A bit better, but City need to be scoring more than own goals and worldies!

Posted on August 21, 2016 by The other Bob Wilson

You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “A bit better, but City need to be scoring more than own goals and worldies!”.

This entry was posted in Out on the pitch and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

16 Responses to A bit better, but City need to be scoring more than own goals and worldies!

  1. Graham says:
    August 21, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    Being a Ninian Stand season ticket holder but living in London, I was looking forward to the novelty of setting off for a Saturday afternoon game after mid-day instead of at the crack of dawn – but there was nothing novel about our performance for most of the first half yesterday : yet again, as against QPR and Blackburn, it was negative possession-possession play no matter which part of the field we were in, with the ball passed across or back a.s.a.p. – Fulham also were in the possession-possession game but the key difference is that they were ALWAYS seeking to go forward – their players were LOOKING forward for players to pass to, or gaps to pass into for players to run on to. So it was interesting to read that Paul Trollope said after the game that we were “too passive” in our possession at all costs game – well spotted! Now let’s hope he does something to stop that happening in future – is it OK to fine players for crap play?
    And, as against Blackburn, it was a delight to see Kadeem Harris come on and do again what he did then : decide he knew where the other team’s goal was and so set off at speed with the ball towards it.
    For much of yesterday I wasn’t sure whether our problem was that we don’t have creative attacking midfielders who make chances for our strikers, or that we don’t have any strikers so there was no point in midfielders creating chances for strikers who didn’t exist. I remember Roy Keane, in his brief Managerial career, referring to Michael Chopra’s absolute value as “a fox in the box” – unfortunately nowadays if we’ve got any foxes they don’t seem to know where the box is ..
    The last time I posted a response here I wondered what had happened to Rhys Healey and Tommy O’Sullivan but no-one seemed to know .. perhaps they might be able to bring a bit of Kadeem Harris type energetic commitment to our first team squad?

  2. Anthony O'Brien says:
    August 21, 2016 at 12:31 pm

    An obvious question in regard to yesterday’s game is : Why didn’t Cardiff play in the first half like they did in the second? More fundamentally, do we have a system to which we hope players can adapt; or do we adapt a system which makes best use of the players available? I’m not sure which is in place at the moment, but it’s pretty obvious that our strike force (especially Pilkington, despite his excellent goal) are not really playing in their best position, a point which Paul makes with his accustomed insight. Also, why did it take a half-time discussion, involving players and management, to realise that quicker passing and more forward momentum was required? Wasn’t this obvious even before the team took to the field? And lack of pace is still desperately required, as for any team claiming to have counter-attacking pretensions. Also, is the centre-forward we have signed going to be utilised? These are among the issues which I hope can be sorted out very soon.

    Finally, congratulations to Mike Dean for the penalties he awarded yesterday. At long last something to penalise wrestling in the box seems to be coming. It has become a footballing disgrace, but to my amazement, the commentator on Cardiff’s game yesterday said there were “two dubious penalties” in the Stoke – Man City game. To my mind, they were both undeniable penalties, and I hope everyone in football takes the lesson to heart.

  3. Russell says:
    August 21, 2016 at 12:55 pm

    Thanks Paul , your point about how more penatrive we are with John and Harris surely proves the point of how we will become a better side , along with a new poacher striker and a midfelder with authority .

    So let’s sell Gunnerson , and spend good money on bringing Ledley home ,and make him captain .

  4. Anthony O'Brien says:
    August 22, 2016 at 7:26 am

    As a “shitorian” (which is what I was once called) I’m not disturbed or distracted to see typos. What does bother me is when I write something which is the exact opposite of what I mean to say. In my contribution above I wrote that Cardiff’s “lack of pace is still desperately required”. Stupid of me — I meant to call for greater pace, not less. Apologies.

  5. The other Bob Wilson says:
    August 22, 2016 at 9:48 am

    As usual, thanks for your replies – just some quick thoughts of mine on some of the points made.
    Graham, I thought we played pretty well in the second half on Saturday and a ninety minute performance along those lines would greatly encourage me. It seems like there were some home truths said at half time and, right from the opening minutes after the break there was a new resolve and belief in the team. The obvious question to arise from this though is why do the players only play to a level which makes top six targets look less pie in the sky after having the riot act read to them? As I said in the piece, the stats which say we didn’t have any shot on target in the first half against Blackburn are a bit misleading, but, even so, it’s shocking to think that an opposing goalkeeper has not had to save a goalbound shot or header in the first sixty minutes of any of our last three matches – I can only think of Zohore’s effort from an impossible angle that was never going to beat the keeper in the Bristol Rovers game as well.
    As for “fox ion the box” type players, I have heard it said that there’s no place for them any more in a modern game where strikers are expected to defend from the front and have more of an all round game, but teams are prepared to carry “luxury” players in a number ten role who are, largely, spared defensive duties because of what they can offer the side in an attacking sense – it seems illogical if this line of thinking doesn’t include strikers whose speciality is putting the ball in the back of the net.
    Russell, judging by what was reported last summer, I think there is an interest in bringing Joe Ledley back at the club and I think it would be a great move for us to make for all sorts of reasons, but I notice he started for Palace on the weekend and, with them already having sold Jedinak, I just don’t see it happening for a year or two yet.
    AMO, I’ve already touched on some of the issues you raise – the slow starts we made to matches was a concern of mine for all of the time Russell Slade was here and I see no sigh that things have changed under Paul Trollope. Regarding Gounongbe, I saw that he was being criticised on the messageboards after Saturday’s match, but, after a decent display when he came on against Blackburn, I couldn’t see much that he did wrong at Fulham when he got his chance either – with us trying to hang on to our lead at the time, he was given something of an impossible task, but was able to do well enough to allow the team to get ten or fifteen yards further up the pitch on a couple of occasions.
    Finally, I agree with you completely about those penalties Mike Dean gave – my main disappointment on the refereeing front of the weekend was that so few of his colleagues were prepared to follow his example.
    Sorry Graham, I didn’t say anything about Tommy O’Sullivan and Rhys Healey – they’ll probably both be playing in this afternoon’s Academy match, but I honestly can’t see a first team future for either of them at Cardiff now.

  6. Graham says:
    August 22, 2016 at 10:32 am

    Rhys Healey? Tommy O’Sullivan?

  7. Dai Woosnam says:
    August 22, 2016 at 6:52 pm

    Dear Paul and AMO…
    How I wish I could join you as founder members of the Mike Dean Appreciation Society.
    Alas I cannot.
    I – like that otherwise decent placid reasonable human being, Chris Hughton – can never forgive him for the most disgraceful overturning of a yellow card given Dale Stephens in the crunch match at The Riverside at the end of last season.
    Middlesbrough players surrounded him, and Gaston Ramirez tried to snatch the card from his hand to get it replaced by a red. On top of that, Karanka was screaming at the Fourth Official demanding a red.
    Ramirez, who had been goading Stephens throughout the game, then shows his cut lower leg, which resulted from both players trying to clip the other player’s leg in an off the ground challenge, and Stephens being the “successful” one in the endeavour, injuring his opponent…however it was a cut that would never have resulted had Ramirz used proper shinguards.
    A clear yellow card…and maybe a red. A definite ORANGE.
    But Dean – rightly in my view, in the absence of an orange card – gave a yellow…seeing it was clear that both players wanted to “mix it” in that incident. And that should have been that.
    Then alas, Dean shamefully allowed himself to be influenced by the baying crowd, and the histrionics of the Boro players and manager (on the Fourth Official) , and – crucially – by the claret.
    Frankly this is creating a precedent.
    A yellow card is a yellow card…the fact there is blood, should not be a factor.

    Thus Mr Dean is no hero to me. Injury hit Brighton – also minus key man Dunk who was suspended – were heroically the better team on the day, and would probably have won without that dismissal.
    The very talented Stephens was, in my book an IDIOT, for responding to Ramirez’s constant attempts to wind him up.
    The less talented Mike Dean was much worse.
    He was – I submit – a true COWARD.
    DW.

  8. Dai Woosnam says:
    August 23, 2016 at 10:55 am

    It occurs to me that I meant to say a couple of unrelated things yesterday, but forgot. So here is my chance to put things right, and say what I wanted to say.
    1. Joe Mason, and his goal for Wales at the weekend.
    When did he ever score a goal like that for City…?
    I put it down to the malaise that Sir Vincent so accurately diagnosed, viz., an unwillingness (strike that…more a RELUCTANCE) to shoot from distance that has characterised much of the time since the Malaysian takeover.
    How right Mr Tan was.
    2. And now with the two goals at Fulham, are we finally seeing a welcome change in footballing philosophy? Let us hope so.
    The poor standard of goalkeeping is the one compelling reason we should shoot. So many balls are spilled…or indeed “thrown in” …as with England’s Head And Shoulders.
    Keepers are amazingly bad these days…given that they are almost to a man, very good athletes who doubtless excelled in the gym at school.
    2. I recently called Mourinho “damaged goods”. Watch him ram the words back down my throat. As an ABMU* man to my core, it grieves me to say it, but Old Trafford will see the Premier League title paraded there at the end of this season.
    I will be delighted to see Bobby Charlton’s face, mind you !!
    Not to mention that of Lord Fergie of Govan, too…when the startlingly gifted Paul Pogba is named Footballer of the Year !!
    3. Simon Moore, a most supple/elastic mover of a keeper, has been despatched for half a million or so. Should we have got double that amount? Possibly.
    But he did himself no good by going for that worldy against Bristol Rovers with the wrong hand…and not first taking a stride to the left.
    4. Talking of Rovers…did you see that free kick that did for them the other day? As usual we have the absurd situation of a keeper relying on his wall…which alas is not of Masai warriors, but normal six footers and slightly under.
    So what does he do?
    He follows the herd…and stands 80% of the way across his goal. Thus prompting someone to try an “up, over and down” with such a inviting gap.
    And of course, the keeper ends up clawing at thin air.
    Had he stood in the centre of his goal, he would probably have saved it.
    It is all a puzzle to me. It happens ten times every weekend.
    Do you think this is all a bizarre DREAM, Paul? I pinch myself…but it STILL happens.
    5. Re my comments on Mike Dean in my previous post.
    I need to add this…
    If ever a decision ruined a whole season, it was that one. Brighton had the Boro on the ropes until that moment, and were the team getting the £120m Premier League loot. But dejection set in at that shameful volte face from Dean.
    At the final whistle the home fans invaded the pitch…like it was VE Day.
    Then later had the cheek to abuse Burnley’s wonderfully intelligent and articulate Joey Barton** when he made his absolutely accurate observations on the trophy for presentation being at the wrong ground.
    There are such wonderful people on Teesside. But why is it that their club gets such big things wrong?
    Go right back to the reason why they were deducted three points and relegated. And before that, the building of The Riverside Stadium itself.
    Do you know that despite the club helping to choreograph SAVE OUR STEEL events at the stadium before games (and helping organise that lighting up of smartphones at the Old Trafford game), they built their new stadium not with Redcar steel, but with (wait for it…)
    GERMAN steel.
    “Pass the sick bag, Alice”.
    Then, about 4 years ago, they were offering a free pint of lager*** with certain tickets. Sure, it was adults only…but hey, there are drink driving laws.
    * Anyone But Manchester United.
    ** yes, I know…an idiot to the power of ten, in the past.
    *** or was it half price? Maybe. No time to google.
    DW.

  9. The other Bob Wilson says:
    August 23, 2016 at 2:55 pm

    I don’t know if you saw it Graham, but I added a sentence or two about the two of them at the end of my first reply to you after I had forgotten to answer your question earlier.
    Also, I had a fair bit to say about Rhys Healey in my piece on the Development team game yesterday.

  10. The other Bob Wilson says:
    August 23, 2016 at 2:57 pm

    I should say Dai that my appreciation of Mike Dean was solely down him giving those two penalties on the weekend . He’s not one of my favourite refs normally, but I wish a few more of them would act as bravely as he did at Stoke.

  11. The other Bob Wilson says:
    August 23, 2016 at 3:15 pm

    1. I’ve often wished Joe Mason was Welsh Dai! It was a fine goal on Saturday from a player that I’ve always had a lot of faith in and, unlike most City fans it seems, I was sad to see him leave, but the consolation was that we got a good price for him – he scored some good goals for City (Bristol City, Burnley, Reading and Brighton in his first season spring to mind), but we miss him more for the tap ins he’d get inside the six yard box – maybe Gounongbe will prove me wrong eventually, but we don’t see to have anyone in contention for a first team place currently with the instinct to be in the right place at the right time when there’s a ball bobbing about in front of the opposition goal.
    2. I think the way the modern day ball moves about can make goalkeepers look poorer than they actually are at times.
    3. Although I believe they’ll be genuine contenders this season, I’m not as convinced as you about Man United or Pogba yet – I was more impressed by Man City at Stoke.
    4. I seem to remember we only paid about £150k for Simon Moore and I’m not sure he was more than three times better when he left us than he was when he arrived, so I thought we did well to half a million pounds for him.
    5. I know what you mean about Middlesbrough, I was at a game when they played Brighton and have not seen any highlights of the match, but I didn’t want them to go up because I thought they were quite a negative team and also because I think they may well have done a Bournemouth as far as the FFP regulations are concerned.

  12. Dai Woosnam says:
    August 24, 2016 at 12:05 pm

    You make some fine points there Paul.
    I especially liked point #2 on the modern football and its “unpredictable flight”.
    I am sure that I am guilty of not factoring-it-in enough.
    But having said that, thank you Paul for thus allowing me to jump on to a favourite hobbyhorse of mine, viz. on how non-Ronaldo/Messi “ordinary mortals” should actually go through the simple mechanics of shooting in the first place.

    Mr Trollope should insist that for any shots outside of the penalty area, the players must NEVER try to pick their spot…but always aim at the whites of the eyes of the goalkeeper.
    Why?
    Well, because their natural imperfection at threading a ball through the eye of a needle, coupled with the actual football’s bizarrely wilful determination to do its own thing, thus ensure that there is then a decent likelihood of the ball nestling in the top corner of the net. At worst, it might go as straight as an arrow into the keeper, and possibly straight out again… to present a possible tap-in!!

    But AIM for that top corner… (Ha !!)…and the ball might hit the corner flag.

    And please…trust me Paul…I say none of this for jest.
    It is what I fundamentally believe: not just in my bones, but in my very lifeblood.
    DW.

  13. Dai Woosnam says:
    August 24, 2016 at 12:26 pm

    Forgot to say that Bobby Zamora was one who used to make the mistake of always aiming for the top corner.
    And thus it was, that his fans came up with the most priceless football song of them all (to the tune of that old Dean Martin favourite, “That’s Amore”)
    Too lazy to google it, but I recall the opening bit…
    …
    Get ready…it is a beauty…
    …
    WHEN THE BALL HITS THE HEAD
    OF A BLOKE IN ROW ZED…
    THAT’S ZAMORA…
    …
    Dai.

  15. Dai Woosnam says:
    August 26, 2016 at 9:53 am

    Thanks for that, Paul.

    How that Rio song beat the Zamora song…well…let’s just say it is a mystery to me.

    Changing the subject…I have just heard on the wireless that the Spurs manager says that Wilfried Zaha is the new Ronaldo.

    Disappointing loan spell at CCS under the Grinning Kamikaze aside, I am inclined to believe that such a claim is far from total hyperbole.

    Except he cannot head the ball…and needs to be played not out on the wing, but as a deep-lying centre forward and given carte blanche to cover every inch of the opponent’s half.

  16. Dai Woosnam says:
    August 26, 2016 at 10:50 am

    Forgot to add Paul, that the Zamora song takes it by a short head from the gratuitously offensive (but regrettably, still very funny) “In the Liverpool slums” song.

    Feeling happy this morning seeing the cheat Slaven Bilic looking miserable on TV…but mixed emotions as The Hammers should really be the “second team” for all of us…given the massive amount of taxpayers money that has gone into that club.

    And pretty soon the Pornographer and his mate will each walk away with well over a hundred million profit, when the sale of the club is finalised.

    And “UK State” money will have been used to make the asset value of that club seem so much more solid than it should have been…if only we had not given the peppercorn lease of that stadium to them.

    I see they have spent just £27m “in the window”. Of the circa £130 TV money just granted them.
    I wonder why?

    Seems to me that they and their media darling of a manager, are well suited.
    Karen Brady though seems a decent sort…but then, maybe I am easily taken in.
    DW.

Comments are closed.