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Dyou think gunnersons injury that keeps him out will turn out to be a blessing
It's forced Warnocks hand to start a better player in either grujic or bryson. You'd like to think that's improved our chances..
Hopefully we'll actually keep it on the deck
I like Gunnarsson and think he's a good player, but the amount of hopeless long balls increases massively with him on the pitch and he's no longer the best at anything really (except long throws), we keep the ball much better with Grujic and Bryson has more energy and gets about a lot more than Gunnarsson does
Ralls, Grujic and Paterson has been our best midfield trio this season and I hope that's how we line up against Reading
I've knocked gunnar myself, not his fault mind, but I was gutted he just came in to a perfectly balanced midfield and just got his place back.
I actually think a game like Sunday would suit Gunnar though
I can not believe people expected him to come back in at full match fitness after a long-term injury, if any of you have gone back into playing any sport after a long time out and operation, you will have sympathy for how incredible difficult it is.
Considering this he should not have been rushed in and given so many minutes, that however is the fault of manager and/or staff not the player. Still his goal against forest is one of most important goals this season and as ever his attitude and commitment has been exemplary and one of the reasons this team as a whole has over achieved.
It is easy to forget that up until his injury, he was serious contender for player of the season, considering he was pivotal for half of what could be an incredible promotion season, some of the stick he is getting sits very uneasy with me.
Its a strange one with Gunnerson as I can remember pre Warnock how folk were not keen on his later years partnership with Whitts, where it was felt they lacked pace ,and that effected our ability to get forward quickly and we became predictable , Warnock soon changed that and Gunnerson benefited from it, he's a good player ,however for me his passing and shooting ability are below whats expected of a classy midfielder as in the mode of a Kavanagh type midfielder .
Gunnarsson is a weird one for me. Most of the time I think he's very limited and not good enough to play any higher than the championship, and then he'll go have a barnstormer and play out of his skin. However it's the fact he's not consistent with those performances that I think does make him very limited.
You see players like Hoilett who are naturally good, and if they're having a barnstormer they're unplayable. Gunnarsson seems to have to put 200% effort in to get to that level, and him giving 100% just isn't really enough.
No to the OP for me too.
What I don't understand is where were all of these Gunnarsson critics when he was winning the Player of the Year award last season? As far as I can see, people have only started talking him down since Good Friday when he made his comeback from injury against Burton That said, I agree that Neil Warnock could have introduced Gunnar back more gently as opposed to giving him half an hour against Burton and then he was straight in for a very testing period where three very tough games were played within just over a week. In our manager's defence, maybe he thought his hand was forced by having Joe Ralls out as well? Anyway, my answer to the OP's question is an emphatic no - I can't remember anyone on here (or on any other Cardiff City public forum) saying that Gunnar's injury was a blessing when he first started missing matches back in September. so why should it be now?
Indeed, he was the Club's, Player's and Fan's 'Player Of The Season' just last season. He seems to have got far worse whilst he was not actually playing this season.
I also don't quite see how we become a better footballing team by replacing him with a player who gives the ball away more.
I think this is almost as much of a question of whether it gives Grujic a chance. Dropping him and unsettling our midfield at a time when it was functioning well was a mistake.
Gunnarsson's weakness is his passing game, don't think many will disagree with that. His biggest asset is his engine and desire.
The question of why none of this was mentioned in September was because he was arguably our main midfielder, though comments about his passing and vision in midfield have been going for years. Grujic arrival challenged that for some to an extent that they were disappointed when he was dropped.
If we care fortunate enough to go up then surely he would not be in the reckoning?
Done a great job for us over the years but football is harsh and I think he would need to step down a tier
I've been disappointed to see Grujic get such little game time recently, but I'd always have Gunnar in before him at this time in his career and I think we would not have signed him without Gunnar's injury.
As for Gunnar not being able to pass the ball, he provided the best through ball to Zohore in the games we've played since he came back and all of this stuff about his lack of vision might be more convincing if we had a midfield that was fit to bursting with that particular commodity - we don't and were always over reliant on Whitts for it.
We didn't win all of those games in the first three months of this year because we suddenly started passing the ball well. I remember Chris Wilder's Sheffield United passing the ball around very nicely in the middle of the park in August when they came here, but when questioned after the game, he just said that Cardiff were better at both ends of the pitch than us and I think that can be applied to so many other matches we have won this season.
Grujic is perhaps the best passer of the ball at the club currently, but he's hardly a Glenn Hoddle or David Silva. Our midfield has been functional and somewhat lacking in flair all season and I've come to the conclusion that this is how our manager prefers it - I can't answer this question, but I'd be fascinated to know if Neil Warnock would be willing to go into a Championship season with, say, Fulham's midfield three of McDonald, Cairney and Johansen if they were offered to him as a job lot, I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't.
Fail to see how the loss of one of our starting 11 or very least 18 is any sort of blessing.
Grujic or bryson will replace him and are currently flavour of the month yet both have received criticism on here in past weeks.
I'd far rather Warnock be able to choose the team than be forced by circumstance.
I think Bryson and Grujic have done well for us and trust them to do a good job but this thread is ridiculous.