Dreadful performance last night

Insipid, ineffective with a total lack of creativity. That was as bad a display as I've seen from us since football returned from lockdown.
As much as I've been happy to heap praise on the lads when we've done well these past few games, it's only right to criticise when we've been extremely poor.
I think the new Head Coach has a clearer idea of what he has at his disposal.

 

Got to agree there.

 

True. But I hope his first reaction isn't to go racing in to see the 80%ers asking for big strong players.
"You knew what you got when you came here, would you like your P45 now or later?"

 

Agreed, and the worry is, does he crack on and work with what is at his disposal? Or does he repeat the mantra of previous managers that he needs more resource, thus pi55ing off the ownership who in turn revert to a vow of silence to further alienate the fans?

 

Passing - awful
Decision making - awful
Desire - awful
Strategy - awful (or absent)

 

I didn't watch last night but obviously it wasn't pretty to watch, a big part of the managers job though is to get the best out of what he's got to play with such as play to their strengths & in their strongest positions.
Last night Ismael faulted a little & I hope he has learnt from that, lets see what his man management is like, let's see if he can get the maximum performance out of his squad. We have some very good players now & some good players, enough in my opinion
to stay in this league, if we're not going to spend then it's up to to Ismael & the coaching staff to get the full potential out of what we have. Not easy I know but as I see it it's the only way for now.

 

Fair comment that, I thought Clarke Odour was the one positive when he came on. He
looked really comfortable on the ball and played well.

Sadly rest of the team were well off the pace, they looked tired throughout the game.
Hopefully a much better performance against Derby on Saturday.

We should have Woodrow and Brittain back by then, maybe Williams too.

I'm confident we'll bounce back, onwards and upwards you mighty Reds!

 

I know it was bad last night but was it that much worse than Luton or Boro? Or Stoke last season? Isn’t that the thing about mid-table teams, and especially young ones? One week they’re great, the next they’re not? It’s when it becomes a consistent recurring feature that we have a big problem. Hopefully Valerien looks at it and finds a way to make sure that doesn’t happen.

 

In my opinion, yes. Probably on a par with Stoke last season. I'm not writing off any of the young lads who played for us last night. I'm certainly not one of those individuals who only posts to criticise a performance and never to praise one.
Personally, I'm already looking forward to Saturday's game at Derby and hoping to see a reaction from the lads.

 

It's starting Freiser at right back that concerns me when we had Oduor and Halme on the bench. (I know Halme is a centre back by trade but Sollbauer or Helik could have gone to right back too. I know we had injuries but there were better options.

 

Could not agree more, but let's face it this wasn't the best team we put out due to injuries our talisman Woodrow is a big loss and what cover we have up top are just not Championship strikers.

 

Hopefully hes learned from that and if you are working with what we have ...imho i would have started with odour (left) and styles (right)...said this before the match.
I would do that saturday too if Brittain is not available.
We definately have a paper thin squad when it comes to replacing regulars with half decent replacements.
I think it should be obvious to our coach that shmidt and simoes should not be starting matches.

 

I was lucky enough to only see the last 30 mins of the first half, and from what I saw, the whole team was undermined by general sloppy play from two of the front three (while the third was generally anonymous). Plenty of times Simoes and Schmidt got the ball high up the pitch, had it under control then just played a lazy pass to a Cardiff player. Nothing to do with physicality, just two players not doing their jobs properly. Then when James and Mowatt started to get onto the ball a bit more, and Frieser moved further up the pitch, a stupid blind pass from Andersen and a rash challenge from Helik means we go in at half time 2-0 down.

Before the game I'd picked Styles a RWB, based on the changes made against Watford, but didn't mind the selection when I saw it, as assumed VI knew enough about Frieser's ability to play there from their time at LASK. Unfortunately, that meant we ended up with the front three that we had.

Up front, if Woodrow isn't fit, I see no point playing a front three, may as well get Kane, James and Mowatt into midfield, or put Halme on as an emergency striker, with Frieser and Chaplin either side.

In defence, Andersen cannot play in that left of a three role. He can do lots of good things, then have an absolute horror moment. Could say the same for Helik as well. If we had genuine full backs, I'd want to switch to a back four with Sollbauer and Andersen in the middle, but not sure that's an option at the moment. Once Williams is back fit, he needs to move into the back three, with either Andersen or Helik in the middle.

 

I could only watch up to the penalty at which point ifollow froze and I couldn't get it back again, what struck me was how easily overwhelmed we were by a physically stronger side determined to give us no time to settle. When we did have the ball passing and control of the ball were rushed and therefore pretty dreadful. I had to resort to watching bake off with my mrs which was a better watch than the football. Derby,Forest then Brentford will all be tough games especially if we repeat last nights performance. One of the worst I’ve seen since the days of Keith Hill and daft lad.

 

Have to agree.

One of the downsides of playing a defined system is that your opponents know how you are going to play. If you are Liverpool, or even going back Clough, you set up in the same formation every week & know that you have better players than the opposition, so 9 times out of ten you'll beat them. We don't have that luxury. Stendel, Struber & now Ismael have all come in to play a "system". All a bit different, as Stuber's team was narrower & more defensive than Stendel. Strikes me Ismael's style is more direct, but still high press, high intensity.

Cardiff played us like a banjo last night, flooding the box early on. Our way of overcoming that would have been to flood midfield, cutting out the high balls into the box, especially from wide areas. The 3-4-3 system doesn't do thaat, as wing backs are easily exposed.

I like what I've seen of Ismael so far, but the limitations of the squad I think will force him to rethink. At LASK he had far better players at his disposal. We are simply not going to outplay every team.

 

There's an irony in the fact that we replace Ritzmaier with James, then start to bypass the midfield.

 

Even James was made to look rubbish last night.

 

That was my third trip to Cardiff in five seasons. Third defeat. I didn't work the 4-3 win, naturally. Our one win in 13 attempts against them.

They seem to have become our bogey team over the last 15 years or so. Three wins from 23, with 15 defeats. Five on the bounce now.

Can't stand em. It was proper cold as well. Horrible long trip, back home for 3.30am.

We haven't won at Derby for 11 years though either!

Up the Reds.

 

TOOTHLESS

 

I think we'll get rammed at Derby.