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5 or 6 seasons ago in the Championship there would be 1 or 2 sides at most who set up to play effective, 'percentage' football. The rest would be trying to reach the utopia of attractive flowing football with sound defence. Slowly you're seeing more and more teams changing to long ball, long throw-ins, getting as many crosses into the box, at the expense of sacrificing neat passing movements from the back. Whether sides like Barnsley, Birmingham, Millwall, Preston, Stoke, City etc. have decided their squads are better suited to that style of play, or perhaps success is more readily attained that way - who knows, but City's style whatever we may think of it, is beginning to have it's imitators .
I would be surprised (and delighted) if we get into the playoffs.
It isn't impossible, especially if the younger players really start to shine, but we seem like an average mid table side this season.
If we finish 8th again and by the end of the season have established 4 or 5 (or more) young players as capable at this level then I'll consider that a big success.
Not a great display of football but it is encouraging that the younger players are being given a chance.
Phillips 5/10
Ng 5/10
Morrison6/10
Fint 6/10
Nelson 5/10
Pack 6/10
Bowen 5/10
Vaulks6/10
Bagan 6/10
Collins 5/10
Harris 6/10
Moore 7/10
Colwill 8/10 *man
Evans n/a
Dour but the job got done.
What I saw of the game (2nd half only), I was impressed by our ability to keep hold of the ball in the final third, allowing us to constantly keep pressure on the Forest defence, culminating in the winning goal, which was of the highest quality.
Looking forward, the younger players are only going improve and gain in confidence as the season progresses.
I don't think Vaulks is terrible and I enjoyed seeing him in the starting 11 today. He's scored 9 goals in 71 v Bacuna's 4 in 99. People moan about his tackling but Ralls is just as dangerous (if not more so but I can't be bothered to look up the stats) IMO and that Arter bloke was adored by the fans who love players who run around a lot but don't do very much else other than get booked in the first 20 mins or sent off in the first 45. I don't think we'll keep him on after the summer and anyway, I think Bacuna's contract lasts 6 months longer than Vaulks.
Still only game 6 so let's not put these young lads under any more pressure by talking about possible league position until December.
Collins is a worry for me. He is painfully slow in thought and deed.
Great win though after 1-0 down today and Mick made the right call and early too. See, he does read this board!
https://eflanalysis.com/analysis/efl...s-cardiff-city
thanks to whoever it was who linked to this site after the Bristol game, here's their analysis of the forest match.
there's a lot of detail in there.
Bagan did get forward an awful lot on Sunday and watching the game it did strike me that Nelson was coming out to the left hand side a lot, so there may be some truth in it - maybe it was a one off given that Giles and Bacuna were out?
I noticed that. I'm looking forward to seeing how Bagan develops. He does like getting forward.
I think on Sunday it was more to do with the space he had to run into that prompted him to play further up the pitch, forcing Nelson a bit wider in defence, rather than a tactical decision, but I guess we will never know.
I must say that I have been disappointed with Ng since the start of the season. While his crossing has been ok, he does look cumbersome in defence. A lot of mistakes and quite slow.
I would certainly be starting Sang as right wing back over Ng