Originally Posted by
binman
Have you read this beauty from the Brentford board by a 'first time user'
First of all, new user in peace.
Secondly, having seen Cardiff v Birmingham on the weekend, when visiting family in the area, I have to say that whilst 'Colin' has done a decent job with them they are definitely beatable. A poor Birmingham side managed to put two goals past them, and so I think we can get the three points against them and derail their promotion push:
Here's what I saw:
* Their Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge is currently playing through an injury – our strikers should always test him with hard low/high shots into the corner.
* Their defence had a big falling out over the weekend – Lee Peltier had a poor game yet blamed others for Birmingham's goals. Plus Peltier is two points away from receiving a ban as well, so will not want to risk making a bad challenge and being booked/sent off then subsequently banned.
* Callum Paterson and Bruno Manga are suffering from poor form. Sean Morrison is also playing through an injury due to lack of cover – any good pacy striker will cause them problems. Manga is three points away from a ban as well.
* Loic Damour is a weak-link in midfield – gives the ball away far too cheaply. In fact, their ball retention in midfield is very poor for a team in the top half of the Championship.
* Cardiff go 3-on-3 at the back whilst sending players up for corners. A quick break will put them under pressure from counter-attacks.
* Marko Grujic is their best midfielder, so he needs to be isolated – cut out his distribution and frustrate him all night.
* Cardiff have an inability to close-out games, and would rather score early and see the game out.
* Craig Bryson and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing are likely to play, though their fitness is going to be poor. Force them into making errors if they start.
Cardiff are a team which thrives on confidence – take that from them and they are a very average/disjointed side.
The emphasis for attacks should be to hit the wide channels at every opportunity, hassle and harangue defenders and look to force Damour/Grujic off the ball. Kenneth Zohore is their main attacking outlet, with Gary Madine injured, and even he is not completely 100% injury free so man-mark him out of the game.
I would play a tight 4-4-2 with a ball-winner and a box-to-box player. Watch out for quick breaks and keep possession even if it means 50/60 passes before launching the killer ball behind their back line.
I think we can take all three points, and I will go for a 2-1 win for The Bees.
(Feel free to forward this to The Gaffer).
Well the bit about Damour is about right but it's hardly classified - good job Patterson and Manga are in poor form - hope they see this