hypochondriac

I thought he had a promising first few minutes trying to make things happen, but I'd rather have him coming off the bench for now. He has been out for a while and it takes time to adjust.

Agree except I'd maybe try Ameyew instead of Fraser. Other than first game I think he's been poor.

Just reading the opinions of a few Ipswich fans. The summary is they have a lot of pace up top and are set up as a counter attacking team. If we do the same thing we've done the last few games then we will get soundly beaten. You'd like to think the manager would recognise this prior to the match like everyone else and adapt accordingly.

Worth it

Sounds like an ace signing.

TBF I didn't really say anything very different from you. I certainly wouldn't sack him at the moment but another drubbing with 3 plus goals conceded and it's going to get close to a mutiny. He will quickly lose credibility if we continue to ship goals and he continues to be laid back and say everything is fine and how proud he is of how far we come. The more games we get gumped in, the more ridiculous that attitude appears.

If Manning and KWP have mares once again, the Northam should start a chant going: "you can shove your inverted fullbacks up your arse" "right back! You should just play him right back!" "cheer up KWP oh what can it mean when you're in midfield and we're a shit football teeeeam" Glad all over - "cos we've got (clap clap) zero fullbacks yes we've got (clap clap) zero fullbacks." "can you hear the left back sing no no can you hear the left back sing? I can't hear a fucking thing because he's halfway up the pitch"

Just listened to the press conference. It wasn't too bad but also clear that he isn't going to be ake any real changes, it's just about whether the players can actually play the way he wants them to. I fear they won't get it quickly enough (particularly the fullbacks) and fan discontent will grow before any success we have drowns them out.

Indeed. There wasn't a hint of that mindset the last time we went up. We had an Ipswich mindset and wanted to go toe to toe with the best teams in the division.

I don't agree with that. He's shown humility and admitted to being wrong loads of times. Plenty to criticise let's not make things up.

It hasn't taken long until they dampened expectations for the season. Getting smashed by the top teams shouldn't be acceptable at all if we are looking for promotion.

Weren't we linked with one Portuguese free agent last week?

I disagree. I think we have made some decent footballing appointments this year, I just think the tactics have been wrong in the last few games and it has meant we have fallen well short. Ultimately Sports Republic are responsible for the footballing philosophy but they've clearly brought people in this year to push that and it doesn't seem like they have had much involvement with it. If the senior management team fail then I'd be blaming them first rather than Sports Republic who look like they've made reaosnable appointments on paper.

Yep. If we employ the same tactics tomorrow and we are two plus down at half time then I can imagine a number in the crowd flying off the handle and starting to give some abuse to the manager. It's one thing to lose, but quite another to get hammered with nonsensical tactics whilst refusing to change the setup (if we don't change the role of the wingbacks then I think that's going to cause some major friction when they inevitably give goals away again.)

The only reason for threads like this are due to our short term crap form, relegation and some bad decisions but in truth we have been on a decline for ages that largely predates Sports Republic. Given the money they have invested, they do deserve a chance to show they can rectify some of their early egregious errors. If we beat Ipswich and Boro (unlikely as that may be) then no one is going to be starting threads like this or questioning their motives. It will certainly be interesting though if we get hammered in both games this week to see how long SR allow Martin to persist with these tactics without change. Equally interesting will be what they decide to do next season if we finish mid table this year. Will we double down? Or go for something a bit more realistic and pragmatic (albeit a bit less exciting and "special"?)

Should be the latter option 100%. If we did that, played Charles as a dm, sorted out the stupid leaving no one back at corners then that's the majority of problems solved.

That was the worst thing that happened all game. I don't see how something like that cam occur without rank incompetence.

I wonder if Fonte was ever actually serious about coming back here. Imagine him next to THB with Charles back in defensive midfield. We'd probably still be fecking it up because of the ridiculous inverted FB thing but experience is so underrated in this league. Again, we've left ourselves without a wise head in key positions at CB and DM.

What experienced players do you mean? The problem we have isn't with our attack, it's with the defence and how we protect them from midfield. Bazunu had an alright game yesterday so the only players you could be referring to are kwp and then a whole bunch of our attacking players who have little to do with the shitshow at the back. Charles THB Manning Downes Fraser Had nothing to do with the past few years, Smallbone barely played, Edozie was pretty good yesterday so the remaining two are Armstrong and Adams so it's three maybe four players from that starting eleven. We need a back to basics approach. We have been crying out for years to have a player in their best position with a very clear idea of what their job is and what role they are doing for the team. If we have that and are still struggling then I'll agree with you but I strongly suspect that it would see a marked upturn in form and performance from a host of players.

And he's proud of the team? What's there to be proud of after you concede 4 goals at home?

I think the comments in here highlight that he can still have an alright game and ship goals. That means in other games when people have been rightly critical, he can also ship goals and perform poorly.

I wonder if he were honest with himself if he'd rather we played exactly how he wanted us to and lost or nothing like it and won. I am nervous it's the former.

Bollocks. More than half the team are new recruits. Many of these players have been top performers in promoted teams. It's the system that's causing this. An experienced and pragmatic manager woukd have us performing better than we are currently.

I think Martins deficiencies in this area were well known prior to his appointment. We've given him the time and it's clearly this is still what is sorely lacking. If we managed to sort the defensive setup (the fullbacks especially) then we'd probably be very successful. I'd say there's a good case for bringing in alternatives.

If he can't sort out the defence then he has to go. Football should be a simple game and we have excellent players for this division. We either need a new defensive coach or a complete rethink.