We had a decent start to the season but I think teams have worked out how to nullify us (just stop Dack) and there's no evidence that our "wide forwards" are having any impact. We're extremely reliant on Graham, Dack and Mulgrew and have been lucky they've been available for most of the season. To make Tony's formation work properly you're looking at quite significant upgrades across the park, imo, whereas getting a more traditional and attritional formation to work may only require bringing in a proper winger/wide midfielder or two alongside a decent centre back.

In retrospect the deal for Palmer was a bad move all around. It'll be interesting to see how he fares at Bristol City. What's the betting he plays and scores against us when they come to Ewood? He'll know better than anybody how fragile our defence is. Our recruitment this window will be interesting as it should show whether Tony is determined to stick with the inside forward formation that isn't really working, or whether he's accepted the need for proper wide men to give the team a bit of balance.

Stoke have definitely been underachieving, but then you could say the same for Farke and Norwich last season, and look at them now. Moyes the rumoured candidate for Stoke.

After being out for so long he'd ideally be sent out on loan somewhere for a few months to get his fitness and game readiness back up to scratch. Then in the summer work out if he's any good to us as a squad player. I would say probably not but Tony is sometimes too loyal for his own good.

VR's biggest drawback is, ironically, how immersive it is. Unlike with 2D games you can't really just pause and text somebody back, or have a quick chat with the missus whilst continuing to play. VR takes all of your senses and forces them into solely focusing on the game. Obviously it has to be that way, or it wouldn't be VR, but being taken out of reality for hours at a time isn't exactly easy to find time for. I love my Rift but haven't used it for a few months now. I still use my PSVR on occasion as it's a lot easier to set up and I have more 'pick up and play' games I can have 20 minutes or so on - Wipeout, RIGS, etc. I never played Elite 2D, but playing it in VR was still very cool. I even found a mod which lets you watch YouTube in the cockpit when you're on long journeys I could never get the hang of dogfighting though, I always died in about ten seconds so just started running away to avoid fights. I think that's probably what stopped me playing it tbh. Other games most definitely worth picking up: Robo Recall (free) Rec Room (free) Lone Echo/Echo Arena Beat Saber Moss Holoball Skyrim (with mods) Fallout (with mods) Googles Maps VR (free and amazing) BigScreen VR (cinema app, I think it's free?) There are probably others but those are the ones off the top of my head that I really enjoyed. Need to get my Oculus hooked up again really, just wish there wasn't so many bloody wires everywhere. The only other major downside.

I love how it isn't even really being reported as an upset. Ipswich are basically already considered a League 1 team.

Completely agree. Hopes of Chapman coming here, his injuries suddenly disappearing and the lad tearing up the wing are based more on sentimentality than reality imo. For a start we don't even play a system that needs wingers (it's supposed to be inside forwards!) but even if we did switch to a system with genuine wide men the chances of Chapman being able to start more than a handful of games at this level is pretty slim imo. His injuries indicate a serious defect in his body when it comes to athletic competition. It's really sad but it's not often a player has as many injuries as he's had at that age, in basically the same area, and goes on to have a normal career.

Whenever I saw or heard that old "Browny" was coming on I felt like I might as well give up and go on do something else. Him being on the pitch seemed to destroy any chance of us scoring.

These comments about Brereton not being a natural goalscorer contrast sharply with Tony's comments that he's the best finisher on the training pitch. Is it a case of him not being able to handle the pressure on match day, or is Tony exaggerating?

Winter was one of very few journalists who fully stood behind the fans when the Venky's/Kean saga was in full swing. Don't remember him ever taking a shot at us, only pointing out what the owners and the bald snake had done and were doing to us.

I'm hopeful that performances and results will continue to improve with Travis in the centre (assuming he's kept there), as it will prove that what we need is only one truly defensive midfielder assisted by a box-to-box midfielder who can support both attack and defence. I'm not sure there's a situation when I'd ever really want us playing with two DM's. All it does is leave the attack isolated and invite pressure onto our backline - which has already proven to be ineffectual at dealing with said pressure.

Most of their fans are still in denial tbh. I keep hearing them repeat the "it was his time to go" mantra like zombies, failing to comprehend that the only reason that's true is because the fans decided so. Neither the owner nor the players wanted him to go and Mick was happy to stay too. If anything their rapid decline and destruction seems to have made Ipswich fans even more delusional. As far as L1 is concerned, weirdly they might actually be quite well eqipped for it. Assuming they keep most of the current squad together they will already have a lot of L1 and L2's higher rated players so it should make them competitive in that division. A little investment from the owner will be needed too, and I guess that'll be the litmus test.

The sceptic in me wonders if he's already plotting his escape and making comments like these to make a sacking more likely. I get the feeling Evans won't bite though. If Lambert wants to leave I think he's going to have to walk.

Lambert starting to take shots at the owner/board over contracts running down: https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/sport/ipswich-town/paul-lambert-on-ipswich-town-contracts-1-5837312 “He’s entitled to do what he wants, but this should have been taken care of with 12 months to go,” Lambert said of the Knudsen situation. “It shouldn’t have gone into six months to go. “The club has to look at that. You can’t keep letting contracts run down otherwise you keep having the same cycle where eight guys go and eight guys come in and you’re building team after team. It doesn’t work. It’s the wrong structure. That’s my opinion. “If you keep getting loans, loans, loans, loans then you may as well throw you money in the street. It’s not normal. The club has to have a stable base form which to build. “Maybe get one or two loans, no problem, but you can’t keep relying on ones that are not your own players. “You can’t bring in eight or nine players one summer. That’s sheer madness.”

With the transfer window now officially open I assume that we've paid some kind of fee and Brereton is now our player rather than Forest's. Odd that there hasn't been any confirmation from the club yet though. With his lacklustre introduction to the team I wonder if they're just going to let it slip under the radar and not announce anything?

In theory I think Tony sees him as one of our two inside forwards being brought into the game by Graham and Dack, running in behind defences and creating assists/goals from those positions. The main problem, as I've said a lot recently, is that our inside forwards end up becoming wingers because they drift too far wide. This doesn't suit players like Armstrong, Brereton or Palmer because they don't really possess the attributes to be effective wingers. They're strikers and although Tony probably does see them that way, his tactics and game plan don't really allow them to fulfil the role he has in mind for them.

I don't see how Chapman fits into Mowbray's inside forwards system - there is no winger role. Granted we end up with de facto wingers because the inside forwards drift out too far, but that's not the aim. Signing a player like Chapman would suggest Mowbray is rethinking his tactics.

https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/relegation-stats-facing-ipswich-town-1-5837053 Brutal stuff, having less points than Rotherham at this stage in 16/17 takes some doing.

I said in the match thread I hadn't heard anything about Williams being injured, so that was an odd one for me. Dack was clearly stunned to be given the hook as well, although I think that was more to do with Tony wanting to defend the lead than punishing Dack for his stupidity.

It was stupidity on an absurd scale. We aren't talking about a rash 17 or 18 year old charging around the pitch trying to make an impression, either. Dack is one of our more experienced players and should know better. He's lucky that didn't cost us anything more than minor damage to our overall GD.

£10m for a player who's turning 33 in March? Mulgrew is obviously a top player but with his age and injury record taken into account that seems like a ridiculous amount to even suggest.

My main concern with Mowbray is that we won't really move in any direction under him. It'll be middle of the road forevermore unless there's some pretty significant investment in the first team squad (or in the wrong direction if players are sold and funds withdrawn, ala Bowyer). Obviously you have to give the man time to prove otherwise, but impressions from his first couple of years or so at the club suggests, to me, that he doesn't have the courage to push an average team into playoff/promotion contention.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/12/29/tt-got-lucky-class-bolton-wanderers-fans-react-to-phil-parkinson/ Ah, anybody remember this old debate about Lowey's best position actually being right back? Didn't work out so well for them yesterday!

Tbf if we'd been a bit braver in the run in we may well have pipped them to 1st spot, but as usual it was caution first with Tony and we duly ended up second. I couldn't help but notice watching the FL highlights show yesterday that our old friend Jason Lowe was directly culpable for Hull's second and third goals. He failed to stop a cross coming in for the second goal (didn't even attempt to block it) and continually backed off for the third allowing the Hull player a free shot at goal from the edge of the box.

I think on the football league show last night they said Ipswich have the lowest points total of any team at this stage of the competition since the Championship started. If so then they would require a miracle at this point to survive.