Former Ipswich captain Mick Mills was adamant that it was our lack of sustained pressure that led to Ipswich Town dropping points yesterday against Barnsley at Portman Road but of course, we cannot forget the goal that never was!
“The fact that we didn’t win one corner kick in the first half, just tells you how little pressure we put on their defenders. We never really had them in a desperate position.”Anyone who was listening to BBC Radio Suffolk’s Final Whistle would have been amused by the stark contrast in opinions between Mills and a caller on the value of corner kicks and the impact they might have. Mills argued that corners are a sign of desperation on the part of the opposition, and the more you get of them the greater the threat is. Although Town had 67% of possession, and 7 shots on target, the Blues only managed four corners in the whole match, and that was simply not good enough.
Now you might argue that the main controversy in this game was around the perfectly good goal Town scored when Marcus Harness netted before it was wiped off by the referee for an alleged foul on Mads Anderson. That was a baffling decision and as Keiran McKenna said later, cost us the match. Had that counted, Town would have taken an unassailable 3-1 lead but it was not to be. I am quite sure if VAR had been installed for this game that goal would have counted. It was a truly terrible decision.
But the great debate hosted by Graeme Mac revolved around the importance of corners. A Town supporter called Nathan rang in and had the audacity to downplay the comments made by the former England international. “Honesty, that team we saw to today Barnsley were not a good side – at all, and we were so much better than they were. Mick, I know you are chatting away about how we weren’t good today, and Barnsley were great. You’re worried about Donacien scoring from set pieces. I’m sorry but we didn’t score from a single set-piece last year.” Mills responded. “Well, that’s your opinion but I’m asked a question and I gave a valid answer and I think that for 75 minutes we huffed and puffed. And if you had seen our return for 66% possession it was pretty appalling. Not a corner-kick one. One or two shots on target.”
Nathan was having none of it and retorted, “What you get out of corner kicks? Over last season we may have had 100 corner kicks. We didn’t score one! Why are you so worried about corner kicks? The league is not won on corner kicks. We played some nice football today. We’ve played some great football for the last couple of weeks. We draw 2-2 at home to Barnsley and it’s, oh bloody hell we should be scoring from corner kicks!”
These two were light years apart and although I agree that Town have played some excellent football since the new season kicked off, I don’t agree with Nathan when he suggests that corner kicks are not important. Of course, they are! It is about sustaining pressure and making defences nervous. You only do this with set-plays. Mills knows what he is talking about, but this is not rocket science, it is common sense. I will leave the last word to the great man himself, who has played at the highest level of football.
“If you are not winning corner kicks I know what you are not doing in free play and that is you are not punishing the opposition. Corners are given away through desperation. So we didn’t win a corner kick for a long time today and that means we did not make the opposition desperate enough.”
Mick Mills is forever miserable about Ipswich and glad I don’t have to listen to him on ifollow anymore. We should have had 3 goals and that performance would win most games. He’s never happy unless he’s moaning.
I think you are being a tad hard on Mick Mills Redhotitfc. He has been around the block as an international footballer and manager, so he knows a thing or two about football. You are right, we should have won the game but we didn’t because that referee was appallingly bad. Corners do matter though – regardless of what Nathan was saying.
Nathan was really missing the point here! Mick was arguing that Town were not near their best and the lack of corners was evidence that we were not able to exert real pressure on the opposition. In fact we scored our second very much against the run of play at the time. The fact that we were pressing very hard in the last fifteen minutes does not negate Mick’s argument. At no point was he being negative or suggesting that the number of corners decides matches.
Spot on Rich. I think he might have been under the influence when he called in. I hope so because it was a pretty dumb argument otherwise.
Town’s build up play is far too slow, it allows the opposition to regroup. hence the lack of goals scored, this is the main problem.
I agree John. We are often very predictable in our build-up play. We really do need another striker. Ladapo works hard but finds it increasingly difficult to find the net.
Mick Mills often say he’s played many times and know what he’s talking about, and I was lucky enough to have watched most of them, but Mick played 40 odd years ago, the game has changed dramatically since then. I’m with Nathan on this one, games aren’t won on corner kicks. I think Mick lost it when suggested that corners were won through desperation, maybe 10% are