Weekly review 24 July 2016.

5 Responses to Weekly review 24 July 2016.

1. Clive Harry says:

   July 24, 2016 at 10:55 am

   Morning all. I was going to Barry yesterday for the DVP game until I saw the first team games in Germany would be live on Player. Consequently I was very cheesed off when the first game didn’t appear. However, I saw the second one and two players who caught my eye were Adeyemi and Kennedy who showed a lot of pace and skill.
   I’ve also found the presence of many of our young ‘outcasts’ encouraging, particularly as our previous manager’s idea of an experimental side was simply to use exactly the same formation as every other game but to fill the team up with the older rejects who weren’t getting regular games. PT’s different tactical ideas and use of more than one formation (shock horror) has been refreshing and encouraging with players like John, Tutonda and Ajayi being revelations so far. In view of this, it looks to me as if Oshilaja is on a slow boat out of the Club if he wasn’t even looked at pre-season. I also can’t see how Peltier is going to fit into the side as he’s certainly not a wing back – perhaps as a back up centre back? Another player who may not be happy if he doesn’t get a regular game is Aron Gunnarsson. After captaining his country to the Euro quarters (and being mobbed by fans all game yesterday) he can probably say with some justification that he could hold down a place in a lot of Championship teams. However, with PT saying more players are on the way in, added to the size of the squad in Germany, there will have to be departures.
   I always enjoy pre-season because it’s a time to relax and speculate – stress starts in a couple of weeks time!
2. Adrian Lloyd Pickrell says:

   July 24, 2016 at 1:09 pm

   Last wednesday I considered going to the Ahlen game but as I left my office that afternoon the wall of heat that hit me outside and the following heavy thunderstorm sent me scuttling home instead. A good thing too, it would have been very frustrating to drive the forty minutes to Ahlen just to learn that I would need to turn around and drive another hour in the other direction, just to watch 45 minutes of football on a ground that resembles that of Briton Ferry Athletic… and City in a rather dodgy and strange blue kit with red trimmings (local press photos).
   My wife (who has now been infected with the City bug) accompanied me yesterday to Osnabruck and it was a thoroughly good day in beautiful weather. The stewards were very friendly but unsure where to put the few City fans so some ended up among the Osnabruck faithful while we ended up among the Monchengladbach supporters who were a nice friendly bunch.
   City looked very comfortable against Osnabruck, and very composed. Osnabruck were quite fired up and played a very hectic style of football but City did not seem to be troubled by this. I heard admiring comments from the watching Germans.
   St Pauli offered more, City suddenly did not have so much time and space on their hands. Apart from Immers openeing goal… it happened right in front of my nose and he had so much time he could have made himself a cup of tea before putting the ball away. The own goal was at my end too, a very strange affair. All in all, a good day out and City looked impressive. Confidence is rising for the coming season… I hope we wont be disappointed.
   Regards to all from Germany
3. Russell says:

   July 24, 2016 at 3:43 pm

   Now we are the champions of German, the future is surely bright.

   I am praying that the introductions of youngsters to the first team , the new formations, the ability to switch those line ups , is the forerunner to a more eventful and less fearfull season, and not just tactical experimentation in the no risk world of meaningless pre season friendlies , where players can look very good in an environment with very little pressure.

   I am glad the early season fixtures are tough, hopefully we can flush out the issues early and under performers.

   In terms of transfers in and out, we may see more now they are back in UK, we and others have been effected by the Euros and the FFP risks, which I think has played its part in the quiet close season for transfers, if i was a club like Cardiff the milking of the loan system would be my option both in and out, if you look at our squad, it has depth and talent , it just needs fine tunning ,motivating, and tatical flexibility applied to it.

   Germany conquered
   Mighty Shrew’s crushed.

   What’s next I hear you shout:
   full houses,
   black market ticket prices
   giddy tatics ,
   5 -4 results,
   passion ,
   going home from games chanting ” i don’t want to go home ”

   Let’s get rockin n rolling.

   Thanks again Paul for the write up and a chance to indulge.
4. Jon 1959 says:

   July 24, 2016 at 5:33 pm

   Great report as always.

   However, I’m sure Simon Moore was in Germany with the rest of the squad. I think I saw his name on a team sheet photographed by Wales Online, and he is also on both team photos I have seen (unless there is someone else in the squad who looks very like him).

   I hope my pre-season feelings of optimism and excitement last this time. It does feel different from the last few years. There seems to be leadership and a plan!
5. The other Bob Wilson says:

   July 25, 2016 at 7:29 am

   As always, thank you for your comments. Clive, you could well be right about Oshilaja – that would be a disappointment to me having watched him come through from his start in the Under 18s, but I must say that Ajayi has done very well in the matches so far and, if Tutonda can pick up the disciplines and toughness needed for the position, he has the physical attributes which could make him a formidable centreback – especially when you also consider how quick he is, I would miss his surging runs down the wing though! I agree with you that Peltier may be utilised more as a centreback if we are going to continue playing with wing backs – he’s played in midfield before, so would be pretty comfortable on the ball and he is one of the best defenders we have, using him as one of three in the middle would mean his limitations going forward would be less of a factor.
   Adrian, glad to hear you missed out on the Ahlen “experience” – hope there weren’t too many fans who turned up at their ground. As Clive says, it was very frustrating that the Osnabruck game was not covered by Cardiff City World as promised and it took me a long time to get their pictures from the St. Pauli game (although that was probably more my fault than theirs!). However, I was able to find a decent stream of the first game and so ended up watching about the last twenty five minutes of both matches and have also seen highlights of them both on Cardiff City player. Unless there are plans to show either of our remaining pre season games on the website, that will be probably be the extent of my “live” watching of the first team before the match with QPR on August 14 – I suppose we could end up getting thrashed by one or both of Bochum and Bournemouth and then, of course, the current optimism would be replaced by something far less pleasant, but, for now, there is plenty to be satisfied with.
   Russell, I think Champions of Osnabruck might be more realistic than Champions of Germany! You are right, there are stacks of supporters throughout the country who are feeling optimistic about the coming season on the back of encouraging pre season results for their team, but it is the nature of such things that there will be disappointment ahead for the large majority of them, while others who are already writing off the 16/17 campaign will end up being very pleasantly surprised by how their team perform. However. all the likes of John, Ajayi and Tutonda can do when given the sort of chance they were never going to get under our previous manager, is put down a marker to Paul Trollope that says we’ll be ready for you if you need us – I think all of them can be satisfied that they’ve managed to do that so far. As for what next, I was happy that we were so much more watchable last season than we had been in 14/15, the next step now is to add goals to a team that never really suggested they had too many in them over a forty six game campaign – I’ll need more convincing than some high scoring pre season matches to be assured that we have addressed this problem, but it is refreshing to see a so much more rounded outlook to management from Paul Trollope compared to the blinkered approach of his predecessor.
   Welcome to this forum Jon, glad to see you posting on here. I’ll take your word for it that Moore has been out in Germany, but that only makes the story about him going to Charlton more believable, given the decision to play Wilson against St. Pauli. I suppose the possibility that he was unavailable through injury or illness cannot be discounted, but it would be a very big coincidence if someone who, as far as I can remember, has never been forced to miss matches for those reasons in all of the time he has been with us, was to do so now. I’m sure Paul Trollope doesn’t need me to tell him that there will be far more testing times for him ahead in the months to come, but, you’re right, he has made a convincing start which says that this is his team and they’ll play how he wants them to – there does seem to be leadership and a plan, whereas I was never fully convinced there were either of those things under our previous two managers.

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