" Malkay defends team after leicester "

Confirms he's looking to bring more players in.


CARDIFF City manager Malky Mackay insists his team are not suffering from pre-Wembley jitters and are raring to bounce back against Peterborough.

After the first back-to-back league defeats of the Scottish manager’s reign, he said: "I must have been asked whether Wembley is affecting my players a dozen times but they have been so professional and such a good group of players up until now and I'm sure that won't change.

"A game Tuesday is just what the players want and we all know we've got to get straight back on it. They are desperate to redress the balance.”


Mackay was disappointed after his King Power Stadium game plan was thrown into chaos after seven minutes as midfield maestro Aron Gunnarsson was forced off the pitch with a hamstring spasm and replaced by Slovakian under 21 international Filip Kiss.

The Bluebirds boss said: "We were affected by having one of our main players in taken off early in the game and giving away a poor penalty before half time.

“Aron suffered a hamstring spasm and had tweaked his back moments before. We will have to take a look at him before deciding if he can play against Peterborough.”

Even without Gunnarsson, Mackay was disappointed by how his team started the game, soaking up almost continuous pressure before a Paul Gallagher penalty put the home side ahead on 40 minutes.

Moments later Mackay was ruing a marginal offside decision, which denied Kenny Miller and equaliser, saying: "I was happier with how we played in the second half and we kept going when Rudy Gestede and Kenny Miller were playing together up front."

"If Kenny's goal had been given it would have made a big difference and it was marginal but Leicester was always going to be a difficult place to come and I was just pleased with the way we went about it in the second half."

After trailing at half time, Mackay threw on bustling French striker Rudy Gestede for Slovenian debutant Haris Vuckevic, who struggled to make an impact after arriving on loan from Newcastle United on Friday.

Following the defeat, Mackay defended his decision to start with the young Toon star, who is on loan at the Cardiff City Stadium for an initial month, saying: "It's not easy making your debut at Leicester.

"He's a young talent and he's played a few Premier League games for Newcastle recently, so it wasn't a gamble putting him in.

“He was fully fit and available and it was a case of needs must."

Mackay also refused to accept that his players are tired but he did confirm he will be looking to the loan market to add strength to his squad, saying: "Everyone strives for consistency, whether you are a player or a manager and we have been incredibly consistent up until now.

"But sometimes we don't perform to the same level as we have been, that's just part of the ups and downs you go through in a season. But the loan market is open and I will be looking to bring more players in."

Leicester boss Nigel Pearson claimed his side dominated the game for large periods and suggested that having watched Blackpool nullify star man Peter Whittingham last week, he had found the key to blocking out the Bluebirds.

The former Sheffield Wednesday defender said: "We know how good Whittingham is and if you give him time and space on the ball he can cause you real problems. It was in our minds collectively to keep him quiet after Blackpool did precisely that and beat Cardiff last week.

"But I'm not sure if we can catch Cardiff. They will be looking for automatic promotion and are as likely to get that as we are a place in the play-offs.

"It is fantastic what they have achieved this season under Malky but I am pleased that we managed to dominate large parts of the game against a team who have reached a domestic cup final and are right in the shake-up for automatic promotion."

Interesting read Pearson looked at cancelling out Whitts, if this becomes a regular approach by other manager's what will be Malkys plan B, as he has said he is building the team around Whitts? This is not a criticism of Malky just a question for debate

Don't worry about a thing !!!

Sorry Mlky it was a gamble throwing VICIK in

But He who Dares

It didnt pay off and stiil a long way to go

I totally agree with splot bluebird. I hope MM has a plan B and more worrying is MM suggesting our game plan was screwed with only 1 player going off. For me, this shows we don't have enough quality backup on the bench, except Mason, but he is in a different position. I hope the loan window allows us to bring in quality.

Also, why wasn't Mason brought on, for me he can be so much a handful for defenders.

As long as he doesn't defen e-ticketing!

Easy
stop whitts, you stop cardiff.

the other players are workers - no quality forward player to hold the ball and run at them thus stopping them attacking us.

If our only playmaker is in front of the back four.
Then by attacking him, you are already half way up the pitch with two carthorses to beat in centre half.
Thats why our wing backs have to stay back - we then sit there and get attacked - wave after wave.
Long punt up to 5ft 5 Miller, who can get beaten or muscled off the ball or if he gets it - is isolated.
The passing of our players and ball retention is sketchy.
We also need to take Miller off when it aint working but should not be relying on Mason or fortune-west (sorry Gestede), both still have a bit to go and need to come in when we are coasting games so they can develop and not under pressure from the second they come on to change something.

So -
We need a striker (4 4 2 or 4 4 1 1) big, pacy who can hold the ball and link players in stop them pressuring us.
We also need a winger to do the same.

I dont know if im going mad - but isnt that what most of us have been saying since september?????

pretty much spot on the above post
millers gotten so used to the 4-5-1 which worked really well to be fair hes going to find it hard to revert back to playing in a 4-4-2

*MALKY

In the early days the oppositions had very little data to go on and I think we benefited from their lack of preparation.

Up to christmas I loved the way MM changed the personnel within subtle variations of the 451, 4141,4411 but we have become predictable. Stop the full backs and we are shagged (more so than whitts), same as the jacks, have the bottle to press high up the field in a 433 and they don't know what to do.

MM needs to go 442 on tuesday unleash earnie and rudy and give miller the night off, well the bench.

We have players on our squad, use them !!!! remember the grass is always greener...... J Lloyd samual, Parkin, JET,Bywater to name a few.

We will still do this !