In my opinion we looked more controlled without Choudhury. He's vital but I think Gosling played the role in a much calmer fashion
First things first - a huge win in terms of making it three consecutive league wins for the first time in 7 years! Showing we could grind our way to a victory and capitalise again, especially as rivals stutter on the same night, is massive, and along with the gradual improvement in decision-making and lack of panic, a testament to what Bilic is visibly doing with this side, even in its current ramshackle iteration. What that game really felt like was the second half of the last promotion season, to be honest, right down to Sierralta's notable presence throughout. If we could actually get some players back, and/or indeed recruit intelligently (hah) in one or two positions, we might actually have a chance at this. On the flipside, we started both halves very poorly and sluggishly, again. It's madness - how the hell are we still doing it?!? Luckily we weren't punished more than once for it. Once again, and we're in serious broken record territory here, but aside from a goal contribution, I wouldn't mind Sarr showing any great interest in influencing the game with the ball in an attacking sense, or modelling his game on a 24-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, rather than the 38-year-old version. He has it in him to be and do so much more than this at this level. Whisper it, but Gosling seemed very effective in the middle of the pitch, too? I don't think he's necessarily an instant replacement or starter there, but he did what he theoretically used to be able to do. Against the top sides with strong lineups in the middle of the park, perhaps not, but fairplay, he's proving himself extremely professional, versatile, and useful to us down here. Gaspar had his best game for us too, outside of that vile heart attack he gave us in the final minute interplaying with chuckle brother No.1, and played some absolutely sublime balls - at least one of which should have absolutely guaranteed us another goal, if it wasn't for that pure rotter Bayo. The less said about him the better. Even in a hard fought and earned win, 'e were diabolical. Get him walkin'. What I did feel we noticed at the end was that we miss a Troy-type figure to manage the game and take it to the corner flag. There was one time right right right at the end that Hungbo realised, but even then it wasn't very effective. I'm not sure he offered enough or ran/hustled/bustled anywhere near as much as was required, given he was an entirely fresh pair of legs, but he played a role in the points, at least. Kalu would remain well ahead in the pecking order on that evidence.
Oh Bayo... you are... not having a good run of form - the poacher needs to air fry more Anyway, really good second half performance and a well deserved and battling win. I guess we have to look at their goal within 10 minutes. WTE, we love ya, but please stop doing that, and Bachmann hardly covered himself in glory either. Really nice leveller from the GFC - nice header and it was deserved. Level at the break and that seemed a fair reflection, but Cardiff totally switched off second half and we dominated the ball for long periods of the game without really looking like conceding again. Sarr puts us in front with a neat finish and we fairly comforably held on. I think the weather messed up Cardiff and how they play, they diidn't look fluent but that was also down to hard graft from us I guess as well. Gaspar had a decent game, apart from the last seconds when he so nearly gave away a goal. Not sure where the home crowd was tonight. Maybe the weather kept the at home? Feels nice to win three in a row, something we haven't done since our promotion season, and back into the playoffs as well which was nice. Burnley scored a late leveller but they still dropped two points tonight. For us, it's about momentum. We face Cov next at the Vic who just lost their winning run yesterday so I do not feel like they will be fast out of the traps. But let's savor tonight, as Watford proved they can do it on a very wet and windy night in the Welsh capital.
Why can't we start games anywhere near as well as we eventually grow in to them?! This was pretty similar to the Wigan game, except Cardiff managed to nick a goal after their early pressure. But we then dominated for the rest of the game aside from the final 10 minutes where we tired and lacked many options off the bench. Kamara was shocking for the first 30 minutes when he kept getting caught out of position and giving the ball away. Albeit, Philogene was very impressive for them up against him; reminded of Olise a bit, very good left-footed dribbler. Sierralta probably MotM, for the way he played at both ends of the pitch. Got a goal, but also did well to eventually recognise the threat of Philogene and close him down earlier. WTE was generally solid but Kipre was his man who he lost for their goal. Gosling did a surprisingly decent job in the middle of the pitch alongside Kayembe, but given Gaspar was poor again and lucky not to get sent off late on (albeit once his legs had clearly gone), it'll be good if we can shift him back to RB next game with Choudhury returning. None of our attacking players were particularly at the races today apart from perhaps Sema on the set-pieces. Bayo in particular struggled to get involved. Sarr got a nasty purposeful stamp on him, but perhaps it would be less likely if he rolled his socks up and didn't throw himself to the ground so easily? JP can't be faulted for his work rate, but fluffed a couple of decent shooting chances, as he's still prone to do. Good thing then that we've suddenly started being able to score from set plays?! Did Bilic bring reids with when he arrived?!
Agreed. I gave shoutbox up a while ago because of that. There's passion and then there's the sort of 'passion' that spills over into rabid shrieking abuse from the usual suspect. Unfortunately the 'ignore' option doesn't work in shoutbox. Maybe the site owners could look at this? But more importantly, we've now won three on the trot! Still a work in progress of course but a good couple of weeks whatever the problems with the owners!
No, I heard his contract is pretty generous. Although not as much as Kalu who of course gets salary plus also draws his pension.
Maybe the way he ended the game held too much sway on that statement, but I think Gosling has generally looked more assured in his games there.
I find it really odd. The glee that some people get from players not doing the right things is frankly weird. Get behind them ffs
Oh, one more thing, if I was a Cardiff fan I would be quite optimistic for the future, quite a few young players in the ranks that could develop into a good squad in two or three years.
He intercepted pretty much everything all night, and showed some good quality. I wouldn't change anything on Saturday (Davis aside). I'd rather Choudhury not believe he's an automatic pick
Is Keinan Davis supposed to be back for Coventry, or is there any news on how long he’s out for? I thought we played well tonight, but Bayo still seems to be missing for large parts of the game, something that definitely cannot be said about Davis when he plays.
Bayo didn't offer much today, but I think JP is at his best dropping deep and linking play rather than leading the line.
There are 5 teams we haven't played yet, 3 of them we're playing before the World Cup, in current league positions 20th, 11th, and 15th, and the other 2 just after World Cup, who are 21st and 24th (bottom). That takes us to Christmas. If we can start becoming the flat-track bullies against the lesser teams and not just turn it on in the big games - and with Bilic I'm confident we can - we could easily find ourselves in 3rd or even 2nd come Christmas Day
Strong momentum now and a chance to win another 3 on the bounce one feels. Still can’t stand the owners but maybe financial disaster can be avoided. Wasn’t on shoutbox but amusing to see people whining about a medium that is designed to be reactive, especially considering the vile culture Pozzo has created in the club and playing squad.
One of our best away performances and great to get 3 wins on the trot ! Thought we looked more creative and great that we are starting to make set pieces count again . That’s 3 decent performances in a row from Kayembe now and I’m hoping what Bilic has been working on with him is starting to show . Gosling was pretty decent as well . Apart from the goal we’re still showing those defensive wobbles and that Gaspar air kick was a bit if a heart attack moment but we ground it out. Sarr showed a bit more willingness to take on his man today as well so better from him . On to 2 matches that look very winnable on paper but let’s see as you never know with this team …
Considering the "vile culture" on the shoutbox is typically created by the vocal Pozzo outers, that definitely reads of lazily shifting blame. I've been avoiding the shoutbox of late and the match day experience is much more pleasant as a result.
Playing until Burnley scored the winner. The ref, Mrs Kompany, blew for full time as soon as the ball hit the net. It took a bit of engineering though. A red card against Rotherham and 12 minutes of additional scoring time added. Still, job done in the end.
Of all shoutboxes to take offence at…tonight wasn’t one of them unless you came in to chat footy and somehow thought you had been diverted to rottentomatoes.com
I think one of the key reasons why we looked more controlled was that Cardiff were mostly crap. Choudhury has been very important to our midfield this season and there's no reason why he shouldn't come straight back in.
Reading through Rotherham's forum I think they generally seem more aggrieved at the sending off for two apparently soft bookings than the extra time. One or two of their posters seemed to recognise that their time wasting was a bit ridiculous and came back to bite them. There was actually 13 (!!) minutes of injury time awarded, so Burnley's winner wasn't even right at the very death. https://boards.footymad.net/showthread.php?t=38297508
