In fairness CJAY - the club origins of a goalkeeper or any player means very little. Few keepers actually arrive on the scene having started at a big club. McKenna has built a decent squad by using what he inherited and adding the right blend of players, not just based on talent but experience and personality. His achievements in this day and age, when instant success is required are extremely impressive.Cjay wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2024 10:12 pm Sorry but opposition fans seeing us playing the "oh dear look how weak our squad is line" would pish themselves laughing.
The QPR fan who was on here or the Millwall fan ask them if they'd like Dan James on the bench or Piroe or Conor Roberts or even Charlie Cresswell.
The Ipswich goalie was signed from Accrington Stanley.
The left back was one we decided was crap.
The midfielder they bought off the bench tonight has a career best 8 goals in league 1, only done similar once before in non league.
The main striker tonight had played 40 games before in the Championship, 0 goals before this season
But we are playing the oh how awful our squad is card?
Last time our most used sub was in the Championship he scored 8 goals and got 6 assists for the team that finished 2nd.
Our next most used sub is former Championship player of the year and double Championship promotion winning Bamford.
After that it's Willy Gnonto who we rejected 20+million for in the summer.
And after that it's Piroe who Farke was given £15mil to buy (a record fee for basically the whole league) and is the top Championship open play goalscorer over the last 2 years.
Ipswich most used subs include league 1 journeyman Marcus Harness who was has never played regularly above league 1 and Kayden Jackson whose 30 with 2 double figure seasons in his career.
Seems a bit rich and lacking awareness playing the awful squad card when you look at our competitors.
Look at who WBA have on the bench or Norwich or go back look at the bench under MB.
Those are what Championship squads usually look like.
Personally I think it's a bit embarrassing playing that card, rate the players or not but pedigree wise it's levels above what you get in this league.
Absolutely miles.
There is a good chance he will go on to be a top manager at one of the big clubs.
Just for context Meslier was bought for 5 million from Lorient I believe, who were a French second division club.
Our squad has many frailties despite the suggestion that they are all top notch at this level. Experience and decision making is rather thin on the ground and should not be underestimated. Our team has shown that they can be as formidable an opponent as any team in this league when it clicks. Conversely as we have seen of late they can also look like 11 strangers.
Just because a player was great at club X and won an accolade does not guarantee that he can repeat that with club Y. This is why player personality is as important as talent.
Whether DF can turn this around and get us promoted will be a true test of his credentials. Whether by results going in our favour and beating Southampton on the last day or via the playoffs makes no difference as the end result is still the same.
Now is not the time to experiment as some suggest - it is too late for that. You hold your nerve and go with what you know works in most games and fix the current issues.
I am in agreement that he should have used the squad more, because he has limited his options in the run in. He is relying on his stalwarts even when there is clearly issues in consistency and performance levels for Geo, Gray, Gruev, Piroe and Bamford. Changing the keeper at this stage of the season as SA found out is not the answer, unless we have a nailed on upgrade. Anyone who thinks we have is just speculating IMO.