Fans complained that DJ did not build a team, just a colllection of talented individuals. Please can we have some of them back??? A collection of talented individuals is often better than a collection of individuals with very little talent. Of the new players who played tonight: Joe Mason - could be a good player, raw talent, but needs at least a season (and better players around him). Cowie - anonymous. Taylor - mystery why Boro wanted to keep him. Gunarsson - Gavin Rae in disguise, works hard. Apart from Whitts there was no talent in midfield. We have no creativity, no width, and no-one who can hold the ball. As for others: Parkin, Taiwo, Naylor .... blah blah blah ... probably not good enough to keep us in the division. No pace or trickery in the side at all. Seriously, if you were there you will know what I mean. If we can't sign better players in the next four weeks than we've signed in the last four weeks we are in real trouble. Bellamy will make no difference to this side at all - it would be a one man team. Gerrard looked class at the back, and the back four looked solid, then gave away a stupid goal. Problem: the current squad don't look as if they will score more than one goal in any game, ever. Wins will be few and far between. There is some time to go before the window closes (for transfers and then loans), but we are nowhere near having a 'team'. Please don't say it's only a friendly, it's only one game etc. I've seen friendlies before, I've seen first games before. This was completely different! Realistically, I was hoping for a mid-table finish this season. Now, I'm praying for it. Please do not bother to criticise this post if you weren't at the game. If you were there, and you thought you saw something different, something better, please let me know.
Jesus Christ! This was our second pre-season game, we've been training together (a new squad don't forget) for 2 weeks, Celtic a month! They've played far more games in pre-season, and there squad has been together longer than ours. Brighten up a little. We had a bad pre-season last year and got 4th place.
I was at the game and yes, sometimes we did lack creativity but on other occasions we played some good football. Don't be too hasty to judge the team just yet, it will take atleast a few months to see the players playing together as a 'team'. I mean look at the starting midfield tonight, only Whitts was there from last year, the players have had about 3, 4 weeks together, that is nowhere near enough time to find any sort of good understanding between eachother. I thought we did alright, but no-one really stood out for me. Whitts was probably our best player, I don't think Naylor was as bad as your suggessting and no I don't think Gerrard was 'class' but he had a fairly good game. Btw Celtic's season starts a lot sooner than ours (next week I think) so their gunna be way ahead in terms of preparation for the new season. I don't think we should get on the team's back this early, give the players a proper chance before judging them, as ,afterall it's only a pre season friendly . . . well, you asked for it .
Have to agree on Cowie. What is he for? Lightweight, slow, doesn't compete, doesn't tackle. Disagree on Gunnarsson - busy, won ball, challenged, defended and got forward when given the chance. Centrebacks caught out twice first half when crosses got between them, one header saved and second scored, Marshall had no chance. Individually they made a couple of errors but covered each other. Subs Keinan and Gyepes looked like they had never played together. McNuggs and Whitts did their best given the circumstances. Naylor actually played well but no pacy winger against him. Taylor was enthusiastic but made 2 or 3 basic errors - will get better. Mason tried hard and will improve with experience, good touch. One worry, he runs around like Andy Keogh, hope he is better in front of goal when given a chance. Parkin - waste of a lot of space, gave the ball away virtually every time it went near him and Loovens had him in his pocket. Assume Conway was injured as did not appear as sub when sorely needed for width, pace and crosses. I could not see where/how we could score and second half did not have a real shot let alone one on target. Don't know why Earnie didn't feature at all. Youngsters - good experience but none showed anything special. Alex Evans has a very odd running style. Celtic played well, they dominated at the back and ran the midfield, could have scored 3 or 4 if shooting boots on. All ex-City players did well and deserved their ovations at the end. Overall, as Iggy says, more players needed of higher quality otheriwse a very mundane season awaits us.
I would agree with you Iggy if this was a month into the season. As I stated in an earlier post, MMs signings hardly seem inspiring to me. He seems to be building a Watford type of squad that will compete and win enough games to stay up. Of course, it is a work in progress and there are still players to add. But yes, we seem a long way from the team we had last year....a long way. But we can judge better in another 4 to 5 weeks. Generally a squad needs 10 - 12 games to start to gel with so many changes! Whitts did look like the only class act on the pitch. Probably raised some interest from other clubs again! Have to keep him!
Earnie was speaking at half time he said he leg felt tight and they didn't want to risk it. Same with Conway i think. Earnie said he should be back for the Parma game though Don't think we can really judge the team on that one performance, played well in parts (in particularly before the Celtic goal) but seemed to fade away towards the end of the game.
Some interesting view points here from last nights game. Some I agree with, some I don't (which is what it's all about I guess). We are far from the finished article but to base anything on next season from last night is a tad too pessimistic imo. Whether the TV showed a different perspective to the guys who were at the ground I couldn't say but work in progress is one point I definately agree with and by the time the window closes, also bearing in mind the 'first choice' players who didn't feature, I think we'll see a completely different set up and once everyone is in place, they then have to gel (WIP) My optimism for the season is no different to what it was pre kick-off last night.
Well here we go...like that was our starting squad for the new season done and dusted...as if anyone believes that. The idea you can rebuild a side from scratch in a few weeks might work on the playstation but even Man City never did that. So what has Malkay done? The first thing was to get some formation at the back rather like Stoke with two sets of four closely spaced instead of zonal marking. The next thing is his willingness to blood young players rather like Wenger at Arsenal, this builds team spirit and gives the experienced players something else to think about. Everyone gets a chance to show what they can do so that when the team is picked for the West Ham game it will be down to them. It needed to change and it has and saying we should beat teams like Celtic can be compared to we should beat teams like Burnely and Middlesborough last back end to get auto with that ubeatable team we had then. We will go the Norwich/Blackpool way now, at least we will get a hard working team.
I wasn’t there last night but one thing for you to consider it has been years since we as fans have seen such a big change to our club and we are not used to seeing it. Players to coaches and management that will take time to settle this was our second game with a few players not playing. We are still being linked to players such as Miller and Bellers so we are still in the market then as you say the option of the loan market will come into play. Don’t panic even if we get off to a bad start to the season this team will need a bit of time and so will the coaching team.
I'd love to just laugh and and take the P - but in all honesty, I think you have a great manager in MM, he will serve you well and i think you will start making steady progression as a team and a club from here on in... I can surely understand some of your worries as you love your club and fear potential relegation, I really don't think that is the case (however not sure promotion hopes would be on the cards this year - although would love for both Swans and Cardiff to be up there for a Prem derby). Like a few have said - friendly is no way setting up your squad for a must win so don't worry about that.... I honestly think your change is for the better and once things get moving, you'll be all enjoying your clubs football...... Rivals we maybe, and I of course I always want to see Swansea do better and whip your @ss, but I still want Cardiff to do well.. (eek did I just say that)... Keep the faith guys and good luck for the Season ahead...
Sorry Iggy but you are rather misguided here. Obviously I didn't go to the game but to claim you should be putting Celtic away is ridiculous. They have in general better players throughout the team right now. They have a more settled gelled team. They are twice as far into pre-season as Cardiff. Frankly I think MM is doing OK so far considering the restraints he has, you were never going to be able to replace Betty, Chopra and Bellamy easily up front so a lack of goals could well be the result but I think a Parkin/Earny partnership could actually work very well. Until you see the proper first XI out there fully fit you can't start castigating people.
great point, couldn't make last night's game unfortunately so I can't comment on last night's performance, a lot of positive comments mentioned, a few points I'd like to reiterate. This is our second pre-season game, 180 minutes plus extra time of football played with nearly a new entire squad, with players coming back from loan etc. We were missing a few key players, Miller on the verge to signing and MM still looking in the transfer window. I stick by to what I say and that is we will do better then we think, this wonât happen by start of the season but when it does, this new youthful and experienced team will gel and play to the Makay theme tune.
It's going to take some time to gel and find full match fitness having watched that game last night.Patience is needed. For me Whitts played a stormer.Where did he suddenly find his tackling prowess.I just wished he'd have used it more in the past.Good game from Mason,he looks promising. A bit worried about Parkin and Marshall but considering the number of kids we fielded I don't think we looked to bad,though it proves we still need to strengthen the squad considerably as we posed no threat up front.
Its a bit harsh to be over critical at this stage when our players clearly are not fully fit. But even taking that into consideration you would expect to be able to see something in the new players acquired. Mason looked as though he might have something but is probably not ready for a tough Championship season. Gunnarson looked a very good player in parts and I am hopeful that he will prove to be a great signing. But apart from these two and Whittingham it is difficult to say that anybody played well or even had the potential to play well. Even with a lack of fitness players should be able to play well for a few minutes! On last night's performance - not a single shot on target - and not even a cross that bothered their triallist goalkeeper - it is difficult -for me at least - to be optimistic. The Championship is a tough league and we have too many kids. Last week on here I expressed concern about our lack of quality replacements for Bothroyd, Chopra, Bellamy and even Burke - but the concensus seemed to be that the team would be better than the sum of its constituent parts. But on last night's evidence, even taking into account our lack of fitness, there is not much cause to be overly optimistic. We need more experience for the season ahead and as Alan Hanson once said ...................."you win nothing with kids."
I don't believe in either of our keepers and would love to see us try to loan Stockdale from Fulham. Jol has stated he'll only release him with a 24hr release clause in the loan but Schwarzer isn't injury prone imo. A quality keeper would make a huge difference. As QPR proved you don't need to score 2 or 3 a match if you can keep them out to begin with!
Whoops, good for kids to be given an outing but don't forget Earnie, Conway, Quinn and McPhail were not available and although Darcy was named as a sub he didn't come on. So put those 5 in and take out Evans, Farrah, Jarvis and even Wildig and you have an adult squad. Plus the liklihood of Miller joining and the Kiss coming from Slovakia and the other 4 Malky wants in and we have a pretty strong group. Will it be enough to challenge this season I don't know but Malky is ambitious and having seen his fellow Scot succeed down the road I am sure he would like to emulate that success. Malky didn't come to Cardiff to run another mid table team. By the way we did have 1 shot on target first half, Mason, and the Gunnar hit the bar with a header. But powderpuff second half.
"By the way we did have 1 shot on target first half, Mason, and the Gunnar hit the bar with a header. But powderpuff second half." I thought a shot that hit the bar was off target. I agree that it was good for kids to be given a run out but it is clear that those, especially players that came on as subs, might not yet be ready for a start and therefore the manager should concentrate on those who are likely to play against West Ham.
