If Spurs have their right heads on this will be a tough game for you. When we played them at WHL they completely bossed the midfield - they have some big buggers in there now! It will be interesting to see how Malky plays this one - if you get a point that will be a really good result.
Agreed but I'm sure Malky will have the boys fired up for the win. Aim high rather than for mediocrity.
What's the general feeling about changing to a red strip for Cardiff? I can't imagine too many of you are happy with it. I'd be absolutely livid if Spurs ever changed from Lillywhite & Navy Blue.
THFC To help answer your question scroll down our board to the thread about playing in red. You will find opinions from both ends of the spectrum. However, when your club is about to go into administration or worse and someone comes along and puts £100million into your club to save it, help you get to the Premier League and back that up with a good budget for new players, extend the ground capacity, fund a new training ground plus more then the team can play stark naked with roses up their arses, as far as I'm concerned, . Life is not as simple as that and there remain issues about how the funding is structured and Vincent Tan's long term aiams but I can live with that for the moment. Should VT or a future owner change the colour back to blue then I am sure there would be total support across the board and the person behind the return would be elevated to god status in our part of Wales. While Joe Lewis remains Spurs benefactor I can't see you having such an issue.
Anyone else watch the Spurs Europa Cup game tonight? They were much too good for the Norwegian team but went off the boil second half with the game won. Rose, Dembele and Kaboul went off injured. The first 2 were likely to start on Sunday, now very doubtful, but only Lloris and Dawson from the rest of the first choice 11 started. Vertongen, Paulinho and Eriksen came on, the latter scoring a belter with 5 minutes to go to make it 3 - 0. Defoe notched the first 2.
Mark Lawrenson's Prediction for Cardiff v Tottenham I don't think Tottenham's Europa League game at home to Tromso on Thursday will affect them too much. I had to laugh when I heard Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas saying this week that the fixture list is killing them - it is only mid-September! How many players has he signed in the summer? I'm sorry, but if you want to be a top-four team in the Premier League and you want to be a power across Europe, then you have to play in these midweek competitions. This is what it is all about. Players want to play games, they enjoy it. It means they are not training, which can be drudgery. Cardiff have made a decent start to life in the top flight but I fancy Spurs to nick the three points here. I thought Tottenham were very good last week in their win over Norwich - they could have won even more easily than they did. Christian Eriksen did very well and the balance and the dynamic of the team was good. I just hope the Bluebirds' owner Vincent Tan lets Malky Mackay get on with his job even if he loses two or three games on the spin, because he has got a good manager there. Prediction: Cardiff City 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur Lawro has Spurs in 2nd place on 12 points, one behind Woolwich Wanderers and one point ahead of City, Chelsea & Liverpool. He has Cardiff in 17th place on two points. Lawro's 2013-14 Predictions
THCF Lawrenson is an absolute tosser of the worst order. I hate his arrogance on MOTD and the sooner they get shot of the Cheshire Cat the better. He has no dress sense either. Ironically in view of his assessment of Sunday's game, he normally predicts against Spurs. What is the news on the injuries from last night? I wouldn't be surprised if Rose has a broken bone in his foot as a result of that late tackle. Dembele was suffering even more although the clash seemed to be to his foot/ankle but he was clutching his knee. Didn't see what was wrong with Kaboul. Those 3 incidents alone go some way to justifying AVB's claims particularly with Capoue, Lennon and Chadli also injured.
No official word on those injuries, but here's AVBs pre-match views: Fresh from our 3-0 Europa League victory over Tromso IL on Thursday, the lads travel to the Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday afternoon, before taking on Aston Villa in the Capital One Cup in midweek. And with so many important fixtures in the pipeline, Head Coach Andre wants the squad to use their experience of alternating between Premier League and European competition last season to stand them in good stead for the busy weeks ahead. “Now the fixtures start coming,” warned Andre. “We have experience of playing Thursday, Sunday from last season, which is good. That can serve us well this season. “The main thing now is to get a good result in Cardiff because a good result there will help us recover quickly for a game that’s played two days after at Villa.” Andre is fully aware of the abilities of a Cardiff City side that has already scalped Manchester City in the Premier League this season. And he knows our trip to Wales will provide a stern test for the players. “Cardiff have made a great start, not only that, but they have the inspiration of the win against Manchester City,” said Andre. “They have a stadium full of emotion and atmosphere and they are a very competitive side, so we need to be aware of their strengths and hopefully go there and achieve a great result.”
I'd expect Sigurdsson to start against you after he scored twice last week. Lamela might be a starter too, it'll be interesting to see if AVB sticks with Townsend on the right. As we're away I'm hoping Sandro starts ahead of Dembele anyway, Sandro's a first choice starter when fit and whilst we've been bringing him back slowly I think the time has come to give him a league start. I'd like to see: Lloris; Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Rose; Paulinho, Sandro; Townsend, Eriksen, Sigurdsson; Soldado. If Rose isn't fit then I guess Naughton will come in and he's crap at left back.
There's always the option of playing Vertonghen at left back with Kaboul & Dawson in central defence.
12th man has to be up for this one tomorrow. Just hope the boys show them respect but not fear them and maybe, just maybe Campbell can emulate Sayer [video=youtube;cOykkrWl5Yk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOykkrWl5Yk[/video]
He only got his work permit the other day so hasn't been able to play for us yet. Think it would be throwing him in the deep end to start him against you guys, hopefully he'll get to play against Villa instead. Anyway, we've conceded 1 goal this season in 4 league games and I think that's down to that being the most settled area of our squad with Rose returning from loan being the only change from the back 5(inc. keeper) that played regularly together last season. If we moved Vertonghen out of position and played someone else at centre back I'd see that as making 2 choices from our first choices. Anyway Rose should be okay according to AVB.
Actually, Spurs have only conceded one goal in all seven matches played so far this season, which is quite remarkable considering all the changes we've had in defence.
Hmmm..........we'll have to try to alter that pal. Everyone's tending to say we won't, but you never know in this game. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Whitts notch a penalty in this one, and maybe lay on one as well for someone else. I've gone for a stupid ball-busting 4-1 result for us, and am wondering if I've gone a bit too far with the optimism........... 3-1 will do.
Yeah but lets face it Tbilsi and Tromso were always going to struggle against us. The defensive changes came in those games which is also why I excluded them. Our toughest games have come in the league where we've played our most settled defence and it's done us very well. It's up top and midfield where the big changes have come so I don't see it as a huge surprise that that's where we've struggled more in the early games. They're good players we've brought in but they're still a bit unfamiliar, particularly in attack so that's where we'll be a bit inconsistent for awhile.
Well the win was certainly deserved, but we left it very late. Full marks to Cardiff and especially their keeper for keeping thing level for so long. Play like that for the rest of the season and you won't have too many worries.
cheers 6061 - That's as maybe but its a results business and we'd prefer to have the points sooner .... even if they're undeserved
Spurs performed as expected and were relentless. All we could hope for was nicking one against the run of play and I was convinced we did until it was disallowed. Very dubious decision. Overall it was like putting up a sand wall to hold back the sea. Townsend was outstanding and threatened throughout. Spurs stretched the game to the full width to counted our packed defence and created plenty of shooting chances. Incredible display from Marshy to keep the score respectable. You could see the boys were gutted losing so late in the game but there seemed an inevitability about the loss. We have to take the game to the weaker teams at home. Be brave Malky. Down but not out.
