Petriix

Don't be so naive, we're up against one of the best (and in-form) teams in the league. They're playing so high that we stand a great chance of hitting them on the break and should really be winning. Our tactics today are far more coherent than those we've employed for much of the season and they're pretty much working.

I couldn't agree more, especially when your strikers are bang-average at best. I can understand finding a formation to fit your world-class players but we've had several strikers out injured and would really have been better packing the midfield.

Playing devil's advocate (or Wagner's if you will) I imagine the theory is that the plan absolutely works on paper and it's simply down to the players not quite executing it correctly on the pitch and, with sufficient repetition, it will come good. It's not such a leap of the imagination to see how this could be the prevailing view from within the club. To be fair, I've witnessed 'the plan' working pretty well for brief spells throughout the season with the obvious flaw being that we've consistently lacked the ability to create goals from early turnovers and we've left gaping holes behind the initial press. I imagine these are the minor details they try to iron out in training. I suspect there was a genuine lack of oversight under Webber and Knapper simply hasn't had sufficient time to change things and doesn't want to rip things up while he figures out the best solutions. Contrary to popular belief, it's generally a bad idea to walk into a new workplace and start telling everyone they're crap at their jobs. The issues at the club run a little deeper and will take careful surgery to root out rather than just swinging an axe. I suspect (and hope) we'll see some positive changes in the coming weeks. We've already become much less porous in defence. I think patience is required.

I think it's reasonable to say that the transfer business has left us with very few quality options and then to also criticise the manager for failing to pick our few quality players in their most effective positions. It doesn't have to be a binary either the manager or sporting director at fault, there can be blame in both camps. I am in no doubt that Farke would have done better with the squad than either of our managers since, especially at Championship level. That doesn't mean that the squad isn't significantly worse than Farke's previous promotion winners.

I'm not a fan of Barnes and thought his signing had striking parallels with Naismith's in that they were both no longer capable of playing at the required level at the point they arrived. Exactly the wrong kind of signing for what we were trying to achieve in the medium term. I'll accept that his early performances exceeded my expectations and I'm sure that his... let's call it 'enthusiasm' has (or had) a positive impact on the team. However he's very much reverted to what I imagined he would be like with his attitude seemingly quite negative. He seems to want to be afforded a kind of cult hero status without having actually done anything to deserve it. The biggest concern for me is that his presence in the team is totally unbalancing us by making us too top-heavy while not really offering enough threat to cause our opponents any problems. He doesn't hold the ball up well, nor does he pull defenders out of position to create space for his teammates. I'd much prefer playing with a deeper 10 to give us that crucial extra body in midfield.

Yes, it's absolutely clear to me that the talent we do have is being sacrificed on the altar of 'athleticism'; A paradigm where Hernandez is picked for his pace and hard work when he lacks the skill to perform at this level. I find it hard to comprehend how long we've persevered with two strikers while giving up so much control in midfield while every successful team focuses on winning that central battle while getting their 'weapons' into scoring positions. Sara is a dangerous player and should be operating as a 10 who drops deep rather than an 8 who gets forwards. It's similar with Rowe being asked to run himself into the ground every game, up and down the pitch in both attack and defence. If he was playing in a narrower role with a number 10 then the workload would be massively reduced, leaving him enough energy to make more telling contributions at the crucial moments. While I think we're generally lacking a bit of skill in the squad, imagine how our first choice players would do in Farke's 4-2-3-1 with Rowe, Sara and Sainz behind Sargent; Nunez paired with a new CDM and McLean along side Hanley in defence; Idah as super-sub... That would be a decent team.

Our fans are pretty poor judges. Russell Martin would have been a better choice than either of the managers we've had since Farke; who himself would be better still if we'd simply not sacked him.

I genuinely think the hatred for Cantwell on here is simply akin to playground bullying. People don't like him because he's a bit different, has long hair and posts on social media. Honestly, the nonsense about his attitude is just people looking for sticks to beat him with. The fact is that he's better than most of the attacking midfielders we currently have and it's a shame for us that (for whatever reason) his time here faded out rather than getting the most out of him. It's incredibly childish to follow his career hoping for him to be anything other than successful.

Yes, I'd argue that our Premier League squad was only really a top 8 Championship squad which Farke massively over achieved with, hence the humiliating relegation. Buendia was the only genuine Premier League player in there.

Unsurprisingly sexy in my opinion.

The Huddersfield player clattered Sainz after he hit the shot. IMO it should be a penalty but they're rarely given. Sainz was rightly unhappy but did nothing other than a bit of a shove.

The problem we have (aside from the obvious hole in central midfield) is a lack of quality on the bench. We need viable alternatives so that we actually have a striker to bring on (not Gibbs) or an attacking midfielder who can contribute goals and assists. I want to see three signings: CDM, AM and striker.

But it clearly demonstrates that coherent tactics combined with a solid basis in the basic skills of passing, moving and running into space and a good fitness level is sufficient to succeed at this level. Collectively Ipswich are better than us even if we do have a few individual players who are obviously better than their equivalents. Stop tarring us all with the same brush. I'd say the majority had legitimate concerns over Wagner due to the prolonged runs of awful performances. Many of us never wanted Farke out and have (correctly) been dismayed at the club's decline since his departure.

I had a quick look at TWTD last night and, while the comments are pretty ungracious, it's only a handful of posters and not necessarily representative of the wider views of their fans. In any case remember that it's ages since we played them and most of the kids posting on the forum were only toddlers when they last beat us. Let them vent their frustrations in the privacy of their own forum.

What a ridiculous post. You'll find that many top players are 'in the right place at the right time'. That's why they're good. Rowe suffers slightly from being played in a wide position with a huge amount of running to support both defence and attack which is why he's regularly substituted off (because he's knackered). If I had my way he'd be playing centrally either as a striker or number 10, but he's doing incredibly well to be our top scorer while playing out wide. Contrast him with our other wingers and their output in terms of goals and assists. Absent from where exactly? He's incredibly hard working and still only 20 FFS.

It's simply that Sara is one of the two (currently fit) players we have who is consistently capable of kicking the ball into the goal. Playing him in more of a goalscoring position is pretty obvious. Remember how Pukki was originally playing on the wing before being moved to the central position when his strengths became clear? Nunez, on the other hand, has been playing really well in that deeper role. If we sign that elusive CDM then keeping McLean in defence and Nunez in midfield. Moving Sara to 10 is pretty obvious. I'd be disappointed if we didn't try it.

I've been very happy with McLean at centre back. I agree that the midfield is better without him, but think he brings some missing ingredients to the defensive line and works especially well in possession. It definitely solves some of our structural issues and gives us better balance. Wagner is also starting Sainz over Hernandez which is probably the number one change people were asking for. Generally the team is looking more capable and more coherent. It's fair to say, though, that it's taken the manager quite a while to plug the obvious holes and it was reasonable for fans to lose patience seeing the same mistakes being made repeatedly. It's great to see a novel solution but it's ok to question why things had to get so bad in the first place. I think most of us have been happy with how things are going post Webber. Even the most vociferous Wagner-outers have been silenced by the upturn in performances. The crazy thing is that we've never been a million miles away from getting it right. We're just lacking a bit of quality in key areas and have had some tactical flaws when out of possession that undermined much of the good work. I wonder how our season would have gone with some better recruitment and wait with intrigue for what happens in January.

Here was his chance to endear himself to the fans but he's giving the ball away time and again, giving away free kicks and generally failing to hold the ball up and link up play. We need someone talismanic and passionate. Barnes is more agitated than anything else and seems really lacking in confidence.

I find the vitriol embarrassing. Of course their fans are excited: it's the first time they've played us for a long time and doubly as long since they've gone into a derby as favourites. The truth is that they're up there on merit, playing very good football and showing cohesiveness and confidence that we could only dream of at this point. There's no need to be bitter. If we lose then let's take it gracefully and accept the natural cycle of things. We've had our period of local dominance. In general it has to be a good thing for the game if small clubs like Ipswich can mix it with the big boys. If we do snatch an unlikely win then it would be funny but wouldn't really prove anything. The main thing is about retaining as much dignity as possible, regardless of the outcome.

"Dad, why are you hiding behind the sofa?" ... "Mum, Dad's hiding behind the sofa. He won't come out."

That's my point: the result is not a surprise, nor is it a failure. The failure is to not understand the reality and to expect to be able to sack your best manager this century and somehow find a better replacement. Trading Buendia for Rashica, Sargent and Tzolis was the real failure.

Farke's Premier League record is irrelevant because he never had a Premier League squad to work with.

It's a ridiculous question because no manager in the world could have got that rabble to stay up. People love to convince themselves that Farke deserved to be sacked due to his poor Premier League record but I think it's a ridiculous stance to take. As far as I'm concerned, the squad which won the Championship twice was really only an upper mid-table team which massively over performed thanks in no small part to Farke's coaching. Farke was never the problem. The real issue was that the players (collectively) weren't ever up to Premier League survival. Unfortunately they were rewarded for promotion with excessive contracts and supplemented by journeymen. Our (Webber's) squad management in the Premier League seasons was awful. So, in an alternative reality where Webber resigned after that Brentford win and Farke remained in place, we wouldn't be looking at survival but we would have returned to the joys of Farkeball and be in a far better place at this point in time. I imagine we'd have at least made the playoffs last season and generally been in a more positive mindset. We wouldn't have seen those awful winless runs and we'd not be seeing the weird team selections. I'm hoping that we've now turned a corner so it could be irrelevant anyway, but I'd massively prefer to have retained Farke for the long term. We gained nothing from sacking him other than to satisfy the whims of those with too little intelligence to value what we had. It's only a false sense of entitlement that makes people think that a new manager could have improved us.

I think it's fair enough for him to get a bit of stick for missing those chances and the lacklustre performances in general. Fans need something to get behind and players have to do something a bit special before they can be afforded any kind of elevated status. It's fair to say that Barnes doesn't yet have much credit in the bank. Maybe his goal finally came as a result of him realising that he had something to prove? It's a two way thing. People will love him if he creates a bit of a spark. We've seen a few flashes but not a lot else, at least until he actually found the net last night.

That was a fairly decent starting 11 except Fisher who was simply out of his depth. The trouble is that the bench was incredibly weak so there was nothing to call on when the players tired. We created plenty of chances and defended pretty well, but then the substitutions made us so much worse all over the pitch.