POST MATCH: Ipswich Town

[Drewry66]

This is a really good analysis of why we struggled yesterday and highlights it's not just on AP and Muniz. Pretty much sums up what many of us have been saying:

https://x.com/CottageTactico/status/1830275161477496956

Let's pray Berge and Andersen can massively help us when teams press high well.

[Benny]

AP was awful all game yesterday, gave the ball away too many times, couldn't win the ball or get close to their attacking players, poor passing and shite set pieces as usual.

If we play him deep all season we will be hit for 6 or 7 against any decent team. His lack of play was forcing ESR to come deeper for the ball which effected our attacking options.

Should of sold him to forest honestly, we may as well of played with 10 men yesterday for all it was worth

For someone who stated he is best played deeper he certainly hasn't showed it, issue is he's not great going forward either......

[St Eve]

Were definitely going to be improved with Andersen, berge and Nelson coming into the side.

I really hope king gets more opportunities on the bench as Harrison Reed is just dreadful.

Certainly not disagreeing with you, but who would you replace? I assume Diop for Andersen, but Diop has played well. Berge for Lucik? Nelson for Iwobi?

[Rambler]

Watched the highlights and gotta say Muniz needs to be burying that header.

[AJW48361]

Muniz working hard doing ok hopefully the goals will come.But please be a nasty No 9 don't keep picking up Defenders from the floor surprised he never brushed the Goalie down after saving he's header.

[Matt10]

AP was awful all game yesterday, gave the ball away too many times, couldn't win the ball or get close to their attacking players, poor passing and shite set pieces as usual.

If we play him deep all season we will be hit for 6 or 7 against any decent team. His lack of play was forcing ESR to come deeper for the ball which effected our attacking options.

Should of sold him to forest honestly, we may as well of played with 10 men yesterday for all it was worth

For someone who stated he is best played deeper he certainly hasn't showed it, issue is he's not great going forward either......

He made one bad pass in the first half, it led to their goal. If you rewatch the moment, he's playing a forward ball to Adama to run onto, not square. Adama is on his heels though. If Adama is ready for that, he's got the LB beat to cut inside and take on one center back. Another time he tries to play a wall-pass to Adama, but the big man is blocked off the route to the ball and it's cleared away. He makes one more "bad" pass in the second half and again Adama slips and doesn't reach the driven pass to him. Then a little bit later, he tries to play a reverse through ball to Adama on the counter, but Ipswich recovered well and somehow got ahead of Adama. It's not like he's passing blatantly to the other team intended for different receiving players.

Each of his corners in the first half reach a Fulham head. He doesn't make a bad pass like the one that led to the goal ever again in the match. His crosses are with pace and in the direction of our forward, who doesn't move off from between the two center backs for all of them.

ESR dropping deep wasn't a reflection on AP. It was a solid strategy to keep Jedi wide and Iwobi narrow and high. Ipswich pressed with 3 men so we have to match that. In the goal we scored, it's ESR dropping deep to balance their press so Bassey can find Iwobi and we can switch the ball.

Much like last season with Pereira and Cairney, when we were routing West Ham, we let our 8 and 10 become pivot points up and down the pitch rather than side-to-side. It's not a matter of making up one another's slack, it's by design.

I like what Marco did with our press. We set it with a wide 4-1-4-1 where ESR and AP can stay right behind Muniz to set the press, while Adama can basically free-roam, but chose mainly to stay on the right side. In some instances, you can see AP setting the press and let ESR catch his breath. I think it needs more time though because if Ipswich were successful in getting the ball out wide, those runs into the half-space were tough to cover.

Once Berge comes in for ESR, AP is back to the 10 role. While he was in the 8, there was no threat on his right hand side. He didn't have to defend desperately from being off the pace either. He and Lukic cleaned up and maintained possession just fine.

I think the ESR-AP combination is much stronger than anyone is giving credit for. However, as I've said before, I'm a massive fan of Berge and I'd love to see him on the pitch beside Lukic. Iwobi moves out of the lineup and we just move that ESR-AP combo higher up the pitch to do what they have been doing. I think AP and Adama need to have words to get on the same page, but it's by far not as bad as people make it out to be.   

[SuffolkWhite]

Our away form last season wasn't all that was it! A point was good bearing mind we definitely haven't clicked yet.

4 points from three games, and only one home game so far is ok.

[McBrideOfFrankenstein]

Agree with the last post. No starter has stood out to me as poor so far, especially considering the squad has yet to gel this early in the season with many new players.

[StuinSalop]

Some sensible posts and good analysis near the end of this threat.  Ipswich would have targeted this game as their first win.  They proved first half v Liverpool they are no mugs.  Liverpool then destroyed Man U. 

We have some challenges for sure:

1. Get ESR fit
2. Get Andersen and Berg in the team
3. Still utilise talents like Iwobi and Andreas
4. Muniz need to get a break, he is doing fine but need a goal and must become more clinical
5. Get Bassey playing to his strengths which is not a ball player.

Lukic, Tete and Adama have started the season well and we will have real strengh off the bench.  Reed and Cairney are going to be less involved which sad though it is will make us stronger.

It's really early days, we have 4 points on the board and a very decent squad.  If Muniz does note fire we have enough money to go all out for a goal scorer in January.

[Ara's bacon crisps]

I think we're still getting up to speed and there were long periods of the game where we were in complete control. Sadly we didn't do nearly enough when we were in control, but I think that will come as the new players bed in.

Also wanted to mention the lovely moment in the first half as Lukic travelled across the pitch in their half from right to left. In acres of space and as one of the Ipswich players finally headed towards him he almost imperceptibly twitched a shoulder and utterly sold the bloke a gorgeous dummy. Made me smile on a pretty average day.

[Matt10]

This is a really good analysis of why we struggled yesterday and highlights it's not just on AP and Muniz. Pretty much sums up what many of us have been saying:

https://x.com/CottageTactico/status/1830275161477496956

Let's pray Berge and Andersen can massively help us when teams press high well.

It's good, but it's missing context again. I had to comment about the point (#2) he makes about where Palhinha would be on the goal. Well, if Palhinha would be there to back up Lukic, then that moment wouldn't have occurred because we'd have noone receiving the ball that prompted Tete and Adama to move up in the first place.

[SuffolkWhite]

The other thing I noticed, (and we had this last season,) not enough decent tempo to our play. When we moved the ball at speed at times Ipswich struggled imo.

[karldutton97]

That's so craven podcast from today.