I'm hopeful that performances and results will continue to improve with Travis in the centre (assuming he's kept there), as it will prove that what we need is only one truly defensive midfielder assisted by a box-to-box midfielder who can support both attack and defence. I'm not sure there's a situation when I'd ever really want us playing with two DM's. All it does is leave the attack isolated and invite pressure onto our backline - which has already proven to be ineffectual at dealing with said pressure.

Most of their fans are still in denial tbh. I keep hearing them repeat the "it was his time to go" mantra like zombies, failing to comprehend that the only reason that's true is because the fans decided so. Neither the owner nor the players wanted him to go and Mick was happy to stay too. If anything their rapid decline and destruction seems to have made Ipswich fans even more delusional. As far as L1 is concerned, weirdly they might actually be quite well eqipped for it. Assuming they keep most of the current squad together they will already have a lot of L1 and L2's higher rated players so it should make them competitive in that division. A little investment from the owner will be needed too, and I guess that'll be the litmus test.

The sceptic in me wonders if he's already plotting his escape and making comments like these to make a sacking more likely. I get the feeling Evans won't bite though. If Lambert wants to leave I think he's going to have to walk.

Lambert starting to take shots at the owner/board over contracts running down: https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/sport/ipswich-town/paul-lambert-on-ipswich-town-contracts-1-5837312 “He’s entitled to do what he wants, but this should have been taken care of with 12 months to go,” Lambert said of the Knudsen situation. “It shouldn’t have gone into six months to go. “The club has to look at that. You can’t keep letting contracts run down otherwise you keep having the same cycle where eight guys go and eight guys come in and you’re building team after team. It doesn’t work. It’s the wrong structure. That’s my opinion. “If you keep getting loans, loans, loans, loans then you may as well throw you money in the street. It’s not normal. The club has to have a stable base form which to build. “Maybe get one or two loans, no problem, but you can’t keep relying on ones that are not your own players. “You can’t bring in eight or nine players one summer. That’s sheer madness.”

With the transfer window now officially open I assume that we've paid some kind of fee and Brereton is now our player rather than Forest's. Odd that there hasn't been any confirmation from the club yet though. With his lacklustre introduction to the team I wonder if they're just going to let it slip under the radar and not announce anything?

In theory I think Tony sees him as one of our two inside forwards being brought into the game by Graham and Dack, running in behind defences and creating assists/goals from those positions. The main problem, as I've said a lot recently, is that our inside forwards end up becoming wingers because they drift too far wide. This doesn't suit players like Armstrong, Brereton or Palmer because they don't really possess the attributes to be effective wingers. They're strikers and although Tony probably does see them that way, his tactics and game plan don't really allow them to fulfil the role he has in mind for them.

I don't see how Chapman fits into Mowbray's inside forwards system - there is no winger role. Granted we end up with de facto wingers because the inside forwards drift out too far, but that's not the aim. Signing a player like Chapman would suggest Mowbray is rethinking his tactics.

https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/relegation-stats-facing-ipswich-town-1-5837053 Brutal stuff, having less points than Rotherham at this stage in 16/17 takes some doing.

I said in the match thread I hadn't heard anything about Williams being injured, so that was an odd one for me. Dack was clearly stunned to be given the hook as well, although I think that was more to do with Tony wanting to defend the lead than punishing Dack for his stupidity.

It was stupidity on an absurd scale. We aren't talking about a rash 17 or 18 year old charging around the pitch trying to make an impression, either. Dack is one of our more experienced players and should know better. He's lucky that didn't cost us anything more than minor damage to our overall GD.

£10m for a player who's turning 33 in March? Mulgrew is obviously a top player but with his age and injury record taken into account that seems like a ridiculous amount to even suggest.

My main concern with Mowbray is that we won't really move in any direction under him. It'll be middle of the road forevermore unless there's some pretty significant investment in the first team squad (or in the wrong direction if players are sold and funds withdrawn, ala Bowyer). Obviously you have to give the man time to prove otherwise, but impressions from his first couple of years or so at the club suggests, to me, that he doesn't have the courage to push an average team into playoff/promotion contention.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/12/29/tt-got-lucky-class-bolton-wanderers-fans-react-to-phil-parkinson/ Ah, anybody remember this old debate about Lowey's best position actually being right back? Didn't work out so well for them yesterday!

Tbf if we'd been a bit braver in the run in we may well have pipped them to 1st spot, but as usual it was caution first with Tony and we duly ended up second. I couldn't help but notice watching the FL highlights show yesterday that our old friend Jason Lowe was directly culpable for Hull's second and third goals. He failed to stop a cross coming in for the second goal (didn't even attempt to block it) and continually backed off for the third allowing the Hull player a free shot at goal from the edge of the box.

I think on the football league show last night they said Ipswich have the lowest points total of any team at this stage of the competition since the Championship started. If so then they would require a miracle at this point to survive.

It would have been impossible for us to pay any transfer fee before today as the transfer window closed before we made the deal. One assumes money will be transferred over imminently with the window now reopening.

One assumes we're currently paying his wages, but as far as the transfer fee it's somewhat shrouded in mystery. All we know is that in theory we've agreed to pay at least £7m, although nobody knows how that is made up in terms of bonuses, add ons, etc.

Graham has never been about pace. He didn't have any when he arrived so nothing has changed in that regard. His role is to hold up the ball and bring others into play, whilst scoring goals if/when the opportunity arises. He does that pretty well. In Tony's system you'd be looking to the likes of Armstrong, Palmer and Brereton to be using their pace to exploit the opposition defence.

He was purchased by Lambert. Same with Bennett. You may or may not remember that Rev has an irrational hatred of anything Paul Lambert related

If anything we seem to struggle more against ten men so it probably made it harder.

Sheff Utd the only team in the top six to win today.

Travis probably should have been brought in last season the same way Nyambe, Raya and Lenihan were - by having him start regularly whenever fit. Particularly in the second half of the season when Smallwood's form evaporated. It'll be more difficult for him to acclimatise in a higher division. That said, today's performance against one of the top teams in the division suggests he has what it takes, so get him into the team and let him prove himself.

I'd obviously prefer a win against Millwall, but they've won three on the spin now and the Den is not an easy place to go. For me a draw would be acceptable as long as we then got three points from Ipswich.

He's got a contract until 2021 so he'll be leaving some money on the table if he does. Plus you can only walk away from a club after failing so many times before interest in your services from decent clubs vanishes.

Credit to Tony today, tactics and subs appear to be spot on. Bringing on an experienced head in Conway was probably a good idea considering our recent capitulations, whilst bringing off a player who - whilst very important for us - had just proven himself to be a liability defensively.