Cardiff 3-5 Saints - Match Thread

[SNSUN]

If Russ plays 3 CBs I'll go mad. But I bet he does. 

Anyway this isn't a competition we will win, nor should it be any kind of priority for us, so I'd put a "weaker" team made out of new players/squad players and youngsters and see what they can do. Though there is something to be said for making today's team play again until they learn how to score a goal.

[Suhari]

Tall Paul to start and score 4.

With assists from Sully.

 

 

C'mon CoT: give us a picture for that!

[Give it to Ron]

14 minutes ago, Suhari said:

Tall Paul to start and score 4.

With assists from Sully.

 

 

C'mon CoT: give us a picture for that!

Lallana and Big Ross to bag a brace each…..and not on their leg

[AlexLaw76]

Please for the love of god, bin 3 at the back.

A keeper, Sugawara, Edwards, Stephens, Taylor, Les, Fernandes, Dibling, SAA, Archer, Armstrong

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 hour ago, SNSUN said:

If Russ plays 3 CBs I'll go mad. But I bet he does. 

Anyway this isn't a competition we will win, nor should it be any kind of priority for us, so I'd put a "weaker" team made out of new players/squad players and youngsters and see what they can do. Though there is something to be said for making today's team play again until they learn how to score a goal.

Think we need to go strong, try and get some confidence and get a win. 

[Whitey Grandad]

Oh dear. I have only gone and bought a ticket for this one. I can’t stand up for long so I chose a seat on the end of a row with what I hopefully thought would be an open view.

The ticket arrived today and it says “safe standing “. Oops.

Whatever, it will be a day out, a train ride and a night in a hotel. A win might be expecting too much.

[Saint Scott]

Tickets arrived today. Hoping to see Les and Fernandes play some decent minutes.

If it is 433 I'd like to see Dibling in the midfield trio too

[JRM]

2 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Oh dear. I have only gone and bought a ticket for this one. I can’t stand up for long so I chose a seat on the end of a row with what I hopefully thought would be an open view.

The ticket arrived today and it says “safe standing “. Oops.

Whatever, it will be a day out, a train ride and a night in a hotel. A win might be expecting too much.

You'll be fine Grandad, of the 3,200 allocation we've sold roughly 2,500 tickets. 

700 remain in final block (123) so if need be move into there, can take your pick of empty seats to spread out a bit. 

You'd hope we'd win but 

1) Martin showed at Gillingham last year he doesn't care much for this comp. Hopefully fewer games this season he'll take it more seriously 

2) Cardiff away last season, I will never know how we managed to lose that game despite dominating, remember it for Stu Armstrong bad injury. 

[LVSaint]

Strongest team out. We need extra 'easier' games to work out how to score goals and win, FAST.

 

                        keeper

Sugawara  THB   Bednarek    KWP

                Les     Downes 

                   Fernandes 

Armstrong      Archer       BBD

 

No Smallbone or Stephens or fucking about with Edozie. They can come on later to rest players if we've worked out a successful gameplan.

[trousers]

4 minutes ago, LVSaint said:

 

                        keeper

Sugawara  THB   Bednarek    KWP

                Les     Downes 

                   Fernandes 

Armstrong      Archer       BBD

 

 

Yep, decent line-up, but I'd be inclined to find a starting place for Dibbling in this game. Probably in place of Armstrong.

Edited August 24 by trousers

[saintant]

4 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Think we need to go strong, try and get some confidence and get a win. 

We won't.

[Saint Matty 76]

Really need a strong Dibling performance here.

For now there is nobody else in the squad who can do what he does on the turn, and as a result he should be starting over Aribo.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

8 hours ago, saintant said:

We won't.

Go strong or win?!

[Polegategavin243]

9 hours ago, LVSaint said:

Strongest team out. We need extra 'easier' games to work out how to score goals and win, FAST.

 

                        keeper

Sugawara  THB   Bednarek    KWP

                Les     Downes 

                   Fernandes 

Armstrong      Archer       BBD

 

No Smallbone or Stephens or fucking about with Edozie. They can come on later to rest players if we've worked out a successful gameplan.

I’d have Charlie Taylor at LB for this one and rest KWP to bench. I’d also have Dibling in for Armstrong.

The most important thing to see, will be that we increase the passing tempo much higher and have intensity from minute one. We had it against Newcastle but never got going against Forest.

i hope that many of the doom and gloomers reflect overnight it was simply a bad day yesterday and hopefully we put it behind us and have some solid performances with better results starting at Cardiff.

The support yesterday was a bit disappointing and we will have to be the 12th man despite who we may add to the team/ squad this week.

I do wonder if Steve Grant needs to have the forum sponsored or supported by the Samaritans in light of how negative and miserable a number of members are when we have a disappointing performance.

As we are told, don’t get too high or too low following a game.

We will have good days and bad days during the season so let’s just enjoy the good days. 

The modern mentality is to react instantly to situations and want change instantly. We do need to remember that Russell is learning the Premier League as we play, it was similar when Adkins was in charge and when he was replaced by Pochettino there was outrage at how he’d been treated but after the first few games large numbers were calling for his head. Modern supporters are so fical.

Remember, there are much more important things in life and supporting a football team should be a way of unwinding and enjoying some quality time away from these stresses for a few hours.

If you want unfiltered success you need to find a different team to support, I for one love my team and will support them come what may, hope we can have success and trust the club to find the solutions. To me Russell is part of that solution, he just needs help with transfer funds/ backing and time to refine his playing style to get it to work.

[egg]

             I'd like to see 433 and some changes.

 

                 Lumley

Bree Edwards Wood Taylor 

                Lesley

      Downes  Fernandes 

      Dibling Archer BBD

[Harry_SFC]

Lumley; Bree, Wood, Edwards, Taylor; Les, Fernandes, Dibling; BBD, SAA, Archer. 

[Pwoite]

Anyone know whether this is being televised or broadcast on Wednesday. Obviously, there will be the Solent option, but didn’t Sky televise most first round matches? Will that happen again? Or, is Saints View, or whatever it is called, likely to happen?

[Nolan]

9 minutes ago, Pwoite said:

Anyone know whether this is being televised or broadcast on Wednesday. Obviously, there will be the Solent option, but didn’t Sky televise most first round matches? Will that happen again? Or, is Saints View, or whatever it is called, likely to happen?

It will be shown on Skysports + via the red button.

[RTW Saint]

1 hour ago, Polegategavin243 said:

I’d have Charlie Taylor at LB for this one and rest KWP to bench. I’d also have Dibling in for Armstrong.

The most important thing to see, will be that we increase the passing tempo much higher and have intensity from minute one. We had it against Newcastle but never got going against Forest.

i hope that many of the doom and gloomers reflect overnight it was simply a bad day yesterday and hopefully we put it behind us and have some solid performances with better results starting at Cardiff.

The support yesterday was a bit disappointing and we will have to be the 12th man despite who we may add to the team/ squad this week.

I do wonder if Steve Grant needs to have the forum sponsored or supported by the Samaritans in light of how negative and miserable a number of members are when we have a disappointing performance.

As we are told, don’t get too high or too low following a game.

We will have good days and bad days during the season so let’s just enjoy the good days. 

The modern mentality is to react instantly to situations and want change instantly. We do need to remember that Russell is learning the Premier League as we play, it was similar when Adkins was in charge and when he was replaced by Pochettino there was outrage at how he’d been treated but after the first few games large numbers were calling for his head. Modern supporters are so fical.

Remember, there are much more important things in life and supporting a football team should be a way of unwinding and enjoying some quality time away from these stresses for a few hours.

If you want unfiltered success you need to find a different team to support, I for one love my team and will support them come what may, hope we can have success and trust the club to find the solutions. To me Russell is part of that solution, he just needs help with transfer funds/ backing and time to refine his playing style to get it to work.

This is the best thought through comment I have seen on here and, like you @Polegategavin243 , I find it a bit odd how little most fans comprehend the quality gap that needs to be bridged between EFL and PL. I think Martin set us up yesterday to make sure we didn’t lose the first half and play ourselves out of the match before we had given ourselves a chance to get into it - it’s a cautious approach but I think he doesn’t really know how well all his players are going to cope yet. After half time you could see that the shackles were released a bit and Nuno acknowledged that we gave them headaches in that period. We all know we are lacking a bit of Prem quality in the final third, but I think we need to allow the learning process to progress and back RM to learn the lessons and get it right. I think most people in whatever profession they work have to find their feet when they take on a bigger role/ more responsibilities and that is what RM is going through here. I say we get behind the team, keep fingers crossed for some bold transfer business in the next few days to reinforce the top end of the pitch and enjoy it for what it is - specifically our team back in the Premier League. 

[Kingsland Codger]

15 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Oh dear. I have only gone and bought a ticket for this one. I can’t stand up for long so I chose a seat on the end of a row with what I hopefully thought would be an open view.

The ticket arrived today and it says “safe standing “. Oops.

Whatever, it will be a day out, a train ride and a night in a hotel. A win might be expecting too much.

It has been years since I went to an away match (Wembley trips notwithstanding). I have been umming-and-ahhing as to whether I should go to this match - like the nervous first-time bungee-jumper I was a bit reluctant to take the plunge (distance, match on TV ... Wales). Your message has given me the shove in the back I needed. Train ticket, match ticket and hotel all organised. Throat lozenges packed.

[Whitey Grandad]

11 minutes ago, Kingsland Codger said:

It has been years since I went to an away match (Wembley trips notwithstanding). I have been umming-and-ahhing as to whether I should go to this match - like the nervous first-time bungee-jumper I was a bit reluctant to take the plunge (distance, match on TV ... Wales). Your message has given me the shove in the back I needed. Train ticket, match ticket and hotel all organised. Throat lozenges packed.

Good for you! 

I’m staying in the Royal Hotel which is a 31 minute 1.4 mile walk away but Ninian Park railway station is a lot closer with trains from Cardiff Central every 30 minutes. Only £2.15 with a railcard. Don’t forget that our Hampshire bus cards are not valid in Wales.

See you there! I guess we shall be the two that are sitting throughout the game 😕

[east-stand-nic]

No idea who he will pick to play in this one, he probably doesn't either. But it will end 1-1 and we will win on penalties.

[Pamplemousse]

Well done to those going. Train tickets from London would've cost £80 return not to mention hotel so I've skipped this one.

 

I imagine we'll rotate heavily.

[benjii]

Sometimes it's matches like these that kick-start a season. 

In Koeman's first season, we lost our first match against Liverpool, then we had a disappointing home 0-0 against WBA. Third match was Milwall away in the cup. I went. We picked a strong XI and were crap for 60 minutes or so, then Cork scored and Pelle got his first goal for Saints. After that, we won 4 league matches in a row.

I think we should rest a few key players (Bednarek, Downes, KWP) but other than that, we should pick a strong side and try to get some confidence in the forwards.

I would go:

Macca

Sugawara (or Bree if there's a chance we are selling KWP) - THB - Capn Jack - Taylor 

------Lesley---Smallbone-------

A Arma --- Dibbling------Edozie

-------------Archer---------

Put Diaz on after 45 for one of the front three and put Fernanj on for one of the midfielders.

 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

Alex

Bree Wood Taylor Manning

Les Dibling Fernandes

SAA TP Edozie

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Alex

Bree Wood Taylor Manning

Les Dibling Fernandes

SAA TP Edozie

Makes more sense to play Archer who will definitely be staying and didn't start vs Forest. I doubt Onuachu will be at the club in a week, so why play him and risk an injury scuppering a transfer or loan?

Edited August 25 by Matthew Le God

[Holmes_and_Watson]

6 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Makes more sense to play Archer who will definitely be staying and didn't start vs Forest. I doubt Onuachu will be at the club in a week, so why play him and risk an injury scuppering a transfer or loan?

Yup. I had Archer in to begin with, but wanted at least someone in there with more physical presence.

Archer is going to be getting plenty of PL minutes, and can be a sub in the second half here.

Edited August 25 by Holmes_and_Watson

[Saint Garrett]

Not sure where we are with injuries tbh, but would go something like the following.

Bijlow / Lumley

Bree Edwards Wood Taylor

Ugochukwu Fernandes Dibling

Amo Stewart Edozie

Edited August 25 by Saint Garrett

[Patches O Houlihan]

2 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

Not sure where we are with injuries tbh, but would go something like the following.

Bijlow / Lumley

Bree Edwards Wood Taylor

Ugochukwu Fernandes Dibling

Amo Stewart Edozie

Bold choice of striker for a game on Wednesday. Do you know something we don't know? 

Edited August 25 by Patches O Houlihan

[suewhistle]

On 24/08/2024 at 19:36, Whitey Grandad said:

Whatever, it will be a day out, a train ride and a night in a hotel. A win might be expecting too much.

I think, if you're not driving, you could probably allow yourself a couple of beers too.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, suewhistle said:

I think, if you're not driving, you could probably allow yourself a couple of beers too.

I might very well take you up on that 😁

[Andy Hill]

Scoring a goal would be a major step forward.

[Saint Garrett]

2 hours ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Bold choice of striker for a game on Wednesday. Do you know something we don't know? 

Nope I don’t ! Just don’t rate Archer and hoping Stewart might be fit. Martin name checked him in post match interview and this is great opportunity to give him some minutes and will give us a focal point,  no idea if fit though. 

[skintsaint]

Play full strength, team needs a win and some goals. Not so many midweek games in the PL so time to rest players if needed to later in season.

It won't happen but thats my opinion and why I don't manage football teams probably.

Edited August 25 by skintsaint

[Patches O Houlihan]

13 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Play full strength, team needs a win and some goals. Not so many midweek games in the PL so time to rest players if needed to later in season.

It won't happen but thats my opinion and why I don't manage football teams probably.

I agree. It's a chance to give the first team the feeling of winning together

                        Nijlow

Suga    THB     Edwards       Taylor

                  Big Les

    Flynnietsa          Mateus

Arma                                       BBD

                  Archer

 

SAA & Dibling to come on with 30 mins to play

 

 

[Saint Fan CaM]

In some respects who starts really doesn’t matter - I don’t believe that playing senior players to get a win will help…what happens if we lose…will it more deeply embed their feeling of unworthiness?!? Having said that, it’s an excellent chance to get the new lads some significant minutes.

For me the most important aspect of the game is to develop ways of moving the ball forward quicker and identifying routes through defensive lines without expecting a solo run by a player that ends up in giving the ball away with no shot on goal.

[Andy Hill]

Good news - Cardiff are a Championship side so AA should be back to his level. 

[V.Johnathan.Wilson]

On 25/08/2024 at 01:19, SNSUN said:

If Russ plays 3 CBs I'll go mad. But I bet he does. 

Anyway this isn't a competition we will win, nor should it be any kind of priority for us, so I'd put a "weaker" team made out of new players/squad players and youngsters and see what they can do. Though there is something to be said for making today's team play again until they learn how to score a goal.

If we stick with a back three, I wouldn't mind him trying Taylor as the left CB, 3-4-1-2/3-5-2 so the most central midfielder would be more advanced so he can bring the front 2 into the game where they are needed the most more (Fernandes or Dibiling  would be that player) and then Russ can opt to play two sixes as the other two positions in midfield. The front 2 has to be narrower and we need to start mixing up taking shots from the edge of the box and trying to create chances that are less than 15 yards out so that the opposing defense have two things to worry about as opposed to one.

Basically I am copying Alonso's back 3/5 system that he uses at Leverkusen (Hope Russell Martin watches plenty of Leverkusen games if he's sticking with a back 3/5 because they are the shining example of how a back three centerback system can create goals for fun).

Edited August 26 by V.Johnathan.Wilson

[James G]

3 hours ago, V.Johnathan.Wilson said:

If we stick with a back three, I wouldn't mind him trying Taylor as the left CB, 3-4-1-2/3-5-2 so the most central midfielder would be more advanced so he can bring the front 2 into the game where they are needed the most more (Fernandes or Dibiling  would be that player) and then Russ can opt to play two sixes as the other two positions in midfield. The front 2 has to be narrower and we need to start mixing up taking shots from the edge of the box and trying to create chances that are less than 15 yards out so that the opposing defense have two things to worry about as opposed to one.

Basically I am copying Alonso's back 3/5 system that he uses at Leverkusen (Hope Russell Martin watches plenty of Leverkusen games if he's sticking with a back 3/5 because they are the shining example of how a back three centerback system can create goals for fun).

I agree. If he puts Les and Downes as the 2, then Fernandes as the AM 1, kwp and Sugawara keep some width, then the front two stay central. It felt like 8 in defence on Saturday and no real link to the front two who were often out wide. Smallbone and Aribo are effective in certain circumstances but I don't think they suit the current setup. Once Justin beds in, we might be able to go two at the back eventually which might bring Smallbone and Aribo back later. I think the three at the back just now is to protect the gk.

I think with the current setup, there are always more passing options sideways than forwards, the forward options looked further away

[saintant]

I see Cardiff are bottom of the Championship having been hammered 5-0 by Burnley and getting a 1-1 draw at Swansea. Play a reasonably strong line-up and we should expect to win this.

[Give it to Ron]

58 minutes ago, saintant said:

I see Cardiff are bottom of the Championship having been hammered 5-0 by Burnley and getting a 1-1 draw at Swansea. Play a reasonably strong line-up and we should expect to win this.

So a  2-0 loss then 🙂

[gio1saints]

I’d like to see us NOT play a back three for this ( supposedly) winnable one. But I think I may be disappointed - at least for first half.

Would love to see if Tyler has got 90 minutes in him and would give him a start if was me. Can’t see RM starting Les and Mateus AND Tyler all at same time - but I want to see them play and get decent minutes all the same. Archer should start for AA imo and SAA should get some minutes ahead of Edozie this match - for me. 

[Kingsland Codger]

On 25/08/2024 at 11:07, Whitey Grandad said:

Good for you! 

I’m staying in the Royal Hotel which is a 31 minute 1.4 mile walk away but Ninian Park railway station is a lot closer with trains from Cardiff Central every 30 minutes. Only £2.15 with a railcard. Don’t forget that our Hampshire bus cards are not valid in Wales.

See you there! I guess we shall be the two that are sitting throughout the game 😕

I shall certainly be sitting - although whether I can manage the climb up the stairs to the seat (Block 123 Row L Seat 135) is another matter.

[AlexLaw76]

In other news, a forum legend is currently on BBC1 

[trousers]

11 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

In other news, a forum legend is currently on BBC1 

🤔

 

[Lone ranger]

On 25/08/2024 at 10:46, RTW Saint said:

o learn the lessons and get it right. I think most people in whatever profession they work have to find their feet when they take on a bigger role/ more responsibilities and that is what RM is going through here. I say we get behind the team, keep fingers cro

I’m sure we all want RM to succeed even if we find his style of play boring and not like the Saints of old. For me his problem is that we do not have a star player or two to excite the crowd and we only have a couple of definite PL quality players. Why we have been buying more championship quality players I really don’t know. Surely almost the entire fan base is calling out for a top quality striker. We can’t all be wrong. That’s where the money should have been prioritised. As for GK Alex is clearly not comfortable with his feet but he’s a reasonable goalie and has saved us on quite a few occasions. I think we’ve all been a bit harsh on him. I’m management surely you don’t get your people to do things they are no good at unless you invest a great deal of time and effort in training them and even then it may not work. RM needed to instruct Alex to boot it upfield to one of the team unless r has no opponents near him. 

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

3 hours ago, trousers said:

🤔

 

MLG and Turkish?

[Appy]

4 hours ago, trousers said:

🤔

 

It could be pointless or not pointless but we’ll see 😉
 

Oh, it wasn’t Pointless, and he won 12 grand, fair play. 

Edited August 26 by Appy

[Charlie Wayman]

On 25/08/2024 at 14:56, benjii said:

Sometimes it's matches like these that kick-start a season. 

In Koeman's first season, we lost our first match against Liverpool, then we had a disappointing home 0-0 against WBA. Third match was Milwall away in the cup. I went. We picked a strong XI and were crap for 60 minutes or so, then Cork scored and Pelle got his first goal for Saints. After that, we won 4 league matches in a row.

I think we should rest a few key players (Bednarek, Downes, KWP) but other than that, we should pick a strong side and try to get some confidence in the forwards.

I would go:

Macca

Sugawara (or Bree if there's a chance we are selling KWP) - THB - Capn Jack - Taylor 

------Lesley---Smallbone-------

A Arma --- Dibbling------Edozie

-------------Archer---------

Put Diaz on after 45 for one of the front three and put Fernanj on for one of the midfielders.

 

Surely its a bit mad to suggest resting players when the season has just started. Can't imagine any of them are up to speed and match fit yet so they all need minutes in their legs. Let's play our strongest team and use the match as practice to up the pace and accuracy of our passing game. The result is irrelevant.

Edited August 26 by Charlie Wayman

[SNSUN]

1 hour ago, Appy said:

It could be pointless or not pointless but we’ll see 😉
 

Oh, it wasn’t Pointless, and he won 12 grand, fair play. 

Well done @Benthelegend