08/08/10 - Cardiff City v. Sheffield United

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MOTM v. Cardiff City


  • Total voters
    83
That's a great result under the circumstances. Very impressed by Simmo & Ertl, and Britton did very well for the goal.

We desperately need a Left Back, I'm afraid Taylor just isn't up to it. Wouldn't mind Cardiff's LB, thought he had an excellent game.

Wardy needs to stop being such a little gobshite & concentate on playing the game.
 

Very good point that. Terrific workrate all round.
 
Thoughts on Cardiff game

Overall, it was well earned point but still a lot of work to be done regardless of the fact we had 10 men for long periods. We started the game well and passed it for the firts 10 minutes but this was the only time we really kept the ball well. They then started to come into it but of course we scored a well worked goal; against the run of play. I felt the game was going to plan and Cardiff would get frustrated but the red card gave them a lifeline. It was a stupid challenge and probably did deserve red; being high, late and around the knee area. After this we got to half time well and started second half alright but then defended deeper and deeper; gave the ball away constantly and conceded ground for the remainder of the game. We resorted to spoling tactics and a lot of timewasting/cynical play which was ugly even though many may say necessary in the circumstances. The goal was a sloppy one and should have been stopped. After this I felt we would get beat and although Simonsen made 2 or 3 saves we defended well and did well to get the point.

Difficult to give a full prognosis due to having ten men for an hour but it was on ther whole much of the same; ahrd working, organised, difficult to bear with little flair, ball retention or attacking ambition. Hopefully, when we have 11 and get 2 or 3 more in which we clearly need then we can see more attacking intent and get the likes of Britton, Bogdanovic and Evans on the ball more.

Positives

Back 4 defended very well with likes of Ward, Taylor, Kozluk all contributing but Simonsen, Morgan and Ertl outstanding throughout.

Kept shape and system to nulify Cardiff and frustrate them. This meant they did not make man advantage count as much as they perhaps should have done.

Worked hard all game and closed down space. Most of their main chances came from long range shooting which was testament to organisation and covering.


Negatives

Inexperience from youngster with stupid challenge nearly cost us. It may have cost us 2 points actually as who knows what may have happened if he had not gone off.

Gave ball away most of the game again. Sure we had ten men for long periods but even more reason to keep the ball rather than revert to lumping it. Likes of Montgomery and Quinn very careless in possession and turning a midfield ball into Cardiff possession and us suddnely backpeddalling and defending.

Little/no creativity with Britton barely involved outside the goal and no interchange/clever play outside first 10 minutes.

Evans/Bogdanovic/Cresswell did not hold the ball up very well at all and it kept coming back. We need to keep it better and bring others into play. Mind you often it was the lump forward to them rather than a passed ball into their feet.

Players

Simonsen 8/10 - Very good for the most part. Made 4 or 5 saves I would expect him to make but still good saves. Organised well and caught crosses/corners. slight criticism for goal was he maybe needed have gone out that far and maybe should have stayed on his line.

Lowton 2/10 - Got beat one or twice early on but looked to have settled down till the rash challenge. Taking off our red and white tinted spectacles and you have to say it probably was a deserved red card. Silly and now with a three match ban and others to be brought in he may have a long wait to play again.

Taylor 6.5/10 - At times he did ok today and I am not his biggest fan. He cleared the ball, kept his position beter and stopped some crosses. At other times he got beat badly by Burke who led him a bit of a merry dance and looked very pedestrian and too slow to react to danger.

Ertl 8.5/10 - My Man of the Match. Fautless. Won headers, cleared the ball and looked excellent. Not as slow as a I remembered and also better on the ball. Gave food for thought to what his best position may be.

Morgan 8/10 - As above. Excellent. Headed it, cleared it and led the team well.

Quinn 5/10 - Not in the game at all. He ran around and chased/harried but very ineffectual overall.

Montgomery 6/10 - Covered a lot of ground and made tackles/interceptions but his passing/distribution as woeful. Twice in the first half he just punted the ball forward to noone.

Britton 5.5/10 - He was not in the game at all aside from his clever ball for the goal. I actually forogt he was playing when he was taken off. Worrying similiar to the Howard/Harper situation but hopefully witha full 11 and playing at home next week we may see a different player.

Cresswell 6/10 - He toiled and chased but he too was not really in the match for long periods and was not able to offer much as an attacking source more involved defensively.

Evans 6.5/10 - Looked lively in the first half and took his goal well. However, he does need to hold the ball better when he does have it. Again when he plays with a partner and with 11 men we can assess better.

Ward 7/10 - Fair play to Wardy. He started wide right, then went left, then went right back for almost an hour and did ok against one of best players in league Whittingham. Ended up back wide right for last stages of game. Unnecessary arguing with crowd and silly gamesmanship (cheating?) when he went down and then suddenly started running again lose him some credit.

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Kozluk - Did alright when he came on but got beat once badly by McNaughton.

Bogdanovic - Thought he was very lazy when he came on and if he wants to start needs to show more effort and especially with us having ten help us keep the ball. He gave the ball away every time he had it and hardly covered any ground to close players down. when Cardiff knocked it across their back line.

Yeates - Barely touched ball as only on for last few minutes.

I did not think Cardiff were that great actually but they did pass the ball far better than us and had far more of a goal threat. I expect them to be much higher than us in the league unfortunately and nothing I saw today changed that. They can pass the ball, are iinventive, play with two genuine wide threats, a proper big/small partnership with mobility that gets goals but are poor at the back and have very poor centre backs and keeper I feel. These things may cost them promotion.
 
Has Yeates always been that fat? The bloke's nearly got a double chin.

As for Britton... Blackwell has said he's going to play him further up the pitch than he did at Swansea. Which I think is a reflection of our style. Whereas Cowans and McCall used to initiate passing moves from just in front of the back four, I don't think we've any intention of playing much football inside our own half.

We'll get a better feel for whether he can fit in when we see him at home.
 
Very generous towards Morgan, he should have stopped the goal no bother.
 
Very pleased with a point under the circumstances. I can't help but have a chuckle at those on here who are berating the team for not playing sweeping, attractive, passing football when we were a man short. It really does beggar belief.

Thought we played some good stuff before the totally unjust sending off - yellow card at most - but after that I thought we battled well and, although disappointed that their goal came from an error, I was well pleased at the final whistle.
 
For the first game, and being knocked down to 10 men, I thought they did fine. They earned the point, but it was good to hear Blackwell confirm we are bringing in reinforcments for the defence. Don't think he's got the starting 11 he was aiming for so, some experience for the kids against Hartlepool and we can see who arrives for QPR. Should be a good game for the homw crowd.
 
Very pleased with a point under the circumstances. I can't help but have a chuckle at those on here who are berating the team for not playing sweeping, attractive, passing football when we were a man short. It really does beggar belief.

Thought we played some good stuff before the totally unjust sending off - yellow card at most - but after that I thought we battled well and, although disappointed that their goal came from an error, I was well pleased at the final whistle.

I just ignore such comments because its total rubbish. Anyway, I agree with you totally here. United did as much as they could under the circumstances and got a result most of us would have settled for before the game (even though I naturally hoped for a win). A draw in one of our more difficult away games is a good starting point and sets us up to have a right good go at QPR next week. There was no way United would be able to dictate the flow of the game once we went down to ten and from the moment the incident occured I was hoping we could hold out for the draw. For all their endeavour Cardiff couldn't find a way to hurt United before that and we coped with their forwards relatively well throughout.

We're due to get 2 or 3 more players in over the next week which will only make us stronger. I felt Lowton was hard done to and he'll be disappointed tonight but he'll learn from the experience and will come back strong. We also have two other academy graduates on the bench which is a really good sign. Things are looking ok and there is cause for tempered optimism. We look like we have the tools but there is a lot of work still to do.
 
Simonsen 8/10 - Very good for the most part. Made 4 or 5 saves I would expect him to make but still good saves. Organised well and caught crosses/corners. slight criticism for goal was he maybe needed have gone out that far and maybe should have stayed on his line.

Disagree entirely with that last point. Taylor's piss poor positioning meant he had absolutely no choice but to come out and by the time he was half way across he had committed too far to go back. I felt sorry for Simmo on that because I knew he would be the one to take any of the flack for it.

He would get a 9/10 for me.
 
Personally I loved Wardy's WUM'ing.

Really got under the skins of both the crowd and the Cardiff team.
 
Given that we were down to ten for a long, long time, I'm pretty happy with that. Simonsen was at fault ultimately for the goal in that you never commit to a player who's leaving/outside of the box as a keeper, but he was also somewhat sold by nobody being at left back. It would be incredibly harsh to hold it against him though, given his otherwise impressive display.

Things should be a lot clearer after QPR.
 
Disagree entirely with that last point. Taylor's piss poor positioning meant he had absolutely no choice but to come out and by the time he was half way across he had committed too far to go back. I felt sorry for Simmo on that because I knew he would be the one to take any of the flack for it.

He would get a 9/10 for me.

Quick question on the goal. Didn't get a great view but did Simmo get a touch with his hand outside the box? Initial thought was that we'd see another red...
 

No, but his hands were well outside the box when he went for it.

Rob Stiles has been on the Radio saying he would have sent the Keeper off for intent ;)

I thought we were doing alright until Blacky made the two subs, thats when we started retreating.

A good point at the end of the day, up and at em for QPR and that twat :D
 
Didn't think Boggy was lazy when he came on at all. In fact, it surprised me how hard he worked. When having 10 players it's no use your front man chasing down the full backs, he needs to retain his shape as much as anyone on the pitch and when needed I thought he pressured the centre backs well enough. I can't see that playing as a lone forward is his game essentially but certainly didn't let us down today.

Monty was frustrating beyond belief today, won countless balls and interceptions but horrendously bad in possession, Quinn also played a similar game. Forgot Britton was playing second half but will be a totally different player when we have 11 and/or at home.

MOM - Johnny Ertl.
 
Typical Blades performance in terms of grit, character and determination.

I was hoping to see a little bit more finesse on the ball today, but that was taken away from us by the refs decision to send Lowton off. Incidently, it wasn't malicious, but it was reckless and in my opinion, it was a red card.

Under the circumstances, can't be anything but pleased to come away from Cardiff with a point. Make no mistake, Cardiff are a decent side and I fully expect them to be challanging again come the end of the season, especially whilst Jones remains in charge.
 
Disagree entirely with that last point. Taylor's piss poor positioning meant he had absolutely no choice but to come out and by the time he was half way across he had committed too far to go back. I felt sorry for Simmo on that because I knew he would be the one to take any of the flack for it.

He would get a 9/10 for me.

thats spot on lou
 
Given that we were down to ten for a long, long time, I'm pretty happy with that. Simonsen was at fault ultimately for the goal in that you never commit to a player who's leaving/outside of the box as a keeper, but he was also somewhat sold by nobody being at left back. It would be incredibly harsh to hold it against him though, given his otherwise impressive display.

Things should be a lot clearer after QPR.

So which player came to aid simmo when simmo drove chopra wide? would you rather he let chopra run straight towards the goal? or maybe afterhe closed chopra the first time he should then have retreated and let him have a second run on goal as no one came to take simmos place in closing all that down?
 
So which player came to aid simmo when simmo drove chopra wide? would you rather he let chopra run straight towards the goal? or maybe afterhe closed chopra the first time he should then have retreated and let him have a second run on goal as no one came to take simmos place in closing all that down?

Not biting :D

Having no left back in place (as I said earlier, as did Lou with whom you agree ....), meant he was sold and had to come off his line. He just moved too early. His timing was wrong. I still think it would be astonishingly critical to hold it against him, but ultimately it was a 'keeping error, forced or not. His angles looked sound too, which adds to the fact that it was a simple case of mistiming.
 
MOTM poll added to the thread :)
 
I'm happy with that performance and coming away from Cardiff with a point which a lot of people might not have expected to have got with or without 10 men.

Major plus points included the superb performance of Simonsen who i think is a better keeper than Paddy Kenny and less of a liability, Johnny Ertl who was better than i thought he was, and Ched's excellent goal.
 
Not biting :D

Having no left back in place (as I said earlier, as did Lou with whom you agree ....), meant he was sold and had to come off his line. He just moved too early. His timing was wrong. I still think it would be astonishingly critical to hold it against him, but ultimately it was a 'keeping error, forced or not. His angles looked sound too, which adds to the fact that it was a simple case of mistiming.

So are you suggesting that he should have stayed?
 
Not biting :D

Having no left back in place (as I said earlier, as did Lou with whom you agree ....), meant he was sold and had to come off his line. He just moved too early. His timing was wrong. I still think it would be astonishingly critical to hold it against him, but ultimately it was a 'keeping error, forced or not. His angles looked sound too, which adds to the fact that it was a simple case of mistiming.

I get what you're trying to say but I dont understand the logic. If you're saying he came off his line too early then that would suggest you felt he was right to come off his line but should have waited.

If he had waited, Chopra would have had time to get the ball under control, move towards goal and pick a spot either side of him. The full back was entirely at fault and it meant Simmo had to jump into no man's land.

If you asked the rest of the team/coaching staff, I would bet none of them would put Simmo at fault for that goal.
 
I'm happy with that performance and coming away from Cardiff with a point which a lot of people might not have expected to have got with or without 10 men.

Major plus points included the superb performance of Simonsen who i think is a better keeper than Paddy Kenny and less of a liability, Johnny Ertl who was better than i thought he was, and Ched's excellent goal.

Got to agree, Simonsen was superb today. Yes he was at fault for the goal but otherwise thought he looked better than Paddy. He is certainly better on crosses / corners etc. Once again I was frustrated with the midfield. First 10 - 15 minutes we tried to keep the ball and pass it around but after that we just tried to get the ball forward at all costs every time we got it. I'm afraid that Quinn really isn't good enough. I am not a Monty fan but can appreciate what he gives to the team but Quinn continues to give little or nothing. Evans looked OK and showed good movement for the goal. Ward I thought was excellent. He gives 100%, can pass, shoot and take a player on. His 'gamesmanship' is something which I found quite amusing. He looked to stop the flow of Cardiff's attack and sustained pressure and was well in order given the cirumstances.
It was quite a predictable United performance of the past few years though and I thought Cardiff's movement in the final third was quite good. How many times did they play the ball between full back and centre half or between Ertl and Morgs? It happened time after time. We need another decent full back and centre midfielder at least. For the first game of the season though and with 10 men for 60 minutes it was a decent performance. A draw at Cardiff is a good result at any stage of the season, many teams will get turned over there. Let be positive for god's sake. I appreciate this is going to be nigh on impossible for some on here.
 

I get what you're trying to say but I dont understand the logic. If you're saying he came off his line too early then that would suggest you felt he was right to come off his line but should have waited.

If he had waited, Chopra would have had time to get the ball under control, move towards goal and pick a spot either side of him. The full back was entirely at fault and it meant Simmo had to jump into no man's land.

If you asked the rest of the team/coaching staff, I would bet none of them would put Simmo at fault for that goal.

We're talking fractions here, but essentially that is what I'm saying. Committing by going to ground when you're going to be carried out of the box is a basic error. Again, he was forced into making a decision by Taylor's awful mess, but that fractional bit of mistiming was crucial. I'll give you that he had Hobson's choice as to what action to take, and his angles were right or Chopra wouldn't have gone wide (further weight to how well Simmo played), but it was a 'keeping error. A yard later, he still has the angles, but can still use his hands. That's all.
 

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