v Cardiff City (h) - 1/1/23

[OldEwoodBlue]

Last 2 games we have appeared to be better. It is unclear yet if that was us being better or the really poor quality of both opponents.

The last 2 games we have also seen Kaminski playing it long instead of that stupid playing from the back, so there have been far less suicidal moments.

At the other end we have still not been able to create many (if any) goalscoring chances and today was really another OG.

However, if we win these next 3 games 1-0 from one chance per game then we will all be happy with that !

Garrett MOM, especially after picking up a yellow after 10 minutes.

Gally completely useless with the ball but then you watch him track back half the pitch to win a tackle and think "that was great". Promptly folllowed by him doing something stupid with the ball. He clearly plays for his workrate but my he is frustrating.

Pitch was disgraceful. Only thing missing was a few mole hills.

Conclusion. 3 points.

[Exiled_Rover]

Ignoring the rest of the game for a moment - that last 20 minutes was a massive statement of intent from JDT to Broughton.

He simply refused to put Markanday or Vale on for Brereton-Diaz or Gallagher, despite both being knackered. There can be no clearer statement that we simply NEED a striker in January as he does not trust what we have on the bench - and neither do I. 

As for the game itself, we bossed it until we ran out of energy. If we had that aforementioned striker that's a comfortable 3-0 win. As it is a woefully out of form Brereton-Diaz and Gallagher conspired to miss golden chances. Garrett had an absolute stormer.

[Sweaty Gussets]

11 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Venkys trying to cut corners by not relaying the pitch as promised. Yes the weather has not been good but we had a big break for the World Cup, the ball wasn't bouncing due to the mud.

They trained on the pitch during the WC break. 

[roversfan99]

Just now, Sweaty Gussets said:

They trained on the pitch during the WC break. 

I know they did recently during the freezing weather a couple of times but did they during the World Cup?

Either way, you'd be hard pushed to find a pitch as bad as ours in this league, and it's impossible not to point to the owners reneging on the intention to do an overdue, proper relay. 

It's a fair way to sum up how Venkys have run our club since they sadly took it over, we used to win awards for our pitch, now its a right state.

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, Sweaty Gussets said:

They trained on the pitch during the WC break. 

Eek.

Last time that happened a couple of winters ago, surveyor's were casting their beady eyes over Brockhall trying to assess how many new houses they could shoehorn onto it.

[Exiled_Rover]

1 hour ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Take the three points and run but Jesus christ we need some creative new players and soon.

Was it just down to the pitch or did some of our players look like they were running through Cement?

It was a very heavy pitch - was cutting up in the warm ups, which is never a good sign.

That and two games in four days (with very few subs used) meant we simply ran out of steam at the end. 

[RevidgeBlue]

6 minutes ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Gally completely useless with the ball but then you watch him track back half the pitch to win a tackle and think "that was great". Promptly folllowed by him doing something stupid with the ball. He clearly plays for his workrate but my he is frustrating.

Not his job to chase back  into defensive areas. If he was prepared to throw his weight about in and around the opposition penalty area that might be a different matter. 

[arbitro]

I will always take a one nil, steady performance anytime but today it felt a bit sweeter after the last few games. Several players were running on empty in the latter stages and if I was to offer what I think is constructive criticism to Tomasson it would be that Dack and Gallagher needed taking off but all's well that ends well I suppose. I thought Cardiff were poor and at times our decision making wasn't too good typified by Brereton at the death who shot when Adam Wharton would have had a tap in had Brereton done the right thing. I've noticed in the last few games that we are mixing the play up a lot more although I'm not sure of the balance between short and long at times. The long diagonal was used quite a bit today and caused Cardiff lots of problems as their keeper had to come out of his box several times to clear the ball.  By the time we play in the league again we might have a couple of new players to freshen things up. I was happy for Jake Garrett who grew into the game and showed some good qualities offensively and defensively.

[Exiled_Rover]

1 hour ago, davulsukur said:

Yeah he's been good.

That last ditch tackle was superb, in particular.

If you asked a neutral which of the midfield pair was the Liverpool loanee they wouldn't have said Morton. I feel that way when Wharton plays too - Morton must have a clause in his loan contract that states he plays when fit.

[Mashed Potatoes]

1 minute ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Not his job to chase back  into defensive areas. If he was prepared to throw his weight about in and around the opposition penalty area that might be a different matter. 

It's his job to chase back into defensive areas if his manager tells him it is.

[Miller11]

Had to watch this one from my sick bed, but very pleased with the win. Mixing the play up clearly works and gives us a chance even when we aren’t playing fantastically well. The carved up pitch might have done us a favour!

Dack and Garrett were very good today, was very worried when he got that early booking but he approached the rest of the game in a very mature fashion. Praying Ayala stays fit, held the back 4 together well. Hedges is sometimes a bit of a victim of being a utility player, but he showed his quality again today.

[oldjamfan1]

Just now, Miller11 said:

Had to watch this one from my sick bed, but very pleased with the win. Mixing the play up clearly works and gives us a chance even when we aren’t playing fantastically well. The carved up pitch might have done us a favour!

Dack and Garrett were very good today, was very worried when he got that early booking but he approached the rest of the game in a very mature fashion. Praying Ayala stays fit, held the back 4 together well. Hedges is sometimes a bit of a victim of being a utility player, but he showed his quality again today.

Get well soon Duncan

[davulsukur]

Just now, Miller11 said:

Had to watch this one from my sick bed, but very pleased with the win. Mixing the play up clearly works and gives us a chance even when we aren’t playing fantastically well. The carved up pitch might have done us a favour!

Dack and Garrett were very good today, was very worried when he got that early booking but he approached the rest of the game in a very mature fashion. Praying Ayala stays fit, held the back 4 together well. Hedges is sometimes a bit of a victim of being a utility player, but he showed his quality again today.

This. We really need to sort out better RB cover so that it keeps Hedges away from RB. 

He's one of our better players and certainly adds more to the attack.

Speaking of RB, despite JRC being much improved since he returned, he's once again shown he can't last more than 3-4 games in succession before breaking down with injury.

[oldjamfan1]

6 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Speaking of RB, despite JRC being much improved since he returned, he's once again shown he can't last more than 3-4 games in succession before breaking down with injury.

Indeed. Brittain looks like another one made of glass. We’ve had way too many of this type of player over the past few years.

[Tugayisgod]

16 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

It's his job to chase back into defensive areas if his manager tells him it is.

Absolutely. The phrase "defend from the front" comes to mind

[superniko]

27 days until we next play on that pitch, hopefully they can get it back into a decent state as it was pretty shocking today. 
 

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

6 minutes ago, Tugayisgod said:

Absolutely. The phrase "defend from the front" comes to mind

Defend from the front is harrying the defenders when they have the ball.  Dolan is a good example.  It's not really a CF  job to track back midfielders carrying the ball. Its part of the reason why we struggle to break on teams as half the time BBD and Gally are deep in our half when the ball is turned over.  

[roverandout]

1 hour ago, harryhealless1928 said:

Quite happy if our best players are our defenders. 

Garrett MOTM for me. 

On Gally, would say hes a great defensive centre-forward and a good athelete, just very poor at the goalscoring end. Kevin Davies had those sort of qualities as well.

Good athlete he is not. As for good defensive forward he certainly made a great defensive header when he should have scored.  The comparison to Davies as well is an insult. Davies terrorised defenders. Gallagher just prances about doing nothing

[RevidgeBlue]

36 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

It's his job to chase back into defensive areas if his manager tells him it is.

So it's also his job not to score or get into positions from which he is more likely to score either then?

The player you describe above sounds like a holding midfielder to me.

[RevidgeBlue]

41 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

If you asked a neutral which of the midfield pair was the Liverpool loanee they wouldn't have said Morton. I feel that way when Wharton plays too - Morton must have a clause in his loan contract that states he plays when fit.

I'd say Wharton is better than Garrett and Garrett is better than Morton personally.

[Mashed Potatoes]

4 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

So it's also his job not to score or get into positions from which he is more likely to score either then?

The player you describe above sounds like a holding midfielder to me.

I don't think you have come to terms with how the game is played in the modern era. The days of centre forwards loitering on the half way line blowing their lungs out because they have been out on the town the night before are over.

[Paul Mani]

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

They did in summer to be fair  To the tune of around £6.5m. However most of it went on Szmodics, Hirst and a RB who has barely featured.

The recruitment needs to be far better this month.

 

Wow, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story eh?

Actual spend this summer closer to £3m on Hyam, Szmodics and Brittain with potential to increase to close to £5.5m. Based on how good Hyam is, if they’d spent the full £3m on him  it would’ve been fine! The other two have been positive additions too and but for injuries would likely be fans favourites, and the rest were loans 🤷🏽‍♂️

But yes, they need to back him this month. A midfielder and two forwards please…send Mola and Hirst back 👍🏼

 

[DaveyB]

2 hours ago, WacoRover said:

Great way to start the New Year. Still in 3rd, and not looking quite as shaky as before. 
But, no mistaking it, Cardiff can’t score, and they gave us lots of worries in that regard. 

Now for FA Cup match. I would like to see us go fairly deep in the competition. We can take Norwich. 

Did they? I don’t remember any clear cut chances for them, nor any saves that Kaminski had to make

2 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Completely unconvincing but my god we needed that. Was a "must win" game if ever there was one.

How the fuck does Gallagher play every minute of every game unless injured? He doesn't have a single redeeming quality, at least Chris Brown used to attempt to put himself about  physically, Gallagher doesn't even do that.

Thought Garrett did well, game to forget, three points, move on.

Which of Hirst or Vale would you replace him with?
He plays because what we have behind him is worse. Hopefully that will be rectified this month and Gally can become the backup to someone better.

 

On the game, I thought we played reasonably well, dominated the game, should have won more comfortably and never really looked threatened. All in all a good day’s work

I’ve seen a few comments on here about us being ’boring’ (and the guy who sits behind me was apoplectic on this point most of the afternoon), but I’m not really sure what people want.
We dominated the game, created a number of decent chances and, with better finishing, should really have won 3 or 4 nil. I realise that it’s not exactly Bielsa-ball, 100 miles an hour, but very few teams are 🤷‍♂️
 

And, finally, given what happened on Thursday with Buckley (which many on here seemed to accept as the right decision), I think Cardiff can think themselves very lucky to have ended the game with 11 men 
(incidentally I particularly enjoyed Hedges reaction to having the ball flicked - I mean violently thrown - at him by one of their players in front of the Riverside 🤣)

[roversfan99]

What is the truth? Fees that nobody knows, and varying opinions of the success or otherwise of those signings. So a mixture of guesswork and opinion.

I am sure that the Lancashire Telegraph had the fees estimated at £1.7m for Szmodics, £1.5m for Hyam and £900k for Brittain, but estimates being the operative word.

[Paul Mani]

My take on the game..

Back four and keeper Solid. Now a little worried about how serious JRC’s knock is.

Midfield - Garrett’s best performance in a Rovers shirt. Broke the play up and range of passing was very impressive. Morton was decent. Trav tried when he came on but was still a little ineffective and rash for me. Little cameo from A.Wharton was good value. He prob should have had a goal at the end when BBD blazed over.

Forwards - All out of form. Dack the closest to his game, Hedges decent but BBD and Gally look miles off it.

My opinion - if the forwards can get going then we’ll go on a run. We should’ve been 3 up at half time vs Boro and BBD could’ve easily had a hat trick today.

We need to find a solution in midfield and get this front quartet firing! New options in both area would help 👍🏼