Former boss Paul Cook must be looking on and saying, “These were my players! Why could I not get them to play this way?” The truth is that he could have done but he went about it entirely the wrong way. His formations were too static. He did not have a plan B, and he left troublesome James Norwood in the wilderness and then cruelly placed him on the transfer list.
They were catastrophic errors of judgement, and so too were his coaching crew. Norwood, of course, was Town’s top scorer in both season’s in League One and Cook’s list of successes in the managerial game was achieved when he had Wigan Athletic’s Leam Richardson alongside him. It was as if he had lost his right hand.
He was a Peter Taylor, not a Brain Clough in this arrangement, and I would point to the success of the Latics to emphasise the fundamental difference between the two. Richardson continues to have success. I think Cook then made the mistake of getting jobs for the boys. Frannie Jeffers and rookie Gary Roberts may have been his scouse mates but they did nothing for Ipswich Town.
In fairness to Paul Cook, he was an affable guy with a great sense of humour, but just like his ex-teammate in the Wigan side of old, scouse humour does not win you football matches, and Paul Jewell fell on his sword in the same sort of way, by playing attacking entertaining football, but without being able to manage his defence.
Bring on new boss Kieran McKenna and you have a whole new ball game. Thirteen years of coaching under some of the best managers in Europe. A wealth of knowledge about tactics, coaching skills, and the aptitude to incorporate different formations, and suddenly, those very same players who were back-firing with regularity under Cook are now performing admirably under McKenna. Coincidence? I think not. McKenna has a clear vision and he has worked with the best.
This is a new era for Ipswich Town football club and for the first time in decades, I am happy with this appointment. He is still on a managerial learning curb, but we are lucky he is doing it with Ipswich and not with a top Championship or Premier League club.
Yesterday, we were reminded once again of just how good Town could be and that for all his failings, Cook recruited well. All it needed was for someone to come in and harness that talent, and McKenna is doing this excellently.
Agree with you Frank, Kieran M has already made a real impact moulding PC’s side into a more cohesive unit. Interesting parallel with Paul Jewell too, spot on!
We need 40 points from our last 21 games. It is tough but doable.
12 wins and 4 draws would do the job. Allows room for 5 slip ups!
Our next game at Bolton will say a lot about our realistic prospects for the rest of the season though. Win it and we will have reversed a crunching 5-2 home defeat earlier this season, which could have been worse if the Trotters had taken their chances.
I’ve not checked who are remaining games are against but the outcome of the 6-pointers against the teams above us, will be absolutely vital for our prospects.
Matches at the weekend were a great start. Of the 6 teams playing, 5 got bogged down in draws and 1 lost.
Interesting observations, as always, Richard and with regard to the teams above us that we have yet to encounter, I would want to put a marker down too. We have Oxford United away on the 19th of March, and they are currently 8 points ahead of us as things stand. This is followed by Plymouth at home on the 26th of March (and they have a game in hand on us) and Rotherham United away on the 15th of April. It could be that by then they already have automatic promotion because they have a game in hand on us as well. Then our last encounter with the current top six is Wigan at home on the 18th of April. Those league positions may change though, and Portsmouth in 8th have two games in hand on us and one game in hand on the top six, and they will fancy their chances of making the play-offs. For the record, we play them on the 12th of March at home.