Written by kirsikka
Cook in for Adams was the only change, not an injury but managing the workload of Tyler. It was a risk given the weakness of the bench but sometimes a manager has to roll those dice.
We started with Semenyo on the left and Tavs on the right. I’ve moaned about this before, only for Antoine to put in a monster performance on the left shortly afterwards. Let’s get this straight. He was very good on the left today but, in my opinion, he doesn’t carry the same goal-scoring threat as when he can cut in from the right. I think that extra edge is missing from his game out there.
In a team lacking a cutting edge and not making the most of our chances, you’d think he would be one player we want where he’d be his most dangerous. That said, he was very quiet against Spurts on the right so what do I know?
As for the match, it wasn’t a game of two halves. Yes, there was a break in the middle but really it was a game of two periods. The first 25 minutes odd when Ipswich were on top and causing us problems and the rest of the match where they were bunkered down and just trying to hold out.
For Ipswich, the lack of ambition at home as soon as we showed we had our shape finally sorted out was surprising. You’d think this was the kind of game they would target to win but they aren’t a gritty Dyche team who can ugly their way to points so I would have expected them to keep coming at us.
If we could finish, it would have been much worse for them, but in the end, they got what they deserved. From what I saw, relegation beckons.
I’m not sure what went wrong during that first 25 but the high press was non-existent and they were just strolling through our midfield at will. Christie seemed to have disappeared and they constantly outnumbered us.
Even given that, we should still have been ahead. Kerkez flashed the ball across goal and Tavs should have tapped in an open net but missed his contact. At this point, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach as it felt like we’d been to this dance before and ended up going home on our own.
Their goal had been coming as we were ceding territory with the press missing in action and the whole setup looking disjointed. We dealt poorly with a long throw and left a man in acres of space in the area so he had plenty of time to set himself and slot home.
It’s worth comparing and contrasting that composure with what we saw from our players as the match developed, particularly Kluivert.
After their goal, they kept the pressure up and Kepa made a decent save to put it out for a corner. From this, Ipswich scored from a header at the back post but the ref immediately disallowed it.
If I’m honest, if it was chalked off for a foul then that was soft. Put it this way, if the ref hadn’t disallowed it there’s no way it would have been overturned by VAR. The only slight unknown is there was a suspicion from the commentary team that it might have been handball but, for some reason, we never saw an angle from behind the goal so I can’t comment on that.
Speaking of the men on comms, what an irritating pair. Not sure who they were but they mentioned they’d covered numerous Ipswich matches this season so it must be some kind of home team. They were desperate for Ipswich to win and the muted response to anything we did was annoying but, given the end result, I can now find it amusing.
Oh yeah, the fact that they repeatedly (at least four times) called Dango Semenyo was especially poor. At one point Semenyo on the right passed to someone in the middle who laid it out to Dango and the commentator said “Semenyo to… can’t remember… who passes out to Semenyo”. Just how quick do they think he is? They aren’t even remotely the same build either. Glad we don’t have to listen to those muppets every week.
The disallowed effort was around when the game flipped on its head. Suddenly we were working more as a unit, winning balls in midfield and they weren’t breaking through. Their tactical response was to sit back and try and see it out, perhaps confident in our inability to finish having watched the Spurs match (or several others from this season).
Relying on our finishing ineptitude wasn’t a bad shout but sometimes relentless pressure tells, and that did for them today.
From the stats I had at 68 minutes, we’d have 14 efforts on goal with only one on target and that was a poor shot easy for the keeper. Sure, some of them were pinged from outside the area but there were also some glorious opportunities spurned.
Cook fired over when it was put on a plate for him on the edge of the area, Kluivert let the ball roll over his standing left and effectively put himself off after superb work from Semenyo and so on.
You all know how it goes. If there was a Spotify Wrapped of our season so far, right at number two after relentless harrying would be Bad Finishing. Perhaps by Lady Gaga… ra ra ramama…
In AI’s defence, he threw everything at them trying different formations and personnel hoping something would stick.
We had Cook at RB, Unal and Eva up front together and Christie trying to hold the middle together on his own.
We had Dango left, right and all over the shop. At one point he actually tackled himself which was a sight to behold.
I was struggling to work it out towards the end, apart from it being like a cavalry charge every time we got the ball.
By taking men from the middle we lost some of our control there and Ipswich did have a couple of breakaway chances, one drawing an excellent save from Kepa. However, it still felt like the match was there if we could just get our shooting boots on.
A couple of other observations before we get to the final few minutes.
I’ve no idea how Kepa got booked after 61 minutes for time-wasting v Spurs the other night when Muric went for a coffee break every time the ball came to him and yet the ref seemed happy enough with it. The recent news of a countdown clock and corner being awarded in those scenarios sounds even better after what we witnessed today.
Semenyo appeared to pick up an injury after a snapshot, hopefully, it’s nothing to worry about. They were also dishing out a lot of dirty tackles on him. He’s clearly a marked man now and this is something he’ll need to get used to. Also, Ipswich were masters of the tactical foul to stop breakaways. I lost count of how many with only a selection getting the deserved yellow.
So to the ending…
It took a comedy goal to break through. In the 88th minute, the ball was played over the top on the left to Dango who clipped it over the keeper who, for some reason, had decided to charge out. With the goal gaping Unal somehow fluffed the header from about one yard but fortunately for him and us, it bounced off the defender and in.
Will that give him the boost he needs to return to last season’s levels? Let’s hope so, but it was a goal that he won’t want in his highlight reel.
We know AI teams don’t stop chasing the game until the final second of injury time and so it proved once again. In truth, it was a fabulous move up and across the pitch through six passes that cut them open. The ball was slid into the middle, Brooks had his shot saved and Dango was there to pounce on the rebound.
There was still time for VAR to get involved and, having seen Outtara denied several times this season, including one outrageous error, I was worried but fortunately, he was declared on. It looked very close though!
In the end, a fantastic result which consolidates the Spurs victory. Never in doubt? Ha! This isn’t good for my heart. We desperately need to get to the bottom of this finishing problem as it seems to be happening every game now.
Moans aside, we more than deserved the victory today and so the right result was reached.
Selected Player Watch
—– Tavernier —–
He’s a bit of a conundrum. In our first season back in the PL he looked a goal threat which, to go with his workrate, made him a candidate for someone who might move on to bigger things. Since then I think he’s plateaued. You can’t fault the effort he puts in, the way he contributed to the press, the fact that he can make things happen but he’s lacking that extra quality in his finish. It makes me think we might be as good as it gets for him.
—– Zabarnyi —–
After some questions about his performance in midweek, today he was imperious. Dealt with the supposedly dangerous Delap like he was putting a child in one of those baby jails and mopped up other breaks repeatedly. Might even be my MotM today.
—– Evanilson —–
Today was a different scenario than most of those we’ve faced recently. His darting runs are great but against a low block there isn’t really room for them and he was somewhat anonymous. Not sure if he even got a shot away in anger, which is disappointing in a game where we had so much of the play.
—– Cook —–
Part of a poor start to things but once we had a grip he was his usual bustling self. His versatility was much needed in a formation that changed so many times. I was almost expecting to see him take over in goal at one point.
—– Semenyo —–
Combined well with Kerkez and created a lot of problems for them but didn’t really see his quality finishing. Is that down to where he played or just having an off day on that side of his game?
AI and Tactics Watch
No doubt Ipswich shirt sponsor Ed Sheeran was watching. I’ve no idea what he thought of what he saw but I’m not sure if I was in love with the shape of us towards the end. It worked though, even if it was a tad scrappy and fortunate. As opposed to when we dominated the game but couldn’t hit a cow’s **************** with a bango. Which, I understand, is the sort of thing that happens in Ipswich for light entertainment.
I doubt AI has ever had to work as hard from the touchline for a win. He was constantly tweaking it trying to find that answer. The thing is, the problem wasn’t the formation as we were all over them. It was the bad, bad, bad, bad, bad finishing (Gaga, ooh-la-la).
At one point, when we were throwing on more attackers looking for an answer but giving up the midfield, it had an air of us v Spurs but with the roles switched. To be fair, AI saw sense and brought on Billing to reverse that.
I’m really not sure how to sum this up.
Did we deserve the win? Yes. By a distance.
Were we better than them? Yes. By a distance.
Did AI make some good changes from the touchline? Sure. They impacted the game and changed what Ipswich had to deal with.
Did we score and win? Yes.
But were we a bit lucky in the end to come away with the three points? Yes.
One more question… was it enjoyable? Well yes and no. There was a huge amount of frustration but a massive release when it finally paid off. It was great to see us putting them to the sword yet annoying to see us squandering that dominance.
Maybe I have unrealistic expectations but I also don’t believe we’re going to get as many chances to score as we’ve had in our last three matches in most of our remaining games. We need to start taking them.
Grumble, grumble, grumble. I know I sound like the Grinch who wants it all and will have a tantrum if I don’t get it.
It isn’t that. It’s more that I see a potential in this side I’ve never seen in an AFCB team before and I’m desperate that we don’t throw away the opportunity.
Still, another win and up to eighth in the table, within a whisker of the European places. Drink it in, these are the days that will sustain us in the future when it isn’t all so rosy.
Bring on West Ham next week, and hopefully the return of some of the injured to give us more options.
Your say…
Red_till_im_ded
Ipswich played the championship way. Lots of robustness and effort not a great deal of overall quality. Their goal was decent but poor defending from us. The disallowed goal was soft but the below-average overall refereeing from Salisbury did us a favour. Tav missed 2 glorious chances. What was most impressive for me personally was how at 87 minutes we weren’t giving up, got the equaliser and then the winner. Having had 2 days less than Ipswich to recover and prepare since our previous games our stamina and willingness to run until the final whistle showed real guts, mental strength and a will to win. Well done lads. Wasn’t perfect but 8th in the table is something to be proud of. – To join the conversation, click here.