Championship 2018-19

[roversfan99]

46 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Firstly, Stanley play good attacking football. Why not head down on a day when Rovers are playing. 

Majority of squad from last season? Hurst has made 12 new signings this season so hardly majority of the same squad from last season. Plus the majority of them haven't played championship football or very little. 

Waghorn, Garner and McGoldrick gone. Replace by one experience striker and 2 unproven players at this level. 

On money spent, Hurst spent about 4.5 to 5 million on new players plus sold players totally 11 million. So roughly had 40-45 % of the money. https://www.transfermarkt.com/ipswich-town/transfers/verein/677

Look at the reasons why McCarthy left first. 

Dislike McCarthy? He just the sort of manager we dont need imo. 

 

Because I dont support them or have a strong interest in them but as I said there is less of a gap between rich and poor in the fourth tier. Burton and Burnley are examples which belittled your own point, little money in comparison to their Leagues so play football that isnt easy on the eye because they know that if they went toe to toe and tried to play expansive football they would struggle.

4-5m is far more than McCarthy ever had and comes from players signed for fairly cheap in McCarthys spell sold on for a profit.

Your totally missing the main 2 points anyway.

Firstly Hurst is not a manager that plays attractive football, look at Shrewsbury. So if your main bug bear with McCarthy is style then why appoint Hurst?

Also, he let them 3 go you mention (you have definitely turned your nose up at at least 1 or 2 of them coming here over the summer by the way, apologies if mistaken) one of whom was forever injured and the other 2 who he only had for a season. He has spent lots yet why is a place 9 places lower than last season suddenly a good season?

Basicaly you hold a personal grudge against McCarthy and you are covering the fact that you was wrong to deride him so much.

The reason he went was simple. He was a victim of his own success. Supporters had delusions of grandeur that a squad full of frees could play exhillirating football whilst maintaining the excellent consistent results he kept achieving.

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

Because I dont support them or have a strong interest in them but as I said there is less of a gap between rich and poor in the fourth tier. Burton and Burnley are examples which belittled your own point, little money in comparison to their Leagues so play football that isnt easy on the eye because they know that if they went toe to toe and tried to play expansive football they would struggle.

4-5m is far more than McCarthy ever had and comes from players signed for fairly cheap in McCarthys spell sold on for a profit.

Your totally missing the main 2 points anyway.

Firstly Hurst is not a manager that plays attractive football, look at Shrewsbury. So if your main bug bear with McCarthy is style then why appoint Hurst?

Also, he let them 3 go you mention (you have definitely turned your nose up at at least 1 or 2 of them coming here over the summer by the way, apologies if mistaken) one of whom was forever injured and the other 2 who he only had for a season. He has spent lots yet why is a place 9 places lower than last season suddenly a good season?

Basicaly you hold a personal grudge against McCarthy and you are covering the fact that you was wrong to deride him so much.

The reason he went was simple. He was a victim of his own success. Supporters had delusions of grandeur that a squad full of frees could play exhillirating football whilst maintaining the excellent consistent results he kept achieving.

McCarthy spent around 6 to 7 million pounds on transfers plus alot of loans and free transfers. 

Did I appoint Hurst? Is Ipswich my club? Nope. 

Because of the overhaul of half the squad plus alot of unproven players at this level. And A manager who never manage at this level before. How many times Ive said this now?

What personal grudge? Ive never met him before in my life. 

Edited September 24, 2018 by chaddyrovers

[Bbrovers2288]

I still rate hurst personally, think he should have chose a better championship position though, Ipswich have been slowly sinking for years, held up purely by the know how of McCarthy 

[Paul]

15 hours ago, JacknOry said:

Only two points from playoffs despite a tough run of fixtures - do any of you think we have it in us to flirt with them this year?

Yes. I said top ten before the season started but after seeing the first few games revised that to playoffs.

We are as good as any I've seen. Nothing to fear.

[DE.]

Our tendency to self destruct towards the end of games needs to stop if we want to make the playoffs. Lenihan's panicked shove on Berahino at the end of the Stoke match was a prime example of the type of behaviour we need to remove. I don't know if it's a mental thing or just tiredness but we could have easily lost a 3-0 lead in 13 minutes and that's concerning. Mowbray will hopefully be working on it as a priority. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

17 minutes ago, DE. said:

Our tendency to self destruct towards the end of games needs to stop if we want to make the playoffs. Lenihan's panicked shove on Berahino at the end of the Stoke match was a prime example of the type of behaviour we need to remove. I don't know if it's a mental thing or just tiredness but we could have easily lost a 3-0 lead in 13 minutes and that's concerning. Mowbray will hopefully be working on it as a priority. 

Completely agree. 

When I put on the highlights I was eagerly anticipating seeing how the penalty was given away. Definitely reckless from Leniham, but I can imagine the adrenaline was through the roof with how the game had gone at that point.

I still think that result is one we will refer back to at the end of the season. Our luck prevented us from going full kamikaze and giving up a 3 goal lead. Would have been hard to get going for the next game after that and the main discussion on here now would be the that we may be in trouble as we can't hold a lead. The way things worked out, we are now thinking about play offs. 

I suppose it needs to be said that Stoke have as much firepower as we will face at this level, so to win there, we would always need a bit of luck. It's just we wouldn't have thought that on 50 minutes! A lot of positives to take from the game, but we undoubtedly need to improve our game management. We have a few lads who struggle to keep their heads.  

On a major positive note to end though, if Dack doesn't unluckily hit the post, we could have been 4 goals up, they may have completely collapsed at that point and we could have been looking at 0-5 or 0-6. Maybe it's good that didn't happen, or we would be getting very carried away! 

Edited September 24, 2018 by Bigdoggsteel

[LDRover]

10 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Firstly, Stanley play good attacking football. Why not head down on a day when Rovers are playing. 

Cracking idea Chaddy. We could save some money and close another stand.

[roversfan99]

30 minutes ago, DE. said:

Our tendency to self destruct towards the end of games needs to stop if we want to make the playoffs. Lenihan's panicked shove on Berahino at the end of the Stoke match was a prime example of the type of behaviour we need to remove. I don't know if it's a mental thing or just tiredness but we could have easily lost a 3-0 lead in 13 minutes and that's concerning. Mowbray will hopefully be working on it as a priority. 

Agreed. Mowbray only commented on the 77 minutes prior, I do hope and assume that was just a smokescreen and he is dealing with it behind closed doors as we need to sort it out fast.

[DE.]

29 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

 When I put on the highlights I was eagerly anticipating seeing how the penalty was given away. Definitely reckless from Leniham, but I can imagine the adrenaline was through the roof with how the game had gone at that point.

Yeah, worth noting I wasn't solely placing the blame on Lenihan there. If we hadn't conceded two goals in the space of two minutes he probably wouldn't have been so hyped up and thus wouldn't have committed the foul. We had the chance to see out the game with a comfortable lead and totally blew it, leading to panic in the last ten minutes. The players still gave everything to finish the match with three points, and you can't fault that resolve, but if Stoke had a decent penalty taker we'd be talking about another two points completely thrown away. 

So far we've only conceded last minute equalisers against Ipswich and Villa so I wouldn't say it's a big deal at this moment in time. We managed to hold Derby last Tuesday as well despite coming under heavy pressure. This is just something Mowbray needs to nip in the bud before it becomes a bigger issue. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, DE. said:

Yeah, worth noting I wasn't solely placing the blame on Lenihan there. If we hadn't conceded two goals in the space of two minutes he probably wouldn't have been so hyped up and thus wouldn't have committed the foul. We had the chance to see out the game with a comfortable lead and totally blew it, leading to panic in the last ten minutes. The players still gave everything to finish the match with three points, and you can't fault that resolve, but if Stoke had a decent penalty taker we'd be talking about another two points completely thrown away. 

So far we've conceded only last minute equalisers against Ipswich and Villa so I wouldn't say it's a big deal at this moment in time. We managed to hold Derby last Tuesday as well despite coming under heavy pressure. This is just something Mowbray needs to nip in the bud before it becomes a bigger issue. 

Goals change games as they say. Crouch is a handful and from reading and watching highlights, it seems he asked questions of Williams and Lenihan. 

Sigh of relief anyway that we came away with the 3 points! 

[Bigdoggsteel]

16 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Agreed. Mowbray only commented on the 77 minutes prior, I do hope and assume that was just a smokescreen and he is dealing with it behind closed doors as we need to sort it out fast.

No doubt he is. He did speak about game management in the post match interview as well. 

I suppose no good could come from publicly picking those last 15 minutes apart. Behind closed doors though I am sure everyone is aware of how lucky we got and the need to stamp it out. It's like a reverse Man u under Ferguson! 

[47er]

Sorry if its been mentioned but cracking goal from McGinn at the weekend.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, 47er said:

Sorry if its been mentioned but cracking goal from McGinn at the weekend.

Beauty 

[Dreams of 1995]

Anyone saying they wouldn't want McCarthy in this league as their manager is a liar. He's had 3 promotions hasn't he? Jesus Christ. You don't do it 3 times if you are a bad manager!

I genuinely think we are in contention for a play off spot. We'll have a patch of dropping points but think this team is made of sturdy stuff. We don't like losing at home which is the foundation of all good sides. Under previous managers we struggled to put together any run of results at home so it's refreshing to actually see us doing so well. I actually can't remember the feeling of disappointment after a league home game at the moment!!!

[Bigdoggsteel]

Saw some interesting quotes from Mowbray today. He was talking about the number of games we are having every week and that when it comes to Christmas and beyond, the teams with the biggest budgets and squads come to the fore. Now in general he is right, but Cardiff got automatic last season with a pretty small squad. They were lucky with injuries in fairness. Now, I just wonder, is Tony planting seeds with Venkys to splash some cash in January. Sounds like it to me 

[Lancaster Rover]

I think is just tempering peoples expectations after a solid start to the season. 

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Saw some interesting quotes from Mowbray today. He was talking about the number of games we are having every week and that when it comes to Christmas and beyond, the teams with the biggest budgets and squads come to the fore. Now in general he is right, but Cardiff got automatic last season with a pretty small squad. They were lucky with injuries in fairness. Now, I just wonder, is Tony planting seeds with Venkys to splash some cash in January. Sounds like it to me 

I presume it is with a view to rotating tonight. Hes had plenty of money to be fair

[Bigdoggsteel]

19 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I presume it is with a view to rotating tonight. Hes had plenty of money to be fair

Could definitely do with more in January!  

[Dreams of 1995]

The thing is that we do have strength in depth all areas except defence. We have an abundance of central midfield options and our forward positions all have 2 players per position. We should have no issue with handling the rigours of this league.

It is in defence were the worry lies. Lenihan has a tendency to get injured for long periods and Mulgrew is already showing signs of injuries. Are Downing and Williams a centre half partnership that makes you confident? Likewise if Nyambe gets injured our next right back is Travis or Bennett. One is a young lad and the other is taking away from our wide players. 

If there is money in Jan it has to be spent on a defender or two. It's the only area of the pitch that has question marks over it currently. Rovers have neglected it for too many years and it has always come back to haunt us: see Bowyer's/Coyle's years as a prime example

[JacknOry]

1 hour ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

The thing is that we do have strength in depth all areas except defence. We have an abundance of central midfield options and our forward positions all have 2 players per position. We should have no issue with handling the rigours of this league.

It is in defence were the worry lies. Lenihan has a tendency to get injured for long periods and Mulgrew is already showing signs of injuries. Are Downing and Williams a centre half partnership that makes you confident? Likewise if Nyambe gets injured our next right back is Travis or Bennett. One is a young lad and the other is taking away from our wide players. 

If there is money in Jan it has to be spent on a defender or two. It's the only area of the pitch that has question marks over it currently. Rovers have neglected it for too many years and it has always come back to haunt us: see Bowyer's/Coyle's years as a prime example

Agree with your post but i think RB should be okay as we have Reed who played most of last season there and did well apparently. 

[DE.]

1 hour ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

The thing is that we do have strength in depth all areas except defence. We have an abundance of central midfield options and our forward positions all have 2 players per position. We should have no issue with handling the rigours of this league.

It is in defence were the worry lies. Lenihan has a tendency to get injured for long periods and Mulgrew is already showing signs of injuries. Are Downing and Williams a centre half partnership that makes you confident? Likewise if Nyambe gets injured our next right back is Travis or Bennett. One is a young lad and the other is taking away from our wide players. 

If there is money in Jan it has to be spent on a defender or two. It's the only area of the pitch that has question marks over it currently. Rovers have neglected it for too many years and it has always come back to haunt us: see Bowyer's/Coyle's years as a prime example

I'd generally agree with that, except I think we need one more decent striker on the books. If Graham went down with an injury I wouldn't be confident that Palmer, Armstrong or Brereton would get us the goals we need. Dack does score goals but he's more like a Frank Lampard type - will score plenty from an attacking midfield position, but doesn't necessarily have the attributes to be a pure striker. 

[47er]

We brought in 7(?) players in the transfer window but the areas of weakness which we all identified were not addressed. We didn't get a winger in but fair enough we did make an attempt for Chapman, we didn't buy a centre-back which is really coming back to haunt us with Mulgrew's injury, and we are still totally reliant on a 33 year old staying fit up-front.

We can't rely on Rodwell coming good ,Armstrong is not good enough at this level and Brereton is "one for the future" the problem being that we are playing now.

We didn't sign a keeper to compete with Raya and we just pray Raya stays fit.

Looking back we didn't target the key areas of need.

 

[SBlue]

3 minutes ago, 47er said:

We brought in 7(?) players in the transfer window but the areas of weakness which we all identified were not addressed. We didn't get a winger in but fair enough we did make an attempt for Chapman, we didn't buy a centre-back which is really coming back to haunt us with Mulgrew's injury, and we are still totally reliant on a 33 year old staying fit up-front.

We can't rely on Rodwell coming good ,Armstrong is not good enough at this level and Brereton is "one for the future" the problem being that we are playing now.

We didn't sign a keeper to compete with Raya and we just pray Raya stays fit.

Looking back we didn't target the key areas of need.

 

I know - no surprise it’s all gone to shit, really.

[Atko's Engine]

By the sounds of things we were looking to address all those areas of the squad, but Fielding got injured, & Bauer and Chapman weren't allowed to leave their clubs. It happens and to be fair we can't realistically expect Mowbray to fill every gap in the squad in 1 window when moving up a division. 

[47er]

HA! Obviously it hasn't but the manager's job includes contingency plans for when it does. We lack adequate cover in key areas whereas we are overflowing with mid-fielders.

If we can get through OK till January, well and good but.........

Edited September 26, 2018 by 47er