Cardiff (H) - Sat 6th Feb 15:00 - Matchday thread

[Mr Popodopolous]

3 hours ago, eardun said:

 Obvious to all, including Mick McCarthy: 

"I watched their game at Brentford in midweek and knew they were struggling for a left-sided defender.

"We felt we could hurt them down that side and both the goals came from crosses from our right.”

It's fairly obvious that the left side could have posed an issue for us- an aging Mariappa, who is a CB and RB by trade playing there- then Wells or whoever on the left, the opposition will have a fine time- Wells out left in front of Rowe is bad enough but yeah.

When you have 4- FOUR- LBs injured- and then even in extremis, O'Dowda who might be shoe-horned into that position in an emergency out also out?

We all knew it was the case but what else could we have done about it?

[Pippintogg]

16 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Wage bill last season £33m, Turnover £27m- but then might have been £3-4m higher if not for Covid.

Nonetheless, on the cheap is far from correct! I would question how well the money is spent, has been spent- especially in some off the pitch areas but £33m wage bill ain't cheap!

Wage bills etc. are all par for the course theses day. 'On the cheap' refers to internal promotion (Holden), and the fact that we sign players for far less than we sell players like Reid, Bryan, Webster, Kelly etc. Wait for Bents to go (the best keeper in this league). We are all about balancing budgets which is fair enough but when teams like Brentford etc can still recruit better than us it says volumes about our ambition. It has been said before about the Rugby appointing one of the best coaches in the world but pound for pound we must be able to find someone better than what we have had over the last few years. The academy is producing good players but they are all ending up elsewhere. 

[chinapig]

9 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

It's fairly obvious that the left side could have posed an issue for us- an aging Mariappa, who is a CB and RB by trade playing there- then Wells or whoever on the left, the opposition will have a fine time- Wells out left in front of Rowe is bad enough but yeah.

When you have 4- FOUR- LBs injured- and then even in extremis, O'Dowda who might be shoe-horned into that position in an emergency out also out?

We all knew it was the case but what else could we have done about it?

We knew JD's injury record but sent Pring on loan and settled for Rowe as makeshift cover. Tinnion said he thought Pring was ready for the first team squad but it seems Holden didn't agree.

Needless to say as soon as Pring came back he was injured in training. Which was of course coincidental and not part of a trend.

Doesn't look like great planning to me.

[SecretSam]

13 minutes ago, chinapig said:

We knew JD's injury record but sent Pring on loan and settled for Rowe as makeshift cover. Tinnion said he thought Pring was ready for the first team squad but it seems Holden didn't agree.

Needless to say as soon as Pring came back he was injured in training. Which was of course coincidental and not part of a trend.

Doesn't look like great planning to me.

You have to question WTF is going on with our medical team. So many injuries.

[EstoniaTallinnRed]

22 hours ago, BCFC Grim said:

He didn't say we were crap. He just questioned when we were quality. I certainly can't remember much quality. Stoke away maybe. Even then we couldn't keep the ball?

When have we been quality?

L1 championship year!

[EstoniaTallinnRed]

22 hours ago, Kodjias Wrist said:

He doesn't care

More interested in the Rugby now, where he did appoint a top coach. Say's it all really!

[Mr Popodopolous]

6 hours ago, Pippintogg said:

Wage bills etc. are all par for the course theses day. 'On the cheap' refers to internal promotion (Holden), and the fact that we sign players for far less than we sell players like Reid, Bryan, Webster, Kelly etc. Wait for Bents to go (the best keeper in this league). We are all about balancing budgets which is fair enough but when teams like Brentford etc can still recruit better than us it says volumes about our ambition. It has been said before about the Rugby appointing one of the best coaches in the world but pound for pound we must be able to find someone better than what we have had over the last few years. The academy is producing good players but they are all ending up elsewhere. 

Reading finished bottom 3rd 2 seasons ago on a wage bill that exceeded £40m, it happens. Birmingham nearly went down in 2017/18 with one possibly £35m, would have to check. 

The reason we have a lower net spend is our operating losses are huge, plus to help offset some of said wage bill.

Brentford seem like the Gold Standard tbh right now, for how to do it in the Championship. Certainly set against them we look poor and poorly run- but you could say that about half the League at least.

As for managerial appointments, Cook would have been good for sure but I also have some sympathy with Holden regarding the injuries. Not only existing players got injured, but new signings and returning loanees!

I do wonder how he might have done/be doing with a more normal injury rate- to have 4/4 LBs injured is farcical. That's the two regulars then Pring and Nurse also returning.

To have new signings (Sessegnon, Mawson Williams) all getting medium to long term layoffs is farcical.

To have a returning loanee, the League One Champions Player Of The Year (Walsh) not yet kicking a ball for us this season, is farcical.

Brunt- another new signing- albeit not especially effective and now gone, also injured and Martin injured too- I think we overplayed him however. Anyway it hasn't helped.

One side note financially, I dread to think what % of our wage bill has gone on injured players this season. Part of the game of course but full pay when injured...

[Alan Dicks]

On 06/02/2021 at 14:06, Alan Dicks said:

What half will we be abysmal this match?

I’m going for crap first half and reasonable to average 2nd half.

Shots 2 On target 1

 

How wrong i was.

[Pippintogg]

22 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Reading finished bottom 3rd 2 seasons ago on a wage bill that exceeded £40m, it happens. Birmingham nearly went down in 2017/18 with one possibly £35m, would have to check. 

The reason we have a lower net spend is our operating losses are huge, plus to help offset some of said wage bill.

Brentford seem like the Gold Standard tbh right now, for how to do it in the Championship. Certainly set against them we look poor and poorly run- but you could say that about half the League at least.

As for managerial appointments, Cook would have been good for sure but I also have some sympathy with Holden regarding the injuries. Not only existing players got injured, but new signings and returning loanees!

I do wonder how he might have done/be doing with a more normal injury rate- to have 4/4 LBs injured is farcical. That's the two regulars then Pring and Nurse also returning.

To have new signings (Sessegnon, Mawson Williams) all getting medium to long term layoffs is farcical.

To have a returning loanee, the League One Champions Player Of The Year (Walsh) not yet kicking a ball for us this season, is farcical.

Brunt- another new signing- albeit not especially effective and now gone, also injured and Martin injured too- I think we overplayed him however. Anyway it hasn't helped.

One side note financially, I dread to think what % of our wage bill has gone on injured players this season. Part of the game of course but full pay when injured...

I agree the injury list is terrible. Especially the number who get injured in training. Injuries will happen but that's the same for every team. I still believe that Ashton, recruitment etc are one of the real problems. No one has a right to the PL but after supporting for 50 years I had hoped for at least one more shot at the top flight! We are one of only a few teams in the Championship and indeed league 1 & 2 that have not been in the PL. That having been said the football we watch on Robins player from City is poor. In some ways I'm glad I don't have to sit in my expensive seat in the Lansdown stand and endure it!

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

13 minutes ago, Pippintogg said:

I agree the injury list is terrible. Especially the number who get injured in training. Injuries will happen but that's the same for every team. I still believe that Ashton, recruitment etc are one of the real problems. No one has a right to the PL but after supporting for 50 years I had hoped for at least one more shot at the top flight! We are one of only a few teams in the Championship and indeed league 1 & 2 that have not been in the PL. That having been said the football we watch on Robins player from City is poor. In some ways I'm glad I don't have to sit in my expensive seat in the Lansdown stand and endure it!

 

I suspect ours is the worst- sadly we all know the media coverage outside of PL but it was citing Liverpool's list in a paper the other day and ours pro rata outstrips theirs- theirs is/was the worst in the PL btw!

Is it the recruitment...or more how the team is setup, how the players are/have been coached and managed?

My personal view is that take Massengo and Nagy...put them in Brentford's setup and they would be quite a bit more effective. Kalas was more of a ballplaying CB at Fulham or at least had higher passing stats, have we always given him sufficent license? Weimann under LJ was at times utilised as a winger- now I don't mind the idea of wide right or a wide forward but a winger! Buying midfielders who might be more inherently suited to a 3 and then using them in a 2- see Hegeler (when he wasn't injured), arguably Nagy, Walsh in some respects Henriksen last season- Benkovic again can be good technically or could have been, but did LJ use him right? Henriksen played in a 3 in 2018/19 at Hull- they had their 4-3-3 with Bowen-Campbell-Grosicki- so LJ stuck him in a 2 often or an unsuitable 3- ie including Palmer or O'Dowda as one of them! That's just a few examples off the top of my head....sure there are plenty! Maybe how they are coached and managed, lack of possession etc, having to work very hard out of it without time to rest in it also contributes to injuries?

The list would go on tbh but I wonder how well we utilise those that we do sign, have signed?