More possession, more shots on goal, better tackle and pass completions, more blocked shots, more corners....our performance against Hull was not as bad as the score makes out

Quote from  Squaka:

"Astonishingly, despite the fact they conceded four goals without scoring themselves, Cardiff dominated the stats, showing what a difficult game to call football can be."

"They had 23 shots to Hull’s 12, although the visitors did have one more shot on target. Cardiff failed to score with any of their five shots whilst Hull scored with four of their six, that will be a huge concern for Solskjaer as his team look to avoid relegation"


I am not for one second saying that we played well, our defense was atrocious and attack as blunt as a baby's knife, but surely there are some positives to take out of the performance?

On another day, with a bit more of a sensible balance between defending and attacking, the score could have been very different? Maybe...potentially...(in a parallel universe perhaps?)

The difference was we couldn't convert crosses and our defenders couldn't defend.

Exactly GLOVES, I remember thinking as I was watching that it was just one of the games were the ball wouldn't just fall for us in front of goal.

Although defensively there no excuses really, OSG did set the team up way to offensively and left the defence majorly exposed with poor midfield cover from Cowie and Eikrem. Also, Marshall might of been able to pull out some top-draw saves to keep us in the game on another day.

Zaha needs to be talked to, and quickly. His attacking play is rusty but the major concern is how exposed he leaves Taylor. He doesn't track back and very often that left a defender with an already dodgy record facing a 2 on 1 situation.

And not tracking back is just laziness, and needs to be shaken out of him.

Football is a cruel game and luck often plays a part.
Piss poor defending by City though NQAT.

The team desperately need leadership on the field and that should be the first consideration in rebuilding for the Championship next season.

G-ster wrote:Football is a cruel game and luck often plays a part.
Piss poor defending by City though NQAT.

The team desperately need leadership on the field and that should be the first consideration in rebuilding for the Championship next season.

No question we were unlucky in front of goal on Saturday, on another day we could easily have got a couple. There was no excuse for the defending though - really, really poor and perhaps one of the worst defensive performances I can remember from a City team in recent memory.

Not to mention the number of CLEAR penalty decisions we haven't got this season

The lack of leadership point is a good one. It slipped me by but when you look at our first team our oldest player is Marshall at 28. Medel is 26 and the rest are practically teenagers. There might well be. A call for older, battle hardened players to keep heads calm.

Hudson is the man for the job, but, unfortunately he is not a PL player. Maybe next season, though?

Agreed the leader should be at the back as I've always felt defenders get better as they get older while other roles go the other way. I don't think Hudson though because as you said he's not good enough at this level. We'd need someone that can boss the championship and also make a mark in the premier league. I'd also like to see another central midfielder take on a leadership role to control our attacks a bit more. Can't help thinking Noone, Campbell et al would only benefit from a figure who's not afraid to yell at them if they do something silly.

Bellamy would be the obvious choice in that case, but he can't do it every game.