These are coming thick and fast aren't they. Quick mention for the Ref. Apparently he was last in charge away to Coventry who beat us 1 - 0 with a dodgy goal. Hmmmm! That's a shock ain't it. This is yet another tough one to call but I am always in optimistic mode so will say we can nick it even though they are higher up the food chain than we are. You can do it lads just get another three and this time don't let three in. Simples. COYG
We’ve reverted to a back 3 with Butcher and Randell as pivots and have looked better for it. Not our natural first 11 but Callum Wright has put in his usual high energy performance. Miller has caused problems for Cardiff and Ben Waine has been involved. Gillesphy has been pinging long passes like a top quality quarter back.£ All in all, a good away performance. An evenly matched game in which we’ve at least held our own and got the goal to go in at half time in the lead. Except we haven’t because of a horrible own goal by Butcher with a misplaced back pass when under no real pressure. Misplaced relative to where Hazard ended up and I think there are questions as much about why he kept running as where Butcher sent the pass. Still in it though and if we can keep the performance going, we can win it.
A good game of football in which a draw was probably just about right but if either team should have won it, it was Argyle. Mumba hit the bar from close in try to lift it over a defender and the keeper only yards away and we had numerous other chances that on another day could have gone in. A much better away performance but that own goal makes it frustrating at the same time.
Before the game 1pt was acceptable.....but we could have won this even though we helped them out with an own goal.....watched the video....not sure who to blame Butcher or Hazard.....we do find ways to gift goals don't we.
Just followed this on my computer today. At first with just stats to look at it wasn't inspiring to say the least and appeared to be showing nothing much for Argyle. Switched on final score and there was a report from the person at the ground. She was quite in praise of Argyle and implied we were giving Cardiff a real hard time of it. So a point but by the sound of it and the change in stats over the afternoon maybe should/could have been more. Oh well we didn't lose again.
It was a decent game with both sides contributing but I’d say we had rather the better of it, particularly in the second half. I would say that though wouldn’t I? I’d say the own goal was Hazard’s fault. Neither he nor Butcher were under immediate pressure and he needed to stay where Butcher had last seen him,
I see Neil Dewsnip has criticised Bali Mumba for hitting tha bar when he should have scored. Well, OK, he’s a professional player but he did was close in at a narrow angle with a defender in the process of tackling him and the keeper behind that. But harsh and unnecessary in public I think. He didn’t have a lot to shoot at.
Last season he would have scored that though. It isn't quite clicking for Bali at the minute is it. He will come good though I am sure. Whittaker is becoming the snip of the season in the whole of the transfer window. When you look at what is paid for some of these players he has got to be in double figure millions at least. 11 Goals as a number 10 is just beyond belief.
Whittaker's success this season has helped cover up the disastrous recruiting for a striker or two during the summer. With Niall Ennis jumping ship literally the day after winning the Div One Trophy....we knew for the whole of the summer we needed to replace him. Last season we rotated four strikers quite successfully....two out and two in to take over the attack.......this season Ryan Hardie has suffered by being isolated by himself .....maybe not enough support up front from a fellow striker.....and of course being injured twice already this season plus Bundu also getting injured.... has shown up our striker deficiency.
No Mumba isn’t pulling up trees. In fact I find him quite frustrating. I’d like to know which foot he’d consider his best because he gets into some many good positions down the left and then checks back rather than getting the early cross in or taking a shot. That’s normally the sign of someone playing on his wrong foot. Either that or he just needs to be more direct and not always be looking for one more pass or one more touch. Over elaborating in the final third just gives the defence the time to organise and stops the movement of your own strikers. I’m not suggesting he should just hit it and hope every time but momentum is easily lost. I can say that because I’m just a fan but there’s an adage for managers in all fields “praise in public but criticise in private”. I think it’s unfair to name a specific player for missing a chance. When you see it, I think you’ll agree it wasn’t so easy. What I will say is we have another player playing on his wrong foot and perhaps that’s the plan: two wide strikers cutting in. The difference is that it’s Morgan Whittaker. We watched the game live on Argyle TV and there was an incident you won’t see in the highlights. Whittaker chases a through ball on the right edge of the penalty box and doesn’t quite make it. The lino calls it out for a goal kick but Whittaker has brought the ball back into play by no more than 2 yards. What does he do? Probably in frustration, smashes into the far top corner from 18 yards from a 5 degree angle. I’ve never seen anyone from World Cup finals downwards “score” from there and with such venom. Maybe the keeper let it go because of the whistle or flag but I don’t think so because it happens so fast he couldn’t be sure the game was stopping. He was just rooted I think. Absolutely astonishing.
Early last season at Charlton....(5-1 thrashing) ....before Mumba proved that he had ability...I wrote him off as useless.....all he seemed to do was stand on the touch-line on the half-way line and do sod all....I couldn't decide if his mum had told him not to get his shorts dirty or someone had stolen his ball......that was the same game that Whittaker scored his first Argyle goal. I think we went on a long unbeaten run after that game.....you wouldn't have put your money on that happening after seeing that shambles of a match.
As a Cardiff supporter, it was a pretty even game and both sides could have nicked it in the end, but that would have been harsh on both sides to lose the game. Thoroughly enjoyed the game and Argyle will be ok this year as long as you keep hold of Whittaker in the upcoming transfer window as i think a few of the lower PL teams may be scouting him. I hope you keep him as he is your Jewel. I will be at the match on the 20th of Jan in your Grandstand and hopefully we will see another good game. Saying that we may all have to put up with a rare 0 - 0
Thanks for your view of things.....we just need to sort out our striker situation....Hardie and Bundu both out injured after playing against's the thugs from Rotherham recently.
You'll be very welcome. Watching it on TV, I thought it was a good game too. It's part of the club's financing strategy to sign young players with potential on long contracts. Morgan Whittaker is on a four year contract. He was badly treated by Swansea last January when he was recalled from loan to us and then not played for the rest of the season. He was desperate to sign for us and although Glasgow Rangers were very interested, he said once he knew there was a chance to come back to Argyle, there was no-one else he was going to sign for, Now, we aren't stupid, if a Premier League club comes in for him and he feels he'll get game time, then he'll want to go and Argyle won't repeat Swansea's mistake of mistreating him. But there will have to be a very large cheque in the post.
Yes i think he is probably worth £5-8mill and you will snap someone's hand off for that kind of money. We sold Keiffer Moore to Bournemouth last year for £3m and rumors are they have only paid £250k of the fee so far and we are now odds on to re-sign him in the Jan window along with a few more Greek and Turkish players ! however we will probably lose our full back Perry NG to a PL Club for a large fee. Hopefully have a good chat with some of your supporters on the 20th, i am retired RN and loved my time in GUZZ and hopefully have another entertaining game. By then we will have Ramsey back from injury and that will be a treat for both sets of fans as he is still world class. Good luck for the rest of the season guys and gals. Good speaking to some of your guys the other day. We have sold our allocation.
This will probably come as a shock but I don't think we're playing him in best position. We played 3:4:2:1 last season with Whittaker and Azaz (on loan from Aston Villa) as the "2". That's two good players able to feed off each other and able to go left or right. Now we're playing either 4:3:3 or against you, in the absence of Stephen Schumacher, 3:4:3. That separates Whittaker and Azaz and pins Whittaker against the touchline. Still, I'm not complaining with 12 goals and 4 assists (and 6 and 5 from Azaz). Azaz was I think rested against you as were Cundle and Mumba: all three came on after 64 minutes.
