My day, thoughts and concerns

Day started well, cheeky pint or 3 in PoW, as we expected police may stop us taking booze on the train we filled up some coke bottles with vodka, as it happened no police in sight, got to Bristol station and still no police – I was surprised. Got a taxi to Ashton Gate, walked around with a couple of cans without any problem. Considering all the restrictions in the past I thought the police were very relaxed, in fact they were excellent from what I seen.

Got into Ashton Gate and they ran out of hot dogs so had to have two giant sausage rolls £5 ffs .

Then came the game -

Basically we were awful, we had a couple of 5 minutes spells where we looked we may score but in reality the only time we looked a threat was at corners. Our fans were very vocal and generally supported although I did hear Marshall get called a useless prick and Helguson a c**t which I found odd.

A few things others have mentioned
Passing
Today we passed the ball well at times, nice little touches but the problem is the ball wasn’t going anywhere, side to side and nothing happening. The only one who looked capable of creating something was Smith who I thought was impressive today. Alternatively some of the passing from the back 5 was shocking, id rather a Turner whack up field than some of the nonsense I seen today.

Formations
When DJ was in charged we only played 4-4-2 and our fans mostly said it was out dated and how we were getting over run. Now we play 4-5-1 and we demand 4-4-2 again . One thing is certain the current way we play 4-5-1 doesnt work and for a number of reasons.
If you play one up front then you need players joining up with the lone striker, currently no one is anywhere near Helguson. When Chelsea used to play the 4-5-1 they had Robben, Duff out wide and Lampard joining through the middle.
Our three in the middle don’t seem to do a lot for me, they don’t attack and they don’t cover the defence enough, just pass it about but with no penetration.

MM
For me he has to change things around and quickly. Last season our football was mostly boring but that was acceptable considering he had little funds and next to no time to build a team. This season he has had time and money and the football is just as bad, its boring. Its far to negative, its like we are sitting back waiting for a mistake in games.
My other concern is MM is so confident in the 4-5-1 defensive formation that he has mostly bought in players to play that way, we have a lot of like for like players in the squad.

Pace
Individually we lack pace, a bit more would be nice but more concerning is the speed and pace of which we move the ball, it’s all so lacklustre. A pass can be on but we would rather hold onto it, look around and by the time this is all done the opposition are back in position and we have now here to go.

Connelly
Felt sorry for the lad today and I don’t think he was anywhere near as bad as some people have posted. He was decent in the air and decent with the ball at his feet although admittedly he did make some mistakes. It must have been tough for him though thrown straight into the action and not really knowing the team or the players. Very clearly right footed as well and didn't look overally comfortable on the left side of defence (I cant see him playing LB).

Final thoughts
Finally it’s nice to know still some decent people in the world, we got a little lost walking back to the train station (well police sent us the wrong way?). Anyway a Bristol Fan called Phil stopped and spent 5 minutes giving us indepth directions, he then mentioned it was about a 30min walk so we thanked him but said we would get a taxi. He then said no problem, follow me to the pub down the road and rang a taxi for us on the way for us off his mobile, so if you read this, Thank Phil

Very good read Luke, but also very worrying as your not the negative type of poster, so City's performances are not looking good at all.

this is a good thread to read i think and this is not me being negative but i think malky needs to change the way we play imo he needs to get the boys to play more freely

Good read.. I also feel sorry for Connolly, i know he has done a pre-season but he can't of be match fit, MM should've started with Keinan..

I agree with everything you said mate, we just don't look good at the moment.

Can't remember the last time we played well.

We might have beaten Huddersfield, but we could easily be sat here with 3 losses right now.

Anyone calling today "just one loss" probably wasn't there, it was bad...

I agree with pretty much all that,also like to add that everyone except malky would play conway(the best player during pre season by a mile) who is a natural wide man instead of cowie

[quote="12thMan"]I agree with everything you said mate, we just don't look good at the moment.

Can't remember the last time we played well.

We might have beaten Huddersfield, but we could easily be sat here with 3 losses right now.

Anyone calling today "just one loss" probably wasn't there, it was bad...[/quote]

agree,although we played very well at brighton

Excellent post that goes to the core of the challenge facing MM. Let's hope he can find the answers to the points raised.

Great read thank you

Very good read Luke, but also very worrying as your not the negative type of poster, so City's performances are not looking good at all.

stick by what i said last week annis no good spending millions on midfielders and strikers and keeping the same defence that looks like conceding goals every game.
malkys style of play will drive people away as well as its negative and boring
lets hope kimbo and bellers can spice things up

pretty thorough report.... the set up has been the same since the turn of the new yr, the nucleus of the team is the same and the system we try and play like wise.. we have a couple of different personnel, but they dont look any different to what we had last season as the formation doesnt alow them to..

in my personal opinion we simply cannot play with whitts, cowie and gunnarsson in the same starting xi, whitts although technically great, not good without the ball and too weak to play in a 4-4-2...

i just cannot put my finger on what would be the best xi and formation to play, individually these players are superb, collectively they are inbalanced...

whitts needs to be behind the striker or mason there in that place instead of him in my opinion and there needs to be a dog on there who can just chase and win the ball..

like bryan robson used to say to gazza " ill win the ball and you do what you like with it"



for the wolves game, i would like to see us start with 2 strikers, with the 7 subs rule, we could quickly change things if needed to bolster the middle back up.. at the moment, im worried and concerned plus im a little aprehensive with next weeks fixture..

Steve you are spot on our defence is poor and we always look like conceding also the style of football is poor nothing to get fans off their seats.

Very good read Luke, but also very worrying as your not the negative type of poster, so City's performances are not looking good at all.

I always try to say it as I see it Annis.
I'm not one to get carried away if we are on a 5 winning streak or a 5 game losing streak.

I think you got it right in another thread, let's see after 10 games. Performance and results need to improve though. I believe we have the players.

Good post & I agree on the formation.

4-5-1 Is about getting runners from midfield close to the striker and we haven't been doing it.

With Kim available and Bellamy back for next week you would think we'd be more attack minded

Personally, I'd start Velikonja too

The defence was just stringing passes back and for..
I honestly feel sorry for Helguson.. this guy is going to get so much slate until the formation is changed. He won headers just outside the box putting them in to the danger zone where no defender was there and someone like Mutch could be there.
Whittingham is way to defensive and I hope we can play Mutch in front of the defence and hopefully play Gunnarsson and Whitts in front with Conway/Smith/Bellamy/Kim Bo on the wings with either Etien or Mason up front.
Smith looked dangerous on times for someone who was right in the thick of it and thrown in.

The defence was just stringing passes back and for..
I honestly feel sorry for Helguson.. this guy is going to get so much slate until the formation is changed. He won headers just outside the box putting them in to the danger zone where no defender was there and someone like Mutch could be there.
Whittingham is way to defensive and I hope we can play Mutch in front of the defence and hopefully play Gunnarsson and Whitts in front with Conway/Smith/Bellamy/Kim Bo on the wings with either Etien or Mason up front.
Smith looked dangerous on times for someone who was right in the thick of it and thrown in.

I agree with this mate. Everytime Helguson went up for a header, there was no one within 20 yards of him, thus making all his knockdowns look shit.

Heard a few people calling him a carthorse today, not fair at all...

If we are going to player Helguson we need someone with him.
If its 1 striker then it has to be Mason and Velikonja!

Very good read Luke, but also very worrying as your not the negative type of poster, so City's performances are not looking good at all.

Actually Annis; Call Me old school/old fool living the past, But stopping for a chat and a cup of tea with a worzel should carry a 5-10 year prison sentence, and a life long bann from all Cardiff City games,!!!!

Very good read Luke, but also very worrying as your not the negative type of poster, so City's performances are not looking good at all.

Actually Annis; Call Me old school/old fool living the past, But stopping for a chat and a cup of tea with a worzel should carry a 5-10 year prison sentence, and a life long bann from all Cardiff City games,!!!!

Maybe attacking helpful, polite and innocent football fans is your thing but it's certainly not mine.

I said for ages Malky isn't good enough and how all the teams have worked out our formation . This is the most useless and boring Cardiff I've seen in years and Malky didn't even had the guts to face the away face yesterday.


Do us all a favours Malky and get lost back to Scotland and take your boring predicable style of football up there

Very good read Luke, but also very worrying as your not the negative type of poster, so City's performances are not looking good at all.

Actually Annis; Call Me old school/old fool living the past, But stopping for a chat and a cup of tea with a worzel should carry a 5-10 year prison sentence, and a life long bann from all Cardiff City games,!!!!

Maybe attacking helpful, polite and innocent football fans is your thing but it's certainly not mine.

Lighten up Luke.

Very good read Luke, but also very worrying as your not the negative type of poster, so City's performances are not looking good at all.

Actually Annis; Call Me old school/old fool living the past, But stopping for a chat and a cup of tea with a worzel should carry a 5-10 year prison sentence, and a life long bann from all Cardiff City games,!!!!

I am in Majorca at the moment, so I have been chatting to them over here, back for Wolves and Leeds home.

Very good read Luke, but also very worrying as your not the negative type of poster, so City's performances are not looking good at all.

Actually Annis; Call Me old school/old fool living the past, But stopping for a chat and a cup of tea with a worzel should carry a 5-10 year prison sentence, and a life long bann from all Cardiff City games,!!!!

I am in Majorca at the moment, so I have been chatting to them over here, back for Wolves and Leeds home.

maybe another week in majorca wont be a bad idea annis!

after all next sunday you may well be having a siesta watching the game anyway!


im worried and after yesterday, im not looking forward to it as much as i was before the season started..

Good read Luke and I agree with most of it!

I'm not sure about the 5 minute spells you said we bossed though, as I thought that we were the better team until their first goal on 33 minutes and didn't appear in any danger up to then!

I felt Marshall put us under unnecessary pressure for their first goal and I agree about Connolly, as I also thought he wasn't nearly as bad as some posters have made out! He was certainly culpable for their 4th goal, but I also thought that he was comfortable on his left foot, although he clearly favoured his right! Overall though, I'd have to say we defended woefully through the middle of the defence yesterday!

Personally, I think Hudson has got a lot of reasons to be nervous about keeping his position, as Turner is clearly first choice IMO and I can see Connolly ousting Hudson, if Malky forgives him for his pass towards the end of the yesterday's game!

Great to have decent competition for places though!

Very good read Luke, but also very worrying as your not the negative type of poster, so City's performances are not looking good at all.

Actually Annis; Call Me old school/old fool living the past, But stopping for a chat and a cup of tea with a worzel should carry a 5-10 year prison sentence, and a life long bann from all Cardiff City games,!!!!

I am in Majorca at the moment, so I have been chatting to them over here, back for Wolves and Leeds home.

Thats fare enough Annis, I also meet up with Fans from other clubs on My travel's and some are good Friends of mine. However They (We) All except and understand the rules on match days, Although I will admit I sacked a very good keyboard player last year for wearing His stupid Reading top on stage, He had the audacity to say I wear My Cardiff Top (BLUE)on stage'''' He had a point'''unfortunately for Him I pay the wages,

Got to be honest but I'm more happy after yesterday than I was after the Huddersfield game.

I thought that we controlled an awful lot of the game and this time we created chances. Malky was absolutely right in saying every goal was as a result of a pretty basic individual error.

Even in the first half we created a number of opportunities that could have gone either way and in the 2nd half we looked like we could score every time we got in their half.

What worries me the most is the attitude of our fans. At 0-0 after 20 mins the "fans" around me were shouting to pump it forward even though we were controlling the game and making chances I ain't no footballing genius but as long as I can remember there's never been a team that can score when we've got the ball. Just look at the Jacks They will easily stay up again because they don't give the ball away.

Put Bellamy, Turner and Kimbo into that team alongside Smith and Mason, who looked outstanding to me, and I think we'd be best served reserving judgement on this team