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Ipswich Town have completed just 60.8% of their passes this season in the Championship, a league-low.

derick_ipsw wrote:Ipswich Town have completed just 60.8% of their passes this season in the Championship, a league-low.

It's difficult to complete a pass when they're all being hit 60 yards.

(I've guessed that figure before you all start. I'm assuming we still punt the ball around quite frequently)

The Don wrote:

derick_ipsw wrote:Ipswich Town have completed just 60.8% of their passes this season in the Championship, a league-low.

It's difficult to complete a pass when they're all being hit 60 yards.

(I've guessed that figure before you all start. I'm assuming we still punt the ball around quite frequently)

You assume correctly!!

I'm not expecting us to suddenly start knocking it around like Barca just because we've apparently got a shirt that looks like theirs, but there's got to start being some controlled play. This need to lump the ball all over the place is both obvious and erratic.

Embarrassingly bad..... and the club will be wondering why no one is paying over the odds to attend matches

derick_ipsw wrote:

The Don wrote:

derick_ipsw wrote:Ipswich Town have completed just 60.8% of their passes this season in the Championship, a league-low.

It's difficult to complete a pass when they're all being hit 60 yards.

(I've guessed that figure before you all start. I'm assuming we still punt the ball around quite frequently)

You assume correctly!!

Yeah, it may well be the problem. I'm not saying we're the only team in the Championship that hoofs the ball, because we're not, but it does seem to be a regular part of our game and may be why these particular stats on passing are so bad. And when somebody like Pitman is played up front - who needs the ball played to feet - well, you're not going to win much in the air. I don't know what the answer is though - it would seem obvious, don't hoof the ball so much, but that's not happening.

I may well be wrong but I got the impression we have not been hoofing the ball as much this season, which if correct means our short passing is absolute rubbish.

The midfield (for whatever reason) still seems to be as much of a problem as the defence.

derick_ipsw wrote:Ipswich Town have completed just 60.8% of their passes this season in the Championship, a league-low.

I remember commenting on this last season - we had the lowest pass accuracy in the league, even when we were high in the table.

The Brighton game highlighted the problem; but Reading even more obviously so, when 4 of the goals were the result of a p*ss-poor clearance for the first, bad passes up front for the second and fourth, and McGoldrick giving it away in our own half for the fifth. I actually felt sorry for McGoldrick, as he is the only player we have with a decent first touch and a bit of vision, despite any faults he may have.

I believe some of our poor passing is because we put pressure on ourselves with poor control / first touch. Unfortunately (McG excepted) we have assembled a squad of so-called professionals who rely on effort rather than any real basic skills such as controlling and passing.

Andym wrote:

derick_ipsw wrote:Ipswich Town have completed just 60.8% of their passes this season in the Championship, a league-low.

I remember commenting on this last season - we had the lowest pass accuracy in the league, even when we were high in the table.

The Brighton game highlighted the problem; but Reading even more obviously so, when 4 of the goals were the result of a p*ss-poor clearance for the first, bad passes up front for the second and fourth, and McGoldrick giving it away in our own half for the fifth. I actually felt sorry for McGoldrick, as he is the only player we have with a decent first touch and a bit of vision, despite any faults he may have.

I believe some of our poor passing is because we put pressure on ourselves with poor control / first touch. Unfortunately (McG excepted) we have assembled a squad of so-called professionals who rely on effort rather than any real basic skills such as controlling and passing.

I think your last sentence hits the nail firmly on the head. We need some class.

Andym wrote:

derick_ipsw wrote:Ipswich Town have completed just 60.8% of their passes this season in the Championship, a league-low.

I remember commenting on this last season - we had the lowest pass accuracy in the league, even when we were high in the table.

The Brighton game highlighted the problem; but Reading even more obviously so, when 4 of the goals were the result of a p*ss-poor clearance for the first, bad passes up front for the second and fourth, and McGoldrick giving it away in our own half for the fifth. I actually felt sorry for McGoldrick, as he is the only player we have with a decent first touch and a bit of vision, despite any faults he may have.

I believe some of our poor passing is because we put pressure on ourselves with poor control / first touch. Unfortunately (McG excepted) we have assembled a squad of so-called professionals who rely on effort rather than any real basic skills such as controlling and passing.

Unfortunately, that is the risk you take when you don't invest much money in your squad. Granted MM has done a wonderful job with Free and Low cost acquisitions, but is it enough to get us promoted? I still think we missed an opportunity last year, and promotion will only get more difficult now with the parachute payments for former Prem clubs. I'm not saying we should throw bags of cash away for any transfers unwittingly, but I feel MM's experience should justify a little spending to bring in better quality players. I'm not sure this budget-team-building is entirely MM's idea...ME probably has something to do with it. I know, I know some of you will say I'm beating a dead horse. We don't have a lot of money, but surely some of the Ming's money could have been invested on a couple quality players?

I'm pretty sure most of the mings money got spend on contract extensions for the players we wanted to keep. I may be wrong of course.

Onto the other point you made, parachute payments have been happening for a while now and they didn't affect us last season. I don't see how they should again this year. We just need to get more effective in various areas. Work rate doesn't always cut it.