| Fair Weather Team? 08:10 - Nov 7 with 3866 views | Asa |
Not for one second criticising a 7 point haul from 3 games, 2 of which were away in the Championship, but it's abundantly clear that performance levels, have dropped since the international break.
These levels are still very high. We are the second best Championship side ever at this stage of a season. We've just been promoted. My god is this dream land.
Last season our form in the first third of the season was incredible. The final third was just laughable. But that bit in the middle between November and January is where we dropped a lot of points, lost games, went on a run without a win and drew something like 5 in 6 or 7 matches.
Burns is a bigger miss to how we play that I realised. The international break doesn't help. But we've also returned to a period of ridiculous rain, horrible conditions and of course slightly diminished pitches.
Before the break, Huddersfield away we didn't get going for large parts. Since then we had some very dodgy spells against Bristol City, Birmingham ended the first half with 7 efforts to 1, dominance against us we've not seen under McKenna. Plymouth for large parts looked better than us.
It's possible that this team, the way we draw teams out, the way we need the conditions to be ideal to look our absolute best, is going to mean we are in for a tough few months in terms of results.
Massimo hasn't looked the same 9/10 every match levels of late. Morsy has possibly had some average games for his insanely high standards. Maybe a bit of fatigue too.
Unlike last season though, our worst performances, which are still decent, see us taking close to maximum points.
November and December are going to be very tough. Come out of that with a healthy lead still going into the transfer window and the easing of conditions and we've got every chance! |  | | |  |
| Fair Weather Team? on 08:19 - Nov 7 with 2998 views | homer_123 |
It's so rare that a team will continue in the kind of form we have (see Leicester). So a drop off in form and results was always likely.
It's far later than many (including myself) expected and, 7 points from 3 poor games is an incredible return considering.
Yet, like last seasons dip before the Jan window. If you look at the chances we create, it's still excellent even when not playing well. It's the same at the moment - we are still creating and still causing the opposition problems.
The worry comes when we stop being effective in doing that - when we stop creating, then we might see what KM has about him at that point.
At the moment, gladly, we haven't seen that. |  |
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| Fair Weather Team? on 08:35 - Nov 7 with 2927 views | mrfixit426 |
They're human beings, mate. Not robots. |  | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 08:37 - Nov 7 with 2923 views | BseaBlue |
You can't play down the importance of January. We play a very intensive game and as the season goes on, you can see it takes its toll. January provides a good opportunity to bring some freshness to the team and hopefully finish on a strong note, like last season. |  | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 08:44 - Nov 7 with 2869 views | iamipswich |
Very reasonable, can't disagree with any of that. |  |
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| Fair Weather Team? on 08:45 - Nov 7 with 2868 views | iamipswich |
| Fair Weather Team? on 08:35 - Nov 7 by mrfixit426 |
They're human beings, mate. Not robots. |
You've clearly misinterpreted the sentiment and tone of the post. | |
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| Fair Weather Team? on 08:49 - Nov 7 with 2854 views | Buhrer |
| Fair Weather Team? on 08:45 - Nov 7 by iamipswich |
You've clearly misinterpreted the sentiment and tone of the post. |
I'd like to point out to you, mate, that I thought the original post was entirely reasonable, and not a one liner contributing zilch and just getting a bit shirty. Like this one isn't. Mates. |  | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 08:49 - Nov 7 with 2845 views | Churchman |
An interesting post. Looking at last season’s statistics we certainly went through a patch of not winning games during the winter, though it’s easy to forget we weren’t losing them either. Nobody outplayed us.
We have been phenomenal so far. I don’t think it’s right to focus purely on chunks of games. From what I’ve heard, Birmingham bossed the first half. They didn’t second and the stats say overall we had the better of it. Plymouth? Second best team to visit PR. We got the breaks with key decisions, but let’s not forget it took a worldly for Plymouth to lead the game and overall we deserved the win.
It would be brilliant if we could continue the streak we are on. But sport being what it is, it isn’t likely. Players performance will ebb and flow, as will the team’s. The opposition will find ways of countering us. Just look at how Leeds squeezed out Leicester the other day. Let’s face it, the Championship is a significant step up from L1.
As for Wes Burns, he’s a terrific player and integral to how we play. The opposition have to watch him the whole time. Ok he may not always make the right choices, but he always tries to make himself available for the ball, has great control and is quick. Everything defenders hate.
So are we a fair weather team? The stats last season say conditions may hinder how we play a bit, but there are more factors at play than that in my view. [Post edited 7 Nov 2023 8:51]
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| Fair Weather Team? on 08:51 - Nov 7 with 2838 views | baxterbasics |
Well if pitch condition is a big factor at least home games shouldn't cause such a problem, I can't see our pitch getting too ropey! |  |
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| Fair Weather Team? on 08:56 - Nov 7 with 2818 views | Herbivore |
I think people are being overly critical or at least over analyzing the recent performances. Brizzle away was like many of our away games this season, if anything we were slightly more in control than in some others. We had a rusty first 10, then controlled the next 60 minutes and should really have scored more than the one we managed, then we came under a bit of pressure last 15 that ultimately led to them creating only one good half chance and not much else. The only away game where we've been more in control was against Sheffield Wednesday, the worst side in the league, and we still only won that 1-0.
The Plymouth game again was not dissimilar to many of our home games this season. We spent a lot of the game on the front foot, created a lot of chances, but looked vulnerable at times on the break. That's been the case in most of our home games this season, the exception being the Hull game which many - myself included - lauded as the best performance they've seen from a Town side in 20+ years. That's the standard we should aspire to but we won't hit it every week and in truth we've only really hit THAT level once this season. If Davis doesn't switch off in stoppage time, the Plymouth game is a comfortable 3-1 win and we go away happy.
The Birmingham game, they started very fast and ultimately whilst that tempo stifled us for 30-40 minutes it wasn't sustainable. Ruddy was much the busier keeper, they scored two slightly freak goals, and ultimately we did enough to come back and get a draw. Perhaps a slight dip from previous away performances for the opening part of the game, largely because Birmingham set a pace that was very hard to live with (for them as well as us) but we limited their opportunities and ended the game strongly. Hardly a poor performance.
I think as fans we've been spoilt rotten over the last 9 months. We're on a run of form that is not normal by any measure and at times we've been steamrollering sides when everything clicks. Tail end of last season we were just battering everything in sight. That's not going to be possible with the greater quality sides have at this level but we're still setting a high bar in terms of performances. There were some grumbles after the Preston game that we weren't really at our best, looked a bit leggy etc. but the consensus from Preston fans seemed to be we were the best side they'd faced - and they were fresh off a trip to Leicester - and we'd likely go up. That's a very different view from the view of many of our fans. [Post edited 7 Nov 2023 9:00]
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| Fair Weather Team? on 09:03 - Nov 7 with 2779 views | franz_tyson |
Are Mick and TC up to anything at the moment? Maybe hire them for one weekday training during the winter period for "hairy arse" training sessions. | | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:05 - Nov 7 with 2763 views | Buhrer |
| Fair Weather Team? on 08:56 - Nov 7 by Herbivore |
I think people are being overly critical or at least over analyzing the recent performances. Brizzle away was like many of our away games this season, if anything we were slightly more in control than in some others. We had a rusty first 10, then controlled the next 60 minutes and should really have scored more than the one we managed, then we came under a bit of pressure last 15 that ultimately led to them creating only one good half chance and not much else. The only away game where we've been more in control was against Sheffield Wednesday, the worst side in the league, and we still only won that 1-0.
The Plymouth game again was not dissimilar to many of our home games this season. We spent a lot of the game on the front foot, created a lot of chances, but looked vulnerable at times on the break. That's been the case in most of our home games this season, the exception being the Hull game which many - myself included - lauded as the best performance they've seen from a Town side in 20+ years. That's the standard we should aspire to but we won't hit it every week and in truth we've only really hit THAT level once this season. If Davis doesn't switch off in stoppage time, the Plymouth game is a comfortable 3-1 win and we go away happy.
The Birmingham game, they started very fast and ultimately whilst that tempo stifled us for 30-40 minutes it wasn't sustainable. Ruddy was much the busier keeper, they scored two slightly freak goals, and ultimately we did enough to come back and get a draw. Perhaps a slight dip from previous away performances for the opening part of the game, largely because Birmingham set a pace that was very hard to live with (for them as well as us) but we limited their opportunities and ended the game strongly. Hardly a poor performance.
I think as fans we've been spoilt rotten over the last 9 months. We're on a run of form that is not normal by any measure and at times we've been steamrollering sides when everything clicks. Tail end of last season we were just battering everything in sight. That's not going to be possible with the greater quality sides have at this level but we're still setting a high bar in terms of performances. There were some grumbles after the Preston game that we weren't really at our best, looked a bit leggy etc. but the consensus from Preston fans seemed to be we were the best side they'd faced - and they were fresh off a trip to Leicester - and we'd likely go up. That's a very different view from the view of many of our fans. [Post edited 7 Nov 2023 9:00]
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Many fans opinions are fickle as the wind, and we've all been spoilt in one way or another by our glorious run. I'm no less happy with recent performances particularly, often giving the opposition credit for seeming more well swtup to counter us by trying to overpower us (our own tactic) early on. Some older and more tired legs, the need for a more clinical finisher in Jan maybe, missing Burns, soggy pitches. No real concerns, believing we will maintain and continue to progress. Whatever happens in the next 30 odd games, it's going to be a lot of fun! | | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:06 - Nov 7 with 2756 views | Asa |
| Fair Weather Team? on 08:35 - Nov 7 by mrfixit426 |
They're human beings, mate. Not robots. |
So the wireless control pad I take to home and away games isn't actually working?
Wish I'd known before I splashed out on new batteries for the Rotherham trip. | | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:09 - Nov 7 with 2739 views | Herbivore |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:05 - Nov 7 by Buhrer |
Many fans opinions are fickle as the wind, and we've all been spoilt in one way or another by our glorious run. I'm no less happy with recent performances particularly, often giving the opposition credit for seeming more well swtup to counter us by trying to overpower us (our own tactic) early on. Some older and more tired legs, the need for a more clinical finisher in Jan maybe, missing Burns, soggy pitches. No real concerns, believing we will maintain and continue to progress. Whatever happens in the next 30 odd games, it's going to be a lot of fun! |
I'm just enjoying the ride at the moment and even at 2-0 down at the weekend I was feeling pretty chilled to be honest, it felt like a game where we could be due a blip but we ultimately found a way to get a draw and if the game had been ten minutes longer we'd probably have gone on and won. Agree the opposition now seems to be setting up as much to stop us as to play their own game and that was always going to happen, it happened last season and we found ways to counter it and no doubt we will be working on that now as well. People just need to chill a bit. The last 9 months have been incredible and if you can't enjoy supporting Town now then you never will. | |
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| Fair Weather Team? on 09:13 - Nov 7 with 2683 views | Asa |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:09 - Nov 7 by Herbivore |
I'm just enjoying the ride at the moment and even at 2-0 down at the weekend I was feeling pretty chilled to be honest, it felt like a game where we could be due a blip but we ultimately found a way to get a draw and if the game had been ten minutes longer we'd probably have gone on and won. Agree the opposition now seems to be setting up as much to stop us as to play their own game and that was always going to happen, it happened last season and we found ways to counter it and no doubt we will be working on that now as well. People just need to chill a bit. The last 9 months have been incredible and if you can't enjoy supporting Town now then you never will. |
Anyone moaning at this team needs to give up following football.
We are the best achieving Championship team in all time at this stage of the season. Leicester are of course above us but we are doing this from being two divisions below them with a squad worth a fraction of theirs.
Most teams never go on the run we are enjoying in their history. It's just silly. 13 wins from 14 when it mattered, 8 games without conceding a goal, 10 months without losing away, the most form side in Europe - about 13 points above Man City, Barcelona et al.
It's just a complete joke how good we are. Said it before but if this happened on a football game I'd quit because it was too easy.
When we eventually go back to being a team that wins one, draws one and loses one and doesn't play well every week, there is going to be some majestic disproportionate flouncing. | | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:16 - Nov 7 with 2648 views | Herbivore |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:13 - Nov 7 by Asa |
Anyone moaning at this team needs to give up following football.
We are the best achieving Championship team in all time at this stage of the season. Leicester are of course above us but we are doing this from being two divisions below them with a squad worth a fraction of theirs.
Most teams never go on the run we are enjoying in their history. It's just silly. 13 wins from 14 when it mattered, 8 games without conceding a goal, 10 months without losing away, the most form side in Europe - about 13 points above Man City, Barcelona et al.
It's just a complete joke how good we are. Said it before but if this happened on a football game I'd quit because it was too easy.
When we eventually go back to being a team that wins one, draws one and loses one and doesn't play well every week, there is going to be some majestic disproportionate flouncing. |
There will be, but will be in the Prem then so that will take the edge off. | |
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| Fair Weather Team? on 09:21 - Nov 7 with 2622 views | Guthrum |
There's also an element that the middling teams of the division as it stands (whom we haven't played so many of yet) saw what Huddersfield did and are trying to counter our fluid attacking style by pressing hard to force us back, drive us off the ball or intercept passes. They know that trying to outplay us is dangerous.
Even with this tactic, Ipswich are still strong enough to win many games (see Plymouth and Bristol), but sometimes the opposition can get something themselves (Birmingham).
The weather may be a contributory factor, but it certainly wasn't that bad at Bristol (pitches are always wet because they water them furiously before games). |  |
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| Fair Weather Team? on 09:23 - Nov 7 with 2603 views | peterleeblue |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:13 - Nov 7 by Asa |
Anyone moaning at this team needs to give up following football.
We are the best achieving Championship team in all time at this stage of the season. Leicester are of course above us but we are doing this from being two divisions below them with a squad worth a fraction of theirs.
Most teams never go on the run we are enjoying in their history. It's just silly. 13 wins from 14 when it mattered, 8 games without conceding a goal, 10 months without losing away, the most form side in Europe - about 13 points above Man City, Barcelona et al.
It's just a complete joke how good we are. Said it before but if this happened on a football game I'd quit because it was too easy.
When we eventually go back to being a team that wins one, draws one and loses one and doesn't play well every week, there is going to be some majestic disproportionate flouncing. |
"When we eventually go back to being a team that wins one, draws one and loses one and doesn't play well every week, there is going to be some majestic disproportionate flouncing."
......and when the flouncing begins we will still be on track for at the very least a play off place!!!! How bizarre will that be. |  | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:36 - Nov 7 with 2526 views | Muncher |
I think you are absolutely spot on. I was saying this to anyone who would listen last season that our game simply doesn't suit poor conditions and heavy pitches.
This was even more so last season when the standard of pitches was generally poorer and restrictied our style of play. Cambridge away was a prime example, it looked like the players just didn't have the confidence to play those first time passes as they were having to take an extra touch. I was always confident our form would improve as the conditions improved. I think if you did a proper analysis you would find our results would heavily relate to pitch and weather conditions.
I think we will see much the same pattern this year, but to a lesser extent as the pitches are generally of better quality and are slightly better screened by bigger stadiums from driving wind and rain.
I think our next month or two is really key for a lot of reasons. | | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:36 - Nov 7 with 2521 views | soupytwist |
This is why, if you offered me playoffs now I would take it. What we're doing isn't normal and we're more likely to perform at a lower level over the course of the season than maintain our current form. And there would be no shame in that.
Of course, we can afford a slight drop in points per game return and still be automatic promotion candidates. Trouble is, there's really only one automatic place up for grabs due to the strength of Leicester's squad. |  | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:46 - Nov 7 with 2456 views | portmanking |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:36 - Nov 7 by soupytwist |
This is why, if you offered me playoffs now I would take it. What we're doing isn't normal and we're more likely to perform at a lower level over the course of the season than maintain our current form. And there would be no shame in that.
Of course, we can afford a slight drop in points per game return and still be automatic promotion candidates. Trouble is, there's really only one automatic place up for grabs due to the strength of Leicester's squad. |
Why would you take the playoffs now?
Win tonight and we'll realistically need another 48 points from 31 games to have a realistic shot at 2nd place.
That's 1.54 pts per game. That means maintaining form which would currently have us in around 9th-10th place.
There's a reason why the local Leeds media are heavily scrutinising us and trying to make out that they're closing the gap on us - they're worried. Very worried. | | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:52 - Nov 7 with 2424 views | Herbivore |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:36 - Nov 7 by Muncher |
I think you are absolutely spot on. I was saying this to anyone who would listen last season that our game simply doesn't suit poor conditions and heavy pitches.
This was even more so last season when the standard of pitches was generally poorer and restrictied our style of play. Cambridge away was a prime example, it looked like the players just didn't have the confidence to play those first time passes as they were having to take an extra touch. I was always confident our form would improve as the conditions improved. I think if you did a proper analysis you would find our results would heavily relate to pitch and weather conditions.
I think we will see much the same pattern this year, but to a lesser extent as the pitches are generally of better quality and are slightly better screened by bigger stadiums from driving wind and rain.
I think our next month or two is really key for a lot of reasons. |
I think the point about pitches is worth considering but I also feel it's a bit of an oversimplification. Remember that McKenna came into the job in December and immediately improved both the way we played and the results we were picking up during those tough winter months. The spell last season was bizarre, aside from right at the end of our indifferent run (mainly the Cambridge and Bristol Rovers games) our performance levels remained high but we seemed to concede from every shot against us whilst being wasteful in front of goal ourselves. We battered Pompey and Wycombe away, for example, and came away with a solitary point from those two games. It was a spell where nothing seemed to go our way (including the ref getting it wrong at Oxford in the fog) and ultimately our heads dipped a bit when we came into the Cambridge and Bristol Rovers games but prior to that we were still playing well enough. [Post edited 7 Nov 2023 9:55]
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| Fair Weather Team? on 09:53 - Nov 7 with 2430 views | SomethingBlue |
This is not a response to you really, more a response to what I've seen in some other places. We will definitely have a sticky run before long but I'm seeing way too many concerns about the last three games. We are not going to get perfection, not in this league, and the majority of matches are going to be 50/50-ish slugfests. The skill is in coming out on the right side and we're doing that. Bristol City have won their home matches on either side but we deserved to beat them despite a rocky last 15; Plymouth are a really good side as we know, and we beat them in a see-sawing game which we didn't manage to do in January; Brum was always going to be sticky and we showed fine resilience to pull through with a draw and deserved to, it was a game of two halves. Our performances have been good, people need to stop hand wringing over minor stuff. [Post edited 7 Nov 2023 9:57]
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| Fair Weather Team? on 09:54 - Nov 7 with 2419 views | Herbivore |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:36 - Nov 7 by soupytwist |
This is why, if you offered me playoffs now I would take it. What we're doing isn't normal and we're more likely to perform at a lower level over the course of the season than maintain our current form. And there would be no shame in that.
Of course, we can afford a slight drop in points per game return and still be automatic promotion candidates. Trouble is, there's really only one automatic place up for grabs due to the strength of Leicester's squad. |
Leicester lost their last game and if we win tonight we're one point behind them. They have a strong squad but they aren't battering sides every week and have, similar to us, relied on coming out on the right side of fine margins in some games. I absolutely would not take the play offs right now if offered it, think it's absolute madness to do so given the position we're in. | |
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| Fair Weather Team? on 09:55 - Nov 7 with 2398 views | Daninthecampo |
What i've noticed from McK's last few post match interviews, he has said we're still getting use to the step up to the championship and that we are having to work at 100% capacity every match to compete and grind out these results.
Working flat out 2 games a week and during the tough training sessions we know they do, this will take a big physical and mental toll on all the players, even more so if some of the players are reaching or getting close to their ceiling of ability, so extra tough to maintain.
We have a big squad which we can hopefully continue to utilise more , Harness, Scarlett, Taylor, Axel etc to rest some of the players and the International break will give some well earned rest to the squad. | | | |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:58 - Nov 7 with 2351 views | Churchman |
| Fair Weather Team? on 09:13 - Nov 7 by Asa |
Anyone moaning at this team needs to give up following football.
We are the best achieving Championship team in all time at this stage of the season. Leicester are of course above us but we are doing this from being two divisions below them with a squad worth a fraction of theirs.
Most teams never go on the run we are enjoying in their history. It's just silly. 13 wins from 14 when it mattered, 8 games without conceding a goal, 10 months without losing away, the most form side in Europe - about 13 points above Man City, Barcelona et al.
It's just a complete joke how good we are. Said it before but if this happened on a football game I'd quit because it was too easy.
When we eventually go back to being a team that wins one, draws one and loses one and doesn't play well every week, there is going to be some majestic disproportionate flouncing. |
It isn’t just the results, which have been Roy of the Rovers stuff, it’s the way we’ve achieved them. I absolutely love the way we play. It’s really exciting and reminds me of Burley’s teams. You want to see them play, you know what’s coming and so do the opposition but when we get into our rhythm there’s s0d all they can do to stop us over the 90 minutes.
Yes, results will probably drop off, but I reckon more than one team is going to take an absolute pasting off us before the season is out.
One thing that really propelled us last season was the January additions. I can’t wait to see what the club does this time or whether it adopts the cliche if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. | | | |
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