Lack of real quality through the side showed today. Odem is not the answer up front. Couldn't hold the ball up to save his life and chose the wrong option more times than the right. He ran up so many blind alleys and took our players with him, it looked like an episode of Starskey and Hutch. Not just him though - Bellamy has had it as far as I'm concerned. Sorry, but he's lost both his pace and inventiveness at the sharp end. Gunnar looked like he needed stimulants to get him going, and Cowie for me was far too anonymous throughout the game. Perhaps I didn't notice him, but then again, did anyone else? Fraizer was a breath of fresh air when he came on and should have started instead of Odem. He would have put them under far more pressure in that first half when they looked really shaky. The longer it went on, the better they got and we should have capitalised on our first half play. Don't know where we go from here, but I wouldn't start Bellamy, Cowie nor Odem for the next game against Man U, but I bet Malky will.
Cowie was playing? I thought I heard his name mentioned once but thought they were just talking about him being invisible.
I thought they were there for the taking today. First half we had more possession, carried a far greater threat and despite that still looked to send the ball back when we should have piled it on in their 18 yd box! Odem for me seemed to think he had loads of time on the ball and gave it away in good positions. This set up is far too negative for me for certain games - this was one where we should have had more faith in our attacking strengths apart from set pieces (which were poor today), and stick the likes of noone on and take the initiative. A game we should not have lost IMO bearing in mind the next 2 games.
pretty boring game, take my hat off to the cardiff fans, never stopped singing, put the home 'support' to shame, probably the worst fans in the league, completely silent until they scored, unless they were berating their players... personally i thought the longer the game went on the more likely it was that we would win. 2 average performances out there, for 70 or so mins medel was class, we've got a good player there, very surprised to see gunnarsson ahead of mutch, he doesnt have that same ability to go past people and make things happen, so it was no real surprised we didnt create anything with cowie on the wing.....
Terrible match. Two poor sides. Bellers is a bench player now. PO to play on the left and Corny up front but Fraz to start until Corny is fit. A bad day for the Pitbull. I think MM will have some strong words with him. Gunnar seems to suffer some injury every game. Mutch must start from here on. That first half we should have scored but we were too afraid to try to score, if you know what I mean. January we need a creative midfielder/winger desperately.
