What if it's everything?
The squad is totally unbalanced: we have more technical passing ability in Miyoshi and Paik than we've had in quite a while, but combined with Bacuna being a flair player, and Jordan James' lack of ability to dictate the tempo of a game, the midfield is doomed to pass it around nicely and lacks bite. You can bring on more flair players, like Dembele and Anderson, or a good passer like Pritchard (he whipped in a great free kick last night), but ultimately none of this represents a diversity of talents.
I have seen Laird have good games. He has been poor recently, because the pressure of the situation has clearly got to him. I think if he was playing next to a centre back pairing of Roberts and Long, he'd be fine. Unfortunately, this is the highest level Aiwu has ever played at, and it shows. I don't think Sanderson is nearly as bad as is made out, but is not the right choice for captain. He needs to be playing next to an experienced pro who he can learn from.
We have one available striker and it's Scott Hogan. Stansfield is a very good player and a great finisher, but always looked better playing behind a striker or able to cut in from the wing. He is left isolated by our midfield and does not have the physical presence to play up front by himself. I can't believe it's come to this, but I think it's time to drop Bacuna in favour of putting Hogan up front next to Stansfield for the remainder of the season. I am aware this sounds desperate but I think we've all run out of ideas now!
There's not enough leadership on the pitch, although not everyone responds well to a verbal bollocking and I think we've got into quite a toxic state about debating whether or not booing is a good idea. People can boo if they want, but I know that if I was struggling at my job and hundreds of people starting shouting at me that I was shit, I'm not sure it would improve matters for me. Each to their own, I spose.
I think the bigger problem is that it is impossible to feel like you know what you're doing if you've had six managers in one year. If my manager at work changed that often, and the new bloke kept telling me to do something different, I would start to feel quite demotivated. Coaching staff in and out as well.
People rightly mention that a lot of people are out of contract. I don't necessarily think that's a huge factor on a conscious level, but will obviously be a factor. I don't see a lack of effort from the players. For instance, Laird got pelters for not bombing forward in the first half, then got abuse second half for going forward and being exposed defensively. Players like Miyoshi don't stop trying; they sometimes just frozen out of the game. It's not going to help if players start committing needless fouls because fans want an outlet for their frustration. Likewise Sanderson got a lot of flack for slowly bringing it out of defence in the first half; he'd have got even more for constantly giving the ball away, and he made some decent passes out of defence.
I think a lot of comes down to poor long-term recruitment, but the 'winning mentality' is a real thing. Ipswich aren't second in the table because they have, objectively, the second best squad in the division. I genuinely think Tony Mowbray could have stopped the rot and kept us up, had his health not unfortunately become a factor.
At this stage, we need a hard reset: fingers crossed it's with TM next season, but I can't agree with anyone on this forum who thinks relegation would be acceptable.