Ipswich (A) 1 - 1 - Boxing Day - Post-Match Thread

[BenTheFox]

16 minutes ago, ipswichfan said:

Also an Ipswich fan here and have really enjoyed reading the post match reaction page by page. Think there’s been 85% of Leicester fans thinking we were lucky and/or poor and 15% recognising some good-ish performance there with almost everyone hoping we join you in promotion. Don’t think we have any animosity in the past and two decent clubs with good history that represent their counties well. 
 

I think our 3 changes today (tactically due to fixture congestion) plus Hirst’s early injury meant we effectively had 4/10 outfield positions weakened. This showed in our flow of play a little but ultimately it’s important to recognise your quality as much defensively as offensively. You’re known for your clinical attacking performances this season but today I thought you really showed our mettle defensively. We didn’t show anywhere near the clinical forward displays and pace of attacks we are used to seeing at Portman Road but this was mostly due to you nullifying this threat. For those that can’t understand why we are second, it’s because we usually don’t face a premier league defence and are able to dominate possession. 
 

As mentioned by a fellow fan above, we are humble enough to know we’re punching above our weight and we are all just loving the ride. We know the Leeds and Leicesters of this league will really test us and that has proven itself. We were lucky to play Saints away early on when they were getting to grips with Martin’s style (0-1 win). 
 

Expect you boys to romp the league and expect us to effectively be in a ding dong battle with Saints, Leeds and possibly WBA for the rest of the season. Spoke to someone senior at the club yesterday who expects us to break our transfer record in January to sign a forward and CB. Think we have the finances to capitalise on our current league position but will be fun to enjoy the ride till May and pray we make history with a return alongside you. We’ll settle for second 😉 

I was someone who didn't think Ipswich played as well in that game as the pundits and Ipswich players/manager made out, mainly because of their first -half performance. I certainly didn't mean it in an arrogant way. However, they were much improved in the second half and did put the pressure on in the final 25 minutes or so. I felt that we didn't cope with that well enough. When you're playing away from home against a team close to you in the table, you need your centre-forward to put himself about, put defenders under pressure, hold the ball up, win free-kicks etc. but Iheanacho was very poor for us. I'd have taken a point before the game. It's obviously disappointing to have conceded so late on. 

Edited 27 December 2023 by BenTheFox

[Simonb]

2 minutes ago, FOXSE said:

It was disappointing to concede late, but we looked leggy. Yunus for KDH, similar energy, so made sense to me. Casedai? I just don't think he is up to it yet.

 

The playing the ball around the back? The equaliser didn't even come from that, did it?

 

Are main job in that game was to not lose.... 

Yea I said pre match just don't lose.. just we were minutes from a win.

 

It did come from playing it about at the back.. passed it about and Abdul played a ridiculous pass across field and out for a throw where the attack started. 

 

For me casadei does a job alongside either kdh or wilf, not sure what yunus offers yet.. together they're poor though.

 

Decent result really though ain't it

[3310]

39 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

Extraordinary how we see games through our own lens. 

 

Not having a pop, but I thought the chasm between us was as big as possible first and second to be. It looked more like a top v seventh type game. And you bummed a fluke which on huff and puff versus our third gear, you could argue was deserved. 

 

We pay our players 65m a year. So, I don't take any particular glee in being better. Pound for pound your performance is immense. 

Town fan in peace, and just looking in on your board... I think you've nailed it. The post match celebrations from our supporters, weren't so much for the result. But for the reaction our players showed after getting a bit of a hammering at Leeds a few days ago.  In all honesty, I think our supporters were glad to see that our staff , players and fans are still all pulling together, in the right direction... I was worried that a few of them might have been on the mince pies and treated this fixture as a "one to get out of the way" type match...

As far as the match? Thought on another day you'd have got the pen' and gone 0-2 up, game over.. We rode our luck, there, for sure. But we stuck at it and brought the game to you a bit more in the 2nd half.  

In all honesty , I think the majority of our fans would have been reasonably content with our performance, even had we lost 0-1..Like I say, some were fearing the worst after our Leeds performance..

I feel like we deserved something from the match. Even if the nature of the equaliser and the timing, were somewhat fortuitous. At least we can go into the return fixture with some belief. Rather than on the wrong side of a tonking....

Good luck for the season. Not that you really need luck. If you can bring Ineacho of the bench to replace Dakka , then you have a squad that's way , way, way more capable than our lads that were all playing in L1 last season, barring 2 rookie prem loans in Scarlett and Hutchinson... That's not a dig at you, just a salute to our lads.. 

I do browse this forum from time to time. And find your fan base, very sensible and level headed. And, of course, will be forever grateful, as a neutral , for what you gave the football community in 2015/16..

See you in a few weeks...

[Legend_in_blue]

They are very good at hustle and bustle and are quite organised but lack that clinical edge like all Championship sides.  Defensively suspect as well but our play was never sustained enough to take advantage.  We looked dangerous but nothing came of it.  

 

We were half asleep most of the game, never broke into a sweat once the subs were made and, quite frankly, Nacho needs to be sold next window since he isn't offering anywhere near value for money considering the wages he must be on.  Either he puts a shift in or we shift him out, I'm losing patience with him.

 

Still conceding fluke goals, so I'm not overly concerned but our play tonight at best was untidy and at worst a shambles in that 2nd half.  

[Bptiger]

We should never have been in the position to drop a point , with the amount of ball we had . But we pass the ball so well within our half but when we go forward we can’t pass a short ball to a team mate , and when we take the lead we sit back and really don’t push for more goals , there goal came from buggering around in our 20 metre area and our slack defending . Would love to see the manager try to improve our passing game in the oppositions box , I hate to say it but daka just doesn’t have it , time to sell 

[fuchsntf]

48 minutes ago, justfoxes said:

Thats exactly my point we just sometimes fail to put games to bed far too often it’s second half performance where we shine and get a few goals, but far too often we waste opportunities we are sloppy with the ball we just don’t put teams to the sword to which we are far more than capable of doing !

 

Enzo has certainly brought back the good times to LCFCbut he hasn’t managed to rid us of our fuching frustratingly frustrating game where we give teams far to much space and time on the ball not killing off games allowing them to equalise last minute like tonight, where we dominated most of the game failed to finish them off and allowed them to take 2 points off us !!

 

We need to be be more clinical on the ball don’t give teams time to settle hit them hard or these consistent discrepancies will come and bite us on the arse come business end of the season !

Pray tell me one team,that have all those assets you expect..!!
Every week ( twice sometimes) there are the 4 of the most competitive leagues,

around the world..

Teamss compete with each other,where lower teams occasionally through a full season,rip the higher,should of clubs one..

Though higher financially better equipped do rule part of the roost,there has never been a club that haven’t run the guantlet of expectancy and over any given period

Supressed their  “fan-goggled” expected ideologies of not being,sloppy,not putting teams consistently to the sword,not missed gold opportunities,or showing through and over several seasons the wisdom of killing the game off…

 

Its because teams/individuals chase this preordained challenges through thei careers…Holding them up for disdain because small hits back,and big boys fail in their fans should request & remit,is what makes all sports interesting.

Not even Barcelona or Man.city,or Ajax of old can’t keep that frustration at bay.

 

We have this season a totally new blue print,that has given us a new challenging task. None of us knew our remaining and new investments players,were going to even compete or flop…We invest in a new manager and after a 20 game taster believe you have a right to ask of this new squad,all these things..
FFs this is sport,perfection in present dimension has not yet been achieved,including from those great but hated Arsenal or Manutd sides.

Then those Burnley,Northampton,Notts County, greats of old who jumped from 4th

into first over record breaking periods..

 

I for one enjoy these mishaps & hiccups and failings either from ourselves or another teams or individuals fails, frustrating yes,but part of sport and life,that loves giving

out clipped ears,now and again…Dont follow participate in sport of any kind if you can’t stand the heat of disgruntlement,even when you are considered one of the best…To throw these generalisations around will leave your expectation-bowl dry and empty…

Jesus we are the club that denied all,carried our baggage’s and over 38 games,held the most of those weaknesses in check,but never conquered them, ditto over these

last 15 years teams like Man.city,Real Madrid..etc.

 

Also last night we weren’t has bad as some of our own fans will have…

Ipswich ( at home) looked busy and dangerous, I expect their fans are far more

( any if not all of your choices) disappointed on the night than we..

In the end that’s what one is trying to achieve…pss your opponent off,that his best on the day is not good enough,and ours is slightly a few steps ahead. 
Because of situation..we took the night quite comfortably, despite not

delivering the coup de grace…
 

[WigstonWanderer]

Said earlier that it is still a good result, but could so easily have been much better. Sat back too much in the second half giving them the initiative, and then compounded the problem by taking off our two most industrious ball winners. Yes, they need a rest, but should have got Choudhury on.

[Dan LCFC]

I think if you take the day as a whole, Leeds lost (as is so utterly Leeds after a result like that at the weekend) and we've avoided defeat at the team in 2nd so it wasn't a terrible day, just annoying because it could've been better. I've no doubt we'll go up but some bad habits are creeping in with us. That's four away games in five we've let in a decisive (at the time) late goal.

 

Extremely us to find a way to not win on Boxing Day.

Edited 27 December 2023 by Dan LCFC

[NaijaFox]

If the scenario had been reversed with us grabbing a jammy equalizer in added time, I would have been absolutely thrilled with the same result.
Nonetheless, despite ending up with the same result as above, to lose 2 points more than halfway through added time feels like a punch to the gut!

 

We move on…

[420Hashish]

😡

[It'sblueupnorth]

That goal is a ****ing sickener 

[filthyfox]

The KDH and Daka subs killed the game for us.

 

The ref was clearly bought off.

 

I'm seriously worried about our front line next season.

[mozartfox]

Watching the Sky post match analysis I thought my Android Box had flipped over to Ipswich FC TV….

 

The McKenna interview was 3-4 times longer than Enzo’s, as was the player of the match discussion with their 2 players.  I can them being overtaken, just hope we are not. 

[Gamble92]

8 hours ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

Draw a fair result. Ipswich were all over us that second half. I'm pleased for them in a sense as their positive play rewarded.

 

However, that's the best the division has to throw at us and the ref has robbed us with that pen from taking 3 PTS from their place 

You're pleased for them? Get in the bin 

[Gamble92]

2 minutes ago, mozartfox said:

Watching the Sky post match analysis I thought my Android Box had flipped over to Ipswich FC TV….

 

The McKenna interview was 3-4 times longer than Enzo’s, as was the player of the match discussion with their 2 players.  I can them being overtaken, just hope we are not. 

I feel like this always happens. Was the Wayne Rooney show the week before as well. 

 

Ipswich will finish about 8th anyway 

[smudger63]

2 hours ago, filthyfox said:

The KDH and Daka subs killed the game for us.

 

The ref was clearly bought off.

 

I'm seriously worried about our front line next season.

I think taking Ndidi off was when we started losing control of the midfield.

Taking Daka and then KDH off, then just completely handed them control.

We lost all the bite and energy that those 3 bring.

How Hamza wasn't on the pitch for the last 10 minutes is another mystery.

If he had been, then I'm convinced that their player doesn't get that shot away for their goal.

Enzo got it wrong tonight.

Afcon is also becoming a real concern for me in January without Ndidi, Daka and Fatawu, and I hope we are going to address that at the beginning of the transfer window, and not just try to muddle through with the likes of Casadei, Akgun and Cannon.

Nacho can stay out there though for all I care.

His attitude this season has wreaked of someone that doesn't want to be here, and thinks he is playing below a standard he should be playing at, and can't be arsed to make the effort!

 

Edited 27 December 2023 by smudger63

[smudger63]

21 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

I feel like this always happens. Was the Wayne Rooney show the week before as well. 

 

Ipswich will finish about 8th anyway 

They don't want us to run away with it, so will be delighted when we mess up, in the hope we will be drawn back into the mix, rather than stroll the league, meaning that there is only one automatic spot to be played for.

Why would they want anything different, as a TV channel they will want everything to go down to the last day.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

29 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

I feel like this always happens. Was the Wayne Rooney show the week before as well. 

 

Ipswich will finish about 8th anyway 

No chance they finish below 6th and realisticslly the worst they will do is 4th. Which in sure as a new promoted team they'd have snapped your hand off for in summer 

 

30 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

You're pleased for them? Get in the bin 

Obviously I wanted us to hang on FFS, and most other days we get given the pen and win, or score on the break, but it's refreshing to see a team go against us toe to toe rather than sit deep and compact. I felt their positive play deserved the equaliser. Sorry for not being totally blue tinted all the time

[Sir Shep]

I'm sure I'll be debunked here but I always feel we never play as well in front of the sky cameras and never win on boxing day. 

[huddersfieldfox]

We seem to have trouble in the last 15 minutes of a game. Not being able to keep anyone out. Big trouble in the premier League 

[VictorFox]

12 minutes ago, huddersfieldfox said:

We seem to have trouble in the last 15 minutes of a game. Not being able to keep anyone out. Big trouble in the premier League 

While that’s a problem for next season. I do agree, I feel we’ll need heavy investment to play this way in the premier league 

[two8two]

We are top of the stas for scoring in last 15 mins.

[Beachyboy]

14 minutes ago, huddersfieldfox said:

We seem to have trouble in the last 15 minutes of a game. Not being able to keep anyone out. Big trouble in the premier League 

I think we will buy defensive additions, it's no coincidence that was the same last season, and probably the lower level isn't exposing it as much this season, but we have conceded late in 3 out of last 4 games, just gotta get through these next 2 games and the scheduled comes a bit better.

[Sunbury Fox]

9 hours ago, Nod.E said:

It's not a bad point, and I love what Enzo is doing here, but I have to say, I hated those subs.

 

Daka, KDH and N'didi are our fittest players. They're the spine of our press. We removed it and replaced those players with slow, technical players in Iheanacho, Akgun and Casadei. 

 

Almost immediately what happened is they had more time on the ball bringing it out and runners weren't being tracked. We looked like sitting ducks. 

 

I said they will score here, so it was no surprise when they did. 

 

When you're 1-0 up away from home you do one of, or a combination of the following:

 

1 - Bring on pacey players up top to gain territory in the space the chasing team leaves in behind

 

2 - Bring on midfield legs to ensure the chasing team doesn't have time to settle and sustain attacks

 

I'm one of the people most vocal in my support of the Enzo way of playing. I was never concerned about any of the perceived slow buildup play or 'boring football'. But these subs? It's not the first time we've looked dodgy closing a game out. 

 

First red flag for me. Here's hoping he learns.

This 100%. In the last quarter they were leaving acres of space in behind and we had no outlet to exploit it, apart from Mavididi, who they could double up on and snuff out. We had no runners from midfield, Nacho lacks pace and for some reason Fatuwu was seemingly asked to play very deep - in fact, he seemed to be the one dropping into right back out of possession, rather than Ricardo.

 

Overall, it just seems that Enzo overthought things, in the way Pep has been guilty of in big games in the past. Why not stick with our tried and trusted back 4 in such a key game, rather than throw in the rusty Coady? Coady was solid enough but we were far less good at playing out than usual with him in the team. I also didn't really get why we had KDH and Ndidi on opposite sides to usual, or why Ricardo was not dropping into RB out of possession. There were so many tweaks to our normal structure and patterns of play, so we lost all our fluidity. 

 

Subbing off our 2 first choice CMs early,  presumably to save them for Cardiff, also seemed muddled thinking. Surely we need to see home this result in such a key game - and then rotate v Cardiff? Yunus and Casadei as a combo in CM have been awful every time - they have no physicality and running power at all. Even against a terrible Sheff Wed team, they were very ineffectual. 

 

And to top it all off, we now need to listen to George Elek claiming that Ipswich battered us on the stats, that we're not all that, etc. Really wanted us to make a statement in this game but instead we left ourselves hanging on for 25 minutes or so for a 1-0 win. We're a much better team than that. 

[FOXSE]

5 minutes ago, Sunbury Fox said:

This 100%. In the last quarter they were leaving acres of space in behind and we had no outlet to exploit it, apart from Mavididi, who they could double up on and snuff out. We had no runners from midfield, Nacho lacks pace and for some reason Fatuwu was seemingly asked to play very deep - in fact, he seemed to be the one dropping into right back out of possession, rather than Ricardo.

 

Overall, it just seems that Enzo overthought things, in the way Pep has been guilty of in big games in the past. Why not stick with our tried and trusted back 4 in such a key game, rather than throw in the rusty Coady? Coady was solid enough but we were far less good at playing out than usual with him in the team. I also didn't really get why we had KDH and Ndidi on opposite sides to usual, or why Ricardo was not dropping into RB out of possession. There were so many tweaks to our normal structure and patterns of play, so we lost all our fluidity. 

 

Subbing off our 2 first choice CMs early,  presumably to save them for Cardiff, also seemed muddled thinking. Surely we need to see home this result in such a key game - and then rotate v Cardiff? Yunus and Casadei as a combo in CM have been awful every time - they have no physicality and running power at all. Even against a terrible Sheff Wed team, they were very ineffectual. 

 

And to top it all off, we now need to listen to George Elek claiming that Ipswich battered us on the stats, that we're not all that, etc. Really wanted us to make a statement in this game but instead we left ourselves hanging on for 25 minutes or so for a 1-0 win. We're a much better team than that. 

Gaining promotion isn't about 'making statements' it's about consistency. Ask Leeds.....