So we’re back in it again, truth of the matter it just feels a bit more permanent tonight as other teams get good results and those you’d expect to win/draw lose! I’m struggling to see three worse teams, overall than us, ie determination, goal scoring and holding onto leads.
It's been a tough couple weeks after the sala tragedy. We performed well at arsenal and a point wouldn't have flattered us. We've followed that up with 2 wins to give us a lifeline. Conceding in the 91st minute could have knocked the stuffing out of us but our lads will always fight to the final whistle. I don't think the run in will be pretty, but if we go down, we'll be kicking and screaming as we go. Can't ask for more than the effort our lads are giving.
Vestergaard was okay. Elyounoussi did nothing wrong (though also not much right), he was just quiet as usual. I hate picking on players but in the interest of fairness I feel I should point out that IMO the second goal was nearly entirely on Stephens for giving the ball away unnecessarily with some kind of pass that was as awfully executed as the decision to make the pass in the first place. The goal was lucky in that it was a miskick right to a Cardiff player and a desperate toe poke thing that happened to find its way in. But you can’t give them chances at that stage in the game. It was a much more grevious error than the handball last week, yet somehow he gets blamed or that and Vestergaard and Elyounoussi get blamed for this week. We are a bad team and **** like this happens. It should not be a surprise that we lost a close match to Cardiff considering the teams we drew with the two prior games, and we were missing Ings and Armstrong. Take Ings and Armsttong out of the lineup and basically you have the same team we did last year. We saw how that went.
Ely was a total liability. He gave away 2 brain dead free kicks one of which eventually led to their winner.
Why is there so much animosity on here today. I am as pissed off as anyone else, and Lincoln has a point, we are playing like Sunderland and Villa several years ago and we know what happened to them. On the flip side the season is not over and all kinds of scenarios' can play out before May. I just do not understand why people want to say ugly **** to each other, we are all fans of our club and we have to respect differing opinions without, "labels" being attached to a poster who does not share your opinion. Lets chill.
If someone said they would do the double over us back in august, I would be asking what they were smoking.
Just got back. Cardiff are a Championship side. Unfortunately they’ve done the double over us & in both games we’ve been very naive. I think that speaks volumes. Not much else I want to add at this moment.
This was the last of three games where we good have done some serious damage to our relegation zone colleagues. The Crystal Palace game felt like a point gained whereas last week seemed like three thrown away. Today was a fair result and maybe I think a lot of Ralph's stardust has finally disappeared this evening. For me, the mark of a good coach is the ability to change the formation and affect a game when the original plan is not going as schedule. I am not really seeing this from Ralph. I think he has improved the performances as a whole but the problems inherited from Hughes have not really been addressed. The team he inherited was decent enough in some respects but I think the failure to address the defence and attack with new signings has been a disaster we may live to regret. I like Valery and think he has worked wonders with some under-performing players yet the failure to inflict damage on opposing teams is an Achilles heel that he has not managed to resolve. With hindsight, Hughes should have been binned in the summer as the problems his teams had have now become a habit. I don't see Ralph as a tactical genius and I also think he has been dealt a poor hand in respect of the players he has had to work with and the club's inability to sign anyone. For me, my judgement is still out on him in some respects. We have produced some unexpected results both from the point of games we would not have expected to have won and games lost where we should have done better. I felt me managed to have the lion's share of possession today yet did not test the keeper throughout the first half. Cardiff played really well and were extremely organised. However, we should gave expected that. Unfortunately it felt today like Ralph can talk the talk but not necessarily walk the walk. We should have expected a performance from Cardiff of that ilk and I think Ralph could have been more adventurous in relying upon Long and Austin to store today. I honestly don't know what he can do with the defence and the current squad would push Guardiola to the limit with their ability. I thought Stephens was good today yet his error cost us a point. With the tools he has to play with, his task is extremely difficult and I feel that with a defence that always concedes and a front line that regularly draws blanks, it will be our performances that will drag us down as opposed to that of others. Our squad does not have the guts to stay up this season judging by today's performance. The fruits of Les Reed's ineptitude are now coming to light.
We have 2pts less this season, after 26 games than we did under the very out of his depth Pellegrino last season. I am more optimistic of staying up but it could go all the way to the last game at huddersfield.
The winner came because Stephens gave a ball away in a bad position for no reason. It’s a team game and mistakes happen. But if you watch that play and think that goal was on Elyounoussi... I don’t know what to tell you.
I was there mate. On the side of the ground where he gave 2 ridiculous free kicks away that kept the pressure on us at our end
Frustrating as today's performance and result was (yet another last minute goal conceded!...) I still think that we will finish at the top of the "relegation mini-league" and we are only 3pts away from 13th. I'm amazed that we let in 2 goals today to Cardiff today, it really should've been a narrow win for us. We clearly struggle with breaking teams down at SMS that are well organised and sit deep with little attacking ambition and don't have a Tadic or Boufal that can create something out of nothing and unlock them with a trick or a clever pass. Mo El was brought in to replace Dusan but he appears to lack so much confidence and is so fearful that he freezes on the ball instead of playing instictively, he may well overcome his fear and show his true talent but it has not happened yet this season. We will play much better against teams that are playing for a positive result from the start employing the high press and perhaps in time Ralph will get better at working out how to break down the stubborn teams too. It's natural that we will still be "in danger" of relegation until the last few weeks of the season as it is unlikely that we will pull away by enough points by then but i'm much less fearful of us playing the better teams now and I think that we are capable of getting a result almost anywhere, I never felt that this time last season.
I completely agree with that. However, unfortunately, I don't see too many of those teams on our remaining fixture list - once you discount Arsenal, Utd, Spurs and Liverpool. Huddersfield, Newcastle, Brighton are not going to take the attack too us. They too set up defensively. Away from home, I'm not sure Fulham will either. Wolves' game is all based on counter attacking, so again they are likely to sit back and allow us to try and take the initiative. So that leaves us with Watford and West Ham away, and Bmouth at home. Getting out of this mess was about signing the quality of players who could help us break those sides down. The last two and a half years have told us that our squad - even with Tadic and Boufal - pretty much fail every time in doing that.
Had we won today everyone would be euphorically proclaiming Ralph as a genius whereas in reality, whilst the win would have helped, there would still have been a lot of work to do. The same is true of a defeat. It's not the end. It just means we have to work f*** hard to survive. I still believe we can do it. Lets give credit to Cardiff. Their game plan worked a treat. It's just a shame that it was the same game plan used by Palace and I sort of hoped we had learnt from that .
