Cardiff City vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Rigadon]

How did Gabby play today (as in how well)? In the last Cardiff game I thought he did pretty well despite hitting their keeper in a one on one.

Decent enough, couple of good shots and added some much needed presence up there. Dribbling skills have long deserted him though, tries to turn a lad and ends up falling over quite a bit.

Still looks as if he needs to shift weight mind, McCormack too

Thanks.  Maybe the club are trying to put him in the shop window. 

[Risso]

9 touches of the ball between both Westwood and Gardner. Truly abysmal if true.

No wonder they both got subbed early on.  Absolutely dreadful pair of wasters.

[saunders_heroes]

9 touches of the ball between both Westwood and Gardner. Truly abysmal if true.

No wonder they both got subbed early on.  Absolutely dreadful pair of wasters.

Just unbelievable. We just have to get a new midfield. No excuses.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Just home after match. Team selection, especially the midfield 2 put us on the back foot. 1st half awful, 2nd half better. We can't afford to give teams a 45min head start. Brontebilly earlier summed up Gabby. I would only add he had no link up play and lost every header to Bamba. For all Hutton's faults he was the only player who attempted to drive Villa on in the 1st half. Tish did well when he came on begging the question why hasn't he been used in the last 2+ months? Away form may cost us chance of a play-off spot.

[andyh]

9 touches of the ball between both Westwood and Gardner. Truly abysmal if true.

No wonder they both got subbed early on.  Absolutely dreadful pair of wasters.

If correct, there is no condemnation strong enough.
2 central midfielders with 9 touches between them!!!

It truly beggars belief.

[steffo]

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1085112/LiveStatistics/England-Championship-2016-2017-Cardiff-Aston-Villa

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Shocking first half and it can be no surprise with that midfield. That has to be the last time we see Westwood and Gardner.

We stood off them and let them physically bully us. We were so slow in moving the ball, it was just frustrating beyond belief against a dire side.

We need balance. I don't know why Tshibola didn't start, as he is a better option than the gruesome twosome.

We were better second half. Created two or three good chances, hit the post and made their keeper make a few good saves, while we got in good positions.

The level of protection or lack thereof for Grealish is scandalous. Warnock will be in line to replace Gatland when he finally leaves Wales. They're a proper bunch of thugs.

They didn't do a thing second half, but clearly we didn't do enough, although I thought we should have picked up a point.

The goal was shocking. What was Bunn doing to give the corner away in the first place? Then to let the ball bounce and bobble like that, embarrassing. We had a moment of chaos as well where they could have scored once or twice more.

Things had to change second half. Thought Tshibola did ok. Physically strong and picks a better forward pass than Westwood.

McCormack can't play up front on his own and it made no sense knocking balls into the channel for him. Hutton is the most guilty individual for this. Such a pity De Laet got injured, as him, Bunn, Westwood and Gardner need to be bit part players at the very most.

Time to get the cheque book out and sort that fucking midfield before we blow our chance of the Play offs.  Thank goodness results were OK for us today.

[SoccerHQ]

Listening to Bruce post match, once again you hear him nail it, sees it as most of us, today even questioned his own team selection. I just can't help thinking he's also part of the problem. Yes, the players let him down but 3 - 4 months on we still appear to have little in the way of a plan. Other managers with far less resources seem not to have that problem. It will be interesting to see who he brings in this month as he isn't willing to have any player at the club that won't do what he's told. It's his way or out the door they go.

Only problem there is he said the exact same things after Norwich and here we are 3 weeks later putting in another mediocre away performance.

As much as I back SB I've been really disappointed with how he continually sets us up away from home. Seemingly the plan is to keep it tight for an hour and then nick it 1-0. It worked at an awful QPR but not at Leeds or Norwich.

We can't just rely on our home form to get top 6. One away win in 3 months says it all. 7 away goals is laughable considering what we've spent

[SoccerHQ]

Late December back in '74 we lost at Cardiff. Then lost one more game all season to get back to Division 1. Deja vu?

We played Cardiff in January this time.

[Rigadon]

I don't know what to make of those stats.  It looks outrageously bad, but was this because both sides were lumping it long first half?  Tshibola, coming on second half has 10 times the number of  touches than Westwood / Gardener?!?

[Des Little]

Just home and not read the thread yet but here goes. First half was disgraceful, and if those stats are true re GG & AW then they should both be discarded. Second half was a marked improvement but we played into their hands way too often - long balls that was meat and drink to their defence. In fairness, I thought Gabby did well...he's still far from what he was but he put a shift in and had two decent shots, which is more than I can recall for years.

The bottom line is that we need practically a whole new midfield, and Bruce surely has to see to this and quick. We can forget the play offs that's for sure.

[john e]

According to a certain 'whoscored' stat website Ashley Westwood had just 3 touches of the ball today. Surely that's not true, even for someone as appalling as him?

I can't get my head around that
I'm refusing to believe it based on it must be virtually impossible to only touch the ball 3 times in a whole half of football, impossible 

[four fornicholl]

According to a certain 'whoscored' stat website Ashley Westwood had just 3 touches of the ball today. Surely that's not true, even for someone as appalling as him?

I can't get my head around that
I'm refusing to believe it based on it must be virtually impossible to only touch the ball 3 times in a whole half of football, impossible
[/quoteAsk Gary Fucking Nevile

[olaftab]

Agree aftab but are our picks in this window going to be any better than past purchases?  We not only have bad players we have bad judges of players.

I am hoping Bruce would choose better however I have little confidence. I think he may well cobble up a team to get us promoted but his record at building teams for top division is poor.

[Des Little]

Late December back in '74 we lost at Cardiff. Then lost one more game all season to get back to Division 1. Deja vu?

We played Cardiff in January this time.

Did we have two mannequins in midfield back then as well?