Cardiff City Match Thread

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
Gonna be another toughie, but hey, our confidence should be bubbling nicely. To be honest I'd be surprised to see us get anything out of this but of the two teams, the pressure is marginally more off us.
Got a bit of time for Cardiff, so I'll be happy to see them go up, but not at the expense of giving us a stuffing.
 
eddiefirmani said:
I am always against these "semi-reserve" teams. The senior players included feel insulted that they are not considered valuable enough to be "protected" and not inclined to exert themselves for a game the club is prepared to "throw". The others included may indeed try hard, but will lack teamwork in a "scratch" side.

A good example was the fighting League Cup win by an all-reserve team against a strong Reading side, then the

abysmal performance against Preston when CP lost his nerve (or was perhaps instructed to do so by the board) and added five first-choicers, who all played poorly.




And if you look at our u21 results and performances, I think you will find that they have been better when we have played a more or less "pure" u21 team as against when it has been "strengthened" by seniors. Partly a question of teamwork and training together and partly because a senior trying to get back into the first team won't want to risk getting crocked in an u21 match.

And on this occasion the u21s have games on Wednesday and Monday to try and win their league. Pity to throw that away for a senior game we are prepared to concede.

But just for fun, what would an all-reserve team without u21s look like?

Button
Wilson, Cort, Rouamba or Lennon (assuming Taylor unfit), Evina
Green, Gower, Hollands, Kerkar
Haynes (if fit), Wagstaff
Click to expand...


Rouamba is a defensive midfielder and Lennon is an under 18 player but apart from that it looks a decent team.
 
Realistically there's no way anyone can be dropped and I'd be amazed if anyone is. The interesting bit is who is on the bench. We all welcomed the number of subs getting raised from 5 to 7 so that one or two youngsters could be introduced in this way, so I don't really understand the case for not doing so.
 
dickplumb said:
Rouamba is a defensive midfielder.
Click to expand...
So we understand, but I was stuck for another CB if I was to avoid weakening tomorrow's u21 team. We do have a "spare" u21 CB in Osborne but he is being used at RB as we don't have a specialist RB in the u21s. Interesting that we have three specialist left-backs (Wiggins, Evina, and Fox) and the promising Holmes-Dennis to join the u21s next season, but only Solly at RB (assuming Wilson is used at RM).

dickplumb said:
Lennon is an under 18 player.
Click to expand...
I wasn't sure if Rouamba is qualified to play League games yet. I didn't bar myself from selecting u18s as they don't have a midweek game.
 
ForestHillBilly said:
Realistically there's no way anyone can be dropped and I'd be amazed if anyone is.
Click to expand...
Assuming everyone is fit, I would bet either Harriott or Hughes will be rested. Perhaps even both.

ForestHillBilly said:
The interesting bit is who is on the bench. We all welcomed the number of subs getting raised from 5 to 7 so that one or two youngsters could be introduced in this way, so I don't really understand the case for not doing so.
Click to expand...
The u21s have a vital and difficult game tomorrow. No point in them making the long trip to Cardiff and back just to sit on the bench, and even sillier to play them. That would be a nice experience for them, but would be forgotten a week later. Whereas everyone in the club would be kicking themselves for a season if we let slip the u21 title just to give a couple of youngsters a joyride to Cardiff.
 
I'd reckon we could steal three points here today. They were not that prolific against Nottingham Forrest, until they went down to 10 men and they got into the game.

Long as we keep a tight game and don't give the ball away too cheaply, we can definitely hit them on set pieces.
 
cafc_fan said:
Long as we keep a tight game ...
Click to expand...
This we are quite good at.

cafc_fan said:
...don't give the ball away too cheaply.
Click to expand...
This we are lousy at. It is the reason we are not comfortably in the play-offs. Better now that Hughes (and to some extent Fuller, when playing) are in the team.

For all their positives, Stephens and Pritchard give the ball away cheaply. Morrison and Cort are stalwart at defending but then hoof the ball into the opposing half. Hamer invariably kicks long to Kermorgant. Sometimes it pays off, but usually we lose possession.

I am surprised about this with Damian Mathew as coach. At Chelsea he was the master of midfield triangles and patient build up, and I understood that's how he got our juniors to play.
 
eddiefirmani said:
Assuming everyone is fit, I would bet either Harriott or Hughes will be rested. Perhaps even both.


The u21s have a vital and difficult game tomorrow. No point in them making the long trip to Cardiff and back just to sit on the bench, and even sillier to play them. That would be a nice experience for them, but would be forgotten a week later. Whereas everyone in the club would be kicking themselves for a season if we let slip the u21 title just to give a couple of youngsters a joyride to Cardiff.
Click to expand...
After tonight then.
 
I'd just tell the team to not let Kim Bo-Kyung have the ball. I think the majority expect a win for Cardiff. Guarantee though that the first chance you get you'll hear the nerves. You may aswell go all out. Alot of teams that have come to Cardiff have sat back and just let us play. Brighton and Leicester actually attacked and were way better than us. Anyway, good luck. Rudy Gestede is like a better version of Ibrahimovic. I'll be with my Dad whos not into drinking, I won't invade the pitch. By the sounds of it, everyone else will be on the pitch if we win.
 
Not really most Cardiff fans just want that one more point so we can finally know we made it for certain.

jck
 
Evening all <ok>

I'm taking a break from some crucial, top-level essay-writing to listen to this and provide updates.

Charlton: Hamer, Solly, Wiggins, Morrison, Dervite, Jackson, Hughes, Pritchard, Harriott, Fuller, Kermorgant

Subs: Button, Taylor, Gower, Wilson, Green, Kerkar, Obika.

We're unchanged from Saturday.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back