There seems to be a pattern emerging of a consistent fall in form as this season starts to get up and running, especially during the Christmas fixtures. But who or what is down to?

There is the obvious choice of Paul Lambert who is seeing these slumps in form throughout his reign as Ipswich manager, or is it down to Marcus Evans, who seems to have no ambition when running the club and is his cost-cutting causing the ridiculous number of injuries that the club have, which seems to be Lambert's favourite excuse?

Lambert tried when he came into the club to get the fans on his side through buying everyone beers and the fracas against Norwich.

However, this is starting wear off as could be seen by his swipe at the fans and media after the Oxford game that made him seem paranoid about everything.

The problem he is facing is that this is not the first time these issues have occurred; it worryingly looks like it might be running the same course as last season.

When this occurs, he often goes on the extreme defensive and his team selections start to become more and more erratic by playing young players who haven’t been near the first team squad for a league game before.

On top of this the struggles that we face against other promotion rivals points to a certain level of tactical ineptitude from the manager which would again hamper chances that we would have of gaining promotion out of the league.

Blame also must be put at the feet of the owner, whose ambitions for the club could easily be questioned because as it stands, we will just become more stagnant. However, he has kept the club afloat during these difficult times where other owners (such as Wigan’s) have deserted their club.

Previously, in the play-off season under Mick McCarthy, we were in a prime position to gain promotion, all we needed was a bit of investment to strengthen the squad in January and it would have been unlikely that we would have fallen off as much as we did.

After that season we just went further and further down with little investment and no real ambition, happy with the fact that we were staying in the Championship. It seems to be going the same way in League One.

I believe that if Evans just came out saying that we have no money to spend the fans will respect it much more than him not saying anything at all, otherwise it leaves us in the dark about what is going on behind the scenes at the club.

The only thing going for Lambert is the sheer number of injuries that the club have had this season. Before these injuries hit, we were putting on some impressive displays, notably the 4-1 win at Blackpool.

This has damaged the squad greatly, a clear example of this is the centre midfield position where we seemed to have too many players, now we simply don’t have enough.

The question still does need to be asked about the quality of our sports science as other clubs don’t have the same levels of injuries and this has been an issue that has hampered the club since McCarthy’s days.

Adam Webster is a clear example, he was injury prone for the whole of his Ipswich career, yet he has had little injury problems since leaving the club.

These issues are holding us back from putting a string of quality results together, as the team keeps having to change due to them.

It is this inconsistency that will hamper the chances of us putting together a successful promotion charge, so the source of the injury crisis needs to be identified and quickly

I hope as everybody else should that the club will be able to turn this around and it doesn’t end up being a mid-table season or one with comparable disappointment.

There just needs to be a sense of hope and excitement around the club, especially with the fans, which could arguably be said hasn’t been the case since the play-off year in 2015.

However, I don’t think that this can happen under the management of Lambert as he seems to have lost touch with the fans and doesn’t seem to be creating an organised team that will enable the club to mount a serious push for promotion this season.

obiwan7 added 19:45 - Dec 15 Some interesting points, sums up the Lambert era.
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oldtimer added 20:23 - Dec 16 Every Premier League club and many lower league clubs have a chiropractor as part of their medical team to properly assess and treat players. We don’t
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norfolkbluey added 17:07 - Dec 17 Well said and observed. I think deep down many supporters will be supportive of this blog. When Paul Lambert came he seemed to be a Messiah but it has all gone horribly wrong and certainly is partly down to COVID, Marcus Evans and the way training and fitness is run at the club. Every supporter wants the club to be successful but it appears shackled by under investment and lack of ambition. Of course nobody at the club would own up to this but it is very apparent to the supporters. The supporters see the problems and should be respected more by the management than they currently appear to be. Paul Lambert is also culpable because he appears to have tunnel vision, sticking to his insistence on playing one up front which is okay in the Premiership but not in division 1. I and every supporter want success because we all love ITFC. It has to be one of the most frustrating periods of supporting my club for 60 years and that includes Joe Royle's tenure when the club didn't give him financial backing to buy a winger who would have made promotion a certainty.

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ElephantintheRoom added 17:26 - Dec 28 Are Ipswich particularly afflicted wth injuries? You could add McGoldrick to the long list of players who rise Lazarus-like when they leave Ipswich. MIngs seems to be fitter now than he was at Town and Bournemouth too. But even Manchester City last season and Liverpool this season are not immune to a seemingly disproportionate number of injuries. I had a conversation a couple of years ago with the father of Teddy Bishop who claimed his son had to pay for his own operation, as did another injury-prone player.... with the proviso he would be refunded if it worked. This sounded bizarre - but ties in with the incentive-led approach at Evans' questionable core businesses - but I think you will find funding is tight right across the board, right down to paint for the training pitches. I'm not sure Town are underfunded compared to other clubs in this division - quite the opposite probably - and wages are the reason the club is allegedly £100 million in debt to the allegedly tight-fisted owner... that is somewhat more dent than most clubs carry. ..so he probably coughed up more than he should in that freak year when Murphy scored some goals and Town made the play-offs. I think the problem runs much deeper than the manager. It cant be easy trying to relate to an owner who doesnt care and can only be contacted on wattsapp - but recruitment has been distinctly iffy for most of Evans's tenure, which again is hardly his fault.... and might be unavoidable given Town are no longer a desirable place to be for ambitious or good players. Are your hopes unrealistic? Teams like Burnley, Sheff U, Sheff Wed, Forest, Charlton, Wigan, Blackburn, Wolves and others have all fallen further than Town - and have bounced back. Its almost certainly a question of time rather than managerial genius or visionary leadership.

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