Freedman's view of the game - Ipswich

Lofty: do you mean a striker to replace KD or to sit on the bench along with the others?

Butterfield can't get into his own team but he's good enough for us?

Riley and Ricketts are both better Right Backs than Mears.....been there done that.

terenceanne wrote:Lofty: do you mean a striker to replace KD or to sit on the bench along with the others?

Butterfield can't get into his own team but he's good enough for us?

Riley and Ricketts are both better Right Backs than Mears.....been there done that.

His team are 13th in the premier league .. reality check needed I think, id be very happy to get him for the rest of the season.

Ricketts is better but is playing CB, and I imagine that if Riley actually played he would get just as much criticism. Whoever isn't in the team seems to get a call up from the fans.. some have been calling for Jay Lynch to be given a shot Riley couldn't even be assured a game at Swindon..



And a striker so that we have at least two strikers capable of having any impact on a match, he doesn't have to replace Davies, they can both play.. for example, your allowed two strikers on the pitch at once, or one can play when the other gets fatigued. the others we have have mustered up one good performance all season, N'gogs for about 15 mins, you would assume he could get a better replacement in. And sit on the bench?? Considering all our strikers bar Sordell played in the last game that clearly just not true.. I believe you are thinking of Coyle

I can't believe your suggesting that in order to get a new striker we have to sell our current best one, can't we just have both? We need both, most decent teams have at least two strikers.






The fact that pretty much every defeat is now getting blamed on Kevin Davies alone because of the gameplan he 'inspires' is pretty laughable, especially since him and Eagles alone are the reason for most of our points.

Another quote which makes me laugh: 'Great kevin davies has scored again, should secure his place for another 3 games, ffs'

Well if hes scoring every three games then whats the problem...




The only problem with Davies this season is that hes gets overplayed and thus gets tired. With another capable striker this issue would be resolved

Lofty you bellend, the reason I want Kevin Davies moved on is because until that happens we will always be shit. All these players know is hoofball, even when Davies is on the bench they still hoof it to Ngog or Afobe.

It needs a change of mentality and I firmly believe that until Davies is sold this manager and players will continue to play in a way that doesn't actually suit the majority of the squad.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Lofty you bellend, the reason I want Kevin Davies moved on is because until that happens we will always be shit. All these players know is hoofball, even when Davies is on the bench they still hoof it to Ngog or Afobe.

It needs a change of mentality and I firmly believe that until Davies is sold this manager and players will continue to play in a way that doesn't actually suit the majority of the squad.

Freedman has not told them to play 'hoofball' to Davies, we do that because we shit ourselves when put under pressure, just like almost all other teams do, its just that we come under pressure a lot.

Ill keep saying it then.. we didn't play 'hoofball' against Blackburn and look who scored. Look who had one of their best displays of the season. Look who has a conversion rate of a goal every 5 shots..

One of Davies most successful goal scoring years was that first season with Coyle when we played fast attacking football, not 'hoofball'.




We don't play Hoofball because of Kevin Davies..

We shall agree to difer then ..... no point keep discussing it. SKD stays the other 10 must go ..... but strangely enough we have done that already....i.e. the other 10 have changed ....multiple times......

I know nowt but at least admit it.

When did I say the other 10 go??

You just keep making up things Ive said, like that i keep thinking your blaming SKD directly, or that I think SKD should play every game or that we don't need another striker, I have said none of those things.

We need additions, we don't need players leaving, I made that point very clear in the 3 transfers I said we needed.



Its you that feels the need to get rid of someone, why? we are allowed two strikers, only the insane would sell their joint top scorer and second highest on the assists. I though that the fact our best passing display of the season was with Kevin Davies playing and ASLO scoring might have finally got rid of all these 'hoofball' to Davies myths... I was wrong

Lofty_Love wrote:

Freedman has not told them to play 'hoofball' to Davies, we do that because we shit ourselves when put under pressure, just like almost all other teams do, its just that we come under pressure a lot.

We don't play Hoofball because of Kevin Davies..

We do. The players have got so used to the Bolton style that they'll play it regardless of who is upfront. Like I say, we need a total change of mentality.

I agree that Freedman doesn't tell them to play hoofball, but they still resort to it when under any sort of pressure.

Natasha Whittam wrote:
We do. The players have got so used to the Bolton style that they'll play it regardless of who is upfront. Like I say, we need a total change of mentality.

I agree that Freedman doesn't tell them to play hoofball, but they still resort to it when under any sort of pressure.

As does almost every other team in the country..

Its just a trait of a team playing badly, its not their actual game plan. Once the team starts playing better we will play fewer long balls because they will be under less pressure and can start controlling the game. Thats the mentality of 95% of the teams in England, not just ours because they are in the vicinity of Kevin Davies

Lofty_Love wrote:


As does almost every other team in the country..

Its just a trait of a team playing badly, its not their actual game plan. Once the team starts playing better we will play fewer long balls because they will be under less pressure and can start controlling the game. Thats the mentality of 95% of the teams in England, not just our because they are in the vicinity of Kevin Davies

I disagree. I think that's the mentality of teams that are losing with 5 minutes left. I don't think it's the mentality of teams that are level at 1-1 with 30 minutes to go.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

I disagree. I think that's the mentality of teams that are losing with 5 minutes left. I don't think it's the mentality of teams that are level at 1-1 with 30 minutes to go.

You don't think playing long balls is a trait of a team under pressure at the bottom of the league?.. well it rarely happens at the top



What your talking about is our players having no fight or spirit or belief they can win the game, nothing to do with Kevin Davies.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Lofty_Love wrote:


As does almost every other team in the country..

Its just a trait of a team playing badly, its not their actual game plan. Once the team starts playing better we will play fewer long balls because they will be under less pressure and can start controlling the game. Thats the mentality of 95% of the teams in England, not just our because they are in the vicinity of Kevin Davies

I disagree. I think that's the mentality of teams that are losing with 5 minutes left. I don't think it's the mentality of teams that are level at 1-1 with 30 minutes to go.

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But we're not bottom of the league, we're mid table - as close to the top as the bottom.

Natasha Whittam wrote:But we're not bottom of the league, we're mid table - as close to the top as the bottom.

last I saw we were 3 from relegation and 11 from play offs. The season after being relegated. We are the most underachieving team in this league. If thats not pressure I don't know what is.

A striker of Davies' nature leaves a team highly limited in terms of their attacking means. He generally can't outpace defenders, make in-behind runs or, perhaps most crucially, pick up the ball under pressure and turn with it in a useful direction. He's constantly found with his back to goal, and it's in these situations that he's most destructive, as these inabilities leave him limited to making often poorly calculated passes that essentially kill speed and fluency in our play. Despite his six goals, I reject the idea that he is not a problem area, and a highly pivotal one at that.

I'm surprised at some of the lambasting of Ngog after yesterday's game when I thought his movement at times was terrific. He quite neatly set up a chance for Davies in the first half. Had he not been wrongly disallowed a goal vs Cardiff, he'd now be on a similar ratio to Davies. He isn't ideal at present but gives us something at his worst that Davies can't at his best.

doffcocker wrote:A striker of Davies' nature leaves a team highly limited in terms of their attacking means. He generally can't outpace defenders, make in-behind runs or, perhaps most crucially, pick up the ball under pressure and turn with it in a useful direction. He's constantly found with his back to goal, and it's in these situations that he's most destructive, as these inabilities leave him limited to making often poorly calculated passes that essentially kill speed and fluency in our play. Despite his six goals, I reject the idea that he is not a problem area, and a highly pivotal one at that.

I'm surprised at some of the lambasting of Ngog after yesterday's game when I thought his movement at times was terrific. He quite neatly set up a chance for Davies in the first half. Had he not been wrongly disallowed a goal vs Cardiff, he'd now be on a similar ratio to Davies. He isn't ideal at present but gives us something at his worst that Davies can't at his best.

I agree we need other options, but in addition to Davies.

Selling Davies would weaken us, not improve us.


Also, N'gog isn't the answer to goals. He has had 17 shots and 2 goals. Davies: 26 shots and 6 goals. I was really hoping he would bang a few in this season, but he just hasn't, he will improve in the future and has done since he joined us, but we need someone now

We need another striker.

I imagne Klasnic may have bagged a few if we still had him, another striker deemed not good enough.

Tbh I think we need a little more that Klasnic, like Doff said we need someone with pace and who can finish

Lofty: Do you think it is a wise move to have SKD leading the line next season? We are close to half-way through this season already. Shouldn't we be finding out if Ngog, Sordell, Eaves, Adofe or whoever can work together for the next 20 games or so?

Presume we are not going to get a striker worth jack shit in our state currently. We are 18th in a division with Barnsly and Peterborough and Millwall are suddenly reffered to as a good team.....what player of any quality would want to join us ???

terenceanne wrote:Lofty: Do you think it is a wise move to have SKD leading the line next season? We are close to half-way through this season already. Shouldn't we be finding out if Ngog, Sordell, Eaves, Adofe or whoever can work together for the next 20 games or so?

Presume we are not going to get a striker worth jack shit in our state currently. We are 18th in a division with Barnsly and Peterborough and Millwall are suddenly reffered to as a good team.....what player of any quality would want to join us ???

Thats one of the points of getting a new manager though, to find good players.

N'gog plays most games, Afobe isn't ours, I massively doubt Eaves is good enough at the moment and Sordells off sulking.

But judging from what you just said it seem the main reason why people don't want him playing is the reason I thought, hes apparently 'too old'. In my eyes he isn't too old until hes stops scoring and playing well, this might be the last year we get out of him but we might as well get it out of him. In fact you brought it up earlier, the Chelsea comparison, which is funny because it actually works to Kevs advantage as a comparison, not against him. They got rid of their most experienced and still performing striker, who they could of had one last year out of, now stuck with the underperforming Torres. If Kev went then N'gog wouldn't suddenly become a poaching god, and we would have even fewer goal scoring options.



I agree with you that if we have a player who looks like they could be doing well and getting goals then they should be getting their fair share of starts up front, but we don't - in fact thats what I want as well because playing Kev every single game knackers he out and he becomes ineffective (Sordell should be, but that episode is turning in to a joke).

So we have to get one in January, its not as if any of the other Champ sides exactly have the power to pull superstars but you can still get good players in.

Just looking at a few of the current top strikers:

Charlie Austin - Around the 1 million mark

Luciano Becchio - was either free or very very cheap.

Glenn Murray - free

Tom Ince - only compensation costs were paid, unbelievable transfer.


That means that 4 of the top 5 strikers in the Championship have a combined cost of less than N'gogs

It can be done, and Freedman, looking at what he did to Palace, looks like the perfect man to do it




On another point this whole young player thing is getting overrated. You can't have a whole squad of 22 year olds. The point is to not buy players at 30 for stupid money on huge wages. You don't have to have a whole side of youngsters with no experience and who are years away from their peak.