Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
On a Wing and a Prayer
Written by minesapint on Sunday, 21st May 2017 16:11

Many TWTD users are convinced that Mick is a tactical troglodyte uninterested in attractive, attacking football and happy to grind out a bore draw even at Portman Road.

At risk of incurring the wrath of many of you, I beg to differ. I believe that MM would love to give us entertaining football – no, I have not been smoking anything unusual – but he has to make do with the players he has available.

There are few finer things in football than watching a fast, tricky winger as he reduces an unfortunate full-back to a gibbering wreck, and throughout his managerial career McCarthy’s preferred system has been 4-4-2 with at least one proper winger, sometimes two. Since he has been at at Ipswich, however, a succession of wingers have let him down.

He inherited Paul Taylor and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, both of whom had the pace and skill to do the job, but the former played for himself rather than for the team and the latter was too inconsistent.

Then he brought some youngsters in, but Alex Henshall and Jack Doherty flattered only to deceive and now play at a much lower level than the Championship. Cameron Stewart looked promising but did himself no favours with his lack of professionalism.

He also tried older players as a short-term fix. Stephen Hunt had obviously been a good player in his day but didn’t have 90 minutes in his legs any more, and Larsen Touré was a gamble that didn’t come off.

Paul Anderson and Jay Tabb worked hard and got crosses in but they were not genuine wingers likely to leave their full-back for dead and race to the byline.

Tommy Oar might have been the answer till he was lured back to Oz for a barbie on the beach, Ainsley Maitland-Niles faded after a bright start, while Freddie Sears was wasted playing out of position on the wing.

The one great success was getting the brilliant Ryan Fraser on a season-long loan but he was injured twice, which was the main reason we missed out on the play-offs that season. With that little feller in our attack we always looked threatening and were much more pleasing to the eye.

Grant Ward is a good signing but more of a midfielder than a winger, and as for Danny Rowe, we’ll just have to wait and see whether he can do the business at this level.

Mick’s brief conversion to 3-5-2 with wing-backs was an admission that for almost five years he had been unable to sign wingers of sufficient quality, but it’s a system he wouldn’t dream of using if he had an Andros Townsend or a Wilfried Zaha or, better still, a Clive Woods at the club.




Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.

DurhamTownFan added 16:16 - May 21
An interesting reappraisal, but he's always played long ball even with good wingers. One of the reasons wolves fans got fed up.

Are you saying that the only reason we haven't done well recently has been the lack of wingers? Didn't stop him when we finished sixth. Would say our problems this year are much much deeper than a simple lack of wingers.
7

ChrisFelix added 16:22 - May 21
Big problem this season was failure to get the ball or players into the box
4

Simonds92 added 16:54 - May 21
In his entire career as a manager he's never played any different in terms of style. He may have had better players to play in that style and formation but he won't ever change the way he plays.
7

cranky_old_tractor added 17:26 - May 21
Nice write up and reminder. But.....sorry...my mind is made up with this tw@t

8

therein61 added 18:12 - May 21
Biggest problem(apart from the manager) within our club is the continued selection of the premiership class(managers words not mine!!) Skuse just get him out of the building, but then who would take him(Leiston? no sorry he would be on the bench at best)
6

therein61 added 18:34 - May 21
Re you comment chrishants about getting the ball in the box then look no further than the inept Skuse!!
3

joepublic added 19:56 - May 21
Hi, enjoyed the read and I have to say that most managers would love two cracking wingers if they had the funds and squad.

I am just not sure that mm would pick them if he had them.

At home to Rotherham in 2016 when we lost 1-0 he played 4 at the back with 3 defensive midfielders. That day he had Bru, Pringle Ainsley Maitland and Feeney on the bench. We were still fighting for playoffs and they were fighting to avoid relegation.

He has chased me away from the club i love and I just wish our owner had the sense to start fresh with someone new.

Letting mm lose with any sort of budget now when his contract is running down and his relationship with fans is terrible, seems very odd.

His win percentage since January 2016 is laughable and cannot all be down to budget and lack of wingers.

I hope he signs a winger that keeps you entertained for next season but for me i will be staying away after over 20 years of attending.


5

Dissboyitfc added 20:36 - May 21
you cant keep blaming the lack of funds for the lack of entertainment, full stop!!! the man has his way of playing( not the ipswich way) and that includes playing players out of position! I give you Chambers as one example who was exposed week after week and when he did have the chance to get in a proper full back ( Spence) he let him go because we had proper bloke Chambers, Spence only comes in later when injury forces his hand.

Tommy Oar didnt stay because he didnt like the way we played ( allegedly)

A little surprised that anybody still defends MM. The man should leave immediately!

WE need rebuilding and the first thing to start this process is a replacement for MM!

MM OUT!!!!!
8

joepublic added 22:46 - May 21
*loose not lose




0

TractorBeezer added 00:27 - May 22
"At risk of incurring the wrath of many of you, I beg to differ. I believe that MM would love to give us entertaining football – no, I have not been smoking anything unusual – but he has to make do with the players he has available".

Let's take the televised cup game v Lincoln as an example. He selected a weakened team and set up to not lose rather than to outplay a non-league team. There have been many other similar examples this season.

Ironically we had Andros Townsend for a while but Keano rarely played him.


2

KiwiBlue2 added 05:30 - May 22
While I agree that it is great to have flying and tricky wingers I feel our main problem for sometime has been the central midfield and the lack of quality there able to play to play the ball forward to the strikers feet.
This has created issues for players like Pitman, McG and Sears with the latter not helped by having to play away from his best position. I have hopes that we can secure Huws and at least one other cm who can take charge of a game and play the ball constantly forward. In terms of wings I think that Rowe is promising but we need another of Fraser-type quality.
Then of course we need MM to step up as he will not have the excuses of not having the personnel to play a more attractive style.

2

runaround added 07:14 - May 22
On every comment I have is where you say he has to use what players he has available to him. Whilst this is correct, it must be remembered that they are HIS players & it was his choice to secure them
1

Dissboyitfc added 07:25 - May 22
Runaround..very true, but he could have played some of the talented youngsters we have instead of the "proper blokes". I firmly believe he could have payed an attacking type of football, the football the youngsters are being taught at the club. Whilst it is true we would have lost more we would have won more also and probably on a similar points tally. This would have resulted in 2 things , more contented happy supporters and secondly a young team ready and more experienced team to face the new season!

MM out !!!!!
1

Swn98 added 07:38 - May 22
Good blog, runaround far to simplistic view to justify your anti Mick opinion yes they might be his players for the resources given to him I'm sure given the funds you would see a much changed team do you think he would not sign Lawrence given the funds!
0

Swn98 added 07:38 - May 22
Good blog, runaround far to simplistic view to justify your anti Mick opinion yes they might be his players for the resources given to him I'm sure given the funds you would see a much changed team do you think he would not sign Lawrence given the funds!
0

Penguinblue added 08:47 - May 22
Sorry, no offence, but absolute rubbish. You must be one of McCarthy's proper blokes.

McCarthy is light years away tactically, and in my view, intellectually, (just look at his weekly excuse ridden contradictions and contempt for others) from what a modern football manager should be.

He is not the future of ITFC and should go immediately.
4

Lightningboy added 10:44 - May 22
One of McCarthy's biggest problems is his favouritism towards certain players no matter how consistently poor they are - Skuse being the obvious one - totally sends out the wrong message to any player playing for the "reserves" knowing they've got no chance of getting in unless certain players are injured - our best month of the season was the one where Skuse was injured,then he walks straight back into the side and results dipped again - says it all about how our inept manager is ultimately holding us back.
1

inghamspur added 13:41 - May 22
Keep seeing this MM out shout but who you gonna get?

-1

bbg added 15:11 - May 22
The slating Skuse gets is shocking and I am always amazed at fans need to do so to one of their own. He is not a world beater, but a good championship defensive midfielder and anyone who says otherwise doesn’t understand the role of a DCM in screening, covering and supporting the play.

One hears a lot about dinosaurs, but I think that term may more aptly describe a lot of fans who keep harping back to club success in the past. The style of the past was largely attributable to the football ability of the Dutch midfielders who got the team playing.

One should not need to have taken all of their coaching badges, as I actually have, to recognise the changes in football in recent years, with the high press now widely used at all levels. A passing game starts with your defenders and while that aspect improved under MM last season with Webster, Spence and Taylor, I have no doubt that MM is aware that asking our current defenders to do so at all times in the modern game, could see us relegated. We haven’t got £50m or £1m to spend on a ball playing CB. We probably haven’t got £1m to spend on a CF.

Many have remarked on MM’s style with his previous clubs, but the record shows that he over achieved with the teams he managed. He got both Sunderland and Wolves into the Premier league, and despite both clubs having spent much more money after he left, neither have progressed. Equally at International level, he took Ireland to the World Cup 2002 knockout stages and they haven’t even qualified since then.

-2

Premierbluez added 16:51 - May 23
Ireland have been to Euro 2008 and Euro 2016.
0

bbg added 18:16 - May 23
they missed out on three world cups since he left, 2006, 2010 and 2014
0

Ferguson added 16:40 - May 24
I seem to remember that Mick's Ireland had a few decent players. They haven't been "little Ireland" for quite a while.

Shame that the World Cups were the only cup runs he's had in recent memory.
UNFORGIVEABLE to set up not to lose at home to non-league in ANY match let alone a cup tie. MM should've been fired or walked away after the away leg IMHO.
0

Surco72 added 11:23 - May 25
No offence but this is absolute nonsense defending MM and blaming all players he has had for letting him down !! A good coach gets the best out of players and improves their games , MM coaches flair and natural talent out of players by making their first option work hard , tuck in and tackle . As you have stated how many players came here started well and then drift away under MM ? Bishop , Sears now doing the same , is it always the players letting themselves down or not trying or a manager playing them out of position having no system to play to , no tactical changes to adapt to different games and teams . Gary Monk or Neil Warnock would have had this years squad in the playoffs
0

BlueandTruesince82 added 21:14 - May 27
Having already forgotten about Cameron Stewart I thought I'd see where he spent the season...... without a club it seems.

That should be a lesson to the Likes of Leon Best, one can very quickly become an ex player.
0
You need to login in order to post your comments

Blogs by minesapint

Blogs 295 bloggers

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© TWTD 1995-2024