sydney_saint

Maybe I'm missing something, but that looked a little soft of a foul. Feel we got away with that a little bit

Fraser looks sharp. Decent effort from AA as well, not sure if it would have caught the keeps out tho

Well ahead on the possession stats...

Don't know about you lot, but I am sticking some cash on over3.5 ipswich goals! I have no idea who in that team outside our defenders is actually meant to defend.

I think Adams is quite a superior player to Armstrong and those are our only real front line strikers. He played better in the EPL. 124 appearances- 25 goals and 14 assists, compared to Armstrongs 53 appearances 4 goals and 4 assists. Even this season in the Championship, Adam has played only half the minutes that Armstrong has and is only 1 goal behind, and thats also including that Armstrong has 2 penalties and a lucky goal off his back.

I've been a bit confused how both Smallbone and A Armstrong have been promoted to undroppable starting xi players. Tella I understood cos of his form for Burnley last season which was fair enough. Armstrong was appalling during our time in the EPL, and tbh I don't think he's been great in the Championship either. Certainly not good enough to be the bloody captain!! Smallbone I think had a decent season last year, but not stunning that deserve to be straight in the starting line up. For tonight I would like to see both dropped Bazunu KWP-Bed-THB-Manning Charles S Armstrong-Alcarez Sulemana-Adams-Edozie

again wrong. Plenty of people both here and on the match thread have given him credit.

lol not a single person, not one, has blamed him tonight.

I don't know why we make this so hard. If you look at our managers over the last decade, the ones that looked on the surface were generally good, and those that looked bad were shocking Pardew- looked good and was good Adkins- looked good and was good Poch- arguably the outlier, was a gamble but at least he did have a good reputation Koeman- looked good and was good Puel- looked okay and was okay Pellegrino- looked bad and was bad Hughes- looked bad and was bad Ralph- looked good and was good (even if it did go stale) Jones - looked awful and was awful Selles- looked awful and was awful Martin- looked bad and so far looks bad.

I'm not against project managers. Sometimes it takes a bit longer to implement new ideas and clean out a club. I would happily sacrifice this season for the right manager and right style of play that can deliver long term success. The issue with Martin is how do we know this is going to get better? How do we know his 'philosophy' actually works? Right now it seems pretty simple to play against. Let us tap it around, and then hit us with pace on the counter. If you look at Ange at spurs, sure it is a big step up from Celtic and his other clubs. But his style has delivered results elsewhere even if at a lower level so there was always going to be something to hold onto. Martin hasn't got any notable success, and has the luxury of working with one of the most resourced clubs in the division. He is now officially under pressure, as if we have nothing to hold onto with either past success, or progress on the pitch, then why should he be given extra time for the sake of extra time?

But jwP cOrneRs arE RubBish.

Come on. Not a single person has blamed him here

Good save

Okay!

I don't mind having a project manager who takes time to get his idea across. I would sacrifice a season if it meant clearing out the club to bring in that style. But I want that manager to at least have something to cling onto even if it was at a lower level. Like look at Ange. Big step up from Celtic and is a project manager, but at least his style has shown success everywhere he has been even if lower level. How do we have hope that Martin's style can deliver success when it has never done so before?

Wooooof we are bad

No idea why people attacked you. Perraud was reasonable in the EPL. Bottom end quality sure, but that's still better than alot in this division. Never understood why we never gave him a proper run of games either

Right now it feels like we took a mediocre manager from a mediocre team and brough a mediocre left back with him.

I have no idea if Perraud was ever interested in staying. But he is a much better player than Manning. We have definitely downgraded there.

Lol Martinez has literally just been nominated for the Ballon d'Or. I might be going against the grain here, but I would probably take him over even Baz

Yeah my issue isn't with him at all. i don't doubt he works hard and wants to improve. He's just been put in a position most keepers are not put in (for a reason). I'm annoyed that we just so regularly screw up the keeper position. Honestly not since Niemi have I felt total reliance in our goalkeepers. There have been moments of exception. Davis was great in league 1, and okay in the Championship (that amazing leeds performance glosses over that season slightly). Boruc I loved and great but boy oh boy was he unhinged. Forster generally relied on the ball hitting his enormous frame rather than making saves himself. Otherwise we've generally had some of the poorer keepers every season, unless there is a name I've forgotten

Which point did I blame 'all' of our defensive mess on him, or even say that the result would have been different against Sunderland? I didn't and it's pretty strawman from you as that isn't my point. My concern has been the long term trend. He was the worst performing goalkeeper in Europe's top 5 leagues last season. That has nothing to do with the defenders in front of him. Often when a team is at the bottom with a shambles defence, the keepers can actually look pretty good as they have more opportunities to make saves. Think Marshall at Cardiff a few years ago when everyone thought he was the ducks nuts. Even if you think keepers have little role on what's happening in front (where I do disagree with you), you can't disagree he is underperforming by a long way even considering the defence. I think everyone can only point to 1, maybe 2 matches where her performed well. We probably would have gone down anyway but he certainly didn't help our cause. We gambled on him and it backfired. Now we are trying to do the same thing again. He is once performing poorly. We can sit here and analyse the goals one by one and have differences of opinion but that's pretty pointless. He has let in more goals he was expected to save, compared to savings shots he wasn't expected to save. And we are risking our promotion by backing him again. Whhhyyyyy

I think you are severely understating the role a keeper plays in this. Why are nearly all top flight goalkeepers 28 or older, with many well above 35? Sure, they may have a bit less wear and tear than outfield players, but a 40 year old keeper isn't gonna be any more athletic or springy than a 21 year old, or with as sharp reflexes, so they must have a lot more influence than just shot stopping. A big part on why keepers are older is how they organise what is in front of them. It's not the only factor, but it is still a significant one. Then you add in how many goals we let in from set pieces. Yes- training plays a role here. But keepers are taking charge of these situations. Baz is simply not. We have defenders that have played in tighter defences than this. Baz has played behind Bednarek, Salisu, KWP, and DCC. All defenders that have proven they can play with much better organisation. Coaching plays a huge role, but regardless of who is in charge and their approach, our organisation has remained calamitous since Baz was called up. It's not totally his fault and the primary responsibility is still on the coaching and the defenders. But let's not say that if we had a better more experienced keeper that things could not be alot better.

A few major differences between Baz and Alcaraz. Alcaraz has moved to the other side of the world, has lived in this country for less than 12 months, with a completely different style and language. Baz has spent his entire career in UK and Ireland. Alzaraz also cost less comparative to the going rate in his position. And whilst he's had some poor games, he's probably churned out more 7/10 or higher matches than Baz despite less appearances. So not really weird, the fans want something to cling onto which Alcaraz has done with a handful of excellent appearances even if he has been poor this season. Baz has given very little to cling on. He doesn't seem to be any better than 12 months, and remains statistically one of the worst keepers going around.

The thing about the resale is that it just don't work for keepers. I understand the model with kids in attacking positions. Tella has one good season in the Championship and he's worth 20m. Lavia a dozen excellent prem matches and he's worth over 50m. If Edozie bags 15 goals this season he will probably be worth 30-40m. People can disagree with the approach (I do to a certain extent, the club should be more than how much we can sell players for) but I can at least see the logic behind it. With Baz, I don't see the logic. The math isn't mathing. Keepers just don't sell for that much. I just had a look on Transfermarkt. He is already the 43rd most expensive goalkeeper in history, and would have been in the top 40 when we signed him! To double in value, he would have to be in the top 10 most expensive goalkeepers of all time! The amount we paid isn't a 'project'. That's how much you pay for an established and experienced prem goalkeeper, not some kid who is statistically one of the worst in Europe who has never paid above League One level. The clubs needs to admit it has totally fucked this up. Even IF he turns out good, the reward isn't going to be some massive transfer cheque. It could be decent, but we aren't going to see Lavia type money. And right now he has contributed to us losing premier league status, and could cost us promotion. It's just not worth the perseverance.