" WE ARE DOING GREAT/WHAT DO WE NEED IN JANUARY? "

A lot of the time the moderators on this board are criticised of being too negative and having an agenda against Russell Slade. I still do not believe Slade is the right man for the job, given the quality of our squad. But here is a positive post

Despite our loss at Birmingham on Friday night, on Christmas Day we will actually be in a very good position. We're just one point off the play-offs and 8th in the league. The results on Saturday did us a favour. Ipswich and Hull both lost, which kept us close to Ipswich in 6th place.

But that has been the story of the season so far. There aren't many consistent sides apart from Brighton, Derby and Middlesbrough. You'd have to say Hull are likely to make the play-offs. I would have said Burnley a few weeks back but not now, even though they won yesterday they don't look as strong as they did in the early part of the season.

That means there are essentially two spots up for grabs and Cardiff City are actually in a great position to potentially get one of those play-off places. Out of the current top 10 we have already been to Derby, Brighton, Ipswich and Birmingham. Our record against the current top 10 is:

Middlesbrough (h) - Won
Derby (a) - Lost
Brighton (a) - Draw
Hull (h) - Lost
Burnley (h) - Draw
Ipswich (a) - Draw
Birmingham (a) - Lost
Brentford (h) - Won
Sheffield Wednesday (h) - Draw

Even though there are a lot of draws in there, we have only lost three and in two of those we played good football and just lacked the finishing touch. Our next five fixtures are obviously crucial, and here's what I think we should expect:

MK Dons (a) - We need to go there and win. They are a team who are just a point above the bottom three and have won just five matches all season.

Nottingham Forest (h) - Again we should be looking for the win in this match. Forest haven't won on the road since September.

Blackburn (h) - This will be a test as Blackburn have improved a lot under Paul Lambert, but we should be winning our home games.

Hull (a) - This will be one of our toughest games of the season. I'd be surprised if we came away with anything there.

Wolves (a) - They've struggled at home this season but I think this game will be a draw.


IF that is what happens, that will give us 10 points from those five games. We would be on 43 points with 19 games to go, which would be an excellent position.

But there's no doubt we need strengthening if Cardiff City are serious about making the play-offs.

WHERE DO YOU THINK WE NEED TO STRENGTHEN?

For me, we should do all we can to get Tony Watt on a permanent deal for a start. We'll need another striker as well, Stokes from Celtic would be a decent signing at this level. I'd also say we need another central midfielder and a winger.

Thanks for reading

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Cardiff City fans

Agree there's some positives to take from that analysis. Apart from Hull away there's every reason to believe we can get results in the other matches. Look what happened to Brighton against Boro. There are going to be other top teams which will drop points I'm sure. Apart from signing Watt I'd look to strengthen central midfield. I wouldn't mind Tom Adeyemi coming back.

Agree with what you say in your post
We have to have the belief in the side which I think we struggle with and we definitely need a Craig bellamy type of player to give a spark out there.
Watt and Jones looks good so well done to slade there for his addition.
Bit more pace in the team with a bit more belief determination and disire and who knows.

For me the biggest thing is something's missing on top of that and its to do with the manager I hope I'm wrong but I just don't think he has the x factor in taking us up I just don't think he has what it takes.
I think we missed the boat with Tony pulis he or similar should of had the job which I believe would would of given us the bits that are missing in the team.Also the fans and club would of been more unified which is another piece of the jigsaw that's missing.

Good luck to city and slade but that's my opinion on our team under slade.

Great post I think we can get more points out of there than you predict.

Did I imagine we beat Brentford?

Did I imagine we beat Brentford?

My mistake, changed it now

Agree there's some positives to take from that analysis. Apart from Hull away there's every reason to believe we can get results in the other matches. Look what happened to Brighton against Boro. There are going to be other top teams which will drop points I'm sure. Apart from signing Watt I'd look to strengthen central midfield. I wouldn't mind Tom Adeyemi coming back.

That's true, like you say a lot of teams are now starting to slip up. This period is when we really find out who's in the hunt and who isn't.

Agree with what you say in your post
We have to have the belief in the side which I think we struggle with and we definitely need a Craig bellamy type of player to give a spark out there.
Watt and Jones looks good so well done to slade there for his addition.
Bit more pace in the team with a bit more belief determination and disire and who knows.

For me the biggest thing is something's missing on top of that and its to do with the manager I hope I'm wrong but I just don't think he has the x factor in taking us up I just don't think he has what it takes.
I think we missed the boat with Tony pulis he or similar should of had the job which I believe would would of given us the bits that are missing in the team.Also the fans and club would of been more unified which is another piece of the jigsaw that's missing.

Good luck to city and slade but that's my opinion on our team under slade.

Got to agree that we need more pace. Ameobi was poor the other night I thought and we need a better option than him, he's failed to impress. Noone is very inconsistent.

Great post I think we can get more points out of there than you predict.

I hope you're right

We are lacking a goal machine, Watt maybe the answer, but our x factor for the last four or five seasons has been our set plays, not sure why that has dried up recently.

Very good post. But we are not doing great. We have no consistency in results and performances. With the squad we have, we should be doing a lot better than we are!

Slade is not the man to take us forward and the sooner he goes the sooner we can move on.

A lot of the time the moderators on this board are criticised of being too negative and having an agenda against Russell Slade. I still do not believe Slade is the right man for the job, given the quality of our squad. But here is a positive post

Despite our loss at Birmingham on Friday night, on Christmas Day we will actually be in a very good position. We're just one point off the play-offs and 8th in the league. The results on Saturday did us a favour. Ipswich and Hull both lost, which kept us close to Ipswich in 6th place.

But that has been the story of the season so far. There aren't many consistent sides apart from Brighton, Derby and Middlesbrough. You'd have to say Hull are likely to make the play-offs. I would have said Burnley a few weeks back but not now, even though they won yesterday they don't look as strong as they did in the early part of the season.

That means there are essentially two spots up for grabs and Cardiff City are actually in a great position to potentially get one of those play-off places. Out of the current top 10 we have already been to Derby, Brighton, Ipswich and Birmingham. Our record against the current top 10 is:

Middlesbrough (h) - Won
Derby (a) - Lost
Brighton (a) - Draw
Hull (h) - Lost
Burnley (h) - Draw
Ipswich (a) - Draw
Birmingham (a) - Lost
Brentford (h) - Won
Sheffield Wednesday (h) - Draw

Even though there are a lot of draws in there, we have only lost three and in two of those we played good football and just lacked the finishing touch. Our next five fixtures are obviously crucial, and here's what I think we should expect:

MK Dons (a) - We need to go there and win. They are a team who are just a point above the bottom three and have won just five matches all season.

Nottingham Forest (h) - Again we should be looking for the win in this match. Forest haven't won on the road since September.

Blackburn (h) - This will be a test as Blackburn have improved a lot under Paul Lambert, but we should be winning our home games.

Hull (a) - This will be one of our toughest games of the season. I'd be surprised if we came away with anything there.

Wolves (a) - They've struggled at home this season but I think this game will be a draw.


IF that is what happens, that will give us 10 points from those five games. We would be on 43 points with 19 games to go, which would be an excellent position.

But there's no doubt we need strengthening if Cardiff City are serious about making the play-offs.

WHERE DO YOU THINK WE NEED TO STRENGTHEN?

For me, we should do all we can to get Tony Watt on a permanent deal for a start. We'll need another striker as well, Stokes from Celtic would be a decent signing at this level. I'd also say we need another central midfielder and a winger.

Thanks for reading

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Cardiff City fans

I think we will need to sign up Watt on a permanent basis plus the new wide man we are due to bring in from Europe. Also
the replacement target man for Kenwynne who the club are looking to move on as a big financial saving. A ball winning central midfielder wouldn't go amiss either,but I can't see the club adding to the numbers we already have in the squad in that area when finances are so tight

Good post Watt has to be a priority, he's made a big difference since he came here. We Need to take advantage of our good position and get wins against MK and Forest as the other teams around the playoffs have games against each other.