Back from the game - Ipswich

[AthleticoSpizz]

for a change, our central midfield were not blameworthy today.

[andrew1957]

When is the next fans' forum? I'm getting seriously hacked off with Coppell's non-sensical team selections. Imho, Coppell, and his management team, is 100% responsible for our current problems, by poor team selection and inflexible tactics. What exactly do we do at training?

Dull and uninspiring sums it up perfectly.

Harper and Gunnarsson? No Bikey again?

Absolutely laughable.

Bikey would be ever-present in any other Championship side, and some Premier League teams.

I am really not sure who should make way for Bikey but for me he would be the first name on the team sheet at the moment. When we were playing well Bikey was at the heart of the defence. He was the sent off very harshly at Cardiff and has not had a look in since.

I think he must have let the Manager's tyres down or something!

[Bill Oddie]

The players have some serious mental issues at the moment.

They are terrified of making a mistake
They are terrified of conceading a goal
but most of all they are terrified of playing at home, thank god our next 3 are away.

Far too often in sport the mental side is overlooked. Rather than another day on the training ground it honestly would be better spent in the company of a physcologist or even a damn hypnotist. Something is very very wrong at the minute, its the same old story with a great opening few minutes, we curse our luck, hit the woodwork again and then as the match continues you can see the confidence physically drain from the players, its all very very worrying.

Also some of you on here must really hate poor old Harper, that was by far the best he has played for months & months & months and for you to cricitise him after todays performance is totally unexplainable and out of order

[statto]

Explain how he had his best game in "months and months and months and months" - I saw the usual crabbing sideways, pointing and fairly aimless running about.

This man is not a leader, nor is he going to create anything for our strikers.

[Jackson Corner]

No consolation but things could be worse.

19 Northampton 35 6 7 4 24 17 3 4 11 19 29 -3 38
20 Yeovil 36 3 8 5 18 22 6 3 11 14 35 -25 38

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

21 SWINDON 36 5 6 7 29 32 2 8 8 21 28 -10 35
22 Brighton 35 4 5 10 26 36 4 6 6 16 19 -13 35
23 Hereford 34 6 4 8 21 19 2 2 12 11 34 -21 30
24 Cheltenham 35 5 4 9 26 35 1 3 13 15 43 -37 25

[Platypuss]

Put a fork in us; we're done.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

The players have some serious mental issues at the moment.

They are terrified of making a mistake
They are terrified of conceading a goal
but most of all they are terrified of playing at home, thank god our next 3 are away.

Nail firmly hit! I can't wait to go up to Donny on Tuesday and support the team rather than being round a load of plastic oxf*rd.

[AlexY25]

USA - 5 - Meh

Rosenior - 4 - Thought he offered nothing.
Doobs - 5 - Did fine in the air, but I really think Bikey needs to come in for him.
Pearce - 6 - Didn't think he did anything wrong, decent in the air, few good tackles.
Armstrong - 6 - Probably MOTM because he did okay.

Little - 5 - Didn't see much from him. Need a bit more pace at home i feel.
Harper - 6 - I've seen him play worse.
Bryn - 5 - Got tired after about 10 minutes.
S. Hunt - 6 - Thought he had a good first half, battled well.

Long - 6 - Was impressed with him actually, best striker today for us.
Kitson - 5 - Hit the bar early on, didn't do much else.

Subs
Kebe - 6 - Seemed to offer a lil something extra, but again final ball was a bit shoddy.
Marek - 5 - Seemed to improve the team slightly, but was probably too late to change anything.
Doyle - 5 - Didn't really do much.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Bryn - 5 - Got tired after about 10 minutes. was that 10 minutes into the second half when he traversed the entire field to put in a good tackle to touch? Still manages 90 minutes for his international team
Marek - 5 - Seemed to improve the team slightly , but probably needs passing lessons.

[Terminal Boardom]

I must have been watching another game to everyone else!!

How can Haper be worth 7 out of 10?? he set up their goal with a suicidal back heel on the edge of our area that went straight to their player that crossed the ball in!!

That is nonsense. Their goal came about because Rosenior and Doobs left the ball to each other. It bounced halfway in our half. Even kids are taught not to let the ball bounce!

[Victor Meldrew]

Just heard Coppell going on about a long hard season.
It's a good job we didn't go in for the two cup competitions otherwise we wouldn't be as fresh as we looked today
This is starting to feel like that season when we drew all of those games before scraping up with that point at Brentford.

I have a feeling that everybody at the club is burnt out-coaches,players and fans.
We put masses of energy into the first half of the season but since the start of this year we look as though we are treading water.
The same happened last season and in that season under Pardew (a student of Coppell's).Is it a fitness problem?
Like Coppell I haven't the faintest idea what can be done with this squad for the rest of the season as although we have numbers we don't have much different to bring in.
Today they were listless and the game followed the pattern of so many recent games and you just knew with half-an-hour to go (BTW Coppell subbed at 62 minutes rather than the normal 60 ) that we wouldn't win.
The one ray of hope for me was the stringing together of more than one pass in the first-half with Little and Kitson in the side but somebody has to get hold of Rosenior and tell him that is the way football is played although surely the coaches are telling him to welly the ball at every opportunity (is Downes a bigger influence than Dillon?).

After such a good first half of the season (although I did join Schards in expressing concern ) it is so disappointing to see the good work slip away and for the past 3 months our form has been equal to that of a relegation side and is difficult to take from a team so recently in The Premiership.

[Terminal Boardom]

What got my goat was the total lack of urgency.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Just heard Coppell going on about a long hard season.
It's a good job we didn't go in for the two cup competitions otherwise we wouldn't be as fresh as we looked today
This is starting to feel like that season when we drew all of those games before scraping up with that point at Brentford.
.

I'd say it's far more like 2004/5, where our system that relied heavily on wingers was hit by our wingers being shit. The right has been a problem for a very long time, and Glen Little looks sadly too rusty after only playing a handful of games in two years. Stephen Hunt appears to have forgotten what he is good at, and as a result isn't good at anything.

The result is no service at all from the wings. That pretty much renders Harper useless, as even if he can get the ball wide, nothing will come of it. Matejovsky can pick out passes that other players just don't see. Unfortunately those other players include our own, and there's still no understanding at all between Matejovsky and those in front of him.

The thing that really puzzles me is why we play so slowly. A few months back, we'd break at speed, streaming into the opposition half in numbers, and the player with the ball always had options for a pass. Now we look lethargic, with wingers playing far too deep and no support for the player on the break. Our off the ball movement has just completely stopped, meaning when players get the ball they already have a defender on them. The way we play just makes it exceptionally easy for the opposition.

We've also stopped playing football on the floor. Far too many balls are just lumped forward, with Duberry and Rosenior being the worst culprits.

The most annoying thing is that this division is crap. If we'd been able to maintain the standards we set earlier in the season we'd be walking this division. Those performances were no fluke. When we play we can tear teams in this division to shreds. Sadly we are just moping around feeling sorry for ourselves. It's been said before, but there are just no leaders out there. I don't think team selection is going to make any difference if the players just have no spirit and their heads drop so easily.

As it stands I think we can forget the top two. They are gone. I truthfully don't even think we'll make the play-offs, and given how much we'd need to spend to stay up next year if we went up, that's perhaps not a bad thing. Time to look to the future and rebuild.

[papereyes]

When is the next fans' forum? I'm getting seriously hacked off with Coppell's non-sensical team selections. Imho, Coppell, and his management team, is 100% responsible for our current problems, by poor team selection and inflexible tactics. What exactly do we do at training?

Dull and uninspiring sums it up perfectly.

Harper and Gunnarsson? No Bikey again?

Absolutely laughable.

Bikey would be ever-present in any other Championship side, and some Premier League teams.

Its difficult to comprehend how Gunnarsson wasn't good enough to make the side three years ago....however three years older and three years slower he starts matches...bizarre.
Bring him on for the last 20 minutes sure but to start him knowing he will be well spent after 60 minutes is difficult to understand.

Same argument as the summer of '07 - how is replacing someone with his understudy ever going to improve a side or even the squad?

[AthleticoSpizz]

Matejovsky can pick out passes that other players just don't see. Unfortunately those other players include our own, and there's still no understanding at all between Matejovsky and those in front of him.

Sorry, I am fed up with the appologist stance for Marek.

Marek picked out a brilliant ball to the corner flag today...........only trouble was, there was nobody (friend or foe) within 20 yards of it.

He also played a blinding ball to the linesman (with no hooped player within 10 yards to challenge him).

It is a team game, and if Marek is too (ahem) "forward thinking" then he should be reined in a bit.

To read some of the comments on here about him, you would've thought that he found the cure for cancer or something.

A nice guy...always makes time to sign autographs for the kids etc, but too much of a liability.

Mothball him until we get back to the Prem.....where he will thrive I'm sure

[Southbank Old Boy]

The ball to the right wing was rubbish and a perfect example of what your on about

Yes he might expect an overlapping fullback to be running into that space, but not when that fullback is a tiring Gunnar who was giving the left back a massive headstart and was far too far away from where the ball was going in the first place. Kebe wouldnt have had much chance of getting on the end of it let alone Kebe

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Matejovsky can pick out passes that other players just don't see. Unfortunately those other players include our own, and there's still no understanding at all between Matejovsky and those in front of him.

Sorry, I am fed up with the appologist stance for Marek.

Marek picked out a brilliant ball to the corner flag today...........only trouble was, there was nobody (friend or foe) within 20 yards of it.

He also played a blinding ball to the linesman (with no hooped player within 10 yards to challenge him).

It is a team game, and if Marek is too (ahem) "forward thinking" then he should be reined in a bit.

To read some of the comments on here about him, you would've thought that he found the cure for cancer or something.

A nice guy...always makes time to sign autographs for the kids etc, but too much of a liability.

Mothball him until we get back to the Prem.....where he will thrive I'm sure

It's not apologist. Our players can't read his passes. He can't read our players' runs (although they don't seem to make any these days). You think after being here for a year, and playing together in training, there'd be some degree of understanding. He was poor today though, and abysmal against Charlton.

[From Despair To Where?]

The ball to the right wing was rubbish and a perfect example of what your on about

Yes he might expect an overlapping fullback to be running into that space, but not when that fullback is a tiring Gunnar who was giving the left back a massive headstart and was far too far away from where the ball was going in the first place. Kebe wouldnt have had much chance of getting on the end of it let alone Kebe

...or as Tim Dellor on BBCRB put it, "Usain Bolt would have struggled to reach that one"

[Handsome Man]

USA - 3 Not as good as Federici

Rosenior - 4 Hoofball
Doobs - 1 If a player's form is this bad he should be dropped or humanely destroyed
Pearce - 6 mostly because of the bandage
Armstrong 2 hoofer supreme

Little - 6 tried hard
Harper - 7ish motm?
Bryn - 4 a reserve
S. Hunt - 6 ok

Long - 7 not bad
Kitson - 5 not fit

Subs
Kebe - 5 - ok
Emperor's new clothes - 2 like somebody from the Tommy Burns era
Doyle - 4

Coppell - worrying

[AthleticoSpizz]

USA - 3 Not as good as Federici why?

Rosenior - 4 Hoofball
Doobs - 1 If a player's form is this bad he should be dropped or humanely destroyed, cripes..you've got it bad
Pearce - 6 mostly because of the bandage
Armstrong 2 hoofer supreme

Little - 6 tried hard
Harper - 7ish motm? agreed MOM
Bryn - 4 a reserve
S. Hunt - 6 ok

Long - 7 not bad
Kitson - 5 not fit

Subs
Kebe - 5 - ok
Emperor's new clothes - 2 like somebody from the Tommy Burns era Marmite Mass Sarr?
Doyle - 4

Coppell - worrying