Cardiff City (A) - Matchday Thread

[Alph]

1 minute ago, Millenniumram said:

I’ve said the same quite a few times and got pelters for it. Cocu is, IMO, an objectively negative manager. He sets up to counter the oppositions tactics and try and win 1-0 or 2-0. You’re never gonna see McClaren esque football while he’s in charge. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, nor is Cocu a bad manager. We’re just never gonna go anywhere making defensive mistakes playing this style of football. Keep clean sheets, and it can be very successful mind. Just think people are deluding themselves if they think we’re gonna see Cruyff esque Barcelona type football. Cocu has never been about that. I’d rather a more attack minded manager, but you can’t deny the job Cocu has done so far.

I agree. I'm not anti Cocu at all.

I just don't expect to win games when we don't attack. I don't expect to create chances when all the opposition has to do is plod out to close the ball, retreat, plod out, retreat, plod out, retreat

With less errors and more time he will probably produce a good 1-0 team. 

But yeah, this ain't going to be free scoring, born free festival of fun. 

When it's not working though it's going to be boring as feck. There's nice neat football and some little technical delights but it's very much a war of attrition 

[Ramfambo]

Did someone say the cricket is back on?

[RamNut]

8 minutes ago, Sean said:

Lawrence poor??

Absolutely. He started sloppily. Gave the ball away. Half arsed. It seemed to set the tone. 
However I can’t comment on what happened after 67 minutes as by then I had lost visual contact with it all. 
compare that to Leeds away last year.

[Millenniumram]

2 minutes ago, Alpha said:

I agree. I'm not anti Cocu at all.

I just don't expect to win games when we don't attack. I don't expect to create chances when all the opposition has to do is plod out to close the ball, retreat, plod out, retreat, plod out, retreat

With less errors and more time he will probably produce a good 1-0 team. 

But yeah, this ain't going to be free scoring, born free festival of fun. 

When it's not working though it's going to be boring as feck. There's nice neat football and some little technical delights but it's very much a war of attrition 

Imo to go up playing this style of football we’re gonna need to concede a maximum of about 30 goals across the season. We’re gonna need to build a real quality defence and find some attacking players who can pull something out of nothing to succeed.

[Abu Dhabi Ram]

I think our front three play in front of the defense naturally.  Lawrence, just goes missing too often for me, he isn’t very quick either, Martin is too slow, that leaves Sibley as our only attacking threat. We have nothing else, I don’t think Waghorn is the answer, Flo jo or Marriott, it just reinforces my belief that our recruitment has been utterly abysmal since Mel took control. I’m glad Cocu has taken his time to give players chances and not rush into more signings, maybe he is reviewing our recruitment, but he will know exactly what needs to be done. 
 

The biggest impact on the club this summer will be having a manager in charge for a second season, we are in desperate need of consistency. 

[1of4]

Another game lost due to own errors and giving away soft goals. How many points have we squandered this season, that are down to the goals we gifted to the opposition this season?

[Rampage]

12 minutes ago, RamNut said:

Got bored of watching that and nodded off.

was just thinkIng  that I’d sub Lawrence and Rooney when he ballsed up.

sloppy start. Lawrence poor. Too passive. Too deep. Then we got on the front foot and had 20 minutes which were very good. Great lay-off by Martin for sibley, great pass.
 

But there is simply not enough of that. We play too safe, too tame. not enough motivation and fire in the bellies. 

Pretty useless tbh these past four games

I must say that after paying £10 to watch it, I just listened to the second half on Rams TV. Getting wound up about back passing. We looked exhausted but have played no more games than other teams and we have many young players. Watching a bit of Leeds and the energy they have was disconcerting. We will need tin hats against them.

[Remy the hare]

21 minutes ago, EulogyForEvolution said:

Not ready for promotion anyway. I'd happily spend another couple of years in the Championship to develop these youngsters and to allow Cocu to get it right. 

We gave this away in the last few games, but it's all good experience. 

We aren't too far off, though. We just need more depth, quality in goal and on the wings, and maybe a striker.

To right another season in the championship, nothing wrong with that. Plus we get to see (hopefully in person?) at pride park Adebayo Akinfenwa ?

[DRBee]

1 minute ago, RamNut said:

Absolutely. He started sloppily. Gave the ball away. Half arsed. It seemed to set the tone. 
However I can’t comment on what happened after 67 minutes as by then I had lost visual contact with it all. 
compare that to Leeds away last year.

He isn't going to improve anymore now. Inconsistent - brilliantly trapping the ball one minute then  giving the ball away 5 or 6 times. Sell him,his value isn't going to improve. 

 

[Rampage]

16 minutes ago, goldstar said:

Bang on. And you know why that is, because we know inevitably an individual mistake and we will concede a goal. Its a catch 22.

Thank you Wayne for playing fior the Rams this season. Brilliant overall. Too many games in too short a time. Well done. My POTY. COYR

[rammieib]

5 minutes ago, Alpha said:

I agree. I'm not anti Cocu at all.

I just don't expect to win games when we don't attack. I don't expect to create chances when all the opposition has to do is plod out to close the ball, retreat, plod out, retreat, plod out, retreat

With less errors and more time he will probably produce a good 1-0 team. 

But yeah, this ain't going to be free scoring, born free festival of fun. 

When it's not working though it's going to be boring as feck. There's nice neat football and some little technical delights but it's very much a war of attrition 

Spot on. Last few games was early season Cocu ball. We’re so desperately lacking penetration it is painful. Any defence playing against us isn’t going to worry about Martin getting in behind, Lawrence won’t so literally the only threat is Sibley.

However what has happened to Bird? First thought pass backwards, second thought pass backwards, third thought pass backwards. I’ve not seen Bird even try a 30 yard ball out to the wing yet.

I feel for Rooney. He’s the only one trying things, he’ll get a few criticisms tonight but when he has zero options it’s understandable.

It May only take a few players to actually turn the whole thing around but right now, this isn’t pretty.

[Uptherams]

6 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Imo to go up playing this style of football we’re gonna need to concede a maximum of about 30 goals across the season. We’re gonna need to build a real quality defence and find some attacking players who can pull something out of nothing to succeed.

With Te Weirk, Bielik and then a new GK, we are going to get considerably better at the back with the ball. That isn't the big issue. It's the lack of dynamic passing and play. The manager thinks we can either pass a team to death or create openings this way. It's not going to happen. By all means we should aim to have possession more than our opponents. But this nonsense needs to stop. 

[NottsRam77]

Love to see a figure for how many gift wrapped goals we’ve handed over this season.

how many have we had comfortable possession to then find 30 seconds later it’s in the back of our net 

teams don’t have to work hard to score against us... unless that changes then no matter how many talented kids we have we won’t be able to push for promotion 

 

[RamNut]

Just now, rammieib said:

However what has happened to Bird? First thought pass backwards, second thought pass backwards, third thought pass backwards.

Totally agree. He was outstanding for a quite a few games, but has gone backwards alarmingly.

 

[LeedsCityRam]

That was a tough watch. Worst performance in ages on a night where a win was a must & against a bang average Cardiff team. First 20 mins were appalling – no tempo or energy at all. Commentary seemed to think this was an attitude issue but in fairness, maybe the run of games has caught up with us particularly as we look far from the fittest squad in the league.

The equaliser came totally out of the blue – a cracking move & ushered in a period of keep ball. Clearly some posters enjoyed this but I actually saw it as being pretty negative – barely remember any shots or crosses in that period, lots of sideways and backwards passing instead. A lot of the one touch passing opened up gaps in their defensive press but we seemed so reluctant to get into those spaces & drive at them.

Their goals were just unbelievably poor. We must be getting a reputation for being a soft touch in this league – careless passing or rank awful defensive mistakes/goalie howlers have really cost us a lot of points this season.

Ratings;

Roos – 7.5 MOM – saved us from a walloping. Plenty of saves including a magnificent effort to stop them going 2-0 up shortly after the opener. Also much more assured in the air & less of the theatrics. Well done, keep it up

Lowe – 6 – looked what is he, a left back playing right back. Is OK as cover but he offered nothing down the right flank other than backward passes to Knight when in advance positions

Forsyth – 6 – OK & a brave header to stop them going 3-1 up but didn’t offer enough down the left side

Clarke – 7 – pretty good. Dealt with Glatzel well & used the ball well

Davies – 7 – Cardiff’s strength is in the air but Curtis dealt with their threat well. No panic attacks with him on the ball either

Bird – 6 – OK but far too many safe balls. Counted a number of occasions where he either refused a regulation forward pass or opportunity to move with the ball into space. Very safe performance & meant the forward 4 got precious little quality into them

Rooney – 5 – a shocker. No idea what he was thinking trying to dribble past 2 players when Clarke was alongside him. Quality of delivery and passing overall was really poor.

Lawrence – 5.5 – worked hard overall (apart from one pathetic attempt to stop a Hoilett cross) but total lack of quality with the ball & again a real reluctance to take on his man (Bacuna, a midfielder by trade)

Sibley – 7 – our only attacking threat & the only man willing to be direct. Ran with the ball well on counters, excellent weight & timing of pass for Knight to score

Knight – 6 – redeemed his shocker for the first goal with a well taken equaliser but overall was very ordinary. Ineffective down the right & no real quality with the ball in midfield

Martin – 5.5. – other than the flick to release Sibley for the first goal & an attempt to get a shot off at the end of the first half, forgot at times he was on the pitch. Granted he had very little service but also noticed in the first half he was strolling around & not putting pressure on their defenders on the ball. That seemed to improve in the second half but overall not his best game

Subs – no real contribution from any of them. Bogle tried but unable to get into the game, the others offered little

[Uptherams]

Just now, rammieib said:

Spot on. Last few games was early season Cocu ball. We’re so desperately lacking penetration it is painful. 

Exactly. I think people have forgotten just how awful we were in the first half of the season. I got so sick of it, that I called for the manager to change it or go. If we go back to that again, then sorry, again, manager must go. 

[lrm14]

8 minutes ago, Alpha said:

I agree. I'm not anti Cocu at all.

I just don't expect to win games when we don't attack. I don't expect to create chances when all the opposition has to do is plod out to close the ball, retreat, plod out, retreat, plod out, retreat

With less errors and more time he will probably produce a good 1-0 team. 

But yeah, this ain't going to be free scoring, born free festival of fun. 

When it's not working though it's going to be boring as feck. There's nice neat football and some little technical delights but it's very much a war of attrition 

I'm reserving judgement about how we attack until next season. Bring in an attacking player or two, give Sibley and Knight a bit more time to mature and I reckon we'll be a bit less sideways. We were like this at times under Lampard even with the likes of Mount and Wilson in the squad so I'm still convinced it's an issue with personnel above anything else.

[SSD]

Rooney this evening.

[Andicis]

2 minutes ago, lrm14 said:

I'm reserving judgement about how we attack until next season. Bring in an attacking player or two, give Sibley and Knight a bit more time to mature and I reckon we'll be a bit less sideways. We were like this at times under Lampard even with the likes of Mount and Wilson in the squad so I'm still convinced it's an issue with personnel above anything else.

It would help if he ever made bold substitutions, they're all too late and too negative. Tonight was a poo or bust game, but we really didn't treat it like that.

[Uptherams]

Just now, RamNut said:

Totally agree. He was outstanding for a quite a few games, but has gone backwards alarmingly.

 

Because Rooney is abusing him. He's now there to simply protect Rooney and give him the ball. Rooney was awful today and shouldn't have started the second half. Manager needs to tell Rooney straight, you play football and if your legs are gone after 60 mins, you're off. If you conserve your energy, just to complete a match, you don't start and you can't feature every game when we play twice a week or 3 times in 10 days. 

I am quite disappointed in how Rooney is starting to hold Bird back, because he's not got the legs.