Championship - Ipswich Town vs West Bromwich Albion Preview & Matchday Thread

[Charnwood]

One way to try to stop the leakage of goals would be to play 3-5-2 with Clarke & Davis being on the wing backs either side of three across midfield. This would give us three at the back instead of just Woolfie & Edmundson who simply aren’t good enough to cope on their own. The problem is when we’re playing out of defence they’re both experts at giving the ball away especially when the wing backs have moved forward expecting to receive the ball as part of a forward play movement. With the extra defender Morsy could play in the centre of midfield with Broadhead left and Chaplin right with Moore & Al Hamadi upfront. It may need tweaking in the midfield as Broadhead and Chaplin would have to play deeper which might be alien especially to Chaplin.
It maybe that against the weaker opposition we have coming up we don’t need any wholesale changes but I’m just fed up with conceding sloppy unnecessary goals.

[herforder]

Valid suggestion, Charny, but doubt that KM will change the way we set up. Worryingly, however, is that we seem to have become psychologically programmed to slow starts, conceding first and then fighting to claw something back. KM’s post match interviews are invariably measured and honest; however, he never adequately addresses these defensive weaknesses that we all recognise. He will, rightly, never publicly criticise individuals, although admits that lessons need to be learned. Sadly, it’s the same lessons that need learning, but are still hanging there. Ultimately it’s down to individuals’ technical abilities, and there’s a quality gap that produces a C’ship midfield/attack, but a mid L1 defence. But, he, KM will know this!

On to Milwall, and on to victory.

[rossi]

Two things are blatantly obvious to me:
1) we massively over-achieved in the first 4 months of the season, and our form since then shows us for what we really are - a newly promoted team more than holding their own at a higher level but still essentially a Division 1 squad.
2) KM may well be a brilliant coach, but as a tactician and manager he is far too one-dimensional. Admit we're not Man Utd or Tottenham, man, accept we cannot play like them, and mix things up a bit.

I'm expecting us now to make the play-offs by the skin of our teeth in 6th position - not that it matters because I think the play-offs will just lead to more disappointment.

All was summed up perfectly for me in KM's post match interview. When it was pointed out to him that we have won only one of our last nine league games, he said "well, it depends how you do your counting - if it's counted in a different way we've won three in the last thirteen". FFS - go figure.

[number 9]

I’m not predicting anymore wins until KM addresses our defensive weaknesses and misfiring forwards. I noticed Jackson was still on the bench. In my opinion, Jackson shouldn’t even be on the bench. He and others are not good enough! Either KM is naively showing loyalty to under par players, or he just doesn’t get it. Play to your strengths and we will start winning again.

Just wanna add, Travis, Al Hamadi and Hutchinson all started on the bench. After brilliant work by MA in the transfer window, why are those playing not starting??

[QldBlue]

Two things are blatantly obvious to me:
1) we massively over-achieved in the first 4 months of the season, and our form since then shows us for what we really are - a newly promoted team more than holding their own at a higher level but still essentially a Division 1 squad.
2) KM may well be a brilliant coach, but as a tactician and manager he is far too one-dimensional. Admit we're not Man Utd or Tottenham, man, accept we cannot play like them, and mix things up a bit.

I'm expecting us now to make the play-offs by the skin of our teeth in 6th position - not that it matters because I think the play-offs will just lead to more disappointment.

I think you’re right about KM. Because of his quality, people forget how young he is and he’s obviously in a steep learning curve. In fairness to him, I think he anticipated our defensive frailties with the acquisition of Williams & Tuanzebe. They both looked like solid quality options at one point but sh*t went sideways with BW and not sure why Axle isn’t starting.

Despite our fall off, I still think we’re not far off regaining our form. It’s worth remembering we’re still at 2 points a game. In most normal seasons, that would see us in the automatics… sods law and we’re just involved in a freak of a season our first time back in this division.

I’m not tactically smart like a lot of you but it did seem to me that Hladky had changed his ‘play from the back’ antics and there weren’t any heart in the mouth moments yesterday.

[arana peligrosa]

the team no longer has the consistency or enough ability to procure victories from losing positions that Leicester or Southampton can. That alone will now make automatic promotion unlikely.

we're too predictable and one dimensional in fielding teams it may as well provide opposition an advantage before a game's even underway. Losing such a substantial points lead only a few weeks back must play on the squad and managers mind, each time now we drop points or lose ground can only make the objective tougher.

Just feel many maybe caught out in December when such in a strong position and looking ahead to the EPL for first time in over twenty years when in truth we were never really equipped or ready this season to achieve it. Viewed game highlights, we still got a strong lead over them however its those in the positions above we need to put real focus on. Once again don't feel, or we haven't got, the consistency like some others to really expect an auto promotion from what remains of the season.

[Mauswara]

It's been a brilliant season, we have new players and a kinder fixture list than most, let's see what happens now and enjoy the ride.

[JamessB]

When you look at some of our recent games including yesterday and the games against Leicester the second half performances have been excellent from an attacking perspective, it shows that we are a handful for any team in this division but we just can't afford to keep giving soft goals away, we dominated WBA yesterday for the latter part of the first half and got a great early goal in the second but then an awful pass out from the back gifts them a second, the effort from the team to get back into it and then to try and get the winner was outstanding, I just hope they can continue to play this kind of high tempo football but from the first whistle and stop giving silly goals away, then we might be able to put a decent run together.

If we do have to settle for the playoffs it would be great to head into them in a rich vein of form.

[mendipblue]

It was very noticeable yesterday when there was a opportunity to cross.....we didn't we either played it back or into mid field. Now, we have a 6ft 5in striker, would it not make sense to cross? Even if he doesn't win the header it may cause issues for the defenders. When we chased the game late on we played with more urgency and little more direct which caused WBA all sorts of problems. So the message to KMck is..Mix it f**king up ffs, stop playing one way. 🫣

[hallamblue]

We (.Mike and me) were taking about this at the game. The main culprit was Davis. We're not really sure why he epikdng cross the ball, Moore was stood there waiting for it. It can only have been a tactic.

As a manager McKenna and his tactics are starting to look naive AT TIMES, bug hus 70 min subs always seem to come up trumps.

[rossi]

We (.Mike and me) were taking about this at the game. The main culprit was Davis. We're not really sure why he epikdng cross the ball, Moore was stood there waiting for it. It can only have been a tactic.

As a manager McKenna and his tactics are starting to look naive AT TIMES, bug hus 70 min subs always seem to come up trumps.

But do they really, Liz?

Sure, his substitutions have rescued us a few points in the latter stages, but havn't led to wins mainly due to the fact that we've been behind. Surely if he got his tactics/team selection right from the start then we wouldn't always be chasing games.

[Bluemike]

When you look at some of our recent games including yesterday and the games against Leicester the second half performances have been excellent from an attacking perspective, it shows that we are a handful for any team in this division but we just can't afford to keep giving soft goals away, we dominated WBA yesterday for the latter part of the first half and got a great early goal in the second but then an awful pass out from the back gifts them a second, the effort from the team to get back into it and then to try and get the winner was outstanding, I just hope they can continue to play this kind of high tempo football but from the first whistle and stop giving silly goals away, then we might be able to put a decent run together.

If we do have to settle for the playoffs it would be great to head into them in a rich vein of form.

Exactly this.

[hallamblue]

We (.Mike and me) were taking about this at the game. The main culprit was Davis. We're not really sure why he epikdng cross the ball, Moore was stood there waiting for it. It can only have been a tactic.

As a manager McKenna and his tactics are starting to look naive AT TIMES, bug hus 70 min subs always seem to come up trumps.

But do they really, Liz?

Sure, his substitutions have rescued us a few points in the latter stages, but havn't led to wins mainly due to the fact that we've been behind. Surely if he got his tactics/team selection right from the start then we wouldn't always be chasing games.

I think the tact deployed at roughly 70 mins when he brings on pace and canny players does work very well against tiring defences. The problem of always needing to come from behind is another different issue which he needs to address.

Our crap Centre backs their persistent mistakes is why we are dropping points. We literally start games with handicap and this will continue to cost us points. Our GD is ridiculous when compared to the other top 4 clubs . It's now worth an additional point to Saints and Leeds . He needs to play the rest of the season with Axel and Burgess in my humble opinion and ditch the overrated Wolfenden and Edmondson.

But we all see it different .... its what McKenna does that ultimately counts.

[Andym]

We (.Mike and me) were taking about this at the game. The main culprit was Davis. We're not really sure why he epikdng cross the ball, Moore was stood there waiting for it. It can only have been a tactic.

As a manager McKenna and his tactics are starting to look naive AT TIMES, bug hus 70 min subs always seem to come up trumps.

But do they really, Liz?

Sure, his substitutions have rescued us a few points in the latter stages, but havn't led to wins mainly due to the fact that we've been behind. Surely if he got his tactics/team selection right from the start then we wouldn't always be chasing games.

I think the tact deployed at roughly 70 mins when he brings on pace and canny players does work very well against tiring defences. The problem of always needing to come from behind is another different issue which he needs to address.

Our crap Centre backs their persistent mistakes is why we are dropping points. We literally start games with handicap and this will continue to cost us points. Our GD is ridiculous when compared to the other top 4 clubs . It's now worth an additional point to Saints and Leeds . He needs to play the rest of the season with Axel and Burgess in my humble opinion and ditch the overrated Wolfenden and Edmondson.

But we all see it different .... its what McKenna does that ultimately counts.

I still think despite a poor performance yesterday, Woolfy is a decent player. He messed up for the first goal but he shouldn’t be having to play right back. I think that goal put him off his game. Right back requires different skills to central defence. It all comes down to our slow build up which I don’t have a problem with until we get Centre backs on the halfway line and the other 8 further forward. It leaves us wide open to the counter attack. We need slicker movement and someone, anyone dropping in to cover. If the ball goes to the right wing back, the left one drops back to cover leaving three at the back and vice versa. I think our central defenders are criticised at times when they are left short. I agree they make mistakes at times but if we don’t give the ball away there is no problem. Poor passing and sh*t crosses cost us as much as defensive errors yesterday.

[hallamblue]

We don’t seem to get the same level of problem in the left side of our defence though. I agree players should be able to drop and cover for one another, but our central defence is too slow or simply doesn’t read the game.

As is clear by my numerous posts about Woolfenden, I’m no fan of his. He seems to be lauded by so many, yet I see him as bang average. There is the school of thought that he’s “improved a lot”, but the level he’s improved too remains short for me. He comes across as a bit of a poser if I’m honest. But the combination of him and Edmundson as our CB pairing is a car crash for a defence. Neither are good enough, which is why Burgess was installed by McKenna. But in truth none of them are up to the pace and quality the Championship attackers possess as a threat.

Unfortunately, for some reason McKenna seems to prefer Woolfenden in his defence … he’s missing a trick in my humble opinion by not pairing Axel and Burgess for the rest of the season, and certainly by not giving Axel a chance to get up to speed by having a run of games.

[Charnwood]

But do they really, Liz?

Sure, his substitutions have rescued us a few points in the latter stages, but havn't led to wins mainly due to the fact that we've been behind. Surely if he got his tactics/team selection right from the start then we wouldn't always be chasing games.

I think the tact deployed at roughly 70 mins when he brings on pace and canny players does work very well against tiring defences. The problem of always needing to come from behind is another different issue which he needs to address.

Our crap Centre backs their persistent mistakes is why we are dropping points. We literally start games with handicap and this will continue to cost us points. Our GD is ridiculous when compared to the other top 4 clubs . It's now worth an additional point to Saints and Leeds . He needs to play the rest of the season with Axel and Burgess in my humble opinion and ditch the overrated Wolfenden and Edmondson.

But we all see it different .... its what McKenna does that ultimately counts.

I still think despite a poor performance yesterday, Woolfy is a decent player. He messed up for the first goal but he shouldn’t be having to play right back. I think that goal put him off his game. Right back requires different skills to central defence. It all comes down to our slow build up which I don’t have a problem with until we get Centre backs on the halfway line and the other 8 further forward. It leaves us wide open to the counter attack. We need slicker movement and someone, anyone dropping in to cover. If the ball goes to the right wing back, the left one drops back to cover leaving three at the back and vice versa. I think our central defenders are criticised at times when they are left short. I agree they make mistakes at times but if we don’t give the ball away there is no problem. Poor passing and sh*t crosses cost us as much as defensive errors yesterday.

As I said elsewhere Andy, my thoughts are that with both full backs used as attacking wing backs we should really think about playing with 3 at the back so when one of the centre backs gets pulled out of position there’s another to cover without leaving a huge gap.

Our problems usually come after a sloppy pass which has gifted possession to the opposition when our players are all involved in a forward passage of play and our defensive midfielder/s are nowhere to be seen, as you say caught on the counter attack.

The problem is we only have to get caught twice in 90 mins to concede two goals which means we have to score 3 to win the game which is a big ask for any team as we’ve found out to our cost in our last three games.

[AzzurroMark]

I still think despite a poor performance yesterday, Woolfy is a decent player. He messed up for the first goal but he shouldn’t be having to play right back. I think that goal put him off his game. Right back requires different skills to central defence. It all comes down to our slow build up which I don’t have a problem with until we get Centre backs on the halfway line and the other 8 further forward. It leaves us wide open to the counter attack. We need slicker movement and someone, anyone dropping in to cover. If the ball goes to the right wing back, the left one drops back to cover leaving three at the back and vice versa. I think our central defenders are criticised at times when they are left short. I agree they make mistakes at times but if we don’t give the ball away there is no problem. Poor passing and sh*t crosses cost us as much as defensive errors yesterday.

I think you have a very valid point here Andy. Our Gung-ho approach going forward does indeed leave us exposed. Looking at the first goal, of course Wolfenden was in no way strong enough that's the big point. However as the move developed Luongo was lost by his man and you see Clarke initially move to cover that man before deciding to chase back to pick up his man, goal scorer Fellowes, who by now had that extra second or two on him!
The second goal, Edmundson does what, sadly, he had a habit of doing (despite some of his better work of late, including an assist in this game), he played a silly ball out. Yes, once again our midfield could've done better. Had he not been on a yellow, I think Morsy would've put a challenge in on Swift and probably stopped the goal.
We may lose a bit going forward, but I'd certainly consider a Morsy/Travis midfield right now!

[number 9]

To your point Andym, do you think this could help our CBs?

Speculation, but I also wonder how the pairing of Morsy and Travis could positively affect us defensively. I think it is obvious our WBs are regularly caught out of position when going forward which ultimately puts a lot of pressure on the CBs. Travis could be the clean-up man in those instances.
Many Premier teams have a defensive midfielder for that reason. Further, why on earth is Edmundson bringing the ball out from the back? He has the worst technical skills out of all our CBs in my opinion.

[Bluemike]

Let's not forget our gung ho approach got us to 2nd and nobody was complaining, of course we all have an opinion when things are not going as planned. The biggest thing for me is not even individual errors, although of course they don't help, it's more the fact we are starting every game poorly, the first half of the season saw us roaring out of the blocks every game, taking the game to the opposition, getting them on the back foot and taking the game to them which often saw us take the lead from which our confidence grew massively, we stopped doing all that, we are very much a confidence team, lose that and the hesitancy creeps in, personally I don't believe it's that hard to fix, some say it's teams adapting as they have sussed us out, I think its more about how we have started playing not so much them.

[ashfordblue]

Let's not forget our gung ho approach got us to 2nd and nobody was complaining, of course we all have an opinion when things are not going as planned. The biggest thing for me is not even individual errors, although of course they don't help, it's more the fact we are starting every game poorly, the first half of the season saw us roaring out of the blocks every game, taking the game to the opposition, getting them on the back foot and taking the game to them which often saw us take the lead from which our confidence grew massively, we stopped doing all that, we are very much a confidence team, lose that and the hesitancy creeps in, personally I don't believe it's that hard to fix, some say it's teams adapting as they have sussed us out, I think its more about how we have started playing not so much them.

Well, I'm glad you have duplicated what I said earlier Mike, we can't afford to keep playing 4-2-3-1 with Wolfi prattling around like some primadonna that he's not, and Edmundson charging off up the field and leaving gaps at the back, I know you don't like Axel Mike BUT trust me he's a lot better experienced than Wolfi and he has got class and reads the game better otherwise he wouldn't have been used in Man U 1st team, so to bring some resilience into the back 4 line up with Axel and Burgess. We must give Axel more game time to get his game back on top form, he is wasted sitting on the bench and getting right Pissed off.
And to stop Clarke from wandering put Travis in front of the back 4 to cover both wingbacks going forward, If possible I would rather we try to go one or two goals up in the first half than keep having to fight back in the 2nd half.
I have been watching lots of top sides in the Premiership and Championship line ups and 4-3-3 or even 4-4-2 seems to be the most selected for success so in the run-up which is going to be tougher, KM must use a more defensive start over the first 35 minutes even if we go in at HT 0-0 then make the changes quicker in the 2nd period to beef up the pressure with Hutch and Siemento down the flanks, let us see how KM lines up at Millwall on Wednesday evening hopefully with Burgess and Axel as the two CB's.

[number 9]

And to stop Clarke from wandering put Travis in front of the back 4 to cover both wingbacks going forward, If possible I would rather we try to go one or two goals up in the first half than keep having to fight back in the 2nd half.
I have been watching lots of top sides in the Premiership and Championship line ups and 4-3-3 or even 4-4-2 seems to be the most selected for success so in the run-up which is going to be tougher, KM must use a more defensive start over the first 35 minutes even if we go in at HT 0-0 then make the changes quicker in the 2nd period to beef up the pressure with Hutch and Siemento down the flanks, let us see how KM lines up at Millwall on Wednesday evening hopefully with Burgess and Axel as the two CB's.

Agree with all of that!

[marko69]

And to stop Clarke from wandering put Travis in front of the back 4 to cover both wingbacks going forward, If possible I would rather we try to go one or two goals up in the first half than keep having to fight back in the 2nd half.
I have been watching lots of top sides in the Premiership and Championship line ups and 4-3-3 or even 4-4-2 seems to be the most selected for success so in the run-up which is going to be tougher, KM must use a more defensive start over the first 35 minutes even if we go in at HT 0-0 then make the changes quicker in the 2nd period to beef up the pressure with Hutch and Siemento down the flanks, let us see how KM lines up at Millwall on Wednesday evening hopefully with Burgess and Axel as the two CB's.

Agree with all of that!

Yes, me too. Although i’d swap them so that it read, Sarmiento & Hutch. Just a tad more entertaining.

[number 9]

And to stop Clarke from wandering put Travis in front of the back 4 to cover both wingbacks going forward, If possible I would rather we try to go one or two goals up in the first half than keep having to fight back in the 2nd half.
I have been watching lots of top sides in the Premiership and Championship line ups and 4-3-3 or even 4-4-2 seems to be the most selected for success so in the run-up which is going to be tougher, KM must use a more defensive start over the first 35 minutes even if we go in at HT 0-0 then make the changes quicker in the 2nd period to beef up the pressure with Hutch and Siemento down the flanks, let us see how KM lines up at Millwall on Wednesday evening hopefully with Burgess and Axel as the two CB's.

Agree with all of that!

Yes, me too. Although i’d swap them so that it read, Sarmiento & Hutch. Just a tad more entertaining.

And Tuanzebe as Huggy Bear?