StrangelyBrown

If he doesn't let players glide past him with ease he'd be a huge upgrade on smallbone. Sounds like a decent prospect to me, but difficult to judge without seeing him play

Fantastic result - well done RM!! Keep this run up and 2nd place might be a possibility afterall. Edozie seems to be proving some of the doubters wrong - end product very much there!

Perraud is an interesting one - I think he'd be really good in the championship, but wasn't that great in the PL. Would be useful now but not really a starting player if we go up. Perhaps he's one of those that RM spoke about thinking they were PL quality when they probably aren't.

Away win, clean sheet and against a side whose form has been relatively good. A nice way to go into Christmas.

I think this about balance. We can afford to have a risk taker at the back, but need to have some pace alongside that to recover from those mistakes. Bednarek and Stephens at the back has historically been a bit of a problem because they both are error prone (in different ways) but neither has the pace to recover. Having said that Bednarek this season is a different player so who knows. Throw Manning into the mix of Stephens and Bednarek and we'll leak chances for fun...

He brought Manning back in when Bree had clearly shored up the left back position...

Could be the best thing to happen to domestic football... It would get rid of the big clubs with their massive budgets and their plastic fans. Like the champions league it would be a vastly over rated product and we could just enjoy what would be left, which might just be competitive for us and give us a chance of winning something.

Is he any good at passing backwards?

Agreed it is difficult to tell and hence why I think him being a cut above is a bold claim. I honestly thought Adams would be too good at this level and he's been pretty dreadful so far this season.

Have you seen him play recently? I'm not sure he's quite what you remember him to be - certainly didn't look to me like he'd be a cut above anyone else in the championship the last few times I've seen him play.

Are we talking about the same Danny Ings who hasn't scored this season in 10, scored 2 in 17 last year, 7 in 20 for villa the year before and 7 in 30 the year before that? The guy is a million miles away from being as good as he was for us in 2019/20.

RM is such a massive helmet. Of all the things to get booked for - moaning about a blatant foul throw. He needs to take a good look at Russball that's something seriously worthy of frustration.

Smallbone epitomises everything that is wrong with this team. No urgency, no bite, plays it safe far too much/unwilling to gamble, but technically a good player who could offer a lot more.

Fuck me are we shit. Literally no sense of urgency or intensity.

Messi's proven inability to recycle the ball from attacking play just isn't what Total Russball is all about

He hit it straight at the keeper and the keeper dived out of the way - if we'd been on the receiving end of that and Baz had been in goal the meltdown on here would have been at a whole new level. As you say. Good control - yes. Classy finish - I don't think so. I'm sure there is a player in there somewhere, but Adams just hasn't ever been good enough for us and certainly isn't the efficient goal machine we need right now. Why anyone thinks he might fire on now when he's consistently proven otherwise is beyond me?

The Christmas period should be telling. Have Ipswich got a good enough squad to cope with a few injuries? Can all 4 of us keep up the same relentless runs through a lot of fixtures? Personally I think at least one team will slip up over the next month or so and I suspect it will be us...

Agree with you completely re natural finishers - if we had a couple of attacking players (as well as AA ) who got 10 or so goals apiece we wouldn't be having this conversation. However, with so few decent chances created it's difficult to know if the players could score goals or not. Sadly from my perspective Cardiff isn't the norm - we seem to have a game like that every once in a while which adds to my frustration even more as it demonstrates we can make a decent number of chances. I wouldn't bother with ings myself as he's made of glass, but I agree with the sentiment that we need someone who's proven.

From my perspective the frustration is that we are dropping points we shouldn't drop simply because we don't turn our dominance into chances. While Russball seems to be working in a lot of ways a small adjustment to being braver in the final third could lead to more chances and more chances and should mean more goals. This has been plain to see for months now and yet we still recycle the ball rather than taking a risk often losing the ball in the process.

4) Russball which seems to mean we don't create enough chances from possession due to recycling the ball in attacking positions rather than taking a risk in the final third.

How are we doing on the Completed Recycling from Attacking Positions stat? I'm sure we're leading the way.

Well done RM - a win by more than a goal, dominant, plenty of good chances and a clean sheet. What's not to like?

Strangely Adams brought in presumably because he offers more physicality and at the same time lightweight Manning preferred to the more physical Bree. I can only assume we're looking to get more crosses into the box today... Lets see if Adams can be arsed to try and win a header or two

I'm not sure why anyone is getting hung up on goals. This game will be won or lost on unexpected passes backwards from attacking positions. #russballforever

I can't quite get my head around russball. Strangely we seem under instruction not to take risks in the final third whilst being told to take risks at the back. The result being that we're susceptible to gifting ridiculous chances to the opposition (albeit fewer recently) whilst frustratingly recycling the ball back from decent positions without taking a gamble on making something from them. It's almost like the belief is that defending is soooo good now that the only way to break a team down is to suck the entire team out of position.