A narrow defeat at a top four team, but slipshod Cardiff still disappoint.

2 Responses to A narrow defeat at a top four team, but slipshod Cardiff still disappoint.

1. Blue Bayou says:

   March 9, 2025 at 10:25 am

   If you look at our six away games in the Championship since the turn of the year, we’ve conceded at least one goal within the first 17 minutes of five of them, and two goals within the first 17 minutes of two of them (Leeds & Portsmouth).
   Away teams usually say they aim to keep things tight for the first 20 minutes of a game, when the home team is usually fired-up.
   Our current run reminds me of a spell of games for the mens national team when Bobby Gould was the manager, when we seemed to frequently concede early goals in away games.
   We were later told it was partly because the team had little belief or understanding of what Gould wanted, so they’d try and decide the tactics amongst themselves.
   While I don’t think that’s the case at Cardiff re Omer, there seems to be something going wrong, whereby keeping it tight for 20 minutes, is being translated into ‘the best way to keep it tight is to play very passively, and don’t show any signs of urgency, and only make half-hearted attempts to close down the opposition.’
   Unfortunately again yesterday, with less than two minutes on the clock, Hovarth and Bagan showed no urgency, and their passive play handed Sunderland an easy opening goal.
   I’m not sure who is more culpable – Bagan for taking up a position close to the corner so making it easy for an attacker to close him down, or Hovarth for passing the ball to him in that position!
   That set the scene for Bagan to have his worst performance of the season, although to be fair he has set a high standard in most of his previous ones, so should be allowed an off day!
   Omer and his team should review what part of their away game preparation is resulting in us too frequently starting these games in such a poor fashion.
   I can’t add anything to your excellent report of the rest of the game Paul.
   While Sunderland are one of those top 4 teams, they weren’t as good as Leeds or Burnley, and I thought we played some decent football in the middle part of the game, and felt optimistic to think we’d get a draw, until our calamitous defending for their free-kick (was it because it was rather harshly awarded imo that our defence just thought they shouldn’t have to defend it, so didn’t)?
   This makes Luton next Tuesday as big a game as Hull was, so let’s hope for a similar scoreline.
   One positive from yesterday was a goal on his first league start of the season from Isaak Davies, and I think his speed and finishing could be key for us for the rest of the season.
   I’m also hoping Ramsey will return because he has that ability to pick out the killer pass to unlock defences, that Ashford and Davies can thrive on.
2. Dai Woosnam says:

   March 9, 2025 at 12:00 pm

   Nice to see you Paul really put ‘not taking a goal KICK’ under your spotlight. I have been banging on about this in MAYA for over a decade… to the point that I sound like a stuck record. For years, I was a lone voice on this subject in these excellent pages.

   And my eyes just fell on these words from the always-interesting BB…
   ‘ I’m not sure who is more culpable – Bagan for taking up a position close to the corner so making it easy for an attacker to close him down, or Hovarth for passing the ball to him in that position!’

   I can safely say that neither man is culpable. They are acting under orders. They may have misfired the bullets, but the gun was loaded by a fellow with delusions of grandeur who wants to show that he too can walk in the footsteps of Guardiola.

   Frankly, he should be made to walk to the end of the dole queue tomorrow morning.
   I am hopping mad with the duffer who knowing we do not have Man City circus performers, insists we suicidally play this way. Jeez… just TWO MINUTES in at the Stadium of Light… God knows 40,006 passionate fans are hard enough to overcome, and yet it was one man’s hubris over tactics that basically lost us the game… not any lack of fighting spirit.

   We deserve to go down with a manager like that.

   He compounded matters with his 72nd minute ultra defensive substitution – taking off Robinson and bringing on Fish… who surely should have been in the back 4 from the start, with O’Dowda moved upfield. That substitution basically told the Makems that we are happy with a point.

   Luton is a ‘must win’ if we have any chance of pulling off a miracle escape.

   TTFN,
   Dai.