Turnbull was my MOM - he and Wintle ran the midfield in front of a very young back 4. Colwill senior is a hugely changed player this season putting the effort in rather than waiting for something to break for him to show his skills. Lawlor and Fish were the go to anchors, and Kpackio got to grips with his slightly below par game against Swindon. Unfortunately Mafico was an accident waiting to happen - and it nearly did. BBM saw that and hooked him - rightly so though I never like to see a player get hooked before HT, but it was an obvious decision. City controlled the game though Rotherham looked totally phased with no clue how to break City's stranglehold. We'll meet better opposition this season than them, but as the old saying goes, you can only beat what's in front of you. Great game today and well done to players and the management of them.
Players settling into their roles, getting to grips with the game plan and growing in confidence. As you say, not sure why Mafico started ahead of Bagan, who has done ok. Would still like to see some experience at CB, other than Chambers. I posted earlier on a different thread that Turnbull seemed to be in involved in everything good going forward. Bumps in the road to come. It almost feels like we could do with a loss just to get it out of the way. Mafico getting hooked was similar to Lawlor in the first game. Trott isn't as convincing as I'd hoped, so Turner must feel hard done by. I wish Barry had made his 3 changes soon after going 3-0 up to save some of the legs for Tuesday. Other than the timing of the planned substitutions, he seems to have a handle on things. Other than tiredness in young legs, it feels as if it's better we'll become. It would be nice to see a bit of experience added by the end of the window.
No need to play Chambers now except if injury crisis. Ship him out and get a hardened CD player. Lawlor was outstanding today and Fish made some good defensive headers and a few decent long range passes but that stopped in second half as the play came more through central midfield (with Salech dropping deep to get involved). Tanner was excellent today bar again his final ball apart from one decent first time cross to Salach. ps What’s BBM going to do when Ng is fit? Kpakio is getting better each game. City could do with Ng’s experience and grit but he can’t drop Kpakio.
A couple decent post match interviews. BBM is good with the hacks. Think he'll keep them on side. Honest and jovial Salech does speak well. Honest about himself and his team mates. A joke (or a dig) at Ruben as well. https://tv.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/videos/ffa556d3-768e-4378-addd-90275dcbcb1f https://tv.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/videos/fd91ad86-968c-44eb-8a8e-3f44e6af07f1
[QUOTE="ccfcremotesupport, post: 18588959, member: 1003134"]Another who would benefit from an old head inside him and an experienced winger in front of him. Its unfair on youngsters to throw so many of them in at the same time. 3 teenagers in the back 4.[/QUOTE] Maskey!
Fair enough then. Shows the lack of cover if our only LB cover is a rookie midfielder. BBM will need to address that this window.
Luey Giles was the bright young thing at LB last year. Hasn't had a sniff this year. You'd have thought a young LB at LB with a few games under his belt would be better than a young midfielder at LB making his debut. BBM doesn't seem to think so highly of Luey.
Just watched the extended highlights. After watching them, I felt their manager and and the pod cast above didn't give us enough credit. There is also reference to us having been recently relegated and having championship players. They obviously haven't compared line-ups from last year to this. So, while we still look susceptible at the back at times and us trying to overplay on occasion, there is much to like. The high press needs some polishing, but is paying dividends. A by product is that when they rush to clear the ball, we pick up the loose ball or second ball. A big failing in the past It is noticeable that players bust a gut to get into the box. Last year, and the year before come to that, a wide player would look up and find their box empty. Yesterday there were numerous occasions where we at least equalled their defenders in number. That was very evident in the first half when Tanner burst down the left. 4 players sprinted hard to get in support. The final ball was blocked, but there were targets. An interesting change in the full backs position in that they underlap the wingers with Kpakio and Bagan regularly popping up on the corner of the 18 yard box. Hard to defend, especially at our current level. Either the full backs have space or a CB leaves room for an attacker. My only criticism of Kpakio resulted in their only shot on target. Not sure what our RB was doing on the LW. More work to do. Some defensive solidity needed, but as I said, much to like. Not sure where Robertson will fit in when he returns. Turnbull forming a useful partnership with Wintle. Joel fitting in at 8 or 10 with others pushing to be in contention. We still need a couple players in and a few out, but good work has been done with the players we have. It'll be interesting to see if any of our youngsters from the 1st team or 21s go out on loan. A long way to go, but my glass is definitely half full.
I've seen from Under 21 games that Kpakio tends to drift upfield into all sorts of positions when we are attacking. The simple solution is for him to tell another player to cover for him when he goes walkabout. Provided not overdone it can be a very useful attacking alternative as it is unlikely he will be marked. I think Cian politely said "I say old chap please let me have the ball" before he rattled in his great goal. Or some phrase with a similar meaning.
Its where another leader at CB is needed. Him or the keeper would need to manage the players in front of them to cover that space.
