We’re doomed I tell you, DOOMED!! After Wednesday night’s lethargic, pitiful, spineless, lacklustre (insert own additional adjective here) performance it is fair to say the gloom clouds have definitely formed again over CF11. Recent results and now performances have once got us all pondering whether Omer Riza may not actually be the Messiah he appeared to be just a few short weeks ago? With 6 games now having passed since our last win (that dramatic 2-1 home victory v Norwich) you begin to wonder just what our gaffer has up his sleeve in order to turn things around? The weekend’s opponents Stoke City may though just be the kind of club we need to come up against right now. The Potters are one of those clubs that you always expect more from when you look at their spending and their previous Premier League experience, but those glory days were 7 years ago now (relegated at the end of the 2017-2018 season) and since then their best Championship finish has garnered a disappointing 14th place. With an ‘expectant’ crowd at the Bet 365, if the Bluebirds can stay solid, get the crowd turning on the home team we could just yet find it in us to pick up our first victory on the road. We are actually unbeaten in our last 8 v Stoke and have only lost twice in our last 14, so hopefully we will keep that kind of form going – over to you Omer! Omer Riza briefs the assembled press before the Stoke game. Who Are You? Stoke City have been inhabitants of the Bet 365 Stadium (previously the Britannia Stadium) since it opened in 1997, the club moving away from the Victoria ground after 119 years of residency. Interestingly, Sir Stanley Matthews’ ashes have been buried under the centre circle at the Bet 365 following his sad passing in February 2000. The team are managed by Spanish head coach Narcís Pèlach Nadal (a.k.a. Chicho) who joined in September of this year having previously been on the coaching staff at Huddersfield under Carlos Corberán (Pèlach actually had a short stint as interim manager in 2022 & 2023 at the club). Prior to this the majority of his coaching/managerial career has been at lower level Spanish clubs Peralada & Figueres. Since joining Stoke he has achieved a win rate of just 18.75% (compare that to Omer Riza’s 30.8% - maybe we aren’t so badly off after all!!) Despite Stoke’s relatively lowly position (again) they do have some useful players in their squad. Their current top scorer (by some margin) is Irishman Tom Cannon who is on loan from Leicester. With 8 goals in 16 games he currently sits 3rd in the Championship scoring charts so will definitely be a handful for our faltering defence to cope with. Usually joining Cannon in attack is joint 2nd top scorer Million Manhoef (wonder if he has 5 brothers in order to make him the 6 million dollar man? – Great name though) a Dutch capture last season from Vitesse Arnham. We should totally expect him to be a physical player given that he took up kickboxing prior to playing football after following in his fathers footsteps in the martial art. A familiar name to us all is Lewis Koumas. The son of former Bluebird fan favourite Jason is currently on loan from Liverpool and is joint 2nd top scorer with Manhoef on 3 goals. Koumas is a regular for the Potters having clocked up 19 games already. In midfield another loanee (this one from Brighton) in the form of Andrew Moran is a regular starter, the Irishman becoming a full international for the Republic last year (and inside info Irish??). Joining him fairly often is Tatsuki Seko (bet he’s worth a watch!), with the Japanese joining Stoke in the summer from Kawasaki Frontale. In defence there is plenty of experience in the shapes of Ben Gibson and former Jack loan player Ben Wilmot, with the latter now having clocked up over 100 appearances for the home side. Joining them in their last outing was Welsh youngster Ashley Phillips, yet another loanee, though this time from Spurs (for whom he is yet to make an appearance). Between the sticks the Potters have one of last season’s stand out keepers in Swede Viktor Johansson who joined the Potteries side from relegated Rotherham Utd in May. Some of you may recall that as a thank you to Millers fans, the keeper paid for 600 beers prior to their last game of the season (which happened to be against the Bluebirds) – C’mon Alnwick, get your wallet out!!! Last Time Out & Form Last time out the Bluebirds clinched a 2-1 victory over the Potters at the CCS, courtesy of goals from Kion Etete and Karlan Grant a result which ended a terrible run of home form, with the City having not scored a home league goal since the previous Boxing Day. After taking what should have been a commanding lead, our visitors responded before the interval as Bae Junho tapped home to score his first Potters goal on 41 minutes. Thereafter Stoke had the better of things but the Bluebirds clung on for the win, pushing then relegation threatened Stoke back into the bottom three and helping relieve our own worries. The Potters current form is surprisingly almost as bad as ours (though not quite). They have taken just 3 points from the last 18 on offer and you need to go back 7 games to find their last win (2-0 away at Blackburn). Their home form is also not too dissimilar to our own poor form, as whilst they have picked up 1 more point than us on their own turf, they have actually recorded 1 fewer wins on their own patch with just 3 out of 10 games finishing in a home victory. In, Out Or No Sign Of Them About Following the aforementioned calamitous showing on Wednesday night, Omer Riza has states that there WILL be changes, but just what will those changes be? Very few players came out of the midweek match with any credit in the bank (by my reckoning only really O’Dowda, Robertson (who wasn’t great but at least put the effort in) and surprisingly Rinomhota should be able to look themselves in the eye and think they did ok) and so there could be any number of swaps. However, wholesale changes are unlikely but I wouldn’t mind betting on there being 3 or 4 who find themselves ousted come Saturday. One player who won’t feature is Ollie Tanner, the winger is expected to be out for a few weeks with injury. Kion Etete is also still not ready for a return to 1st team action, though apparently is making progress, which is more than can be said for Rambo who, very sadly remains side-lined (if rumours are true we may not see him back in a City shirt). Returning to the fold should be Manolis Siopis with the Greek terrier having served his 1 match ban for clocking up 5 yellow cards. I personally wonder if there could be a doubt over Callum Robinson too. He was so far off his recent form on Wednesday night and it makes me think that maybe his injury niggles could be returning? Predicted Starting 11 Alnwick Ng Daland Goutas Collins Willock Ralls Rinomhota Robertson Robinson O’Dowda The Odds Bods He drives where he wants and he sets the odds that he wants! It’s……………………………………… Match Day Melody With the rut we are in, all we can ask of Omer and the boys right now is….. Blooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds!!!
Another epic BB. Not sure on the team selection though. I can see O'Dowda at left back with El Ghazi at left wing assuming his fetlock wasn't too bruised after that second half challenge where he needed treatment. I would prefer a rested Siopis (wondered where he was the other night) rather than Ralls.
Cheers Brizzle. Superb work again. Bloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds
Cardiff City: Alnwick, Chambers, Goutas, Daland, O'Dowda, Siopis, Rinomhota, Ralls, El Ghazi, Willock, Méïté. Subs: Horvath, Fish, Kpakio, Bagan, Robertson, Colwill, Kanga, Robinson, Reindorf.
Extremely lacking creativity with Colwill and Robertson benched. Very pedestrian midfield and who let Kanga back as a sub? No Ng, Ashford or Collins.
I doubt we'll see him get over the half way line like Ng. Still, if he does his principle job properly and keeps them out rather than scoring for the opposition, it'll be a bonus.
Shows what I know... He HAS made wholesale changes. Definitely a dogged midfield line up. Nor sure quite what the BBC are thinking with their line up though!
A shocking line up. It's a bag 5 probably with Rino RWB. What does Chambers have to do to be axed. Deserve relegation.
