v Cardiff City (a) - 20/02/2024, 19:45

[superniko]

2 minutes ago, Groundhog said:

Prior to Deepdale we'd lost 6 on the trot away from home.

There's a lot of romanticising JDT's style of play going on here, we'd have lost that 3-0 a couple of months ago.

Let's become hard to beat, and build from there, it's what Hughes did, and he did alright in the end. I know it's hard to watch, but what de people want?

Eustace is not making these lads suddenly unable to pass a ball 5 yards is he?

This squad is an absolute mess, a proper rag tag bunch, good to luck to anyone coming in trying to fashion a side out of this lot - I'll take a point away on a Tuesday night with a clean sheet any day.

I honestly don’t think we looked hard to beat though, we lose that match to 85% of this division, we were as bad as Birmingham, it’s just Cardiff are even less clinical than them. 
Cardiff had 10 points from their last 15 matches, not scored a goal in their last 3 home matches, won 1 of their last 7 matches. They’re basically neck and neck with us in the form table across 10, 15, 20 games. 
Yet they still did more to win that match than us, a lot of recency bias to suggest we lose that 3-0 under JDT. We were on a shocking run under him, riddled by injuries yes, but he’d won 3 in a row against Cardiff including a 5-2 battering 

[Roverthechimp]

Mcfadz - good signing whoever made it.

Buckley, Dolan and Moran changed the pattern but nobody up top to replace Gallagher.

Doubt we will play anyone worse than Cardiff so not sure whether to be happy with a point or not

[Torgeir]

14 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

Suspect Cardiff were very happy not to lose and played accordingly as the game went on.

Neither side risked much really. Dull draw but we'll take it at this stage. The home games versus Millwall, Plymouth and Sheff W. stand out as the must win matches from now and until the end of the season.

[Exiled_Rover]

Just now, Roverthechimp said:

Mcfadz - good signing whoever made it.

Buckley, Dolan and Moran changed the pattern but nobody up top to replace Gallagher.

Doubt we will play anyone worse than Cardiff so not sure whether to be happy with a point or not

Take the point and the clean sheet and move on.

We usually gift a win in these situations - away from home, midweek, a team in dire form. It's a nailed on loss. 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

20 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

On the flip side, yet another game against an awful side where we have failed to win. There's not a chance we're picking up points against sides at the top in the run in and we badly need points on the board now.

We're awful and deserve to go down.

Welcome to the championship!! Most teams are awful, grinding out points week after week is the only way out. 

Hopefully we've enough quality in the team to get a few wins in at home at least. 

Next weeks cup game will be a good chance for the players to let off some steam and enjoy/express themselves a little more with nothing really to lose

Edited February 20 by Armchair supporter supremo

[Herbie6590]

8 minutes ago, bigbrandjohn said:

I am sure Buckley is delighted to be back under a new manager. A chance to prove himself. 

*Lewis Travis likes this* 😁

[Exiled_Rover]

12 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

How much better than Wahlstedt is Pears? Imagine where we had been with him all season instead of that Swedish dud.

 

Never thought I'd say that...

He's not better. Pears had 3 CBs in front of him now, including McFadzean, who wins most of his aerial duels. 

[Blue blood]

No one was expecting a classic. Given it was a good time to play Cardiff perhaps disappointing not to win. Given we've been in poor form perhaps a relief not to lose. A point serves us well as we limp towards the season's end. A point per game will easily do it for us. Next season however... 

[Exiled_Rover]

19 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

That'll be because we can't refuse a big bid, not because he wants to go. Star man here.

He's a star man playing with an almost free role as a #10 in a 4-2-3-1. You've seen the last few matches that he struggles playing in a front 3. I don't think many teams are going to play him with a big CF up top either. 

I don't think there's quite enough to his game to attract PL interest, so I can't see him leaving.

[Neal]

Poor match but much better when Bucky came on, first thing he did was turned someone and played a forward pass getting us into an attack, a lot better and glad to see him back. I think a midfield 3 of Fleck, Buckley and Tronstadt is pretty decent at this level. Buckley played very much the Adam Wharton role and got a hold of the game for us and killed it for them really. Garrett is nowhere near the required level right now, same for Ayari, forget those 2.

Fadz was class again, exactly what we needed. MoM

Small shout to Pears, didn't have to do too much but cleared his lines well and made saves when required. Seems safe hands to me. 

Don't get me wrong, it was sh*t to watch but builds some confidence keeping a clean sheet. Hopefully if Bucky can find his feet it makes us a lot better to watch under Eustace and gives us that balance between his defensive style and brings back some ball retention we had under JDT. 

Get Hedges back in for Norwich and have them bombing forwards like against Stoke and we might get something. Play like we did tonight and we'll get murdered. We need to take more risks against Norwich from the off and give them something to think about. If we stand off them it won't be easy to watch. 

[Groundhog]

1 minute ago, superniko said:

I honestly don’t think we looked hard to beat though, we lose that match to 85% of this division, we were as bad as Birmingham, it’s just Cardiff are even less clinical than them. 
Cardiff had 10 points from their last 15 matches, not scored a goal in their last 3 home matches, won 1 of their last 7 matches. They’re basically neck and neck with us in the form table across 10, 15, 20 games. 
Yet they still did more to win that match than us, a lot of recency bias to suggest we lose that 3-0 under JDT. We were on a shocking run under him, riddled by injuries yes, but he’d won 3 in a row against Cardiff including a 5-2 battering 

But that was in the cup, with the pressure off and two changed sides...can't compare them.

I admit teams with quality would have put us to the sword, but the side is shot of confidence. We actually had a decent chance to snatch it, and we defended well on the whole, the offside trap working.

They need to get together as a squad, find some confidence that they ain't going to ship 2 goals a game, and build from there.

There is no recency bias at all - look at Sheff Utd, Rotherham, Reading, Dingles away last season as three examples off the top of my head. One flowing attack in those games doesn't not make me feel any better about those memories, some of the worst moments as a Rovers fan in recent years. 

I loved the way we played under JDT, it was the hope and the ambition and it was nice to see that happening at our club, but I didn't like the way we committed men forward and I didn't like getting hammered week in week out with zero fight. 

People critiquing the style of play and the manager after 3 games really need to take a deep breath. Judge it next season.

 

[Giant]

Smods always looks fed up and grumpy, I wouldn’t read too much into it. 

[M_B]

4 minutes ago, superniko said:

I honestly don’t think we looked hard to beat though, we lose that match to 85% of this division, we were as bad as Birmingham, it’s just Cardiff are even less clinical than them. 
Cardiff had 10 points from their last 15 matches, not scored a goal in their last 3 home matches, won 1 of their last 7 matches. They’re basically neck and neck with us in the form table across 10, 15, 20 games. 
Yet they still did more to win that match than us, a lot of recency bias to suggest we lose that 3-0 under JDT. We were on a shocking run under him, riddled by injuries yes, but he’d won 3 in a row against Cardiff including a 5-2 battering 

You've got to take it in context though, we'd taken 5 points from Tomasson's last 11 games, we've taken 5 points from Eustace's first 4. You have to consider the form and morale of the team when Eustace took over. 

I enjoyed watching some of the football under Tomasson, but we were going down. 

[joey_big_nose]

3 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

He's not better. Pears had 3 CBs in front of him now, including McFadzean, who wins most of his aerial duels. 

To be fair its hard to judge.

Would like to see Leo with a stable defence and see how he does. But its hardly a priority to find out at the moment.

[Devon Rover]

1 minute ago, Exiled_Rover said:

He's a star man playing with an almost free role as a #10 in a 4-2-3-1. You've seen the last few matches that he struggles playing in a front 3. I don't think many teams are going to play him with a big CF up top either. 

I don't think there's quite enough to his game to attract PL interest, so I can't see him leaving.

I agree re PL. But a Middlesbrough, Hull, West Brom etc, or one of the relegated teams would jump at the chance. As he would with them and, frankly, who could blame him.

[Armchair supporter supremo]

8 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

He's not better. Pears had 3 CBs in front of him now, including McFadzean, who wins most of his aerial duels. 

I think goalkeeping ability wise there's not much between them. 

But pears communication is bettter and his extra bit of experience helps. Wahlstadts confidence is shot to shit

Neither are good enough to be number 1s at this level though

Edited February 20 by Armchair supporter supremo

[Uddersfelt Blue]

12 minutes ago, bigbrandjohn said:

I am sure Buckley is delighted to be back under a new manager. A chance to prove himself. 

And I’m sure he doesn’t have to prove himself. Despite what many think he is a good player and for some reason JDT couldn’t see that

[Miller11]

8 minutes ago, Groundhog said:

Prior to Deepdale we'd lost 6 on the trot away from home.

There's a lot of romanticising JDT's style of play going on here, we'd have lost that 3-0 a couple of months ago.

Let's become hard to beat, and build from there, it's what Hughes did, and he did alright in the end. I know it's hard to watch, but what do people want? Follow it up with a win at home, and isn't this what "normal" sides do?

Eustace is not making these lads suddenly unable to pass a ball 5 yards is he?

This squad is an absolute mess, a proper rag tag bunch, good to luck to anyone coming in trying to fashion a side out of this lot - I'll take a point away on a Tuesday night with a clean sheet any day.

Completely agree. We’ve been left with a morale sapped squad completely used to playing JDT’s unswerving style, and without Adam Wharton they are absolutely shit at it. We’ve lost the one player capable of making an incisive forward pass (especially with JRC injured), so we are stuck with backwards and sideways passing.

Look at the Broughton signings in January, players out on loan at this level for the first time who are near and tidy on paper, but miles off being Championship ready. We were hurtling down the table sticking to JDT’s philosophy and it’s took a 37 year old journeyman centre back to help arrest the slide. Eustace has quickly solidified things, but turning us into any sort of attacking threat is a much bigger ask due to our complete lack of athleticism, pace, power, nouse and experience.

Clean sheet tonight is very welcome, we may well have struggled against a better side but I thought Pears looked good and Scott Wharton’s second half performance was much more like it. We need Pickering and JRC back though, Carter too.

I hope Eustace lets Dolan off the reigns a bit, gets him running at players again. The amount of times Britain stopped and cut back inside today was ridiculous, another lingering effect of our possession based approach. I also think we’d be giving Eustace a much better crack at things by facilitating a back room clear out. The JDT approach needs binning and an effective way needs to be figured out, I think we’ll need new coaches for this.

[Waggy76]

1 minute ago, joey_big_nose said:

To be fair its hard to judge.

Would like to see Leo with a stable defence and see how he does. But its hardly a priority to find out at the moment.

I wouldn't mind if I never saw him on the field of play again....

[jim mk2]

Blimey, that was grim. Two desperately poor teams. Can we hang on to survive? It's going to be close

[lraC]

4 minutes ago, Neal said:

Poor match but much better when Bucky came on, first thing he did was turned someone and played a forward pass getting us into an attack, a lot better and glad to see him back. I think a midfield 3 of Fleck, Buckley and Tronstadt is pretty decent at this level. Buckley played very much the Adam Wharton role and got a hold of the game for us and killed it for them really. Garrett is nowhere near the required level right now, same for Ayari, forget those 2.

Fadz was class again, exactly what we needed. MoM

Small shout to Pears, didn't have to do too much but cleared his lines well and made saves when required. Seems safe hands to me. 

Don't get me wrong, it was sh*t to watch but builds some confidence keeping a clean sheet. Hopefully if Bucky can find his feet it makes us a lot better to watch under Eustace and gives us that balance between his defensive style and brings back some ball retention we had under JDT. 

Get Hedges back in for Norwich and have them bombing forwards like against Stoke and we might get something. Play like we did tonight and we'll get murdered. We need to take more risks against Norwich from the off and give them something to think about. If we stand off them it won't be easy to watch. 

Buckley certainly has the potential to become a play maker. He has flattered deceive at times, but there is a player in there. 

[Exiled_Rover]

5 minutes ago, Blue blood said:

No one was expecting a classic. Given it was a good time to play Cardiff perhaps disappointing not to win. Given we've been in poor form perhaps a relief not to lose. A point serves us well as we limp towards the season's end. A point per game will easily do it for us. Next season however... 

The taps have been turned off for over 18 months. 

If they don't turn them on again in the summer we're going down I'm afraid. 

[Exiled_Rover]

1 minute ago, joey_big_nose said:

To be fair its hard to judge.

Would like to see Leo with a stable defence and see how he does. But its hardly a priority to find out at the moment.

Oh you can't put Leo back in now, his confidence is shot - but I do think he's the better GK of the two and will go on to have a more impressive career. 

McFadzean has made the world of difference to our defence imo. 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

1 minute ago, lraC said:

Buckley certainly has the potential to become a play maker. He has flattered deceive at times, but there is a player in there. 

He seems an irritating little gobshite off the field though. Maybe thats where problems lie. 

[joey_big_nose]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

Blimey, that was grim. Two desperately poor teams. Can we hang on to survive? It's going to be close

Theres no way we're going down... Cardiff themselves are appalling and 14th, we're 16th. There are just so many rubbish teams, as long as we defend competently (and the signs on that are good) we will stay up.