Quote Originally Posted by A Quiet Monkfish View Post
Defensively last season we were strong, but still made basic errors. The difference is players in the Prem. are sharper, quicker, more alert and likely to capitalise on our mistakes/hesitancy. Ironically, I think Warnock's decision to try to play more 'football' is backfiring. We are way behind the rest in terms of footballing ability, even with the summer signings. Perhaps it would have been better to have developed a Warnock-style mark 2, ie play the same way as last season but with stronger personnel.

On a separate theme, I welcome the return of a fit Gunnarson. Much derided on here and the other place, I think he's twice the player that Ralls is, and has the character and overall game to help the City. I couldn't see Ralls putting in the grandstand performance that Gunnarson did against Wolves at home last May...
I'm a Ralls fan and don't think he's done badly overall this season, but I agree that Gunnarsson, another player who gets criticised as soon as his performance level drops slightly, has been the better player for us given that the two of them have been in first team contention at Cardiff for about the same amount of time.

I don't agree with you about our defence last season though - to concede less than a goal a game and have the joint best goals against record with Wolves tells you we were doing something right and, even allowing for the increase in standards this season, players like Morrison, Bamba, Bennett and Manga are making mistakes in areas where they shouldn't - Neil Warnock was right when he said individual errors were costing us.

Burnley's first goal last week was an example of that because there were enough of them to contribute three goals against opponents who displayed quick thinking with the throw in they took, but there was nothing particularly brilliant done with the ball on their part in the build up to that goal - we would not have conceded a goal like that last season.