S25/26 | The Official Match Thread | Ipswich Town 3 Swansea City 0 | Att: 27,594 | 28/02/26 | The EFL Championship | Portman Road

[TruckerJack]

Early on in the season (arguably up to half way) it’s a valid argument that managers have made for decades - I agree.

Where I’m not in your camp is that it matters at the end of the season. It’s a good thing for the staff to analyse (clearly a big points increase shows progress) but a handful of points either way is pretty trivial over a 46 game season IMO.

All that matters is where you finish as it determines what league you’re in the following season.

Apples and oranges bringing players into it (and I think you know that) but I’m sure if you asked any player if they’d rather get 25 goals and be in mid table or 10 goals and promoted to the PL they’d say the second option was the better one for them and their career.

I completely agree that it’s better to finish higher than lower, but in terms of team performance, points haul is a better indicator.

I actually don’t agree with the assessment that the league is weak, it gets stronger every year to a point that PL relegation teams with PL squads are no way guaranteed to finish top 6.

Any player will agree that scoring 25 means they have had a better season than scoring 10 though. Their position on the goalscoring charts doesn’t really impact that.

 

[K23]

No worries, glad to hear you seem to be on the mend

All mended I think, been playing Friday night football again since 9th January

 

[Swans Jack]

It's all connected. I see this now I am through the looking glass

 

[Bluenile]

Was he farting alot? Or talking crap?

Both

 

[theallseeingdai]

View attachment 7393

Same time next week

 

[Londonlisa2001]

Enjoyable game.

They were better than us. As they were in Swansea.

No shame in that. It is what it is.

We are doing very well against teams that are average as our pressing and desire is enough to win or at least get a draw.

Against the better teams it’s not enough and the lack of quality in certain areas shines through.

Although I believe that our midfield balance is better when Galbraith is at right back, the last half a dozen games have shown it’s not working with him there. We are getting caught time after time. Cabango and Burgess are simply not a good enough or agile enough centre back pairing to play the Klopp system. That’s not a slight on them. Very few championship centre backs would be.

I think we have to revert back to a more standard shape to get the most out of the rest of this season.

And if only we had a player like Jack Taylor. Both games against us (or one and a bit), he’s been excellent.

 

[K23]

Let's blow your mind. A bean within a bean

All that we see or seem is but a bean within a bean (Edgar Allan Poe)

 

[cadleigh]

think everyone would agree to your comments, me included, but we are where we are as the team is not good enough to challenge the top sides and in all honesty not good enough for the top 6, give this new manager a pre season a few upgrades playerwise and who knows next season, but beware of the teams coming down from the prem which in my opinion will make next season tougher than this one Ipswich were up there last season and it showed in the twice we have played them far better than us well done ipswich, we move on and safe travel home to everyone who got to the game, both sets of fans

I think that’s a fair summary of the gap in class between the two teams, especially up front. Referee was poor (again). But we are currently less than the sum of our parts, IMO. Individually skilled players give the ball away too cheaply through poor passing or being too easily muscled off the ball. Widdel in particular lacked the physicality for this kind of game. And for as long as I was watching the game (must admit we left for the train after the third goal, which we never normally do), we played with a V formation in midfield with Stamenich behind Yalcouye/Franco and Widdel. Which left us really exposed to their counter-attacks. It was a game when I’d rather have seen Fulton deployed further back. I am confident that Matos will keep learning and growing as a manager. No disgrace in losing to a team like Ipswich. But it was a reality check.

 

[Swans Jack]

All that we see or seem is but a bean within a bean (Edgar Allan Poe)

That's way to intelligent for me.. I'll stick to my beans.. Benny agrees.

 

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

I completely agree that it’s better to finish higher than lower, but in terms of team performance, points haul is a better indicator.

I actually don’t agree with the assessment that the league is weak, it gets stronger every year to a point that PL relegation teams with PL squads are no way guaranteed to finish top 6.

Any player will agree that scoring 25 means they have had a better season than scoring 10 though. Their position on the goalscoring charts doesn’t really impact that.

Last one from me as I’m sure it’s boring everyone else.

Indicator of what you’ve done compared to last year - I agree
Indicator of what you’ve done compared to the other 23 teams in the league - I disagree
(Personally, I’m far more interested in the latter at the end of a season, but I see the benefit of the staff/analysts looking at the former)

I’m not sure I ever said the league was weak this year. It’s far more even top to bottom (well 1st-23rd anyway) than I’ve seen for a long time.

Obviously your 3rd paragraph is correct, but they’d rather be promoted with 10 goals was my point, as you know that comparing an individual player’s season and a team’s season is totally different.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

I completely agree that it’s better to finish higher than lower, but in terms of team performance, points haul is a better indicator.

I actually don’t agree with the assessment that the league is weak, it gets stronger every year to a point that PL relegation teams with PL squads are no way guaranteed to finish top 6.

Any player will agree that scoring 25 means they have had a better season than scoring 10 though. Their position on the goalscoring charts doesn’t really impact that.

“in terms of team performance, points haul is a better indicator.”

Surely the league is relative though? Points hauls are hugely impacted by years where there are teams miles better than everyone else, years where there are teams that are truly dreadful or years where there is more of a much of a muchness.

You certainly really can’t compare relative performance based on points after x games. It depends in which order you’ve played other teams. Our run in is really hard. We have a lot of games against the better teams yet to come. That’s means we’ve played more of the weaker teams by definition. Which skews the points at this stage.

 

[Flash]

I think today was a combination of being outclassed and our players being on their arse after playing such a scrappy intense game against Bristol and the midweek game which was far from a standard midweek game with all the fanfare around Snoop. There’s no shame in it. We’ve got two very winnable games up next so hopefully we get back to looking like a better team.

 

[Swans Jack]

Same time next week

 

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

“in terms of team performance, points haul is a better indicator.”

Surely the league is relative though? Points hauls are hugely impacted by years where there are teams miles better than everyone else, years where there are teams that are truly dreadful or years where there is more of a much of a muchness.

You certainly really can’t compare relative performance based on points after x games. It depends in which order you’ve played other teams. Our run in is really hard. We have a lot of games against the better teams yet to come. That’s means we’ve played more of the weaker teams by definition. Which skews the points at this stage.

Only fair way is using Uncle Jeff’s coefficient! (It’s actually quite interesting if you like that sort of thing tbf!)

Uncle Jeff's Coefficient - An Ode to Uncle Jeff, The Totally Football show and its fans

Compare Premier League team performance across seasons with fixture-by-fixture analysis. Track points gained, lost, and team progression.

unclejeffscoefficient.com

 

[TruckerJack]

Last one from me as I’m sure it’s boring everyone else.

Indicator of what you’ve done compared to last year - I agree
Indicator of what you’ve done compared to the other 23 teams in the league - I disagree
(Personally, I’m far more interested in the latter at the end of a season, but I see the benefit of the staff/analysts looking at the former)

I’m not sure I ever said the league was weak this year. It’s far more even top to bottom (well 1st-23rd anyway) than I’ve seen for a long time.

Obviously your 3rd paragraph is correct, but they’d rather be promoted with 10 goals was my point, as you know that comparing an individual player’s season and a team’s season is totally different.

Yes, we would rather finish higher than lower, that’s a given. But points are a better indicator of how you have played over the course of a season and vs previous seasons.

The comment about the league being weak was in reference to the usual line trotted out about the division, and one I see year after year when people can’t explain how the league is so competitive, they just say it’s bad.

“in terms of team performance, points haul is a better indicator.”

Surely the league is relative though? Points hauls are hugely impacted by years where there are teams miles better than everyone else, years where there are teams that are truly dreadful or years where there is more of a much of a muchness.

You certainly really can’t compare relative performance based on points after x games. It depends in which order you’ve played other teams. Our run in is really hard. We have a lot of games against the better teams yet to come. That’s means we’ve played more of the weaker teams by definition. Which skews the points at this stage.

I think the league gets stronger every year, more money filters into the league both directly and to the Premier League which in turn creates bloated sides whose talent then filters down.

If we finish lower this season than last season but amass more points at the end of it, I’ll definitely think we had a season of progress, especially as those points will have been back loaded to the second half of the season since December.