So, apologies this is going up super early, alas I will be having to throw a few placeholders in for the next 2 weeks as Mrs Brizzle and I jet off on Thursday to go spend some quality time in the warm rain in the Maldives instead of the cold rain in Bristol. Apparently, it’s poor form to want to take your laptop and chat with your like-minded, long suffering mates rather than sit on a beach and play dodge the thunderstorms! Just what do we make of our situation eh (the club now, not mine and Mrs Brizzle’s)? Another defeat, another blank and now another gaffer at the helm (on an interim basis at least). Will it bring change? Will the players respond positively? Over to you Omer to provide some Rizamatazz (grabbing my sarong on the way out the door, don’t worry!!). Who Are You? I don’t know about you guys but I hadn’t realised what a ‘nomadic’ club Hull City have been? Obviously we all know about the MKM Stadium, their current home and I’d imagine the majority of us are long enough in the tooth to remember Boothferry Park their previous home, however, I wasn’t aware that Boothferry Park actually only became their home post WWII. Prior to this time the club had actually played at 3 other grounds (these being the Boulevard, the Circle (Cricket Ground) & Anlaby Road. Hull were of course managed by Liam Rosenior up until the summer but having just missed out on the play-offs and rumour of some kind of disagreement with the chairman swirling, they decided to dispense with Rosenior and instead bring in the little known German Tim Walter instead. Walter’s history has seen him manage exclusively in Germany prior to his arrival in the UK, but with some decent clubs on his CV (Stuttgart & Hamburg) and a win percentage of around 49% across 200+ games he’s clearly got something about him. Team wise, there are a few familiar names in the Tigers line up, ex-loanees Cody Drameh and Ryan Giles both having the potential to terrorise a currently fragile Bluebirds backline. Other notable names in their side are ex-Wurzle (and Sky Blue CCFC) Kasey Palmer, ever dangerous striker Oscar Estupinan, ex-Jack loan ‘keeper Carl Rushworth and winger Mohamed Belloumi from Firense (in fact they have spent a fair old chunk of cash again this season). Some of their incomings were offset by the sale of ex-Bluebird loan player Jaden Philogene who returned back to Aston Villa for a reported £18 million just a year after leaving them for a permanent switch to the Tigers. Hopes of the play-offs (at least) will once again be foremost in their owners mind – can Walter avoid the same fate as Rosenior? The pressure is no doubt on. Last Time Out & Form In recent years it seems we have become very adept at allowing ourselves to be completely mauled by the Tigers. Last time out saw us suffer a 1-3 defeat at the CCS back in April which gave our visitors that day a 3rd double in a row against us. That game back in April saw the Tigers take a 2-0 lead through Liverpool loanee Fabio Carvalho before our own loan man Karlan Grant pulled one back, but within minutes, Philogene (yup, another ex-loanee) restored the visitors cushion after a dreadful miscommunication at a free kick. It was a typical game for the Bluebirds insofar as we outshot our opponents but accuracy and quality were once again sadly lacking from the blue shirted players when compared to their opposite numbers. The Tigers form so far this season can only be described as average. Their only win so far came in their last outing away at Stoke last weekend, prior to which a series of draws and defeats had already set tongues wagging at the MKM about the new gaffer’s impact. Only time will tell as to whether ditching a coach that seemed to be taking them in the right direction for a relatively unknown entity was a wise course of action by a demanding owner. In, Out Or No Sign Of Them About New gaffer, new approach perhaps for this one?? Just what will Riza make of the squad and just how will he want them to play? My guess is that we’ll probably try to stick with the building from the back but with different personnel (at least as much as the squad will allow). On that note, whilst this is going out a little early to the best of my knowledge no knocks were picked up in the surrender to Leeds on the weekend so availability of players is pretty much an “as you were” so to speak with the exception of Joel Bagan who is now suspended as a result of his apparent assassination attempt on Willy Gnonto and so, as far as a starting line up goes, here’s my guess. Predicted Starting 11 Alnwick Ng Chambers Fish Collins O’Dowda Colwill Ralls Robertson El Ghazi Willock Despite my assumption we’ll persist with the seemingly universally utilised 4-2-3-1 part of me wonders if we could see a return to 5-3-2 (with a fluid 3-5-2 when in possession)? The Odds Bods Ohhhh ohh ohh ohhh ohhhh ohhh, Fraizer Campbell can tell us the odds. One of our better strikers in ‘recent’ times (scarily it’s been almost 10 years), even if he was never prolific. Top Boy Top Trumps With Hull finding it hard to find the net this season so far (though nowhere near as hard as us) it had to be worth a look at the ‘chance creators’ in the two sides (well, at least Giles was a creator with us, not quite sure what’s happened to him so far this season but I’ll be well happy if he stays this quiet on Saturday!). Match Day Melody It had to be…. Erol has gone, Omer is in, let’s just hope he can have us ‘flying high’ & feeling good! Blooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds!!!
Bloody hell Brizzle that's one hell of a shift you put in there. Three threads in one hit and, without sacrificing any of the usual quality. Great effort and thank you for it. Start of a new (mini?) era and a difficult game to start it. I'm expecting a defeat, predicted a draw so we'll probably win. As for the new (temporary?) boss, I would suggest he goes sh1t or bust. Nothing to lose but everything to gain as far as his future at the club is concerned. Whatever happens, let's hope it can change the mood positively. Bloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds
I said last week that BB is more prolific than Shakespeare. Now he's only gone and done it. 3 masterpieces in one day. Will the Bard can stick his sonnets where the sun doesn't shine.
Maldives FFS..............I've just had a fortnight in High Wycombe!.............. Great stuff again Brizzo.
Sadly the Wurzel game thread ended up being very thin TBF, had to deal with the last minute packing though, couldn't leave Mrs Brizzle to do it all! Set off at midday Thursday and arrived around midday local time Friday. May just pop a picture on at some point Fun times ahead for the club but agree with you Clingo, Riza has to go all out to stand any chance of getting the job....
Welcome to matchday my fellow bluebirds. Its a bright sunny morning in Cheshireland though it was a bit chilly first thing, with the temperature getting to 1 or 2 degrees overnight. The bright day has boosted my spirits and I'm looking forward to a more attacking performance from our team 'post Bullet'. I'll stick with my prediction of a draw, but am hoping for a bit more. Though, for the latter to materialise, we need to buck the trend and score a goal. I'm going fishing lunchtime so will follow the game on my phone. Come on Riza, lets see some go forward.
Riza was brought in to sharpen up and improve the attacking element of the team. I’m not really into football stats like expected goal ratios etc but I read so far this season our rate is a feeble 0.16 which suggests Riza has so far failed abjectly. Let’s see if that rate increases today.
I said on another thread, from Riza's WoL interview and reading between the lines, Riza was advocating more attacking football, but Erol kept the handbrake on. As you alude to, the proof of the pudding......
Cardiff City: Alnwick, Ng, Chambers, Fish, Collins, Robertson, Ralls ©, R. Colwill, O’Dowda, El Ghazi, Robinson. Substitutes: Horvath, T. Davies, Giles, Rinomhota, Turnbull, Tanner, Ashford, Willock, Kanga.
Noticed that. They are (were?) definitely Bulut players - wonder if there's a bit of politics going on or just honesty?
Other than o'Dowda starting ahead of Willock, I think it's the front 6 I suggested a few days back. Happy with that starting 11. Collins returning helps as well.
