I don’t understand.
Ipswich went down to 10 men after around half an hour and we still couldn’t punish them.
I look at the side and it looks fine on paper.
But we so lack incisiveness, it’s almost embarrassing.
I think we had two shots on target all game, which says it all.
Against an Ipswich side that are close to favourites to be relegated and playing with ten men.
You could possibly even say that Ipswich had the clearer cut chances too, which makes it worse.
The worrying thing is, you can’t say Bruce played with a negative approach, as we probably ended up with the most attacking eleven we can muster.
And still didn’t look like getting a goal.
Contrast that to the Albion getting 7 today.
Did Kodjia have a poor game today?
I’m not convinced.
He got one and worked really hard. Indeed I’d probably be praising him now if it was the winner.
He still looks off it to me and his head seems to go down too easily, but I don’t think you can say he wasn’t trying.
There were plus points, in that McGinn looks like the midfield engine that we all thought Hourihane was.
And Grealish played with his usual vision while being hacked to bits all through the game.
I agree with Bruce, in that the refs have to start protecting him a bit more.
I had to laugh, as the Ipswich fans booed his every touch, almost as though he was persistently cheating.
It was exactly the same with Ashley Young.
Small players get bundled off the ball easier: it’s a fact of life.
It doesn’t mean you should get away with taking them out though.
But those two apart, I thought the side looked really, really average.
As for Nyland, well, I’m not going to go there.
Yes, it’s a point away from home.
But we can’t afford to drop what should be easy points, especially against a team that hasn’t beaten us on their turf for years.
I have a sneaky feeling we’ll really rue today’s result.
And perhaps even more of a concern is that I’m not seeing any improvement in our performances.
Make no mistake, most of the teams we’re expecting to be at the top of the league would have beaten Ipswich convincingly today, in my opinion.
