Fw: [itfc] The View From Churchmans

[Eric Piazzoni]

~PZ

*Sent from my phone...please ignore typos*

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Rand <chris...@gmail.com>
Sender: itfc-b...@debaser.org
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:58:28
To: Ipswich Mailing List<it...@debaser.org>
Subject: [itfc] The View From Churchmans

Ipswich Town 2 [fill in the name of any opponents, really] 3

I'm not one of those people who think that anyone in the crowd can
possibly call things better than the manager, with his intimate
knowledge of the team and (I hope) opponents, as well as his
experience of managing. But when 17,000 people can see that a decision
he's about to make is the wrong one, well, you have to believe in the
Wisdom of Crowds theory. If your team is playing poorly, and has a 2-1
lead going into the last ten minutes, you don't suddenly turn to
backs-against-the-wall defensive tactics and let your opponents throw
everything they've got at you (if your team is a confident one, things
might be different). Hindsight may be a wonderful thing, but people
around me started saying as soon as the second goal went in: "Please
don't try and defend this". He did.

It's hard to think past the manager's ineptitude today, but I suppose
the 4-4-2 was a minor improvement on the shambles of a formation we've
seen over the past few weeks. Fortunately Reading were at best
ordinary, or Town might have shipped three goals before half-time as
they did in the last home game. Individually there are some decent
talents there, but the big problem is the failure to make them into a
team. The defence is appalling - in the past half season (23 matches),
Town have shipped 50 goals, a figure not seen since the club was being
thrashed on a weekly basis while plummeting out of the Premiership of
1994/95; there's no stability to the midfield, which is rightly being
seen as the most underperforming part of the team; and the strikers
are managing less than a goal every other game between them this
season. It's been a from autumn, and I can't see how it might pick up
soon.

Overall Town performance:
3/10 – Lacking in any creativity, and just, well, boring.

Opposition quality:
4/10 – Very ordinary, but can't be denied their three points.

Referee:
3/10 – Made a series of dreadful elementary mistakes, which at least
got the crowd fired up.

Match excitement:
3/10 – Dull, dull, dull. Looked like a Sunday league game at times.

Opposition supporters:
5/10 – About 500, but not much from them until the last few minutes.

Player ratings, as ever 1 to 5 for each of effort/achievement…

WRIGHT 4 (2/2) made a decent save in the second half, but his
distribution was just the most obvious symptom of his lack of match
practice. At least we can be fairly confident he'll get better, unlike
the rest of the team.

EDWARDS 4 (2/2) seemed glued to the defensive third of the pitch,
presumably because he had no confidence that he'd receive any
defensive cover from JET - he seemed as nervous as I can ever remember
too; INGIMARSSON 4 (2/2) and COLLINS 4 (2/2) seemed equally culpable
for the ease in which Reading knocked in three goals; and CRESSWELL 5
(3/2) looked eager at times, and made on glorious saving tackle, but
delivered some dreadful passes and crosses.

EMMANUEL-THOMAS 4 (2/2) contributed very little of substance, and is
comfortably proving to be the season's biggest disappointment;
LEADBITTER 4 (2/2) completely failed to get things moving in the way
we needed him to; ANDREWS 4 (2/2) featured only in fits and starts;
and CARSON 5 (3/2) covered a fair bit of ground, but like the rest of
the midfield, delivered little.

MURPHY 5 (2/3) was made the focus of the team's long-ball tactics,
without looking that great ...but at least he delivered a rare
striker's goal; and CHOPRA 5 (3/2) - although not exactly delivering
the goods - must at least be congratulated on not giving up in disgust
at the lack of service.

Substitutes: MARTIN looked reasonably enthusiastic; BULLARD looked out
of touch; and WABARA didn't have enough time to look like anything.

--
regards
Chris Rand
Cherry Hinton Blue
============================================================
Yes - we really have found the cheapest stuff on Amazon!
http://www.discountsorcerer.co.uk/
============================================================

_______________________________________________
itfc mailing list
it...@debaser.org
http://www.debaser.org/itfc