League 1 - Plymouth Argyle vs Ipswich Town Preview & Matchday Thread

[ipswichtownNo1]

No team has a divine right to go in front and stay there otherwise every game would end 1-0. Even Liverpool are level at hone to Brighton after leading 2-0, thats football.

I don't really give a f@£k about Liverpool but Liverpool will ultimately either win a game when leading or go on to win from a losing position. I'm talking about ipswich and our weakness, which is we simply give away too many points from a winning position. You asked why so negative, I'm just answering you

[Charnwood]

I don’t give a f*ck about Liverpool either but I do get pissed off when fans right us off with 40 mins plus added time still to play. We’ve had plenty of chances to get level in this game which has nothing to do with not being able to defend a lead.

[Kerry Blue]

Two easy chances missed.

[ipswichtownNo1]

I don’t give a f*ck about Liverpool either but I do get pissed off when fans right us off with 40 mins plus added time still to play.

Maybe if we were not so consistently inconsistent I may have more faith in them, but the truth is there for all to see, must be 18 points now this season we have dropped from a winning position.

[Shed on tour]

We are a average mid-table league 1 side. As I said the other week still not convinced that some of our signings are as good as some fans thought they were.
No doubt we will have the occasional promising result during the season which will give us hope but as they say that is what kills you.
Still have my doubts that PC has the tactical nous to change things when needed.

[mendipblue]

No team has a divine right to go in front and stay there otherwise every game would end 1-0. Even Liverpool are level at hone to Brighton after leading 2-0, thats football.

I don't really give a f@£k about Liverpool but Liverpool will ultimately either win a game when leading or go on to win from a losing position. I'm talking about ipswich and our weakness, which is we simply give away too many points from a winning position. You asked why so negative, I'm just answering you

We have dropped far to many points this season from winning positions so far. If we had those points we would be in the top 2. So there is definite problem within the team. And that's down to the management and there coaching.

[Charnwood]

This game wasn’t lost because we failed to defend a lead taken in the 14th minute. This game was lost because the likes of Bonne, Edward’s and Harper missed simple chances to put the game out of reach. To try to defend a one goal lead for 80 minutes against the undefeated all season top of the table team would have been suicide and even worse thoroughly boring.

Of course we’re all disappointed but if we don’t make the play offs this season it certainly won’t be down to losing 2-1 at Plymouth.

[ashfordblue]

Well I'm not surprised by the result, and we should have come away with at least a draw, going by the number of chances missed today, but in this case Mosey yet another Yellow he's got to control his behavior we can't afford for our Captain to keep showing us up with practically a yellow every bloody game, what I suggest to PC is get another 2 strong defenders and another strong midfielder in the January window, and shore up that defense tighter than a ducks arse, we cannot afford to keep having injuries and illness to players without adequate same strength cover, if we are to make a concerted promotion effort after Christmas it's imperative that we must bring in the defensive cover, as BM has stated Wolfie is not good enough and at RB ??? and where is KVY he's just disappeared into know where I can't recall an injury problem, he should be in at RB, not Wolfie, I suppose it will be the same excuse against Wycombe away next up.

[number 9]

With perspective, we've just lost narrowly away at the top of the table club.

Always disappointing to lose but neither unexpected nor a disaster either.

Very good point. We've cocked up a few results against much lesser teams, and those are the most frustrating. Going to Plymouth and winning was a big ask anyway.

Agree we need defensive reinforcements in January. I think I said last week I wasn't sold on Penney, and after seeing Woolfenden on the team sheet I automtically assumed we'd lose. Morsy's out now with his 5th yellow, so the next few games will be even more difficult. It's so true that we have to take our chances when they come, and we failed to do that today. Oh well, check this one off and move on to the next one. COYB!

[hallamblue]

Sounds like we should have really win this game . So certainly not outplayed by any stretch of the imagination ..,,, oh , and that was without

Burns
Aluko
Donacian

Down that right side…… I’d say we’re doing alright : it’s not even Christmas yet ( when early leaders usually start to fall away )…. Watch this space guys .

[Charnwood]

Sounds like we should have really win this game . So certainly not outplayed by any stretch of the imagination ..,,, oh , and that was without

Burns
Aluko
Donacian

Down that right side…… I’d say we’re doing alright : it’s not even Christmas yet ( when early leaders usually start to fall away )…. Watch this space guys .

We were indeed very one sided today Liz.

[Bluemike]

Cook still worries me, the team selection was pants, Coulsen out for months and returns as a right winger/Midfielder ? Ridiculous, how about Edwards on the right and Celina on the left, failing that Chaplin out wide and Pigott as the number Ten playing off Bonne, we had loads of options and he f*cked it up again, we can't keep making excuses.

We could, maybe should have gone Three at the back, we have zero plan B options and that is down to Cook, we continue to concede at crucial times, again and again and again, it doesn't matter one bit that it was the League Leaders, we just don't do the basics right and that is down to the management as is the fact we continue to make Ridiculous individual errors, this time Penney and if Cook had got the selection right and had Coulsen in his natural position at LB it probably doesn't happen, yes we have the benefit of hindsight but it's Cook’s job to get it right and sadly all too often he doesn't.

We look good against the crap sides or sides out of form but against someone half decent we fall short. As Shed said maybe some of our signings ain't all that.

[Shed on tour]

Like Mike said I was totally baffled about the Coulsen decision.With previous managers we have often criticised them for putting round pegs in square holes. We have now virtually played a 3rd of the season and points wise nearer to the relegation places than the top 6.
We have dropped no end of points after being in front in games and seem unable to resolve this problem. Things need to change and quickly if this season is not to turn into a write off.

[arana peligrosa]

i wonder had we kept the lead we had until half-time, if the final score would have gone our way. Lost a goal at a critical time and Plymouth got ahead soon after the restart. Kind of suggests we got complacent or lost focus at the end and restart of the 45, this has been a factor before in losing points.

Right off the bat we were playing the league leaders at their own venue. Many fans here and wherever you find them knew it was going to be tough and expected defeat. Reading game report and sporadic involvement earlier seems the team tried and performed admirably. We could just have easily tied the game by the end even though the opposition themselves had their chances.

I admire Cook for playing an extra name in attack this time although many found his overall squad selection questionable. Have seen highlights, Mariner got the respect he deserved and while disappointed to have been beaten and other aspects of contention the team remains in a good position to challenge.

it's a league where all things are possible. Sunderland beaten by five with Rotherham if correct. it's 5 wins, 5 draws and 5 losses thus far with us. You can accept it as 5 wins in 15 and way below standard if so inclined but the bigger picture indicates we're a better side than statistics present.

[ipswichtownNo1]

This game wasn’t lost because we failed to defend a lead taken in the 14th minute. This game was lost because the likes of Bonne, Edward’s and Harper missed simple chances to put the game out of reach. To try to defend a one goal lead for 80 minutes against the undefeated all season top of the table team would have been suicide and even worse thoroughly boring.

Of course we’re all disappointed but if we don’t make the play offs this season it certainly won’t be down to losing 2-1 at Plymouth.

Really?? So what will it be down to? If we don't take points of the top teams how else do you suggest we make the playoffs.

[Tangfastic]

It was a strange team selection. If you can’t trust our marquee signing, Celina, to take a wide position and put a left back at right wing - why even sign him? And there could be other shuffling around. Chaplin out wide, Celina at 10?
I can only think Coulsen was brought in to stiffen things up as he didn’t trust both Edwards and Celina to start and/or to offer more support to Woolfenden.
TBF - our right side was decimated. No Aluko, Burns, JD,KVY. That’s pretty rough. But we could easily have got to HT one up. I thought we were dealing with Plymouth coming up to HT, before Penney switched off. Might have been different without that equaliser. And the chances we missed. Too many good chances missed. For all his tricks, Edwards hasn’t a end result yet.
Not going to complain about the result as Plymouth looked good, but we could have won that. Not sure how we’ll deal with Wycombe as they’re going to be a much more physical test and god knows who’s fit.

[shabba]

Maybe I’m in the minority but regarding the formation I don’t think Cook had too much choice, I personally wouldnt go away to the league leaders and play with attacking players who can’t defend as wing backs like suggested by many above, you might get away be Doncaster etc.

Very tough for cook as he plays his 4-2-3-1 Asks alot for having full backs who can attack and defend. Even Donacian has been learning to get forward more and it’s worked ok. You could argue go defensive via Burges or Wolfie could have played RWB Or we go four at the back and accept the right side is purely down to Chaplin to attack and the RB is just defending but it’s not how cooks formation works, the right sided attacker players inside, last week Aluko was pretty central and just kept feeding Donancian who was often wide and high up in space.

I don’t think you can blame what Cook was attempting - makes sense to at least play the wingbacks we have who are adept at that role even if one is on the wrong side. I just think he should have done it sticking with his normal formation.

I think having the three players who can play Cooks RB role all injured was an absolute killer and something that is hard to mask over when you are going away to the leagues highest placed side.

Big game on Tuesday now as we need a point or more really just to try and keep the points tally going. It will be another big ask if we don’t have anyone for that RB role in the preferred formation.

I think we are all expecting a lot from every game now as we know we are playing catch up, I certainly feel like that myself.

[hallamblue]

I’d agree with you 100% shabba. I think PC lost the likes of Burns / Donacian and possible Aluko at the 11hr to illness and it would take too long for KVY to get down to Devon to be able to play. I Just hope the illness isn’t bloody CoVid , or they’ll be out for weeks.

[Bluemike]

Burns wasn't fit yesterday but he's been out of favour and on the bench last Two or Three games so sorry I'm not buying it, playing Coulsen in that position instead of Celina or Edwards or Chaplin or even Jackson was bloody stupid and p*ss poor management

[Shed on tour]

Burns wasn't fit yesterday but he's been out of favour and on the bench last Two or Three games so sorry I'm not buying it, playing Coulsen in that position instead of Celina or Edwards or Chaplin or even Jackson was bloody stupid and p*ss poor management

Yep just a crazy decision to play Coulsen in that position. You can imagine the reaction if Lambert was still in charge and had done that. I guess PC can do no wrong in some peoples eyes.

[shabba]

Really don’t agree sorry, Burns is likely being managed due to his injury issues, and it makes sense given how good Aluko has been, was again the best player for us last week before he came off.

Celina hasn’t impressed me at all, well taken goal last week but he did nothing before that other than lose the ball.

Edward’s hasn’t been great either in recent games - neither can tackle so why play them against attacking wingbacks where they will need to actually
Defend in parts.

[Tangfastic]

Burns wasn't fit yesterday but he's been out of favour and on the bench last Two or Three games so sorry I'm not buying it, playing Coulsen in that position instead of Celina or Edwards or Chaplin or even Jackson was bloody stupid and p*ss poor management

Aluko has a groin injury and both JD and Burns were both ill yesterday morning prompting the last minute re-shuffle. Got no problems with Burns benched and Aluko playing if aluko is playing well. I’m sure Burns is well thought of and it’s a long season.
If we’d started with JD and Burns down that right-hand side then we wouldn’t be weakened at all and we’d be posing problems for them as well as defensively stronger.
Big call from Cook to give Coulsen a game after being out for so long. I’m guessing he couldn’t trust Edwards or Celina to help out Woolfenden defensively down that RH side. Maybe Chaplin could have done that job, but then you’re taking out an in-form number 10. Very imbalanced, questionable team selection but we still had plenty of chances to draw/win. It’s just becoming too much of a routine we give away winning positions.

[Bluemike]

If that's the case then how sad is that ? People need to stop bleating on about how good Celina is ffs, if he is not preferred to a Left back who's been in injured for ages then god help us, get rid, as I said p*ss poor management and it's doing my head in, excuses week after week after week, still its only a third of the season gone.

[shabba]

It’s it apples for apples though, Celina is a wide left or number ten player and yesterday we needed cover for wingbacks - putting Celina as a wingback really would be daft IMO, as said you might get away with it vs a v weak team who sit back but not away at the league leaders.

Agree Celina hasn’t been that good but he will need time and it’s fine as we have other options. He might well come good second half of the season and have a key role.

Anyway as long ad we can keep moving in the right direction and get ourselves near the play offs by Xmas I think that’s just about ok.

[Bluemike]

I agree with the last bit , sadly it doesn't look like we are moving in the right direction half the time. We are playing catch up but we aren't catching up and we keep ticking games off, Wycombe, Sunderland, Rotherham, Oxford all coming up, still that will only be virtually half the season gone so we deffo need a good Three wins from that little run of games.

[Charnwood]

This game wasn’t lost because we failed to defend a lead taken in the 14th minute. This game was lost because the likes of Bonne, Edward’s and Harper missed simple chances to put the game out of reach. To try to defend a one goal lead for 80 minutes against the undefeated all season top of the table team would have been suicide and even worse thoroughly boring.

Of course we’re all disappointed but if we don’t make the play offs this season it certainly won’t be down to losing 2-1 at Plymouth.

Really?? So what will it be down to? If we don't take points of the top teams how else do you suggest we make the playoffs.

Just make sure you win a high proportion of the games against the non top teams. 75 points is normally sufficient to make the play offs which means we need to take 55 points from our remaining 31 games. That could be achieved with 16 wins, 7 draws and 8 defeats. I know it isn’t this simple but if we just won our remaining games against the teams in the bottom half of the table we would almost be there and only need a further 10 points from 16 games against teams in the top half.

What people seem to be forgetting is that we’re still a football club in transition. Look at all the discussions we had at the start of the season when we talked about the need to have patience as it would take time and here we are after 2 months with some wanting to sack the manager, rip the team apart and start again which would be f**king ridiculous.

Having watched that game yesterday we were every bit as good as Plymouth for long periods of the game and could have had that match sewn up it is wasn’t for p*ss poor finishing. We are so close to having our best football team for years and all some of you can do is moan moan moan and totally miss how much progress has been made.

[rossi]

Having read all of the various comments and differing opinions, I have to applaud Mike for realising the error of his ways in his initial opinions that PC is the man to take us forward, and coming to the conclusion that he definitely isn't.

Mike calls it p#ss poor management - actually it's worse than that.

If you have a few players unavailable, then common sense dictates that you look at what is available and play a system that suits them. Not the one-dimensional Cook, with him it's 4-2-3-1 or nothing. Once again, we come out for the second half and go to sleep - what the hell does he say to the team at half time to p#ss them off so much?

I keep reading that we need to bolster the squad in January with this and that, but to my mind this would make things even worse - the squad is too big now. And no matter who we were to get in, Cook simply does not have the managerial ability to get us promoted.

[mendipblue]

I imagine PC will be given to the end of December. If we are not in or near the play offs he will be gone. Can't imagine our American owners being over patient especially with what they have invested.

[AzzurroMark]

This game wasn’t lost because we failed to defend a lead taken in the 14th minute. This game was lost because the likes of Bonne, Edward’s and Harper missed simple chances to put the game out of reach. To try to defend a one goal lead for 80 minutes against the undefeated all season top of the table team would have been suicide and even worse thoroughly boring.

Of course we’re all disappointed but if we don’t make the play offs this season it certainly won’t be down to losing 2-1 at Plymouth.

Really?? So what will it be down to? If we don't take points of the top teams how else do you suggest we make the playoffs.

Just make sure you win a high proportion of the games against the non top teams. 75 points is normally sufficient to make the play offs which means we need to take 55 points from our remaining 31 games. That could be achieved with 16 wins, 7 draws and 8 defeats. I know it isn’t this simple but if we just won our remaining games against the teams in the bottom half of the table we would almost be there and only need a further 10 points from 16 games against teams in the top half.

What people seem to be forgetting is that we’re still a football club in transition. Look at all the discussions we had at the start of the season when we talked about the need to have patience as it would take time and here we are after 2 months with some wanting to sack the manager, rip the team apart and start again which would be f**king ridiculous.

Having watched that game yesterday we were every bit as good as Plymouth for long periods of the game and could have had that match sewn up it is wasn’t for p*ss poor finishing. We are so close to having our best football team for years and all some of you can do is moan moan moan and totally miss how much progress has been made.

Didn't see or hear any of the game, nor have i read any reports, however totally with you on your above thoughts Charnie. Yes i will not deny that i thought we would be performing better and higher placed in the league than we currently are, but that is the nature of football and, so it seems, typical of ITFC!

If i have one criticism of PC, it is the one i had from the start of the season, and that is that he should have moved heaven and earth to sign a strong Central Defensive pairing. Edmundsen was possibly one of those signings, the signing of Burgess seemed almost like a panic buy to me! I like Nsiala, who generally does a great job, but for me our defence should be at a Championship-in-the-making level. Had it have been, we would not be having these arguments about conceding goals that cost us dearly. Our team is like a plate of food, loaded with exciting pie & chips, but without the dull vegetables which give it the balance!

For me we are heading in the right direction, yes mistakes are still being made, but looking at the bigger picture, we have yielded 17 points out of 27 available. That is basically one fifth of a season, or 86 points over 46 games. How many on here would have taken that total if offered prior to the season kicking off? I would have taken your arm off for it. The very slow start is what has and will cost us dearest. However if we can continue to make an overall improvement on these stats, then why not continue to believe? Ok, some will argue that we have only beaten Lincoln & Pompey as teams of any note over those 9 games, but i would counter that we have also stupidly lost to teams like Burton and Cheltenham in the first 9 games.

Getting rid of a very poor squad and replacing it with players who are of a higher calibre has possibly created a higher expectancy level amongst fans, and for those individuals (not aimed at anyone on this forum) who were anticipating 100+goals or even points, then that is the very attitude that within a squad sees a team drop points to teams who we only have to turn up to beat!

[Bluemike]

What I was expecting was a manager who has a clue, sadly we don't. Of course we are making progress footballing wise because we are comparing it with the fuckfest bunch of w*nkers we had here last season, getting rid of that lot I applaud Cook for.

Rossi is spot on, you select a team from what is at your disposal, sadly we know no other formation than the 4-2-3-1