FT: CARDIFF CITY 0 - 2 FULHAM. Matchday thread

[City123]

Their players are clearly better than ours. They won all the individual battles this evening.

The fact both goals were individual brilliance rather than intricate passing gosls undermines his argument somewhat

[blue lewj]

Swansea have got a cobbled together side built around one quality player and scraped into the playoffs by a miracle.

And still looked miles ahead of us against Brentford at home in comparison with that shitshow tonight.

[Trigger]

It has EVERYTHING to do with tactics.

How many long balls did you see Fulham play? How much possession football did you see us play by passing and moving?

I don’t think that their players are necessarily better than ours, but they have been coached on the basics of football: pass, move, pass,
move, keep the ball, make the other team work to gain possession, not play endless long balls where the chances of maintaining possession are dramatically less.

Who plays like that these days apart from us?

It is EVERYTHING to do with tactics.

If Fulham, Swansea and Brentford can do it, then why can’t our players? Because we have a manager that want to play another way.

Wasn't anyone's greatest night, Harris included, but think that's a bit harsh on him. We are trying to play more football and have but we still don't look as confident as is required and unless we are on it, like tonight it often just looks slow and predictable.

Against Fulham we probably need to go full on direct with the squad we have.

[ToTaL ITK]

What has length of suffering (or experience as you call it) got to do with THIS particular Cardiff City side playing a football match TONIGHT..?

Bizarre logic

Bizarre in what way?...Cardiff city fc are an accident waiting to happen,always have been! that doesn't mean one should not support them. Just don't expect any success

[DubaiDai]

So frustrating how much respect we seemed to give them.

That back line is made up of ex Bolton, Sheffield Weds, Middlesbrough and Bristol City. We stood off them and half assed closed them down like they were Real Madrid.

Don't want to dig out one player either as they were all bad but if Pack plays another game for City it is one game too many.

Home game and we had 3 efforts on goal.
Nowhere near good enough. As skint as Swansea are, they have Brewster, Ayew and others who all threaten the goal.
We try hard but have very little threat and the opposition works that out fairly early.
My heart says no promotion this year is a financial loss but my head says we may have embarrassed ourselves.

[Llandaff Blue]

The fact both goals were individual brilliance rather than intricate passing gosls undermines his argument somewhat

Their first came from a winger beating his man, then their high press won the ball back after we cleared it. None of those two things happened for us tonight

[MacAdder]

Beaten by the better side but had our chances.
Neil Harris's poor record against Fulham goes on and for us to may the playoffs from here would be nothing short of a miracle.

The good news though is that if the unthinkable happens on Wednesday, Fulham will be a hard but to crack, even with another Keith Stroud officiating.

[DubaiDai]

Home game and we had 3 efforts on goal.
Nowhere near good enough. As skint as Swansea are, they have Brewster, Ayew and others who all threaten the goal.
We try hard but have very little threat and the opposition works that out fairly early.
My heart says no promotion this year is a financial loss but my head says we may have embarrassed ourselves.

By the way that is not a huge criticism. What I am saying is continue to build a better championship team and change the style to something akin to modern day football, and before anyone comes back, it does not have to be “tippy tappy” as some refer to it.
I mean the style of football played by just about every successful side these days

[Bobby Dandruff]

Fulham have been spending good money on quality footballers for a decade. Brentford have been bringing in quick, skillful players slowly over 3/4 yrs. Swansea have had excellent scouting links and a good reputation for football which enables them to get good Prem. prospects on loan. Compare that to us. The players have given their all, but we are a very long way away from those 3..

I’m sorry but making excuses for Fulham,
BRENTFORD and the JB’s being better placed for success than us, a Premier League side last year, is laughable!

How can Brentford bringing in skilful players over the last few years or Swansea having a superior scouting network, be reasons for them being better than us?

I’m not having a go at you Q Monky but I just don’t think that those teams have such significantly superior players than ours. I just don’t. I think that our players are at least as good as theirs.

[blue lewj]

Home game and we had 3 efforts on goal.
Nowhere near good enough. As skint as Swansea are, they have Brewster, Ayew and others who all threaten the goal.
We try hard but have very little threat and the opposition works that out fairly early.
My heart says no promotion this year is a financial loss but my head says we may have embarrassed ourselves.

I wanted sixth but if we missed out I wouldn't have been too distraught as I could see something like this happening in the play offs coming a mile off.

It is just the manner of the defeat. Even at 1-0 it seemed like we were still settling for it.
Yes Fulham were good but a lack of any enthusiastic pressing makes these sort of teams look that much better.
Yes, we might have conceded another and it would have been game over but we could well have nicked one back.
As it is we conceded anyway with our lacklustre performance and the tie is dead in the water anyway.

I can take losing but not giving it a good go is unforgivable.

[bobh]

Just me that thought the referee was a one-eyed **** then

Not necessarily one-eyed, but maybe had a blinker on one side.

Not as biased as the Sky commentators though.

[Bobby Dandruff]

And still looked miles ahead of us against Brentford at home in comparison with that shitshow tonight.

Exactly.

[Hilts]

I’m sorry but making excuses for Fulham,
BRENTFORD and the JB’s being better placed for success than us, a Premier League side last year, is laughable!

How can Brentford bringing in skilful players over the last few years or Swansea having a superior scouting network, be reasons for them being better than us?

I’m not having a go at you Q Monky but I just don’t think that those teams have such significantly superior players than ours. I just don’t. I think that our players are at least as good as theirs.

Swansea havent they finished 3 points below us.

[Bobby Dandruff]

Swansea havent they finished 3 points below us.

And who is going to be in the Final?!!

[A Quiet Monkfish]

By the way that is not a huge criticism. What I am saying is continue to build a better championship team and change the style to something akin to modern day football, and before anyone comes back, it does not have to be “tippy tappy” as some refer to it.
I mean the style of football played by just about every successful side these days

You need to spend money - and wisely. Everyone was amazed when Bournemouth went up - the same with Brentford's rise. Two 'little' clubs with gates of 10k, but they actually spent big money.

[delmbox]

The white hot favourites have to be west London’s imo.

In a way they feel like West Ham that one season we met them in the play offs.

Jesus don't say that, if that's the case the news that we're being rebranded should break any minute

[B. Oddie]

Fulham deserved it.

[City123]

Their first came from a winger beating his man, then their high press won the ball back after we cleared it. None of those two things happened for us tonight

Onomah slalomed past three players and stuck it past the keeper. That's individual brilliance, not a tactical masterplan

[Former Labour leader]

We needed to score early which we should have.
After that I thought we were too cautious and played into Fulham"s hands. Their defence is nothing special and will be found out in the Prem. Their best players are in midfield and up top.
Never mind. Harris has the basis of a decent squad for next season.

[MacAdder]

It has EVERYTHING to do with tactics.

How many long balls did you see Fulham play? How much possession football did you see us play by passing and moving?

I don’t think that their players are necessarily better than ours, but they have been coached on the basics of football: pass, move, pass,
move, keep the ball, make the other team work to gain possession, not play endless long balls where the chances of maintaining possession are dramatically less.

Who plays like that these days apart from us?

It is EVERYTHING to do with tactics.

If Fulham, Swansea and Brentford can do it, then why can’t our players? Because we have a manager that want to play another way.

Wasn't anyone's greatest night, Harris included, but think that's a bit harsh on him. We are trying to play more football and have but we still don't look as confident as is required and unless we are on it, like tonight it often just looks slow and predictable.

Against Fulham we probably need to go full on direct with the squad we have.

Sorry Bobby but I agree with Delboy's mate. Harris has tried to play a bit, especially since lockdown.
I would also add that even though the two goals came from individual brilliance, they were better than us in nearly every position.

It could have been a different story had we gone ahead but even if we had, I still think that Fulham would have dominated us.

There may be a bit of a mental block with Harris not having won a game in seven (was it?) but sometimes the players do things they aren't coached to do just because of the quality of opposition.

[SuisseBluebird]

Shades of Blackburn that second half performance.

A real shame as Cardiff started off so brightly and despite Fulham playing their way into the game by half time I was still fairly optimistic of Cardiff's chances. But that second half... They never got going and never had a look in.

Harris tends to wait for the drinks break by then Cardiff had pretty much been without the ball since the second half kicked off. The game needed a much needed change, but having Vaulks and Pack on the pitch does not work in my opinion. Tomlin like many of his peers was made into a passenger during that second half.

They've left it all to do Thursday night, against a Fulham who are still yet to field top scorer Mitrovic. Well be interested to see if Harris takes a conservative approach or goes for broke.

[DubaiDai]

You need to spend money - and wisely. Everyone was amazed when Bournemouth went up - the same with Brentford's rise. Two 'little' clubs with gates of 10k, but they actually spent big money.

Agreed but then I would have to ask “is Harris right to take us into the future” and perhaps change things.
Don’t get me wrong, I have had to eat my words as I was very critical of the appointment and thought it lacked ambition by the club, however, he has done very well to get us into the top 6

[Llandaff Blue]

Onomah slalomed past three players and stuck it past the keeper. That's individual brilliance, not a tactical masterplan

right, but he didn't just magically get the ball at his feet did he? Look at the difference between us and fulham when the ball is lost

[Dorcus]

You need to spend money - and wisely. Everyone was amazed when Bournemouth went up - the same with Brentford's rise. Two 'little' clubs with gates of 10k, but they actually spent big money.

Absolutely, trying to do everything on the cheap is a mug's game. I'm actually not too displeased we're not going up. Tan would not spend any money yet again and we'd be humiliated.

[LeningradCowboy]

I'm struggling to understand how anyone can have watched us play against Fulham a few weeks ago and again tonight and conclude that they don't have better players than us.