" Hudson - tiredness not an excuse "

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballna ... -30538450/

Mark Hudson has dismissed fears Cardiff City’s promotion charge is running on empty.
The Bluebirds suffered their heaviest home defeat of the season when they went down 3-0 to Hull City at Cardiff City Stadium in midweek.
And it has prompted accusations from some quarters that, entering into the Championship’s final 10 fixtures, the marathon effort being undertaken by Malky Mackay’s men is taking its toll.
This Sunday’s visit of Burnley is Cardiff’s 45th game of the season, the run to the Carling Cup final at Wembley having added to their workload.

Eight of Mackay’s side have figured in more than 35 of those games already and the Scot will know his squad is about to be tested as the race for promotion goes to the wire.

Yet, while admitting the result against Hull wasn’t acceptable, captain Hudson says the Bluebirds are feeling fresh and ready for the fight – and will be eager to prove it this weekend.

Asked whether tiredness was a factor, centre-back Hudson said: “That’s just an excuse to be thrown at us. We’re all a fit bunch of lads, we’ve all played 40 or 50-odd games in the Championship before.

“But we know when things are not right it can be something others might try and pick up on.

“We know we let ourselves down against Hull and perhaps because we were chasing the game we looked leggy.

“But we don’t feel that way – we feel fresh going into matches and we’ll certainly give it our all in the next 10 games.”

There will need to be an improvement from the display against the Tigers in those 10. Although undermined by two questionable decisions from the match officials against Hull, Hudson admitted Cardiff were not up to the standards needed to pick up points over a play-off rival.

“We’ve given away three poor goals which has gifted them the game,” said the 29-year-old, Cardiff dropping to seventh in the table after a third loss in their last four outings.

“Hull are a difficult side to break down, which we knew and we’d been working on. So to give them the goals the way we did wasn’t good enough really. We let ourselves down.

“Ben Turner’s header looked like a goal, but the referee said he didn’t give it because of a pull on the keeper.

“And their third goal looked offside having seen it again, but we were already 2-0 down at that point and you can’t play a team like Hull and give them a two-goal head start.

“It’s disappointing because we felt we’d turned a corner against Bristol City in the previous game by grinding out a result. It wasn’t great on the eye, but we did a job and we wanted to push on, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance with the goals we gave away. We gave the ball away too much and made some wrong decisions.

“We can’t dwell on it, we haven’t got long enough to think too much on it, so we’ll have a quick debrief, put it to bed and put things right come Sunday.”

Cardiff will need to if they are to make the most of home advantage in the run-in. Only two defeats at Cardiff City Stadium had come before the recent defeats to Blackpool, West Ham and Hull and it is the former kind of form Mackay will hope to replicate with six games on their own patch before now and May.

That starts with a home double-header with Burnley, followed by struggling Coventry next Wednesday.

And Hudson said: “We have two home games to respond. We have to bounce back and we have the character in the dressing room to do it.

“We’re coming into the final 10 games, but we just need to pick up our points and not worry about anyone else.

“We need to focus on ourselves because there’s a big game around the corner for us.”

last time hudson spoke to the echo his headline was we wont let that happen again, (4 nil up at half time and finished 4 all at peterboro ) then what happens 3 2 up within minutes of winning and we lose 4 3 peterboro away this season, ffs when will the players keep there big mouths shut and not make fools of themselves and us i for one dont believe the players are not burnt out no team can be succesful using the same 11/12 players every game sorry but malky is young and inexperienced and has not utilised his squad , eg naylor brought in for 1 game man of match against birmingham ( last time we kept a clean sheet i think),not seen since ,darcy brought in becouse of injuries 2 games man of match (not used since ), players need to be rested, we have players in our squad capable of steping in but malky will only play his favorites,look at this ,heaton /marshall qinn/mcnouhgts blake/hudson kienen/turner naylor /taylor conway/cowie kiss/gunarson mcphail/whits harris or ralls / lawrence earni/mason gestede/miller , now im not advocating starting with a n alternative 11 but 2/3 changes at atime wouldnt of weakened us that much and would of given tired players a much needed rest and freshened up our starting 11

Yep, tiredness is not our excuse. Its our fact, rotations need to happen.

I disagree, I say it is because we have such a small squad of quality players and yes on many games they have looked tired.
Also we have been found out, playing one man upfront. Also the defence has a problem, we can hardly ever keep a clean sheet, does not make sense when your only playing one up front ?

annis he got choices for all positions he obviously has problems leaving out his favorites if our squad had 2 more additions i still think he would be reluctant to change his starting 11 recent changes have been becouse of injuries not tactical

annis he got choices for all positions he obviously has problems leaving out his favorites if our squad had 2 more additions i still think he would be reluctant to change his starting 11 recent changes have been becouse of injuries not tactical

Steve, that has crossed my mind as well, I have been told that virtually all the players that were not originally Malkys will be shipped out this Summer and Malky will bring in another 9 to 10 players that he feels he can trust and work with.

The problem is the squad isnt that small we just have to many players who are alike and some on the fringes of the squad who are on good wages but simply not good enough.

The one thing I dont understand is that the two players that stand out to me are Kiss and Conway who both played a lot of games in our successful run earlier in the season and did well now struggle to get into the team when things are not going well.

The problem is the squad isnt that small we just have to many players who are alike and some on the fringes of the squad who are on good wages but simply not good enough.

The one thing I dont understand is that the two players that stand out to me are Kiss and Conway who both played a lot of games in our successful run earlier in the season and did well now struggle to get into the team when things are not going well.

Luke, its small to Malky as he doesn't really want about 8 or 9 of the original players.

The problem is the squad isnt that small we just have to many players who are alike and some on the fringes of the squad who are on good wages but simply not good enough.

The one thing I dont understand is that the two players that stand out to me are Kiss and Conway who both played a lot of games in our successful run earlier in the season and did well now struggle to get into the team when things are not going well.

Luke
Regarding Kiss and Conway, I find it hard to understand why Malky wont play them now.

Conway I find it hard to understand, not so much Kiss.
Kiss is like Gestede, needs some more experience. Possibly a loan spell somewhere else to get first team football. Talkin of Rudy,if he is goin to be like this (being fit for one or two matches then injured for atleast a month) he isnt going to be much use. Parkin would do great if he was younger and fitter.

Tired . Total matchtime per week 3 hrs. Malky needs to make them watch tour de France 21 days of pain 2 rest days with many days over 5 /6 hrs racing each other . We are a predictable side and have punched above our weight. Sides have sussed us out a bit. I still reckon we will be in the play offs. Keep the faith

Interesting that Nick Barmby's programme notes on page 30 of last Wed match were headlined "No tiredness in my tigers".
Do you think he's trying to tell us something?

The problem is the squad isnt that small we just have to many players who are alike and some on the fringes of the squad who are on good wages but simply not good enough.

The one thing I dont understand is that the two players that stand out to me are Kiss and Conway who both played a lot of games in our successful run earlier in the season and did well now struggle to get into the team when things are not going well.

Thats the problem, we could easily lose Parkin, Keinan, Quinn and Naylor without even thinking about it for a second. The wages of those 4 players could easily bring in two wide players which would instantly shape up the squad.

The problem is the squad isnt that small we just have to many players who are alike and some on the fringes of the squad who are on good wages but simply not good enough.

The one thing I dont understand is that the two players that stand out to me are Kiss and Conway who both played a lot of games in our successful run earlier in the season and did well now struggle to get into the team when things are not going well.

Luke
Regarding Kiss and Conway, I find it hard to understand why Malky wont play them now.

I like Kiss and he has the energy we are lacking in the middle at the moment.

Conway before he was dropped was near enough our best player.

not sure why conway not starting as he is one of malkys signing s as is kiss of course

These are testing times for Malky. This is the second season his tactics have crashed in the second half of the season, although we also have a recent history of it.

I think this is a mental tiredness though, and I believe Malky is quite intense, but there is a sense of loyalty (both ways) and sometimes a player shouldn't play but does.

Gunnarson is pretty young for a midfield dog,
This is the first time Whitts has been the main man,
Turner is off an horrendous injury and had no preseason,
Kenny and Duracell Cowie must top the mileage charts, Kenny must be feeling the pressure of not scoring and us not winning (as he is probably the top earner)
SuperKev hasn't been super since his injury, is he right.
Taylor hasn't had a break
Mason first taste of national limelight.

annis he got choices for all positions he obviously has problems leaving out his favorites if our squad had 2 more additions i still think he would be reluctant to change his starting 11 recent changes have been becouse of injuries not tactical

Steve, that has crossed my mind as well, I have been told that virtually all the players that were not originally Malkys will be shipped out this Summer and Malky will bring in another 9 to 10 players that he feels he can trust and work with.

also. i think the players we bring in are all oxford and cambridge boys, as it looks like malky cant train a out of control hardman?

Tired . Total matchtime per week 3 hrs. Malky needs to make them watch tour de France 21 days of pain 2 rest days with many days over 5 /6 hrs racing each other . We are a predictable side and have punched above our weight. Sides have sussed us out a bit. I still reckon we will be in the play offs. Keep the faith

And their whole year is geared to peak in that 21 days, when have you seen anyone win more than 1 grand tour in a season, very rare, look at Alberto he won the giro and didn't ha ve the legs for the tdf

The training levels for a top racing cyclist or marathon runner to peak are on a different planet to a footballer.A top distance runner would be training on approx 150 miles a week in preperation for a big race & for a fraction of what a footballer would recieve in wages, i personally think footballers are pampered.

The training levels for a top racing cyclist or marathon runner to peak are on a different planet to a footballer.A top distance runner would be training on approx 150 miles a week in preperation for a big race & for a fraction of what a footballer would recieve in wages, i personally think footballers are pampered.

Horses for courses, footballers are fitter now than they ever have been, the fitness training they do is designed for them to play optimally for 90 mins, if you are a runner who races 10 km regular and decide to step up to 15 km the last few km are going to hurt . In cycling you learn to suffer, your training schedule often consists of 3 build weeks and a tick over week this will repeat and get harder on every cycle until you peak for your said event. But getting fit is not the hard bit sustaining it is. The three main ingredients of a regiem is diet, REST and training. What ever spot you do FACT. Besides darts