BREAKING MICK McCARTHY: “ FRIDAY 19th MARCH 2021 “

" MICK McCARTHY WILL UPDATE CARDIFF CITY FANS THIS FRIDAY "


Friday 19th March 2021




Perry Ng?

He is just a doubt. He got a bang on his knee.

I am just being mischievous here and why shouldn’t I be?

McCarthy




MICK McCARTHY:



Injuries?

Just the injuries we have, Nelson, Bagan, Bennett, Perry Ng, Tom Sang had a hamstring, he will be fine.

McCarthy




Game Cardiff have struggled in in recent times, haven’t lacked heart under you though?

They haven’t lacked heart from the very first, when we were 2-0 at Barnsley and against Millwall.

This is different because their pride is at stake.

No one has ever said to me my team has lacked heart.

McCarthy





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MICK McCARTHY:



Game Cardiff have struggled in in recent times, haven’t lacked heart under you though?

They haven’t lacked heart from the very first, when we were 2-0 at Barnsley and against Millwall.

This is different because their pride is at stake.

No one has ever said to me my team has lacked heart.

McCarthy

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Live on Sky 5:30pm Sat Mar 20 Swansea City v Cardiff City




Fri Apr 02 NOTTINGHAM FOREST H

Live on Sky Easter Monday 5pm Apr 05 Sheffield Wednesday A

Sat Apr 10 BLACKBURN ROVERS H

Sat Apr 17 Reading A

Tues 7:45pm Apr 20 Brentford A

Sat Apr 24 WYCOMBE WANDERERS H




Sat May 01 Birmingham City v Cardiff City

Sat May 08 CARDIFF CITY v ROTHERHAM UNITED

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MICK McCARTHY:



How has lockdown affected derby atmosphere? Have people had to tell you within the club?

I’m long enough in the tooth to know how much derbies mean to fans. At Barnsley, if we played anyone in Yorkshire, they meant so much to us.

Man City and United, Celtic Rangers, Lyon St Etienne, Millwall and anyone in London!

I love derbies, the competitive edge it gives you.

Very often it’s the ones with competitive edge that wins the game.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:




No one has done the double?

Well, we have got to make sure that doesn’t happen! We don’t want to be the first in the history books.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:


It’s a big game for both clubs, often about not losing, but both sides need a win?

I don’t know, some teams probably do set out not to lose.

Both of us are in a position where it is important to win. We haven’t set out not to lose, we have changed it in a game.

But this is not a game for that.

If we win, we are back on the coattails of the play-offs and that’s the place to be.

It’s an important game for both of us.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:




Swansea and Steve Cooper?

Been great, Steve Cooper. I did the play-off game last year for Sky when they played Brentford and to get them there and the way they played was exceptional.

You wonder then about the next season but I take my hat off to him.

But that’s as far as the compliments will go, because I want to beat him tomorrow!

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:



Change your approach for this one?

Not at all. Why would we? What we’ve been doing has given us some success, why would we change?

I’m sure they won’t be expecting us to change.

It’ll be the same from us.

I keep saying to them, you can’t worry about the result, worry about your performance. If we play as well as we have done in some games we can win it.

Look after your own performance and look after your mates on the pitch.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:



Play-off race?

The games we have got left, we have to start winning again.

Is it a must-win game? For fans it is and the pride. If we didn’t win it but won all the rest, would we get in the play-offs? Who knows.

We can only concentrate on this game.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:



TC, what about the path he has taken?

TC came in the era I was playing and he had a real tough upbringing. Racism was rife in the game.

I actually witnessed it, coming back in an airport once, how someone spoke to me compared to him.

Someone asked him to take his hoodie off, the difference how he was treated. TC has suffered all that in the Eighties.

He would be a good guy to talk about it, that’s for sure. I’m not sure he would.

It was subtle. In a way, it was even worse. It was not very nice.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:



Rangers had an incident last night, should UEFA do more?

Absolutely. We should all be doing it, shouldn’t we?

I think it should be done at school level. Once we are at this level, we have all grown up, you’ve got your values and beliefs. Maybe it should be that when they have got to professional footballers it might be too late to educate them.

We should be continuing to stamp it out of the game.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:



Top three derby moments?

Certainly my last game for Celtic we beat Rangers 1-0 in a cup final. That was important to me. I left after that game, I signed for Lyon.

Going back years and years, playing at Barnsley, beating Rotherham late on in a league game we ended up getting promoted. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me!

Everyone was on the pitch, that was my first taste of real success in football.

Wolves and West Brom was always a real feisty affair. The year we stayed up in the Premier League for the second time, we beat them at Molineux, then we beat Sunderland and lost the last game, but stayed up on goal difference.

I’ve also been on the losing side and that stays with you.

Everyone’s derby is the big derby. My game against Rotherham and Doncaster, Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday and United, Leeds United, wow, I was a Leeds fan. That’s when I played against TC, he will say I just kicked him! They are my biggest and best memories.

They were wonderful times for me, making my debut and playing for my hometown club, it was fabulous.

People ask what this game means to me, if you are born in Cardiff or Swansea, it makes a damn sight more to them than it does to me!

Everything I do revolves around Cardiff City, I’m not bothered about anyone else.

McCarthy

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Fabulous touch from Swansea players who'll wear tributes to @CardiffCityFC fans' icon Sol Bamba and his 22 shirt number on the back of their Kick It Out training tops ahead of Saturday's big match. This is what respectful rivalry is about

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MICK McCARTHY:


Perry Ng?

He is just a doubt. He got a bang on his knee.

I am just being mischievous here and why shouldn’t I be?

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:




Rangers had an incident last night, should UEFA do more?

Absolutely. We should all be doing it, shouldn’t we?

I think it should be done at school level. Once we are at this level, we have all grown up, you’ve got your values and beliefs. Maybe it should be that when they have got to professional footballers it might be too late to educate them.

We should be continuing to stamp it out of the game.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:

TC, what about the path he has taken?

TC came in the era I was playing and he had a real tough upbringing. Racism was rife in the game.

I actually witnessed it, coming back in an airport once, how someone spoke to me compared to him.

Someone asked him to take his hoodie off, the difference how he was treated. TC has suffered all that in the Eighties.

He would be a good guy to talk about it, that’s for sure. I’m not sure he would.

It was subtle. In a way, it was even worse. It was not very nice.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:




Standing together against racism?

It’s a gesture that’s shared by all of them. When we went to Bournemouth, they had stopped taking the knee.

So I asked our players what they thought of it. But they were adamant they wanted to take the knee and I think that’s right.

Whatever we do on the pitch, we should have a united approach to anti-racism, but once the whistle goes, they can get stuck in!

But the message we are giving out prior to the game is a big one and an important one.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:


Wish you were still playing?

Every game makes me wish like I was still playing!

They are special days. They always get the hair standing up.

It’s much better with fans in, but the bragging rights makes it that little bit extra.

McCarthy







Managed over 1,000 games, Mourinho on the cusp, what do you need to be able to do that?

You’ve got to enjoy it!

I’m not putting myself in Mourinho’s category, but you’ve got to have had a modicum of success otherwise you get the sack!

And a bit of a sense of humour, because you definitely need it.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:


How do you motivate them to make it a ferocious derby without fans?

I try and motivate them in training that it’s a ferocious derby. Every day it’s a competition.

You don’t try a bit harder just because it’s a derby. You try as hard as you can, but when there’s derby games there is just a little bit extra.

It just gives that extra edge.

But it should be done every day!

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:




Play-off race?

The games we have got left, we have to start winning again.

Is it a must-win game? For fans it is and the pride. If we didn’t win it but won all the rest, would we get in the play-offs? Who knows.

We can only concentrate on this game.

McCarthy

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Cardiff City have a decision to make as to who stars alongside Kieffer Moore in the South Wales derby with Swansea City?

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MICK McCARTHY:


Preventing the double?

Extra incentive. I can’t do anything about historical results, we are playing this one.

They can’t add any extra spice for me.

If we win, we win, if we lose it I won’t feel any worse because it’s twice. I don’t want to lose it, you can’t add extra to it.

Watford, I can’t tell you how sick I felt after that. I was in bits after that and I don’t want to be in bits after Swansea.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:


Does that annoy you? Dinosaur tags?

It doesn’t annoy me, just gives me a bit more motivation to prove them wrong.

McCarthy

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MICK McCARTHY:


Secret to Cardiff around?

I hope it is recognised (that there are places for experienced coaches). Nigel Pearson has come in at Bristol City has done the same.

It was the old dinosaur tag for a while.

The game has not changed that much, fundamentally.

However you do it, there might be new fashions and new coaches, which is great, because we all want to get better, but there is a place for experience.

In different industries it would be seen as experience rather than ageism.

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Cardiff City 0 Stoke City 0



MICK McCARTHY:


"It's the first time I have had a raised voice, because it's been going so swimmingly up until Saturday - and even Saturday's performance was good, against a really good team," McCarthy said.

"I wasn't happy first half. I thought the performance was way below what we have set our standards at and we needed to up it.

"I thought we did in the second half."

Cardiff were the better side after the break, but still struggled to nick that all-important goal.

Kieffer Moore had two gilt-edged chances as the game drew to a close. One was a one-on-one with compatriot Adam Davies, who did well to rush out and snuff out the chance, and the second was an unchallenged, volleyed attempt from 15 yards which strayed wide of the mark.

"He has had the best of the chances," McCarthy said. "But he has been brilliant for us.

"Sometimes, all great strikers go through it, it is running for you and you score your chances and sometimes you wonder how you didn't score.

"Kieffer will be looking at that, but he has had to fight tooth and nail against their big centre-backs and he has put another great shift it.

"It just didn't turn into goals for him today, sadly."





Some wondered just why McCarthy didn't opt to change things up and potentially bring on other strikers who were waiting on the bench, namely Max Watters and Mark Harris, to relieve Moore, who understandably looked a little weary.

But while that might sound like the right option, McCarthy said he had to make sure the game was not lost and Moore's importance at the other end of the pitch was a factor in not making those substitutions.





MICK McCARTHY:


"It would be nice if we had a replacement for Kieffer Moore," McCarthy said.

"I've just been asked if I could put other substitutes on to win the game. Yeah, well, I could take him off and that might lose us the game.

"They were massive as well and we have to defend free-kicks and corners."

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MICK McCARTHY:



Where does this derby rank?

This is the biggest one! Because we are playing in it tomorrow. All the others are historical.

We will be prepared for it.

McCarthy

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Swansea City's indomitable force meets Cardiff City's breakthrough star in colossal battle which could decide South Wales derby


There will be individual battles all over the pitch come Saturday evening at the Liberty Stadium, but there is one arm-wrestle in particular which could have a telling impact on the outcome of the game




By Glen Williams



Friday 19th March 2021


Swansea City and Cardiff City face battles all over the pitch this weekend, but one will be more important than most
As is always the case in derby matches, it will be about winning your individual battle against your opposite number.

Managers Steve Cooper and Mick McCarthy will have been plotting away all week in a bid to outwit their counterpart come Saturday evening, while both sets of players will have forensically studied the man they are up against.

But, in this most important game for Swansea City and Cardiff City fans, there is one battle which will intrigue more than any other. Indeed, its outcome could go a long way to deciding the match.

The Swans' Connor Roberts has been a constant threat throughout the campaign. While he has been a consistent performer for some time now, this season he appears to have hit new heights.

The threat he poses from right-back is really something to behold; he has four goals and five assists this season and is a contender to be named Swansea's player of the season.

He is a cornerstone of this Swans side. While Cooper might be tempted to swap in one or two of his three centre-backs, change-up the midfield or mull over whether to deploy Jamal Lowe up top, Roberts' position in the team is unquestioned.

Somewhat staggeringly, the Wales international has played every minute of every league game this season — the only Swans player to have done so — such is his importance to the side.

Playing as a wing back in its truest sense has allowed him to realise his full potential. He has become such an attacking force while operating in Swansea's new system of three centre-backs and two wing backs in a way which their old formation of 4-2-3-1 never really afforded him the opportunity to do.

And if Cardiff are keen on leaning on Will Vaulks' long throw-in, then Roberts has one of his own in the locker, too. He can bomb them in with the best of them and since Swansea scored from one against Barnsley back in January, it has become a better utilised weapon in their arsenal.

He really gets the Swans ticking. His engine clocks up countless miles a season and he rarely goes missing. In these big derby games he will stand up and be counted, that is for certain.

It is a mouthwatering thought, then, that he will come up against Perry Ng on Saturday evening. For most Cardiff City fans' money, he has been the breakthrough star of the season.

Yes, supporters will rightly point to Kieffer Moore and his heroics this term, but given his exploits with Wales and what he had done with Wigan and Barnsley before that, his ability was already known in this corner of the word.

Ng was something of an unknown quantity. Just a year ago he was plotting away in League Two with Crewe, bidding to earn promotion to League One and emerging successful in doing so.

He had a middling start to the season with them this term, but Cardiff had already been trying to sign him since last January. It is now clear to see why.

He has revolutionised Cardiff City's wing-back play. Since City themselves moved to a five-at-the-back system, Ng has been the biggest beneficiary.



With there now being a lack of conventional wingers in McCarthy's side, the role of the wing backs takes on extra importance and Ng is flourishing.

He has been the most consistent player under McCarthy and, like Roberts at Swansea, is Cardiff's most undroppable player. He has three assists in his 13 games for Cardiff and is crucial to greasing the attacking wheels.

The wing back, who has been forced to play on his wrong flank following injuries to Joe Bennett and Joel Bagan, is a willing runner who will look to get in behind and stretch the defence in order to create room for Kieffer Moore and Josh Murphy, or Sheyi Ojo if he is selected.

He has taken to Championship football like a duck to water, it must be said, but coming up against one of the best in the division in the biggest game of them all will be his toughest task yet.

This is an arm-wrestle so crucial to the tie that whoever emerges on top will likely be on the winning side.

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Added spice?

Of course! Everybody’s derby is the big derby. This is the big game for us.

I used to love them as a player, playing in the derby games. I love them as a manager.

The result still matters, the performance still matters to the fans.

We have to do our very best in it.

McCarthy

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What would your last message be for players?

You do your preparation prior to that, you’ve done your work, we have trained today, but you generally find that the stuff just before going out is trying to wind each other up. Get each other to a certain level.

‘Leave it all on the pitch. Give everything and don’t bring anything back in.’

That’s every game. If they do that, I’ll take it, that’s for sure.

McCarthy

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International break, high time to rest legs after this one?





Kieffer Moore has played every game, then he will play for Wales and play the next three games. Harry Wilson, Jonny Williams, it would be great for him to get a game actually.

He has had bit-parts and 23s game. Junior is away, fine if he gets a game.

McCarthy

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