Ipswich V Saints - Sunday 12pm

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, Willo of Whiteley said:

Wrong thread

No it isn't. Ipswich signing a new striker is very relevant to a game vs Ipswich. 

[saintant]

10 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Just because he only had one save, doesn't mean they didn't come close on other occasions. They hit the crossbar, for example.

Not even counted as a shot on target as you well know. Stats show we were the team that could and should have scored more goals.

[Matthew Le God]

2 minutes ago, saintant said:

Not even counted as a shot on target as you well know. Stats show we were the team that could and should have scored more goals.

I didn't say it was on target... but it was an example of them coming close to scoring. Which was his point!

[saintant]

Just now, Matthew Le God said:

I didn't say it was on target... but it was an example of them coming close to scoring. Which was his point!

But we came close to scoring on more occasions than them and were deserved winners. I keep hearing that Wrexham battered us but that's not how I saw it so will give us credit for being the better side.

[AlexLaw76]

I hope we get to see some of Will Still famous adaptability, as about 160 mins of the last 2 games have been utterly terrible. Gotten out of jail by nothing more than having better players.

3 at the back is shite, and we are clearly vulnerable with a long clearance on the counter. Our passing has been shite also, as we have been giving the ball away far too much.

If we continue this mess, and/or start as slow as we have done, we could be in trouble against a much better side.

Edited Tuesday at 20:25 by AlexLaw76

[CampionSaint]

Well Ipswich are only drawing with Bromley.  The cup is nothing if not unpredictable.

[RedWillie]

20 minutes ago, CampionSaint said:

Well Ipswich are only drawing with Bromley.  The cup is nothing if not unpredictable.

Bromley just knocked them out !

Edited Tuesday at 21:08 by RedWillie

[sockeye]

People have them pegged as champions but they haven't exactly set things alight from the jump. I reckon we can do them.

[Saint86]

1 minute ago, RedWillie said:

Bromley just knocked them out !

Watched the pens on Sky, fair play to Bromley.

Morale must be suffering at Ipswich coming off of last season. If we can somehow get a win out of them it may start a mini crisis at the start of the season.

[saintant]

If we play five at the back they'll dominate in midfield and it'll be a very tough game.

[Jack]

51 minutes ago, saintant said:

If we play five at the back they'll dominate in midfield and it'll be a very tough game.

Yeah, tonight was crying out for an extra man in midfield and winning more second balls, and playing higher up the pitch. Lots for Will to think about. 
 

Big pressure on Ipswich though after a rough start 

[LGTL]

Probably the toughest away game of the season up first, which is probably no bad thing as they’re still finding their feet. A much improved performance needed though and for fuck sake ditch 5 at the back and get another man in midfield. 

[SNSUN]

Baz

Sugawara

THB

Stephens

Manning

Charles

Downes

Fernandes

Fraser

Robinson

Downs

Could be a way to go. Hoping THB stays.

Edited Wednesday at 07:08 by SNSUN

[Whitey Grandad]

23 hours ago, saintant said:

Not even counted as a shot on target as you well know. Stats show we were the team that could and should have scored more goals.

That just shows that the Stats are misleading. I'm surprised anybody takes any notice of them.

[Mr X]

We look very susceptible to counter attacks and our midfield doesn't look great.... Our whole season hinges on either we can keep Fernandez 

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, Mr X said:

our midfield doesn't look great

A midfield of Downes, Charles and Fernandes/Rudoni is superb at this level

[AlexLaw76]

1 minute ago, Matthew Le God said:

A midfield of Downes, Charles and Fernandes/Rudoni is superb at this level

Then why does it look shite?

[Pamplemousse]

Have Charles, Downes and Fernandes been on the pitch at the same time this season?

[Matthew Le God]

3 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Then why does it look shite?

🤔

They have not played as a trio this season yet. So how does it look 'shite'?

[S-Clarke]

4 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

A midfield of Downes, Charles and Fernandes/Rudoni is superb at this level

Not totally convinced that Downes works in our potentially high-press/high energy team. He seems like your typical crab footballer.

Charles, Rudoni with Fernandes more advanced could work better. Rudoni has more energy about him, but less defensive discipline.

If we scrap the 3 at the back, we could go with Charles, an-other, and Rudoni - with Eduard and Fernandes floating in those attacking zones.

[Thereisonlyonemickychannon]

Same as the Wrexham game please. Energy and never stop!

[austsaint]

6 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Not totally convinced that Downes works in our potentially high-press/high energy team. He seems like your typical crab footballer.

Charles, Rudoni with Fernandes more advanced could work better. Rudoni has more energy about him, but less defensive discipline.

If we scrap the 3 at the back, we could go with Charles, an-other, and Rudoni - with Eduard and Fernandes floating in those attacking zones.

Well as long as you’re not totally unconvinced by Downes.   In the Championship he’s much, much better than your typical crab footballer.   I’d call Smallbone more your recognisable crab midfielder - Downes can easily handle a holding or box-to-box role this campaign; particularly if we play 4-3-3 formation once the dust has settled on the transfer window.

[Midfield_General]

3 hours ago, SNSUN said:

Baz

Sugawara

THB

Stephens

Manning

Charles

Downes

Fernandes

Fraser

Robinson

Downs

Could be a way to go. Hoping THB stays.

Agree with that with the exception of Downs who has done absolutely nothing to warrant a starting place from what I've seen of him vs. Wrexham and last night.

He's not only missed two absolute sitters but also looks weak as piss and has provided absolutely no physical presence whatsoever, which is worrying seeing as he was meant to be one we were bringing in to make us a bigger, stronger side. He has just been getting brushed off the ball and nothing has stuck to him so far. I hope he's just rusty and will settle down as he gets used to the league and the role he's asked to play, but early signs really have not been great and he clearly needs to be given time to get up to speed and maybe adjust to the physicality of the league. 

Bearing in mind that Armstrong simply cannot play CF and BBD is just shocking anywhere, that means that for the foreseeable we are still relying on either Archer or Stewart for a physical CF presence and goals. Which is a scary prospect over the course of a season. 

If Stewart is feeling better he needs to start on Sunday, and if we can find anyone to take BBD and/or Armstrong, we should ship them out just to get them off the books, and try and put their wages towards someone who can give us an option to hold the ball up and bully defenders, because we've got literally no-one who can do that as it stands. Keiffer Moore is a very limited player but they picked him up for £2m and he gave us all sorts of problems on Saturday. We need at least one option like that who lets us mix it up a bit when we need to change the approach.

Edited Wednesday at 10:12 by Midfield_General

[S-Clarke]

9 minutes ago, austsaint said:

Well as long as you’re not totally unconvinced by Downes.   In the Championship he’s much, much better than your typical crab footballer.   I’d call Smallbone more your recognisable crab midfielder - Downes can easily handle a holding or box-to-box role this campaign; particularly if we play 4-3-3 formation once the dust has settled on the transfer window.

I guess part of my feeling towards Downes has been soured due to his mid-season strip last year, once his boyfriend left. I didn't feel that was a good look to be honest.

I struggle to trust his commitment after that, that's why I wouldn't be against a sale.

[Whitey Grandad]

56 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

A midfield of Downes, Charles and Fernandes/Rudoni is superb at this level

But we don't play with a midfield. 

[gio1saints]

1 minute ago, Whitey Grandad said:

But we don't play with a midfield. 

@Whitey Grandad I would not get too wedded to any default shape that Still puts out. Unlike RM I do think he is very willing to adapt his team according to what players he has and who we are playing. 
When and if we get better FB and MF and even wingers we may well see different line ups 
 

[austsaint]

16 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I guess part of my feeling towards Downes has been soured due to his mid-season strip last year, once his boyfriend left. I didn't feel that was a good look to be honest.

I struggle to trust his commitment after that, that's why I wouldn't be against a sale.

I understand your thinking about commitment, based on his apparent standoff after Martin left.   I get the feeling though that Downes is on board with Still and is good enough to (re) establish himself as one of the best central midfielders in the Championship.

[saintant]

1 hour ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Then why does it look shite?

Because we're playing 5 at the back which leaves a midfield of only 2 players who have too much work and get overrun. We saw this last night even against opposition as poor as Northampton. Downes, Fernandes and Charles would potentially be an excellent midfield 3 if we had them all playing there at the same time. When it's two from three they struggle to cope and therefore look poor. We need to switch formation to 4231 or similar to get more bodies in midfield where most of the action takes place. Playing a 5 at the back means you are reliant on a centre half (Edwards has tried) moving forward at times to help the midfield or the two wingbacks. For me it's a very difficult system to master and we are not very good at it.

[Whitey Grandad]

56 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

@Whitey Grandad I would not get too wedded to any default shape that Still puts out. Unlike RM I do think he is very willing to adapt his team according to what players he has and who we are playing. 
When and if we get better FB and MF and even wingers we may well see different line ups 
 

I understand that and I am prepared to wait and see but in the first half against Wrexham we surrendered the initiative to them and this was from a team playing at home in front of a packed crowd. It's a negative attitude and one that I don't like.

To do the same at Northampton was asking for trouble. Fortunately it worked out OK but it was needless.

[gio1saints]

I did find it surprising that he did not change the shape second half. Sometimes a win masks a problem and these two wins are certainly not fooling anyone.  Just hope SR do get these extra players in ( and out) so Will has got a settled set of players to work with. But that won’t be realistically achievable until mid September - assuming the last day incomings who will need assimilation in early September. Just got to try not drop too many points until then- win whatever way we can with whatever players we got and worry about our style preferences later..

[Micky]

Our 'strike force' worries me massively.  My three grandchildren could cause more carnage. 

[OttawaSaint]

7 minutes ago, Micky said:

Our 'strike force' worries me massively.  My three grandchildren could cause more carnage. 

Ditto.

I certainly don't but that we will be ok because a few of them have had good goal scoring records in the Champ in the past.

I used to have a nice head of hair...

[OttawaSaint]

I'm hoping Will Still will be as flexible as they say.

I'm tired of Saint managers obsession with allowing us to be completely overrun in midfield.

[SNSUN]

Ipswich Town eh? So many unresearched facts. Legend has it back in 1858 a friendly Jamaican man went to an Ipswich alehouse, and when the barman asked whether he wanted a beer, the man responded "Nah, I want a Port man." Locals took this man under their wing, and eventually a road was named after him. The stadium was named Portman Road after this local hotspot, which is still frequented by the Jamaican-British fraternity. It is false news that Natalie Portman was named after Ipswich's ground despite popular belief.

Ipswich have skirted around the Premier League once or twice in the last 30 years, but following a takeover but Ed Sheeran and John Wark, their fortunes have improved of late. Early reports were that the signing of Sammy Szmodics was only possible from the sales of Sheeran's 7th album. Rumour has it one of his future albums is to be called %, and he will use the funds from this to buy Ansu Fati.

My mate once went clubbing in Ipswich, but he says the women in Norwich are far superior. This did not deter him from getting stink finger in the bogs with one of the locals. 

So there we are. Facts.

On to the wheel. So far it has 1 win and 1 loss. 50 per cent. My wife's favourite rapper.

 

So there you have it. Absolutely annihilation by a trumped up Ipswich side. Embarrassment. But the window is still open so....

[Whitey Grandad]

46 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

Ipswich Town eh? So many unresearched facts. Legend has it back in 1858 a friendly Jamaican man went to an Ipswich alehouse, and when the barman asked whether he wanted a beer, the man responded "Nah, I want a Port man." Locals took this man under their wing, and eventually a road was named after him. The stadium was named Portman Road after this local hotspot, which is still frequented by the Jamaican-British fraternity. It is false news that Natalie Portman was named after Ipswich's ground despite popular belief.

Ipswich have skirted around the Premier League once or twice in the last 30 years, but following a takeover but Ed Sheeran and John Wark, their fortunes have improved of late. Early reports were that the signing of Sammy Szmodics was only possible from the sales of Sheeran's 7th album. Rumour has it one of his future albums is to be called %, and he will use the funds from this to buy Ansu Fati.

My mate once went clubbing in Ipswich, but he says the women in Norwich are far superior. This did not deter him from getting stink finger in the bogs with one of the locals. 

So there we are. Facts.

On to the wheel. So far it has 1 win and 1 loss. 50 per cent. My wife's favourite rapper.

 

So there you have it. Absolutely annihilation by a trumped up Ipswich side. Embarrassment. But the window is still open so....

We lived near Harwich in the 1950s and early 1960s. My dad used to go and watch Ipswich home games. The manager was a certain Alf Ramsey.

[Sheaf Saint]

21 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

Agree with that with the exception of Downs who has done absolutely nothing to warrant a starting place from what I've seen of him vs. Wrexham and last night.

He's not only missed two absolute sitters but also looks weak as piss and has provided absolutely no physical presence whatsoever, which is worrying seeing as he was meant to be one we were bringing in to make us a bigger, stronger side. He has just been getting brushed off the ball and nothing has stuck to him so far. 

Did you miss the pivotal part he played in the move for our goal at Northampton then? He showed good strength to hold off the defender and receive a long ball forward from McCarthy, which he then laid off very nicely to Fernandes. That is the presence up front we've been missing.

[Saint86]

20 hours ago, saintant said:

Because we're playing 5 at the back which leaves a midfield of only 2 players who have too much work and get overrun. We saw this last night even against opposition as poor as Northampton. Downes, Fernandes and Charles would potentially be an excellent midfield 3 if we had them all playing there at the same time. When it's two from three they struggle to cope and therefore look poor. We need to switch formation to 4231 or similar to get more bodies in midfield where most of the action takes place. Playing a 5 at the back means you are reliant on a centre half (Edwards has tried) moving forward at times to help the midfield or the two wingbacks. For me it's a very difficult system to master and we are not very good at it.

We only have 2 wingers in the squad pretty much (JayRob and Fraser), BBD and Amrstrong are not proper wingers, Edozie and Sulemana are being pushed out / sold, and Dibling is as well by the looks of things. We've not been linked with any out and out wingers (even Spertsyan and Rudoni are predominantly central players). Obviously things could change, but we don't look to be prioritising wingers. We look like we're targeting attacking versatility with the names linked (i.e. players that can play wing but prefer CAM), but i don't know if i'd expect to see us routinely lining up with proper wide men as it stands - which is odd to me as i was expecting Still to play with wingers when he joined.

[AlexLaw76]

7 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

We only have 2 wingers in the squad pretty much (JayRob and Fraser), BBD and Amrstrong are not proper wingers, 

we only need to play 1 or 2 of them on Sun

Armstrong scored a bucket load playing wide under Martin in this league

Edited yesterday at 08:17 by AlexLaw76

[revolution saint]

Good time to play Ipswich and Brum showed how to play them - high energy and in their faces.  If Charles, Downes and Fernandes all start then we should be able to win the midfield but whoever plays right back or right wing back will need to be all over Clarke - he's very good given time and space but nowhere near as effective without it.  I'd be concerned if Sugawara is supposed to be picking him up. 

Reckon both managers would take a draw and think that's probably how it'll pan out.

[saintant]

22 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Good time to play Ipswich and Brum showed how to play them - high energy and in their faces.  If Charles, Downes and Fernandes all start then we should be able to win the midfield but whoever plays right back or right wing back will need to be all over Clarke - he's very good given time and space but nowhere near as effective without it.  I'd be concerned if Sugawara is supposed to be picking him up. 

Reckon both managers would take a draw and think that's probably how it'll pan out.

If we continue with a back 5 surely it will be only 2 in midfield? I don't like it but that seems to be what we've done so far this season.

[revolution saint]

16 minutes ago, saintant said:

If we continue with a back 5 surely it will be only 2 in midfield? I don't like it but that seems to be what we've done so far this season.

Yeah, I meant if Fernandes plays in the role Fraser had at the start against Wrexham.  I guess technically not midfield but he'll drop back at times and imagine we'll probably be a bit more conservative away anyway.

[Chez]

On 13/08/2025 at 08:07, SNSUN said:

Baz

Sugawara

THB

Stephens

Manning

Charles

Downes

Fernandes

Fraser

Robinson

Downs

Could be a way to go. Hoping THB stays.

Not sure we will abandon the the five at the back so soon, but I'd like to see us do so.
Quite liked Quarshie's physicality and pace. Not sure about him positionally. If we went to four, the right back position is a concern - it is a concern in a five.

The Manning/Wellington choice is interesting. The manager needs to give Wellington a run of games possibly.

I thought Fraser and Robinson deserve to start, but his options are limited. Armstrong seems the only other option in the wide roles.

Up front, I thought Stewart looked good in his cameo, but again, a run of games for Downs would be no bad thing.

 

Edited yesterday at 09:35 by Chez

[SWLondon Saint]

1 hour ago, revolution saint said:

Good time to play Ipswich and Brum showed how to play them - high energy and in their faces.  If Charles, Downes and Fernandes all start then we should be able to win the midfield but whoever plays right back or right wing back will need to be all over Clarke - he's very good given time and space but nowhere near as effective without it.  I'd be concerned if Sugawara is supposed to be picking him up. 

Reckon both managers would take a draw and think that's probably how it'll pan out.

It's not rocket science, just copy exactly what Brum did as they neutralised Ipswich completely. I watched some of the game and I seem to remember Jack Clarke kept drifting infield into traffic hence he wasn't that effective. Don't know what his game normally is but he and Szmodics looked like they didn't fancy it much against admittedly a very pumped up Brum who were allowed to get away with a fair amount of fouling.

[Saint Fan CaM]

23 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

Agree with that with the exception of Downs who has done absolutely nothing to warrant a starting place from what I've seen of him vs. Wrexham and last night.

He's not only missed two absolute sitters but also looks weak as piss and has provided absolutely no physical presence whatsoever, which is worrying seeing as he was meant to be one we were bringing in to make us a bigger, stronger side. He has just been getting brushed off the ball and nothing has stuck to him so far. I hope he's just rusty and will settle down as he gets used to the league and the role he's asked to play, but early signs really have not been great and he clearly needs to be given time to get up to speed and maybe adjust to the physicality of the league. 

Bearing in mind that Armstrong simply cannot play CF and BBD is just shocking anywhere, that means that for the foreseeable we are still relying on either Archer or Stewart for a physical CF presence and goals. Which is a scary prospect over the course of a season. 

If Stewart is feeling better he needs to start on Sunday, and if we can find anyone to take BBD and/or Armstrong, we should ship them out just to get them off the books, and try and put their wages towards someone who can give us an option to hold the ball up and bully defenders, because we've got literally no-one who can do that as it stands. Keiffer Moore is a very limited player but they picked him up for £2m and he gave us all sorts of problems on Saturday. We need at least one option like that who lets us mix it up a bit when we need to change the approach.

Yeah, I said to my friend on Saturday that Moore is pretty much the type of player we’ve been crying out for since Ings left. He’s as near to Rickie Lambert as you can get in terms of natural footballing brain and physical presence, which makes up for the lack of ball skills and athleticism.

[revolution saint]

2 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Yeah, I said to my friend on Saturday that Moore is pretty much the type of player we’ve been crying out for since Ings left. He’s as near to Rickie Lambert as you can get in terms of natural footballing brain and physical presence, which makes up for the lack of ball skills and athleticism.

I'm probably biased but Lambert was far far better than Moore - goal record alone tells you that.  I guess they're both physical to an extent but Lambert was a much more skilful player.  I don't dislike Moore and he's a right nuisance which we've needed but not a patch on SRL.

[Saint Fan CaM]

4 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

I'm probably biased but Lambert was far far better than Moore - goal record alone tells you that.  I guess they're both physical to an extent but Lambert was a much more skilful player.  I don't dislike Moore and he's a right nuisance which we've needed but not a patch on SRL.

True, but I wasn’t saying Moore was as good Lambert - just that he’s got similar attributes, particularly when comparing the two to when Rickie L joined us (even he admits he was a bit of a cart horse before he started to sort himself out).

[Saint86]

3 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

we only need to play 1 or 2 of them on Sun

Armstrong scored a bucket load playing wide under Martin in this league

He was more of an inside forward? i.e., Playing on the right channel and running towards goal to attack the box/goal directly? as opposed to hugging the touchline and being focussed on taking on the opposition LB and getting in behind / to the byline for crosses back across goal etc.
 

Don't get me wrong, i think he can do that job again and be useful, but i suspect if we play him like that under Still we'll do it with 5 at the back and the two wing backs providing width (more like a 5-2-2-1) than we will a 4-2-3-1 (which was what Saintant was discussing) with Armstrong as an out and out winger - we just don't have the wingers atm, and we aren't really being linked to them (with the exception of that brief rumour about Fellows).

Personally, i would much prefer us to be playing as a 4-2-3-1 with out and out wingers. Our strongest area of the team is central midfield (downes, charles, fernandes). And it would allow us to field a solid enough back 4 with lots of depth. Based on transfer strategy though, we seem to be ditching wide attackers, stockpiling CBs and stockpiling central attacking players / inside forwards - that suggests to me that the main tactic is likely to be 5 at the back - or that we'll see it a lot this season anyway.

Edited yesterday at 12:13 by Saint86

[SambaMaverick]

2 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Yeah, I said to my friend on Saturday that Moore is pretty much the type of player we’ve been crying out for since Ings left. He’s as near to Rickie Lambert as you can get in terms of natural footballing brain and physical presence, which makes up for the lack of ball skills and athleticism.

Now that is just offensive

[Saint86]

Ipswich fans all predicting they'll lose....

[Tommy Mulgrew]

5 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

On 13/08/2025 at 10:59, Midfield_General said:

Downs who has done absolutely nothing to warrant a starting place from what I've seen of him vs. Wrexham and last night.

He's not only missed two absolute sitters but also looks weak as piss and has provided absolutely no physical presence whatsoever, which is worrying seeing as he was meant to be one we were bringing in to make us a bigger, stronger side. He has just been getting brushed off the ball and nothing has stuck to him so far. 

Did you miss the pivotal part he played in the move for our goal at Northampton then? He showed good strength to hold off the defender and receive a long ball forward from McCarthy, which he then laid off very nicely to Fernandes. That is the presence up front we've been missing.

Archer, not Downs, passed to Fernandes for our goal against the Cobblers.