Cardiff City (H) Match Thread

[rynny]

1 hour ago, angieram said:

Excuse this rambling and esoteric post but I just wanted to share some emotions of my busy night when I was honoured to be asked by the club to present the match day ball pre-game.

I was co-ordinating the team of volunteers for World Suicide Prevention Day as you know so was quite tired when I went out onto the pitch with a fellow volunteer to present the ball to the referee.  I couldn't have prepared for the noise that greets you when you follow the two teams out into the stadium - it's awesome and quite overwhelming.

We stood on the touchline while the teams shook hands and then were guided across the grass through the Derby players as they peeled off from the lineups - Clarke passed really close by at speed - as we headed for the centre circle.

Waiting for the referee, I turned and gave a cheeky wave to my husband sat up high in the west stand. I was amazed how close he looked from the middle of the pitch - you really do get a different perspective from there and it has reinforced to me how much our collective behaviour and body language can affect the players throughout the game. A quick shake of hands and a few words with the referee, who was very friendly. Sorry,  I did say 'enjoy the game' to him and he might have taken me too literally!

Next it was back to the lineup with the captains for the official photos. Keogh made a point to say hello to us both which we didn't expect at such a busy time and then all too soon we were escorted back down the tunnel for our thank yous with the DCFC staff. 

It was a brief but unforgettable experience, passed in a bit of a blur.

I will particularly remember the time we spent behind the scenes before we went out - we  got to meet and shake hands with Jamie Ward, who was visiting  (another winger like him wouldn't go amiss!) 

We stood just behind the dressing room entrances for quite a time and there were a flurry of comings and goings as staff and Sky people were busy preparing for the game. It makes you appreciate what a complex and well drilled routine is in place to make sure everything runs smoothly. We were kept informed and also kept from getting too nervous by Lynne, who was brilliant and explained everything as we waited. I know Lynne as she is a big fan who goes to every away game so it was great to see her in  her official role.

All too soon it was time. It was brilliant to watch Keogh and the lads emerge from 'our' side and presumably the same for the Cardiff guys, who I didn’t even notice! 

As we moved forward to take the match ball and our place in the queue, Phillip Cocu came out and stood in the doorway of the changing room and said hello to us, another nice moment. 

We could just about hear the usual announcement in the stadium and as we moved forward that wall of sound really does hit you. After last night, I will concentrate even harder on being a positive supporter as now I have literally felt the difference that it makes!

Absolutely brilliant read, Angie. 

When they announced who was delivering the ball to the pitch I did wonder if it was you

[angieram]

9 minutes ago, rynny said:

Absolutely brilliant read, Angie. 

When they announced who was delivering the ball to the pitch I did wonder if it was you

 I am the little one on the end with my more glamorous colleague Emma, who is chatting away next to Keogh here . I am not a Samaritan myself, I work for another mental health charity.

I have only just heard what the announcer said and spotted us on screen as I am replaying last night's game. And yes, I am sad enough to take a photo of it!

I hope people also saw the players' video on the big screen at half time - really powerful. The link to it is in the other thread.

[Patrick Rams]

2 hours ago, Paul71 said:

The morning after my thoughts having not been able to make it to the game due to illness.

I thought we did ok, but were very sloppy at times, we improved. I am glad half time came for Clarke.

I would have been disappointed but not surprised if our goal had been disallowed following the supposed handball which i am still not sure about.

We should have had a penalty, and score it or not and ifs and buts but the passage of play that led to theirs probably doesnt then happen.

Second half so unlucky, hit the bar, keeper did well when waghorn through, dont think waghorn could have hit it any better.

Positives for me Bielek, looks like will be class. Thought Huddz had a good game, Lowe growing in confidence and will put malone under pressure, but he also did really well so competition for places is a good thing.

Holmes looked lively, just what we need.

Great to see Martin on and a couple of nice touches in a cameo, well hit free kick but well defended.

Negatives - Shay Given needs to work with Roos, he has talent but scares me at times and this surely must have an effect on the defence.

The reaction on here to Lawrence booking meaning he misses the next game, i know everyone is entitle to an opinion, its just mine that i think the attitude towards lawrence from a small minority is appalling.

 

Small minority? Virtually everyone on here has slagged him off!

[Sith Happens]

2 minutes ago, Patrick Rams said:

Small minority? Virtually everyone on here has slagged him off!

I dont think they have, its the same people though a bit like when it happened with Keogh.

 

[RamNut]

Was so tired last night that i could hardly keep my eyes open during the game. I think i missed half of it as my head kept dropping.

i can't really comment on the game, as despite being there, i can't remember much.

my only real observation is that we are still short in midfield. I don't understand all the comments about how good huddz was. There were plenty of loose passes. Unless i was nodding off during the good bits?

said hello to benjamin bloom - the youtuber

 

 

[S8TY]

11 hours ago, LB_DCFC said:

Cover? now Evans is injured yes, but your original post said the position 'needs addressing'. That doesn't mean cover. You can't point at his Pompey career and say he will definitely be a success, but you can use it as a basis of the type of player he is, and with the evidence of the Huddersfield game that he is more than capable, it suggests he isn't at all worth binning yet. Obviously watching the players is very important, but I'd bet you would dream to have Brenford's recruitment department, who make all their decisions based on stats, reinforced with the 'eye test'. Stats are completely underrated by many. 

Stats are stats at the end of the day and I too find them interesting but not totally relevant and  depends on what stats are seen as important but will still not tell the whole story as you have to see a player, which foot he receives it on body shape etc etc.......For example you can have a 100 % pass rate just playing 4 or 5 passes across the back 4 and back to the keeper but how many were forward passes with intent when there was an oppurtunity to do so.....Tom Lawrence for example regularly appears to make the wrong pass or a player doesnt look up and see a decent through ball but instead goes sideways or backwards thus keeping his stats high but his effectiveness low there is no stats that would emphasise that the pass was incorrect and a scoring oppurtunity was not created....at the end of the day stats are interesting but football is played on a pitch and needs to be seen rather than relying on a stats sheet

[rynny]

1 hour ago, angieram said:

 I am the little one on the end with my more glamorous colleague Emma, who is chatting away next to Keogh here . I am not a Samaritan myself, I work for another mental health charity.

I have only just heard what the announcer said and spotted us on screen as I am replaying last night's game. And yes, I am sad enough to take a photo of it!

I hope people also saw the players' video on the big screen at half time - really powerful. The link to it is in the other thread.

It's not sad at all. It is an unbelievable moment and one that you should be proud of, and treasure. 

[rynny]

1 hour ago, Patrick Rams said:

Small minority? Virtually everyone on here has slagged him off!

There are over 1500 active members on this forum (I believe, I'm sure @David will correct me) and there is around 10 different posters that have called him. I would suggest that is a small minority. 

[Van der MoodHoover]

1 hour ago, angieram said:

 I am the little one on the end with my more glamorous colleague Emma, who is chatting away next to Keogh here . I am not a Samaritan myself, I work for another mental health charity.

I have only just heard what the announcer said and spotted us on screen as I am replaying last night's game. And yes, I am sad enough to take a photo of it!

I hope people also saw the players' video on the big screen at half time - really powerful. The link to it is in the other thread.

What's the ref doing? Demonstrating to Colin how to convince him to award a penalty? ?

[rammieib]

16 hours ago, SaintRam said:

The bits where we had the ball and played one-twos out of midfield and charged into their box. 

Was that in between the 40 yard long ball punt to Marriott against Morrison and Flint?

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

1 hour ago, rynny said:

It's not sad at all. It is an unbelievable moment and one that you should be proud of, and treasure. 

I think it was you who handed me a little booklet just as I was about to cross the road over to the club shop...if it was,it was nice to meet you and I think that it is wonderful what you are doing x

[Sparkle]

Roos - not much to do

lowe - doing ok playing out of position 

keogh - decent enough 

Clarke - looks like a left footed Pearce who we let go to Millwall 

malone - decent game and a goal 

Huddlestone- very decent first half 

Belick - better second half 

holmes - caused Cardiff problems without creating anything

waghorn - battled manfully and created a chance for himself and should have had a penalty 

Marriott - up front on his own means he is hardly ever going to touch the ball and he doesn’t move the central defenders around but got another long range strike at goal which hit the bar which was a shame 

lawrence - he was playing for Cardiff at times because he started most of there attacks 

subs jafoozoon - decent enough as a sub 

Martin - fantastic to see him again and hopefully we actually pair him with Marriott because it will work well

[rynny]

18 minutes ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

I think it was you who handed me a little booklet just as I was about to cross the road over to the club shop...if it was,it was nice to meet you and I think that it is wonderful what you are doing x

Do you mean @angieram? As you have quoted me, and it definitely wasn't me ?

 

[May Contain Nuts]

12 hours ago, Andicis said:

But Tomori was clearly showing improvements each game. Clarke is regressing.

Clarke is the new Forsyth. Confidence up and he's a good player, makes us a lot more solid from set pieces and can contribute well to our attacks.

Confidence down, in and out of the team and he looks shaky and makes some crap passes, but overall we're still more solid.

Give him a proper run of games in a more settled side and he'll be fine.

Plus it hardly helps that a couple of his appearances have been with either Davies or Buchanan alongside him rather than Keogh and Malone.

I liked/rated Tomori from the off (a few of his errors came about due to being manhandled by the opposition, refs ignoring some blatant shirt pulling) , but put him in that match yesterday at the same stage of his development and we concede from at least one of their corners.

[Sith Happens]

1 hour ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

What's the ref doing? Demonstrating to Colin how to convince him to award a penalty? ?

Looks like he might be pointing out where to put the brown envelope ?

[Day]

19 minutes ago, rynny said:

Do you mean @angieram? As you have quoted me, and it definitely wasn't me ?

 

Take your kiss and be grateful 

[Andicis]

15 minutes ago, Coconut said:

Clarke is the new Forsyth. Confidence up and he's a good player, makes us a lot more solid from set pieces and can contribute well to our attacks.

Confidence down, in and out of the team and he looks shaky and makes some crap passes, but overall we're still more solid.

Give him a proper run of games in a more settled side and he'll be fine.

Plus it hardly helps that a couple of his appearances have been with either Davies or Buchanan alongside him rather than Keogh and Malone.

I liked/rated Tomori from the off (a few of his errors came about due to being manhandled by the opposition, refs ignoring some blatant shirt pulling) , but put him in that match yesterday at the same stage of his development and we concede from at least one of their corners.

It's not going to help his confidence if he passes like that vs a high pressing side like Leeds. They'll eat him alive. I'm not a fan of a confidence player at CB, they should be more reliable than that. Does he make us more solid from set pieces? Because I distinctly remember him losing his man from a corner at Stoke. 

[Sparkle]

14 hours ago, sage said:

Roos 5

Lowe 6

Keogh 7

Clarke 6

Malone 7

Tom 7

Bielek 7

Holmes 7

Waghorn 7

Marriott 6

Lawrence 3

 

I saw a 7 for Tom and I thought you what then I realised you meant footballer Tom and not Lawrence who seemed to play for Cardiff 

[TuffLuff]

Few concerns:

-Im not totally sold on 4-2-3-1. Huddlestone, with the protection of Bielik, had a much better game but I think it hinders us as an attacking threat as you have 4, rather than 5 players in the final third. Good example last night was from throw ins around their penalty box. Lowe is taking and the only two options were Waghorn and Holmes. The third option was 20 yards back in a defensive position. I also think it splits up your 11 into a clear set of defenders and attackers which then means your four attackers are picked up more easily. Which leads to my next point.

-I’m not convinced if that front four work together over 90 minutes. The movement from all four for the first was superb, it beat Cardiff all ends up as they interweened between themselves. Great, absolutely no issue with that. My issue as the 1st half went on was that it’s incredibly difficult to keep that up without it becoming a mess and it kinda proved true until eventually we reverted to how Cardiff wanted us to play (hooding to Marriott), which means the ball doesn’t stay in the opposition half and we have zero control of the game.

-Lowes doing fine. But I think not having a right footed player there is hampering us there now. We rarely got behind them last night and we were far too narrow. Again it plays into opposition hands.

-Marriott is a great goalscorer but has little effect on anything else aside having a kick out on Morrison. You have to play him, we need goals but serious consideration is needed in how we provide that because we aren’t creating enough. Essentially four runner and a wing back won’t provide that. It’s needs composure and intelligence to unlock defences.

General thought:

Keogh, Clarke and Roos need game time together. All three had games that went from looking accomplished to league 1 standard within a minute. It’ll settle down and we will reap the rewards from it too!

Big Positives:

-Some great attempts and nearly stuff from all. Think we are a game or two away from it all clicking and all these concerns being long forgotten. Also despite all this, we had the chances to win the game!

-Bielik looks fantastic. Again once he settles into his role then he will be some player.

So yeah, a mixed bag for me but I think in a few games time we will start to look like a decent outfit 

[dcfc4ever]

1 hour ago, Sparkle said:

I saw a 7 for Tom and I thought you what then I realised you meant footballer Tom and not Lawrence who seemed to play for Cardiff 

suggesting a Derby player was playing for the opposing team.Shame on you.

Lawrence who you picked to start in your line up to face Cardiff on this forum LOL

I personally thought Lawrence had a good game,yes he needs a goal for his confidence and also to shut the haters up.