Jack

Sulemana off for someone who may have a chance of showing some end product please. Downes carrying a knock by the looks of it

I’m concerned that Russ has now had 3 more weeks to work tactically on Captain Jack’s free role. Expect more marauding runs and nobody else having a fucking clue where to be

What’s wrong with Stephens playing CB when out of possession and CM when in possession, and THB playing RB out of possession and CB in possession, and us using a statue of Ryan Manning at LB instead of an actual football player? Some people need to manage their expectations IMO

Easy for Ipswich

I wouldn’t bet on us winning all 4 home games against top half, playoff hunting sides. Very tricky run of games

3 wins on the spin now for Boro, who have Blackburn at home before we play them. So they could well be 4 on the spin and a much tougher game than it would’ve looked a few weeks ago

I’ll still be moaning about our defensive frailty, don’t worry. I’m sure Russ will be working tirelessly on making our defensive shape as complicated as possible for the run in.

Tell me how you disagree? Our first was a gift from them and the penalty would’ve been chalked off if the ref had spotted it. Do you think we played well?

I thought we were absolute garbage. Lucky to be 2-0 up and it was more about how poor they were. Didn’t take the initiative given to us and we handed them a route back into the game with our needless fucking about at the back, again. A better team would’ve made us pay for that. Russ needs to stop trying to reinvent football, play our 2 best CBs at CB and let this squad’s quality get the results. I honestly think we’re where we are despite him, not because of him

Ipswich often look poor in long spells but find a way to win. Cardiff started well but faded a bit, still no clear Ipswich chances though.

They also know how to keep a clean sheet so don’t need to score that many

Must go ahead. Must win.

Saints shirts with ‘Manning’ on the back

We’re also really, really out of form so winning 90% of our remaining games seems like a hell of a long shot

…the same Bristol City who Saints DID fail to turn up against (and Hull and Millwall the following week). The Birmingham result IS papering over the cracks IMO. You don’t think we’ve been very poor recently?

It’s Stephens

Fair play, thanks. Very tight but definitely just onside

Haven’t really seen it mentioned but Arma looked suspiciously offside for his one. But I haven’t seen any footage more zoomed out or in line, anyone seen anything?

Baz KWP/Bree THB JannyB Bree/Meghoma Smallbone Downes BigJoe Brooks Adams Arma

Agreed, but my point is that Ipswich are far more likely to pick up 6 from their easier fixtures than we are from ours, IMO

The same Ipswich who’ve just won 5 on the spin and have Bristol City at home then Cardiff away? They’ll be looking at our fixtures and be pretty confident of us dropping points in our games against in form PNE and Sunderland. I certainly won’t be betting on us the way we’re playing

It’d be ok if you could guarantee enough goals out of our forwards. But it’s absolutely no shock that our best run of form was when we looked (relatively) defensively sound and kept lots of clean sheets

Yeah it’s just waffle. He was hugely proud of our defensive record when we’d conceded 3 in about 10 games. If he’s not arsed about conceding so many goals then we’ve got a real problem.

Invite the press, move it quickly - yes. All for it. How many times recently have we invited the press and not moved it quickly, got boxed in and given it away in our final third? Fucking loads. I think everyone can appreciate what we’re trying to do but it’s ridiculous to say that we shouldn’t at times go long when we’ve passed ourselves into a box that that we’re not going to get out of. It’s not like we haven’t got a decent press ourselves to get after the second ball. Also - as others have said, breaking our best CB partnership for no other reason than to give Stephens some minutes has thrown up some really dodgy performances at the back. It just seems unnecessary. Surely RM can’t be immune to criticism after us conceding 11 goals in the 4 games against Huddersfield, Bristol City, Millwall and Birmingham recently? There’s no way that it can’t be seen as cause for concern and some fundamental issues

Hull and Millwall were absolutely no fun at all. Liverpool was fun, but disappointing and a missed opportunity. Sadly didn’t go today, the 90+5 onwards would’ve been fun but watching that defensive display wasn’t. We’re looking like throwing away a great chance of auto promotion because of a misguided obsession with a flawed philosophy IMO. Just let people be concerned with that if they want to be. A long stretch stranded in the Championship won’t be much fun either