SO WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM ANFIELD VISIT?

So, what have we learned from the young Bluebirds creditable FA Cup Fourth Round visit to recent Eauropean and Premier League Champions, Liverpool FC?


Cardiff City could not topple Liverpool yesterday afternoon in the FA Cup but certainly gave a good account of themselves in the process at Anfield.

The Bluebirds were eventually on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline but certainly made life difficult for their hosts, with the score 0-0 at the break and a few chances going begging for the away side that could have really stirred up trouble.

In the end, the Reds’ extra class told as the likes of Diogo Jota and Takumi Minamino sent them through to the next round but Cardiff can take plenty of positives from the game, too, even if they didn’t win.

Here, we look at three things we learned about the men from the Welsh capital…


Future’s bright

The average of the Cardiff players that were involved at Anfield was 23.75 which, considering the established internationals that featured for Liverpool, is some stat.

Steve Morison was happy to bring in the youngsters and give them a chance to show what they could do and they really did a fine job at Anfield.

There are some good players coming through at Cardiff and though this season has been tough there has to be some hope about the future for sure.


Rubin Colwill continues to shine

Colwill is perhaps the pick of the young bunch at Cardiff, with him scoring a fine goal towards the end of the game.

When he was played in you backed him to score despite Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate bearing down on him and the finish was one of a seasoned veteran that has played at Anfield and stadiums like it for several seasons.

Another great moment in Colwill’s fledgling career.


Defensively adaptable

Cardiff had a number of defensive players missing through either injury or the fact that they were cup-tied but you wouldn’t have really known.

Indeed, the Cardiff side was a little bit more patchwork that Steve Morison would have wanted for such a game but the Bluebirds did well, and in the first half in particular they kept Liverpool at bay whilst offering their own threat going forwards.

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I don’t really want to go back to the premier league.

VAR hasn’t made things better

How we didn't get even 1 of the 2 big decisions we called for from VAR I'll never know

It was a long, long day yesterday but one I was glad to endure for no other reason than the pride I (and those who travelled with me) felt when a young, shuffled team sporting three debutants, went to the (not sure why after this experience) legendary Anfield and put in a display that warmed the old cockles...

My personal Man of the Match was debutant Oliver Denham and, like the others involved, looks like another Steve Morison Under 23 'gem' for the future (maybe even now) and the future certainly looks a whole lot brighter

Rubin Colwill continues to look the part and scored a goal that would have been far more lauded had ut been scored by his opponents impressively. I'm not sure what is going on behind the scenes but he (Colwill) says he is 'just knuckling down' and with small tweaks, I feel he will soon be a constant in the team and his 'stock' rising

In the absence of skipper Sean Morrison, I thought that on the whole the defence performed well against impressive opponents and were well led by Aden Flint (how glad are we he didn't leave in January now?)

Clearly errors were made (for Liverpool's 2nd goal in particular) but thry can be learned fromand I feel they will be


A great day outvand the Liverpool support was embarassingly subdues during the game but, to their credit, were pretty welcoming of our support and praising of our young team

I don’t really want to go back to the premier league.

VAR hasn’t made things better

It hasn't, Neil

I was never an advocate and so far the experience has shown it to be more divisive than before it arrived when at least any decision was a debate rather than a clinically clear one

Still want to go back to the Premier League though. It's the place to be for any ambitious club/supporter

I personally think that the future is looking a lot brighter, the younger members of the team are being looked after by Morison.

And although some people on here seem to get a kick out of saying they are not up to championship standards, on Sunday they showed that they have the potential to progress to that standard.

Mark Harris seems to be the favourite for people to criticise that he has been on loan, but never made the grade with the clubs he was on loan with, but do not seem to accept, that during the last three months or so he has improved quite a lot and is now showing signs of becoming quite a good player.

It would be nice if we were in the position, that for the last four or five games Morison could field a side that contained the players that he knows will be here next season.

So what did we learn from Anfield?

The youngsters on our books have the ability to play Championship football next season, if they can gain the Championship experience during this season that would be a bonus

I learnt that we won't be playing Norwich in the next round.

I would give colwill the last 30 minutes upfront in place of collins or whoever there was nothing wrong with what he did yesterday and he has scored before i would just like to see if he could slot in there he has no pace on the wing but definitely has an eye for goal and he' s not a gunnarson midfielder more of a whitts
I would just like to fit him in there somewhere he could not be any worse than collins upfront or vaulks in the centre we have wintle ralls doyle as the midfield dogs but the added bit of flair from colwill should be used bit by bit imho.

How we didn't get even 1 of the 2 big decisions we called for from VAR I'll never know

Because we're not Liverpool?

I don’t really want to go back to the premier league.

VAR hasn’t made things better

On this we can agree. Still big decksions for big clubs.