MATCH THRREAD: " CARDIFF CITY v MIDDLESBROUGH " MATCH THREAD

CARDIFF CITY v MIDDLESBROUGH
Saturday 11th February, 3pm
Sky Bet Championship
Cardiff City Stadium 



It’s pay on the day

Boro bringing well over a 1,500 fans


Mahlon Romeo and Ebou Adams?


Update on Mahlon is that he started the week training with us. So he will be available for the game.

And Ebou Adams?

Not yet. He’s not training yet.

Lamouchi





How is the squad looking?

No problem at all. Just maybe Rubin Colwill received a kick in his ankle, so he didn’t train yesterday. We will check him today. I don’t think it’ll be serious. We will see today.

Lamouchi


CCFC TEAM NEWS:

Virtually fully fit squad.


The Bluebirds are still without Mahlon Romeo and he is expected to be sidelined for a couple of weeks more yet. The same can be said for Ebou Adams.

Jamilu Collins remains out for the season.





Can I stream or watch the match on TV?

This match is live on Cardiff City TV

The Opposition's Manager - Michael Carrick

Carrick has been in charge of Middlesbrough since October.

It's his first permanent managerial position, having had a brief spell as caretaker manager of Manchester United last season.

He has done a brilliant job at Middlesbrough. They were 21st when he took charge and they're currently 3rd.

Opposition Dangerous Players

Chuba Akpom has 16 league goals this season. He is the Championship's top scorer.

He has scored 13 goals in 15 league games since Michael Carrick took charge, having scored 12 goals in his previous 91 Championship games.

Previous Meeting 

We won 3-2 at Middlesbrough in September

Team News - Predicted Line-Ups

Middlesbrough: Steffen, Smith, McNair, Lenihan, Giles, Howson, Hackney, Akpom, Archer, Forss, McGree

Cardiff City: Allsop, Ng, McGuinness, Kipre, Simpson, Wintle, Sawyers, O'Dowda, Philogene, Ojo, Robinson

Form - Last Three Competitive Games

Hull City 1-0 Cardiff City
Luton Town 1-0 Cardiff City
Cardiff City 0-1 Millwall

Middlesbrough 3-0 Blackpool
Middlesbrough 2-0 Watford
Sunderland 2-0 Middlesbrough

Match Odds

Cardiff City - 12/5
Middlesbrough - 5/4
Draw - 21/10

Predictions

Post your predictions below 

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Very tough game.

Up against the top Championship goalscorer and arguably one of the best managers in the league.

Can only see an away win unfortunately.

Middlesbrough got Big Mick the sacked, could history repeat it self ? I can see Boro winning sorry to say.

CCFC TEAM NEWS:

Virtually fully fit squad.


The Bluebirds are still without Mahlon Romeo and he is expected to be sidelined for a couple of weeks more yet. The same can be said for Ebou Adams.

Jamilu Collins remains out for the season.

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It’s pay on the day

Boro bringing well over a 1,000 fans

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1st Game at Home under the new management - Time to show UP

Last Night:

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With the 3 teams below us playing each other over the next few days a defeat for us on Saturday could be a killer in our fight for survival in the championship. This match against a very good side will show us if we are capable of putting up a fight. A full weeks training should help the Manager sort out this team. Let's see exactly what fight this squad of players have.

With the 3 teams below us playing each other over the next few days a defeat for us on Saturday could be a killer in our fight for survival in the championship. This match against a very good side will show us if we are capable of putting up a fight. A full weeks training should help the Manager sort out this team. Let's see exactly what fight this squad of players have.

Agree, Mike. Fight and passion is the very least we should expect.

With the 3 teams below us playing each other over the next few days a defeat for us on Saturday could be a killer in our fight for survival in the championship. This match against a very good side will show us if we are capable of putting up a fight. A full weeks training should help the Manager sort out this team. Let's see exactly what fight this squad of players have.

There is are two certainties that will happen this Saturday. The sun will rise and City will lose at home. It doesn't matter what the formation, motivation, new manager etc, etc. They will lose. I am not knocking anyone trying to be positive or supporting the team, that's what good supporters do. I've made my peace with relegation. This team are totally finished. My prediction is it will get worse, much worse before we have to rebuild in league one. I am just praying that club are already putting a plan in place for this. Players will need to be sold and once again we will probably need a new manager. The club will rise again, just not this weekend and not for some time yet.

Four goals between @BlackpoolFC and @htafc but neither side was able to move out of the bottom three.

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Sabri Lamouchi: We must win five or six games to stay up


Sabri Lamouchi believes Cardiff have to win "five or six" of their last 16 games in order to avoid relegation.

Easier said than done, of course, given they haven't won a football match since November 5, but it's clear the Frenchman has a points target in mind that he wants to get to sooner rather than later.

"Five or six," he said when asked how many games they need to win in their final 16 to avoid relegation.

"But before we win, we need to score. We need to score and play better. If we play better and score then maybe you get confidence. If you get confidence then maybe you get a chance to win.

"Maybe the confidence will then be back and then we will get out of this situation. We have to."

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Another defeat is probable. A draw is possible. A win is very unlikely.......but, we all live in hope!

68% say we r gonna win........er ok

Sorry got it wrong
25%for a win ...... better

I think we are going to get a stuffing here. Boro were awesome in their last game. Forget about going 3 up before HT on this one.

How is the squad looking?

No problem at all. Just maybe Rubin Colwill received a kick in his ankle, so he didn’t train yesterday. We will check him today. I don’t think it’ll be serious. We will see today.

Lamouchi

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Mahlon Romeo and Ebou Adams?


Update on Mahlon is that he started the week training with us. So he will be available for the game.

And Ebou Adams?

Not yet. He’s not training yet.

Lamouchi

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SABRI LAMOUCHI:

"Of course we have the players and the squad for scoring goals that. We have quality. We have to do more. Each player has to do more to try to change that."


"We are trying to sign Connor Wickham, so he is training with us. I hope he will be part of the squad."

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How is the squad looking?

No problem at all. Just maybe Rubin Colwill received a kick in his ankle, so he didn’t train yesterday. We will check him today. I don’t think it’ll be serious. We will see today.
He needs kick up his arse not on his ankle very disappointing so far
Lamouchi

Fearing the worst. Middlesbrough are flying guys.

Mahlon Romeo injury boost:




Cardiff have been boosted by the return of right-back Mahlon Romeo but are sweating on the fitness of Rubin Colwill ahead of Saturday's clash with Middlesbrough.

The Bluebirds have sorely missed the defender, who has been one of the most consistent performers for the club this season, and the balance of their back line appears to have been thrown out of kilter in recent weeks.

But in a positive news bulletin from Sabri Lamouchi, he confirmed Romeo is available to play this weekend. Unfortunately, an ankle injury to Colwill means he faces a late fitness test.

"The update on Mahlon is that he started the week training with us. So he will be available for the game. [Ebou Adams] is not training yet.

"Rubin Colwill received a kick in his ankle, so he didn’t train yesterday. We will check him today. I don’t think it’ll be serious. We will see today."

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Cardiff City's biggest positional problem and how Sabri Lamouchi plans to solve it amid calls to sign free agent


The Bluebirds have struggled to plug a hole all season and it continues to cost them dear points


By Glen Williams


10 FEB 2023


Cardiff City fans yearn for the days of Jamilu Collins bombing beyond Callum O'Dowda on that left flank.

The halcyon days of just six months ago, but to some it feels like a lifetime has past since then. Time drags when your club slip deeper into the mire, which is where the Bluebirds currently find themselves.

The promise of early-season is but a memory now. Collins and O'Dowda's partnership on the left looked set to take the Championship by storm as they both played their part in City earning seven points from the first four games.


But disaster struck in that fourth game. A seemingly innocuous incident saw left-back Collins hit the deck and writhe in pain before being brought off.

"With all the will in the world, let's hope it is just that he's in really bad pain at the minute and it's not what we suspect it might be," then manager Steve Morison said after the full-time whistle at The Hawthorns.


"I said to the lads at half-time, 'If you're going to put your bodies on the line for anyone, go and do it for him', because he has been the best left-back in the league so far."

Morison was right to say that. Collins was the best left-back in the league at that time. His fears were to be realised, though, as in his next press conference, the manager informed the gathered media that the Nigeria international was out for the season.


Niels Nkounkou flattered to deceive, Joel Bagan has not been fancied and Jack Simpson, more recently, has been dicey on the left-hand side of defence. O'Dowda has been more than capable there, but it's no coincidence that City's attacking output has suffered as a consequence.

So, what now? Because that position has cost City a number of points this season. How does Lamouchi solve the equation? Well, here's his take on the situation.

"For the first game, Callum O'Dowda was not available," he said. "So we started with Jack in at left-back and everybody knows he is not a left-back. But he did not so bad in Luton and we tried to keep the same back four in Hull.

"Because with the qualities of Callum, they are more offensive than defensive, and we thought he could help us to score or assist and to create more.

"Unfortunately, Jack gets substituted just after the goal - you receive the kick. I said unfortunately, because maybe if he received the same kick five minutes before, you can make the change.

"But they are two different players. I don't think Callum is a left-back. I don't think Jack is a left-back. So they are playing there just because we don't have the left-back at the moment. We need to find the right system, with the right players in that system."


Fortunately, Cardiff have been buoyed by the return of Mahlon Romeo this weekend - and what a miss he has been.

Romeo has arguably been the most consistent performer of them all across the season and his absence on the right-hand side of defence has come at the detriment of the team. Neither Tom Sang nor Perry Ng have really flourished there.

However, his return could potentially mean a back three of Ng, Cedric Kipre and Mark McGuinness could be deployed, with Romeo and O'Dowda operating as wing-backs. As things stand, that appears to be the best option, particularly against a high-flying and free-scoring Middlesbrough team.

Having wing-backs of such quality, with big strikers like Sory Kaba and Kion Etete either starting or as bench options, means Cardiff's mantra of putting balls into the box finally has a chance of being successful.

There is also the option of going gung-ho, so to speak, and he could play Romeo on the right, Ng on the left with McGuinness and Kipre making up a back four, with O'Dowda further up the pitch to get those balls into the box.

Either way, it's a big shift away from the style of football implemented by Morison at the start of the season, but at this moment in time it's horses for courses and that appears the best way to solve the painful goal drought currently sending City down to League One.

Alternatively, of course, there is the option to bring in a free agent, which would seemingly solve a number of issues. Fans have called for City to look in the free agent market, believing it to be a priority even over signing another striker.

But Lamouchi is reticent to bring in players from the cold who will need time to work up to speed, even if former England left-back Danny Rose and Tyler Blackett, who worked under the Frenchman at Nottingham Forest, are both available.

So, when asked whether he would potentially look at the free agent market to solve the left-back issue, Lamouchi replied; "Yes, but I'm not trying to look around, I need to find the solution. As you know, we play after tomorrow at home, after that, two days after, we travel to Birmingham. So three games in one week, I need to focus on the players in my locker rooms and not outside just to find the solution."

For the time-being, at least, the answer to the question has to be in-house.

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City 0 Boro 0

Brum 2 WBA 0

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If Borough score it's all over, I know people try to be positive which is great but how can you actually believe we will beat Borough on our recent performances. It will be like winning the lottery if we beat them, fingers crossed.

I’m going for a entertaining and hard fought 2-2

Boro bringing well over a 1,500 fans

Middlesbrough got Big Mick the sacked, could history repeat it self ? I can see Boro winning sorry to say.

We beat them away this season; so keep the faith...

I dont mind a loss if i see a massive improvment, its going to be hard but Boro do have a couple of flaws that can be exploited, but dont think we got the pace to do it