martyn

I've just returned from Mexico. If the games are on sky on the UK they will be on, i think I was watching on ESPN+ through an app called Star+ (albeit via my father in laws subscription)

He is just a good player generally. I'm really surprised a mid table premier league club didn't pick him up in the summer. Thought he'd be nailed on to go somewhere like Palace.

General play has been a bit better than against Millwall, but we've got no guile or speed of thought when we get into semi dangerous areas. This is a very very open Plymouth side and we've not really created anything of note. Add in the usual problems when we turn the ball over with numbers forward and it's deja vu all over again. Minimum Ndidi off for Praet at half time, or even bringing Choudhury on and pushing Ricardo up into the 8 given he's about the only player i trust at the moment to be able to pick out a final ball.

Winks has been appalling. Given it away every time he has to pass it more than 5 yards, or forwards. Form has dropped off a cliff.

Think Maresca will have lost a lot of support with this. Inexcusable performance

That was a decent corner by KDH for a change and nobody is within 3 yards of the defender winning the ball on the penalty spot.

Deserved win but made it far harder than it needed to be. Referee a disgrace.

Exactly my take on it. We had the clearer chances to have put the game away, but we never looked capable of turning that around after conceding. That was by far the most telling thing and is a big indictment on Maresca and the mentality of the players.

Needs benching now. Reckless bombscare

Faes is appalling. All came from him.

Doyle has been ok on the ball. Defensively he has been ripped time and time again. The 2nd goal doesn't happen with JJ on the pitch, Palmer isn't quick yet he wasn't alert enough to the danger in the first place when Sterling got in, nor quick enough to recover. Don't want to just mention Doyle though, the whole backline and defensive organisation is a total shambles. Wait for us to give it away, 2 passes and they're in. As Ricey said, we dominate the ball so much in the league these issues don't get exposed so much, but this is a terrifying window into what would happen in the premier league without big changes.

Maresca has done a very good job. The circumstances in which he took over were difficult and to have established an identity and get us winning immediately is massive credit to him, because that isn't easy. Where he now needs to show something, and this is my major doubt with him, is improved in game management and adaptability. I'm not necessarily an advocate of needing "plan b", which for many is just synonymous with going direct, but instead making tactical switches which don't just involve pushing Ricardo higher up the pitch, and using subs to freshen things up, when the tide of the game is obvious. Even if you don't trust the quality on the bench, there is no way the majority of other managers keep Mavididi on yesterday, for example. Having said that, we can't on one hand lament the board for not strengthening in January whilst with the other castigate Maresca for seeing performance levels decrease. If we could have freshened things up a bit in January, it would have really helped us. Instead we've had to flog key players into the ground (Winks, KDH) and wonder why we don't look as sharp. Lastly, the quality of the squad is being overplayed by some here. We shouldn't conflate "played in the premier league" with current premier league quality. We do have sufficient quality to get promoted, but the comments I see suggesting "anyone could have got us promoted" are total nonsense. History is littered with clubs like ours getting relegated and taking years to come back. Seeing names like Ndidi (hopeless for 2 years) being used in lists of players to prove we've got a "premier league" squad as a stick to beat Maresca with is an absolute joke, given how he has been reinvented under Maresca. We've now got a bit of time to regroup, get players fit and go again for a massive 9 game mini season. Then we can judge him a bit more.

Agree with this to a point, those were the areas of the pitch we could have effected the game with quality replacements which we don't really have. As much as we love Albrighton he's not generally going to be an impact player in a game like today. Having said that, Mavididi was so poor that having someone on the pitch not actively hindering us would have been an improvement.

Would have been great to sneak a win but we wouldn't have deserved it. Thankfully Fatawu and Vardy showed up like they did at Sunderland whilst most others struggled to some degree, possibly Choudhury excepted who has filled in pretty well imo. International break coming at a good time, get Ndidi and Ricardo 100% and give Winks and KDH badly needed rests, they've both dropped their levels hugely.

Ref was going to book him, then realised he was on a yellow and bottled it

Faes needs hooking

Mavididi can wake up from his slumber now

Agree re Coady, it's time for leaders on the pitch and Faes is a player I don't think we'd miss.

On the ball he has some real quality. Defensively he is lacking in a lot of areas. The reason he is poor in the air is the same as why he's so sluggish, tree trunk legs and he can't get off the ground nor move quickly enough towards the ball. Bit like Vestergaard except Vestergaard's natural height advantage masks it more. Tbh, based on what we've seen, I'd be looking elsewhere for the figures I've seen touted.

Ndidi understandably looked miles off the pace when he came on this evening. Not sure I'd be hanging my hat on him starting and having a major impact just yet.

Ipswich 2-2

Positives The win Ndidi back Fatawu Negatives Absolutely everything else Below negative Approach to game Mavididi Winks and KDH 2nd half

This game management is just absurd

Abdul having a stormer at right back

Winks having a stinker