League 1 - Morecambe FC vs Ipswich Town Preview & Matchday Thread

[rossi]

Disappointing result again - when you take games in hand into account it looks like 6th place at the moment would need 62 points, so we are way short with 53 points. Can we make that up in 11 games? I seriously doubt it, and definitely not unless we can start to score goals consistently.

Looking at the comments on this thread, I have to say that I agree entirely with Liz in that there is too much rotation of the front players. KM is playing a settled back 3, and we are seeing the benefit of that in the small amount of goals conceded.

For the first time, I am seeing a slight chink in the strategy of KM, because constantly rotating the front players makes no sense at all, and he ought by now to know his best options and not to need to do this seemingly never ending experimentation.

Our 4 main strikers, all of them have been high scorers in the past, so why not now? Possibly they are too uptight, they know they have to score in order to retain their place in the side, maybe all of them are trying too hard and snatching at chances rather than being relaxed and in control. It's a similar case for the attacking midfielders, I think they are trying too hard and are not relaxed enough.

KM needs to decide which 2 of his 4 strikers should be his number 1 pairing (sorry Ash, I too would like to see Simpson given a chance but it seems that will not happen this season) and stick with starting that pair every game. Similarly in midfield - well Morsey and Burns seem to be nailed on (although Burns still needs to work on his consistency), but KM needs to decide who to start out of KVY, Thompson, Celina, Chaplin, Aluko, Evans (when fit), and Bakinson - Carroll does not get a look in - and stick with them

[Tangfastic]

Disappointing result again - when you take games in hand into account it looks like 6th place at the moment would need 62 points, so we are way short with 53 points. Can we make that up in 11 games? I seriously doubt it, and definitely not unless we can start to score goals consistently.

Looking at the comments on this thread, I have to say that I agree entirely with Liz in that there is too much rotation of the front players. KM is playing a settled back 3, and we are seeing the benefit of that in the small amount of goals conceded.

For the first time, I am seeing a slight chink in the strategy of KM, because constantly rotating the front players makes no sense at all, and he ought by now to know his best options and not to need to do this seemingly never ending experimentation.

Our 4 main strikers, all of them have been high scorers in the past, so why not now? Possibly they are too uptight, they know they have to score in order to retain their place in the side, maybe all of them are trying too hard and snatching at chances rather than being relaxed and in control. It's a similar case for the attacking midfielders, I think they are trying too hard and are not relaxed enough.

KM needs to decide which 2 of his 4 strikers should be his number 1 pairing (sorry Ash, I too would like to see Simpson given a chance but it seems that will not happen this season) and stick with starting that pair every game. Similarly in midfield - well Morsey and Burns seem to be nailed on (although Burns still needs to work on his consistency), but KM needs to decide who to start out of KVY, Thompson, Celina, Chaplin, Aluko, Evans (when fit), and Bakinson - Carroll does not get a look in - and stick with them

I do agree that our strikers look uptight. It’s got to be confidence-based when you get Bonne scoring 10 in 10 and then 1 in 20. I don’t think it’s through lack of effort or desire. They seem to be snatching at chances and seem to have a weight on their shoulders.

It does also feel a bit desperate to look at Simpson as our saviour. If he does get a chance, then it would feel like McK and his coaches couldn’t get anything out of their 4 senior strikers. That’s not a stick to beat McK with, but if we are unanimously applauding him for being a great coach and sorting out the defence and playing some great football at times, we should maybe be a little critical of the striker situation. Overall, McK is playing catch-up and the results / performances have been mostly very good. We’re just asking a lot of him to salvage the season. It’s not as if we’re out-of-form, but we need to get at least one of those strikers firing and if it upsets one or two of them who gets left out - then so be it.
Maybe Bonne is the most likeliest of them all to be a purple patch / goal drought striker. Maybe one goal leads to a goal a game. I just can’t see Pigott turning around his season and whilst Jackson might be the most in-form of them, I can’t see him being prolific.
Probably unfair on McK. If we win games, then the rotation makes him a genius and after a couple of iffy results then we’re asking questions. I would prefer for us stick with one striker. I’d go with Bonne even though he’s missing easy chances. At least he’s getting in the right areas. Just think it’s time to stop too much tinkering. Strikers are confidence players.
Personally, it wouldn’t upset me if we got rid of all these strikers and brought in a couple of senior strikers with maybe a young striker (Simpson?) as back-up next season. We shouldn’t have 4 senior strikers fighting for 1 or 2 positions.

[hallamblue]

It’s Sunday Arbo and I’m not doing much. So thought I’d look at the last 13 games under McKenna also the last 13 games under Cook/ McGreal tenure…..

These are the result stats pre and post McK…I just worked backwards in the fixture list since McK took over up until the previous managers were in situ, and took the same number of game into account . Eg McKenna has done 13 games… so prior to him Ive just gone back in the league fixtures, 13 further games which were under McGreal and then cook.


Cook/ McGreal

P13 W5 L5 D3 F19 A16

McKenna:

P13 W7. L2. D4. F16. A6


Under each managerships results, each manager had won 2 games where more than 2 goals were scored by us. Eg Under Cook it was Pompey 0-4 win, and Wycombe 0-4 win. (Total of 8 goals)

For McKenna he also has had 2 high scoring wins, Gills 0-4, Burton 3-0.( a total of 7goals)

When working out the team’s goals per game ratio, I’ve removed these two game “blips” for each manager…

Therefore :

Cook/ McGreal goals per game ratio works out at 1.0 goals p/game
Mcakenna goals per game Ratio works out at 0.81goals p/game.

If you leave all the 13 games in the goals for ratio, it works out at Cook/ McGreal 1.46, whilst McKenna is 1.23……



Defensively. Goals conceded ……

Cook/McGreal 16 goals conceded over 13 league games, ratio of 1.23 goals/game

McKenna 6 goals conceded over 13 league games, ratio of 0.46 goals/game.


So for each manager(s) over a run of 13 league games,

Cook/ McGreal W5.L5. D3 Goals for ratio 1.0 ….and a goals against ratio 1.23
McKenna. W7. L2. D4 Goals for ratio 0.81, …and a goals against ratio 0.46

So in conclusion. We are defensively miles better under McKenna managership, but scoring less overall goals and have won 2 games more over a 13 game run, compared to Cook/ McGreal who won 2 fewer games, and were defensively poorer, but had a slightly higher goal for ratio compared to McKenna.


So really not that much difference , certainly not statistically as regards goals scored, but defensively McKenna has made us much tighter. So it looks like our ability to convert chances remains our biggest problem. Prior to that we still didn’t score many, but we conceded far too many.

Three / four new strikers next season it is then guys 🥳

Sorry to bore you…. Lol

[Andym]

A good read ^^^^
Part of it (but certainly not all) is down to a change of system. Playing a back 3 is realistically a back 5 including wingbacks. With 3 central defenders you should be tighter and concede fewer.
The downside is that it is dangerous for those wingbacks to get too advanced and take players on; lose the ball and there is no cover down the flanks unless your central defenders are good at temporarily converting to fullbacks. The tendency will be to cross from deeper, which is possibly lass dangerous than a ball pulled back or played square into the centre.
While I agree the striker issue is a problem, both of the last 2 games could have easily been won if we EVER scored from a corner. That is our greatest failing in my opinion. A striker might miss a couple of chances in a game, but we have had 20 corners in total in the last 2 games and haven't looked remotely like scoring from any of them.

[Tangfastic]

A good read ^^^^
Part of it (but certainly not all) is down to a change of system. Playing a back 3 is realistically a back 5 including wingbacks. With 3 central defenders you should be tighter and concede fewer.
The downside is that it is dangerous for those wingbacks to get too advanced and take players on; lose the ball and there is no cover down the flanks unless your central defenders are good at temporarily converting to fullbacks. The tendency will be to cross from deeper, which is possibly lass dangerous than a ball pulled back or played square into the centre.
While I agree the striker issue is a problem, both of the last 2 games could have easily been won if we EVER scored from a corner. That is our greatest failing in my opinion. A striker might miss a couple of chances in a game, but we have had 20 corners in total in the last 2 games and haven't looked remotely like scoring from any of them.

Could not agree more. There are L1 teams out there who are punching above their weight whose strategy seems to be scoring from set-pieces. We seem to be spending so much effort carving out chances to score just one goal, yet we don’t seem have any threat from corners.
It’s something you can improve upon in training. A professional footballer should be able to put a ball into a dangerous area consistently from a corner. The way we play means we can get plenty of corners / free-kicks. We’re sitting here scratching our heads wondering where the goals can come from. Well this is one area where we can improve on.

[number 9]

I appreciate the analysis, but once again there’s not much a manager can do if the strikers are missing sitters. A lot of our goals scored haven’t came from our strikers anyway. I think we’re creating more scoring chances than we were under Cook, but I haven’t done the math. We do need to improve on set pieces, corners and just simply crossing the ball at the right time with accuracy. I think the goal drought will eventually end, and we’ll finish the season stronger. It’s a lot ask KM to get us in the playoffs this season, and it’s difficult for all of us to accept I know.

[ashfordblue]

For me, we need a Darryl Murphy type striker, big, powerful, good in the air, and good hold up play

The only player we have who comes remotely like Murphy is Simpson Mike, Big, Good hold up play and lay off passes, not sure on heading ability, bloody hard to knock off the ball, and can run at defenders with aggression and can score goals, I think its a must that Keiran gives him game time, I'm almost certain that this would work as he's fearless.