+ Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
Laing was one of our better players the latter part of last season after coming back from a bad knee injury, He gave the young Liverpool left back a lesson when we played them.
He just didn't look up for it Sunday, maybe not fit or unhappy about being pushed to play to early just for the manager to prove a point to Murphy. Has the manager lost the dressing room from last seasons players as we have lost our best players and replaced them with mediocre players.
Mendez Lang is a League 1 winger whose pace surprised one or two Premier League full backs because he knocked it past them and ran.
When he has no space to run into after doing that he is hopeless. He had a good end to last season but his passing or crossing is woeful.
I thought the relatively high possession we had in the first 20 minutes on Saturday left our players rather confused. All that ball and incapable of making a decent pass. Ralls was the worst offender, because he tried to pass and failed.
A depressing scenario, but a chance, somehow, to put some things right on Wednesday. I am keeping my fingers crossed, but not with a great deal of confidence. It could be argued that we have more League 1 level players now than at all recently, and we are relying on them to step up.
I sense the end of an era. I hope I am wrong.
Just Huddersfield, Blackburn and Fulham next.
I like Mendez-Laing if I'm honest. Could he improve and does he always make the right decisions- no.
But wingers are often like that. Even Raheem Sterling who has become an outstanding footballer does things at times and I think "why did you just do that!"
Mendez-Laing is fast, powerful and direct and he sometimes picks out good pockets to receive the ball.
He's had performances in a Cardiff shirt when he's been unplayable. He's also had some poorer performances too but as people often say on here, if that wasn't the case then he wouldn't be playing for Cardiff City.
His best performance was against Wolves away in our promotion season. He was brilliant, both in defence and attack and ripped Wolves to shreds. I thought he'd struggle in the premier league but I thought he done well in the games he played.
I quite like Hoilett too. I think there is far too much pressure on our wingers as we are so reliant on them to create.
I know Man City is an extreme example but if Raheem Sterling or Leroy Sane have an off day then David Silva, De Bruyne or Bernardo Silva can bail them out.
This also makes the opposition question where the threat is gonna come from. When a team plays against us they know that all our creativity comes from our wingers therefore they set up accordingly and this gives them a greater chance to nullify our wingers
The problem with being an out and out wide player is service-or lack of. The other problem we have as a team is that Warnock puts way to much empasis on our wide players and more often than not they are doubled up on with the central defender pulling over as we only play with one striker so they become very isolated. Murphy is an example of this as he will sometimes Check back and look for support, more often than not there isn't any. Mendez Laing doesn't do that, he just runs at teams. All of our wide players have limitations but i don't think there's much excuse for not being able to control the ball or having to take three touches, constantly over hittling crosses and running the ball into touch. When he's good, he's good, there aren't many players out there like him and he can take very good teams by surprise. Remember Jefferson Montero when he first signed for the jacks? he was tearing fullbacks a new arsehole, didn't even have to beat players just created that half a yard and delivered the cross. It's great while it lsts but so one dimensional. A good fullback will work it out and adjust, he'll get tighter and wont allow himself to get one on one. Pace is one thing intelligence is another, NML doesn't possess the two. If he did he'd be playing for...........
A fair assessment
Considering that Hoilett has been out of form for a while, NML is at best inconsistent (and remember he can’t play during the winter due to his asthma medication) and Whyte is still unproven at this level... leaves only Murphy as a (semi) reliable winger..... makes the decision to let Kadeem go, who is doing very well, look like another transfer disaster
Its pretty simple to set up against us. "Nullify their wingers and all they have left is long balls"