[Albion] Hello old friends - Ipswich v Brighton, Thursday January 16th 19:30pm

[ArnoldLane]

Whatever happened to that banner? And what were you thinking in the first place?

I don't know what happened to it.

Personally I was thinking in the first place that it was pious fool trying to make a misplaced point who didn't know the history of your club.

Football tends to have a lot of them these days.

 

[Zeberdi]

The allocated away pub is The Station Hotel, directly opposite the station and away fans only.
Meant to be decent by all accounts.
Even better it is a 5 min walk to the away end.
Thinking about it we literally lay on the red carpet for away fans - designated boozer and easy walk.

Excellent. Thanks!

 

[Official Old Man]

Chatting to an Ipswich fan Saturday (he manned a car park), he said parking has got very expensive this season near the ground. All jumping on the 'new ground' fans. I've done a search and seems The Spiral is the best at £7 although the reviews are bad re fines.

 

[ArnoldLane]

Chatting to an Ipswich fan Saturday (he manned a car park), he said parking has got very expensive this season near the ground. All jumping on the 'new ground' fans. I've done a search and seems The Spiral is the best at £7 although the reviews are bad re fines.

Never parked there, very decent location in terms of proximity but of course means it get's very crowded on the streets around it without traffic.
I'll ask about re : fines

 

[Machiavelli]

Of your players, Delap and Davis are the most-mentioned. Delap is quite clearly top quality and has all the attributes to be a top striker/lineleader -- cracking bit of unearthing via y/our algorithm. Davis is the main source of your creativity from what I can see but is more double-edged in that opponents have taken advantage of the space behind his more advanced position.
Are there any other players or tactical factors that stand out for you for us to expect in the game?

 

[ArnoldLane]

Never parked there, very decent location in terms of proximity but of course means it get's very crowded on the streets around it without traffic.
I'll ask about re : fines

Spoken to a few who park there, no problem with fines but traffic very heavy afterwards - advice to street park further away and walk in

 

[ArnoldLane]

Of your players, Delap and Davis are the most-mentioned. Delap is quite clearly top quality and has all the attributes to be a top striker/lineleader -- cracking bit of unearthing via y/our algorithm. Davis is the main source of your creativity from what I can see but is more double-edged in that opponents have taken advantage of the space behind his more advanced position.
Are there any other players or tactical factors that stand out for you for us to expect in the game?

That's a fair assessment on both of those two and what they bring on the pitch.
Both good players where recruitment paid off so far (not at your level yet tbh) but we have a few others that the media don't mention who are coming in to form recently. They are both novices though like all our squad really.
Nathan Broadhead is for me our best our footballer in terms of technique and ability but needs to become more durable.
The change in goalkeeper to Mark Walton (ex BHA) has seen us go a bit more direct....not all the time but we can certainly mix it up and that's what we have had to do....McKenna always tweaking formation and styles but keeping the principles entact of hard work, pressing and front foot football especially at home.
Big weakness is probably game management and sheer athleticism - it's a huge step up competing against physical beasts as well as budgets but we aren't going in thinking we are small fry and happy to participate.
How's things with the new manager? Seems to be another solid season from the outside.

 

[The Oldman]

Chatting to an Ipswich fan Saturday (he manned a car park), he said parking has got very expensive this season near the ground. All jumping on the 'new ground' fans. I've done a search and seems The Spiral is the best at £7 although the reviews are bad re fines.

No good if you want a quick getaway. Mind you nothing around the ground or town centre is good for a quick getaway.

 

[Machiavelli]

That's a fair assessment on both of those two and what they bring on the pitch.
Both good players where recruitment paid off so far (not at your level yet tbh) but we have a few others that the media don't mention who are coming in to form recently. They are both novices though like all our squad really.
Nathan Broadhead is for me our best our footballer in terms of technique and ability but needs to become more durable.
The change in goalkeeper to Mark Walton (ex BHA) has seen us go a bit more direct....not all the time but we can certainly mix it up and that's what we have had to do....McKenna always tweaking formation and styles but keeping the principles entact of hard work, pressing and front foot football especially at home.
Big weakness is probably game management and sheer athleticism - it's a huge step up competing against physical beasts as well as budgets but we aren't going in thinking we are small fry and happy to participate.
How's things with the new manager? Seems to be another solid season from the outside.

I did realise that I was opening myself up to that question you've posed, and others will probably want to chime in with different points of view. Will keep an eye out for Broadhead -- thanks.
As to our new manager, your comments sound somewhat familiar! So, my overriding impression is:
-- compared to RDZ who had a very structured way of playing, FH is more fluid ...
-- ... some on here render that as not having a solid midfield especially DCM and that has left us open to being exposed on the counter-attack. There's something in it but it's a little overdone by others in my view
-- part of the 'fluidity' is down to the ongoing injury situation which means that unlike eg Forest and Fulham who have put out settled teams, we haven't been able to. This basically means its more difficult to ascertain FH's style something that some deem to be a big problem
-- our downturn in results (and, to a lesser extent, performances) has coincided especially with Welbeck's absence who has probably been our second best player this season and arguably the most influential. We don't have anyone else to play that role (not unlike Delap for you) that's also in-form (Ferguson isn't). As Davis recognised, Baleba has been our PotS so far. We will probably have Welbeck back on Thu, how much he plays is a different question, and there are notable other absentees
-- this has also been blamed on the 'intensity' FH expects us to play with, it's the most resorted to word in press conferences, and this most clearly manifests itself in the high press
-- and game management also an issue with us -- we have an extremely young squad and have also been without other experienced players beyond Welbeck, notably Milner (pretty much all season), Veltman (who will probably start) and Dunk (who isn't too far from returning from injury, but big question as to whether available). We've thrown away two-goal leads against Wolves at home and Leicester away despite being ahead in both after c85 minutes.

 

[Zeberdi]

How's things with the new manager? Seems to be another solid season from the outside.

Could write an essay TL;DR but trying to keep it brief and relevant- Pretty much as expected for a young manager being given time to find his feet in the EPL and still constructing a preferred first team from a lot of new signings and injured players - slow but steady.

We have some similar issues to you - our weaknesses includes game management ( we struggle to be consistent over 90 minutes and seem to lose intensity when we really should be pressing harder). Again, l like yourselves, athleticism is an issue - we rely a lot of young players who for obvious reasons are still building up to peak conditions for 90 minutes of PL, players still coming back from long term injury football and older players at the other end of the spectrum whose pace gets progressively slower each season.

Obviously we are a physically stronger team and have consolidated our place in the PL but you deservedly won your place in the top flight and I sincerely hope you stay up, although, gloves are off on Thursday

Cross posted with @Machiavelli above and have said much the same as him but with one proviso, I think the ‘lack of a system’ people complain about is maybe more to do with our mental transition from De Zerbi’s very tight and positional style to one that ‘follows the ball’ - Fab is much more like Potter was - very flexible tactically and can switch the system about 2 or 3 times during the course of a match depending on the run of play/opponents and individual performances on the day. That makes it difficult for fans who like a clear and understandable system that they can box up neatly and analyse- (unfortunately so do opposition teams so having a less clearly defined DNA can work well for us)

 

[ArnoldLane]

Could write an essay TL;DR but trying to keep it brief and relevant- Pretty much as expected for a young manager being given time to find his feet in the EPL and still constructing a preferred first team from a lot of new signings and injured players - slow but steady.

We have some similar issues to you - our weaknesses includes game management ( we struggle to be consistent over 90 minutes and seem to lose intensity when we really should be pressing harder). Again, l like yourselves, athleticism is an issue - we rely a lot of young players who for obvious reasons are still building up to peak conditions for 90 minutes of PL, players still coming back from long term injury football and older players at the other end of the spectrum whose pace gets progressively slower each season.

Obviously we are a physically stronger team and have consolidated our place in the PL but you deservedly won your place in the top flight and I sincerely hope you stay up, although, gloves are off on Thursday

Cross posted with @Machiavelli above and have said much the same as him but with one proviso, I think the ‘lack of a system’ people complain about is maybe more to do with our mental transition from De Zerbi’s very tight and positional style to one that ‘follows the ball’ - Fab is much more like Potter was - very flexible tactically and can switch the system about 2 or 3 times during the course of a match depending on the run of play/opponents and individual performances on the day. That makes it difficult for fans who like a clear and understandable system that they can box up neatly and analyse- (unfortunately so do opposition teams so having a less clearly defined DNA can work well for us)

thanks and interesting views from you and @Machiavelli
i saw an injury table last week for the whole of the season and Brighton and Ipswich were top two!

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

That's a fair assessment on both of those two and what they bring on the pitch.
Both good players where recruitment paid off so far (not at your level yet tbh) but we have a few others that the media don't mention who are coming in to form recently. They are both novices though like all our squad really.
Nathan Broadhead is for me our best our footballer in terms of technique and ability but needs to become more durable.
The change in goalkeeper to Mark Walton (ex BHA) has seen us go a bit more direct....not all the time but we can certainly mix it up and that's what we have had to do....McKenna always tweaking formation and styles but keeping the principles entact of hard work, pressing and front foot football especially at home.
Big weakness is probably game management and sheer athleticism - it's a huge step up competing against physical beasts as well as budgets but we aren't going in thinking we are small fry and happy to participate.
How's things with the new manager? Seems to be another solid season from the outside.

Not bad for a 55 year old but I think Christian Walton would be a better bet

 

[el punal]

And your manager

You are joking . . . . . aren’t you?

 

[ArnoldLane]

Not bad for a 55 year old but I think Christian Walton would be a better bet

Ha ha well spotted

 

[Chicken Run]

You are joking . . . . . aren’t you?

 

[el punal]

Thank f*** for that!

 

[ChickenDipper]

No good if you want a quick getaway. Mind you nothing around the ground or town centre is good for a quick getaway.

I’ve booked Wolsey Car Park in the hope it’s far away enough to avoid too long a wait.

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

Looking forward to the game, will be a tough one for us and we try and stay in the division.
Safe travels to those coming up, any questions feel free to leave on here.
Thanks for doing 'The Participants' 4-0

You have several useful contributions already but here’s a question for you. I have an early flight out of Stansted and can go back to Liverpool Street and out again very early or take the ‘interesting’ choice of a National Express coach from Quadling Street?? at 2.30am which goes direct to Stansted - that’s quite a bit cheaper but is anything open in Ipswich after 11.30ish??

 

[dazzer6666]

Probably fixtures but there’s a beamback

https://tickets.brightonandhovealbion.com/en-gb/categories/beambacks

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Still hoping to get a returned ticket from the exchange