After the start of the season we’ve had, it was the perfect time for us to play Ipswich before the international break. After losing our first three games at home, if someone had asked us who we’d want to play to stop the rot, we’d have said either Ipswich or Southampton.
Having said that, it was a must-win game because it would’ve been unthinkable to not get a win in our first four games. So there was added pressure going into the game but in reality the result wasn’t really in doubt once we got our noses in front for the second time.
It was a performance we were hoping for. Everything felt like it was clicking into place and in many ways, it was the ideal performance and result before the players left to join their national sides for the international break. I know there are those that begrudge all these international breaks, but that is how it is at the moment.
All the Premier League clubs are in the same boat with more players leaving to play for their country than staying behind. It’s hard for managers to do any quality work but I’m sure all our lads came back in good spirits ready for the next few games before the next international break in November.
Back to our start to the season, I know the fans have been frustrated with the amount of points we’ve got already – the players will be just as disappointed. But once the fixtures come out, we all naturally go game-by-game, trying to figure out how many points we might get, and we’ve probably got as many points as we could’ve realistically hoped for.
And when you look at it, we have more points from these games than we had from our corresponding fixtures last season. We should be confident after our Ipswich result and performance though, and confidence plays such a huge part in football.
It’s all about getting momentum. It’s about maybe not playing well but getting the win. It’s about getting points on the board. One thing that’ll be key for us for the remainder of the season is our new-look defence.
It is still going to take a while to gel but one thing that needs sorting out is Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s positioning. He needs to be on the right of Todibo as opposed to being in front of him as he has been. In the Ipswich game, I noticed Todibo was the furthest right and that worried me.
If this continues, I think it’ll cause us a few problems if there is a quick winger against us. On the flipside, we do look potent going forward with our pace up top. We’ve also not really had a settled side so far and the manager needs to figure out the right personnel sooner rather than later.
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