakes in him but he's young for a keeper so hopefully we can sort that out in time the one good thing is him taking crosses, I don't think Hladky caught as many all last season, and he is on the bench for Burnley again tonight.

He did it all last season for Burnley too. We cannot wait for him to improve - we will be down...

[Charnwood]

Muric isn’t a Premier League keeper either and to be honest not many of our players are. Most of our team are youngish players with the potential to be Premier League stars of the future who McKenna thinks he can develop. Muric is just one of them. If you look at his career previous to his one season at Burnley, apart from keeping goal for Kosovo he’d done nothing, no experience whatsoever apart from 40 to 50 games at 5 different loan clubs in various countries over a period of 4 years.
Just like McKenna is taking risks with players like Omari, Jack Clarke, O’Shea, Cajuste, Greaves, Delap etc …. Muric is just another learning at this level. He may make it he may not but chastising him every time he makes a mistake isn’t going to help.
Just to bring some balance Delaps missed open goal was just as costly as Muric conceding at the other end but I don’t see many blaming him for us dropping 2 points on Sunday.

I agree.
Muric is a work in progress. Yes he is costing the odd goal but there is huge potential there that the club will work on.
Far too much Muric bashing going on to the point where its not constructive.

I would disagree on the "not too many of our players are" at Premiership level. I think they are and I also think Town will stay up.
Town will be bottom 5 or 6 but that is enough at this stage and gives a huge platform to build on
For me they are improving game by game and should have more points than they currently have.
There have also been injuries to key players over the last month which hasn't been great.

McKenna is an outstanding young coach. His recruitment since the minute he has arrived has been first class for the budget he has. For me the number one factor in determining the level of a coach.

Disagree as much as you like VR but the fact is not many of our players are established Premier League players. Playing a few games and winning just one of them hardly makes them Premier League class. Maybe after a season some of them will have earned that label and that’s the challenge McKenna is working on and in my opinion doing a good job with.

[Charnwood]

Sorry to disappoint you but if you think this is "Muric bashing" you are very delicate, I also doubt very much he reads this forum, but if he does it may explain why there is massive need for improvement as not enough time is being spent on the training ground whilst reading forums.

I doubt there is anyone that gets behind the boys and cheers them from start to finish where they can indeed hear it, that includes Muric, do you?

I seem to remember you giving Hladky a bit of a kicking when he first came. Look how that turned out.
I'm well aware of how many goals Muric has shipped so far but he won't be going anywhere soon.
Looking at him I think there is huge potential in him and he could develop well in time which is probably part of the reason he was brought to the club.
Time will tell on it but a new keeper is not what i think Town will be recruiting in Jan

Muric can only have been brought in because of his perceived potential because he had no proven track record as such.

[Cabanas Blue]

Premier League Player Stats
Filter
SavesThis table ranks players based on the currently selected stat type
Rank Player Stat
1.
Mark Flekken
60
2.
Mads Hermansen
47
3.
Nick Pope
46
4.
Arijanet Muric
45
5.
Dean Henderson
42
5.
Robert Sánchez
42
7.
Bart Verbruggen
38
8.
Aaron Ramsdale
36
9.
Bernd Leno
35
10.
David Raya
34

This surprised me, we do need better but I'm still hoping he will come good

[Blue Wilf]

Sadly, he won't - not in time anyway

[Charnwood]

Delap missed because their goalkeeper did his job, that's the bloody difference lol.

And to be honest comparing Muric with Delap is ridiculous, without Delap we'd be bottom and all but down, without Muric we'd have at least 3 more precious points.

I’m not comparing Muric with Delap and it’s ridiculous if you think I am. What I’m saying is, that missed open goal scoring chances are just as costly as GK mistakes and whilst I don’t have all the stats I suspect Muric has made as many if not more point blank saves this season than Onana has for United.
You could argue we are where we are because we’ve only scored 13 goals in 12 games which simply isn’t enough. At the current rate we’ll do well to score 40 goals this season and if that the case it will take clean sheets to win games and there are very few of those in the Premier League especially at our level.
Manchester United also paid Inter Milan €51m for Onana which is about half the cost of our squad, Unfortunately FFP rules don’t allow us to pay that much for a GK and like everything in life you get what you pay for. .

[Dubai Blue]

Delap missed because their goalkeeper did his job, that's the bloody difference lol.

And to be honest comparing Muric with Delap is ridiculous, without Delap we'd be bottom and all but down, without Muric we'd have at least 3 more precious points.

I’m not comparing Muric with Delap and it’s ridiculous if you think I am. What I’m saying is, that missed open goal scoring chances are just as costly as GK mistakes and whilst I don’t have all the stats I suspect Muric has made as many if not more point blank saves this season than Onana has for United.
You could argue we are where we are because we’ve only scored 13 goals in 12 games which simply isn’t enough. At the current rate we’ll do well to score 40 goals this season and if that the case it will take clean sheets to win games and there are very few of those in the Premier League especially at our level.
Manchester United also paid Inter Milan €51m for Onana which is about half the cost of our squad, Unfortunately FFP rules don’t allow us to pay that much for a GK and like everything in life you get what you pay for. .

This.

[Bluemike]

I agree we don't score enough goals either, maybe we should f changed the formation sooner as some requested, also maybe if we didn't give up possession pretty much every time the keeper plays it out we may fashion/create more openings, attacks, goals?

At the end of the day, everyone makes mistakes, Muric, Burgess, Davis, Tuanzebe, Burns, Phillips, Greaves, O'Shea Cajuste, Morsy all spring to mind at some time or another, it's just the frequency with the keeper that is very concerning, if he can just cut it down somewhat we stand a far greater chance.

And VR, I am sure at some point I did have a moan about Hladky but I am pretty certain I was pretty much his biggest fan, certainly on this forum.

[hallamblue]

I’d say, For the aggressive on the front foot high pressing approach we deploy, which creates us ( a newly promoted team), a far higher percentage of very good chances to that if other promoted teams (eg Sheffield Utd!) , we squander far too many of them. At this level opponents often only need one half chance to score, and have done so. So we really must start taking the chances we create. We’d have ein at least another 3 games this season had we done so.

[The Odious Mr Rossi]

I’d say, For the aggressive on the front foot high pressing approach we deploy, which creates us ( a newly promoted team), a far higher percentage of very good chances to that if other promoted teams (eg Sheffield Utd!) , we squander far too many of them. At this level opponents often only need one half chance to score, and have done so. So we really must start taking the chances we create. We’d have ein at least another 3 games this season had we done so.

I agree - we need to convert far more of the chances we get.

I wonder if our conversion rate would be better had we employed 2 up front?

[Bluemike]

Works both ways though, scored 3 at Brentford and pissed it away defensively, 2 against Villa and pissed it away defensively, I think we have to acknowledge we've played Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs, Villa and Brighton already so we couldn't be expected to score a hatfull so far and for some bizarre reason McKenna chose to deploy Szmodics, a proven goalscorer on the bench until recently. I think we are slowly learning and getting more savvy to this league.

[marko69]

Works both ways though, scored 3 at Brentford and pissed it away defensively, 2 against Villa and pissed it away defensively, I think we have to acknowledge we've played Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs, Villa and Brighton already so we couldn't be expected to score a hatfull so far and for some bizarre reason McKenna chose to deploy Szmodics, a proven goalscorer on the bench until recently. I think we are slowly learning and getting more savvy to this league.

Szmodics reminds me very much of a young Jordan (forbidden name) Rhodes and "King Roy C-Word Keane" never ever learnt......, and I believe you are correct; McKenna is not in the slightest bit pig headed like KRCWK --->> and he's learning and Kay-Joosting,... err, I mean adjusting.

[hallamblue]

I’d say, For the aggressive on the front foot high pressing approach we deploy, which creates us ( a newly promoted team), a far higher percentage of very good chances to that if other promoted teams (eg Sheffield Utd!) , we squander far too many of them. At this level opponents often only need one half chance to score, and have done so. So we really must start taking the chances we create. We’d have ein at least another 3 games this season had we done so.

I agree - we need to convert far more of the chances we get.

I wonder if our conversion rate would be better had we employed 2 up front?

Injuries to player notwithstanding, I'd love to see us have Hirst as the #9, and Delap wide
(instead of Burns), with Szmodics either #10 or wide left ...in which case Omari #10, but as we know he actually plays wide right next to Burns currently. That way you'd have guile ( Hirst, Omari) and power, aggression
( Szmodics, Delap)...and if course firepower from all of them.

[Bluemike]

I'd love to see both Delap and Hirst on the pitch too, however I'd definitely not be moving Delap from his current role, it's been our biggest success this season and why most of the country are talking about Delap.

I also think with the injury situation again Hirst's position in the squad could even be in jeopardy, depends on the length of absence I guess but we must get this right in January or we are toast.

[marko69]

I'd love to see both Delap and Hirst on the pitch too, however I'd definitely not be moving Delap from his current role, it's been our biggest success this season and why most of the country are talking about Delap.

I also think with the injury situation again Hirst's position in the squad could even be in jeopardy, depends on the length of absence I guess but we must get this right in January or we are toast.

Just as a side note, away from the football in these tough times leading up to Christmas, if anyone at all has maybe lost their job and struggling to make ends meet, --->> please do try the place underlined in bold above. Been hearing on the news there are loads of jobs there. Could help massively over the festive season. Good luck.