Thetownend.com

Now i know the whole unit has been shit but was ifil that bad last week that he should be left out the squad all together? Yet amankwa makes the bench who malpas obviously had no intention of bringing on, have a feelin ifil maybe off come january.

Hope not.

Hes the only defender at the club I would keep given the choice.

terrrible man management

no big loss really

Really arnold? Our defence is slow without him

IMO its obvious some of the squad dont get on,,,,Paynter and Ifill were at it last week and Ifill and Aljofree defo dont hit it off,Ifil is a good player but he seems to make one bad mistake every couple of games...and there usually very costly,i dont believe a higher level club would buy him....i like the beast and really hope he turns things around.

Thing is wise and sturrock got consistency out of him, it can be achieved. As for not getting on i find it impossible for someone not to like ifil possibly the quietest and nicest bloke you could meet.

ifil despite his flaws is a good defender for league 1.malpas is doing a king and ruining the bloke.last week he saw more of the ball than anyone and that is a recipe for disaster.sturrock addressed the problems qwith ifil and got the best out of him.malpas has done the opposite.

I'm always surprised given Jerel's physique, that he gets bullied and intimidated so often by
opposition strikers.You'd expect things to be the other way around!

I guess that this comes from his personality and that he's an easy going, laid back type of guy.
Wise and Sturrock sussed his strengths and weaknesses very quickly and handled the right way
by management,he can be an asset.

i've not seen him bullied.he's just useless with the ball.his strengths are obvious,win it and give it.
one on one defending he is superb.dont think there are many better in league 1.the fact he is terrible with the ball means he will never cut it higher than league 1 though

  I agree, we could easily lose all of the rest, but i'd keep Jerel.

One of the "arts" of professional sport is that you impose yourself mentally and physically upon
your opponent.If Jerel could learn this,it would improve his game.As i said it's not in the makeup
of his personality,as he's a relaxed, laid back type of guy.

Jerel is extremely limited but I'd keep him. I like the guy and I've got used to his 2 or 3 absolute bollox games a season. Its got to be said no one can quite hit the depths he can but he bounces back and plays some great games. He's fast and if used correctly is a very good player. If he's given a specific job he's great. We shouldn't forget that it was him and Vincent that got us over the finishing line in Div 4. As a man marker he's shit hot.
I must admit I've not seen him bullied very often.

Hes a class act off the field. A true gent, and a loyal servant. Now the longest serving player.

Id be gutted if he left because of Malpas to be honest. Malpas wont even see out a season. Ifil's been here since 2004.

Very loyal, been through some shit got his head down and got on with it. Even signed a new contract during the dark days.

I dont think he was bad enough to be dropped today.

I also think on form he is the best defender we have but we also know how poor he can be when off form.

Ifil doesnt play well in a losing team. On another note if he did leave would that make Pook our longest serving player? when he goes at the end of the season would that make it Peacock?!

The thing that annoys me most is that Ifil and Aljofree did well last season as our first choice centre backs. So we know they can both defend. Its gone to pot though.

Last season I thought one of the things we had going for us was the spine of our team. Smith or Brez then Ifil, Aljofree with Easton, Peacock then Payner Cox. We havent used that spine this season.

i think his dip in form shows how dire malpas is as a manager.

Anyone else think Aljofree has put on a stone since 12 months ago?

What got us promoted was the spine of Smith - Ifil - Peacock - Corr.

And Malpas has messed around every single one of those players.

corr? dont be daft spencer.
the rest yeah

One of the best I have seen at this level. Lita a few seasons ago couldn't get past him. He makes a few cock ups and gets dropped, not from the team but the squad. Maybe he is quiet and thats why he is treated as a scape goat, just as kingy did. Other players make cock up after cock up without contributing anything and still remain in the team.

Arriba, Corr was the missing link that completed the team.

In late march we started with Roberts up front on his own at Grimsby. Needless to say, we were toothless. Only striker who was getting any goals after christmas was Blair Sturrock.

Without Corr no promotion. Never had a good striker that whole season until 8 games from the end.

not arguing his contribution.but spine? not a chance

This year it is not about the front at all, the defence is all over the place. It doesn't matter who starts they are all clueless. We have tried more pairings than Strictly Come Dancing (topical!) and they are all as shit as each other. The sooner Vincent comes back the better and I would start him as CB straight away.

Will Vincent even play again?

His injury seems to be dragging on in a similiar fashion to Roberts...

He did come back in the reserves didn't he? Then went back under the knife.

He just seems to have been injured for ages....

In a way he seems like Miglioranzi, always injured....yet in his two seasons here hes played 71 games which is 35 games a season which isnt too bad to be honest.

Best defender we got, and probably one of the best in the league.
Malpas must really be putting him down or something because he hasn't been at his best for a while.
Fucking Hasney & Morrision in defence isn't my idea of a great partnership.
I would quite like to see Smith, Ifil, Kanyuka, Casal (Vincent if fit) at the back, our best back four.

Apart from away at Luton (I wasnt there) has Kanyuka had a good game?

I still think the best choice of backline is Smith, Ifil, Aljforee, Vincent.

I didn't think it was that many tbh, we do miss him without a doubt

Yet at one point alot of people didnt like him and wanted him out of the team.

I just hope we arent putting too much hope on one person who is a 33 year old left back who hasnt played a proper competitive game for months.

Aljofree compared to Ifil is certainly more experienced, but Vincent dwarfes Aljofree when it comes to experience and Aljofree looks lost without someone telling him what to do. Just as Ifil does.

take all with a pinch of not going much salt, and disregard if you wish......

Ifil is a temperamental player. Not all managers are going to get the best out of him. Malpas' position is fucked anyway, but I don't think keeping a player in the squad just to boost his confidence is a proper reason to do so. That would go for any manager.

If Ifil's performances are so dependent on how many cuddles he gets from the management team then we're probably better off without him.

Or something.

has ifil been any worse than any other defender?in my opinion no it just shows up with the amount of work he has to do.Jack smith has been the pick of the defenders so far aljofree seems more interested what the crowd are saying to him,morrison is young so being out of position sometimes is expected,kanyuka what i,ve seen is a loose cannon,amankwaah is a quick headless chicken,casal is a left sided amankwaah that leaves only vincent who most people wanted out of the team last season.It,s a pity the manager has,nt got any defending experience to pass on to our shell-shocked defence.Nearly november and no clean sheets,not happy!

I think if anyone at the end of last season had said Smith would have been our best defender a quarter of the season in this term, I'd have laughed at them.

He's a good honest and steady player, but it shows me how much the other defenders have underperformed.