We played like Man City for an hour or so. 75% possession in the first half. Will goal celebrations be the only way Nate gets on the pitch from now on?
BREAKING NEWS: Watford are 2nd on MotD!! What's the betting it will all be about Cardiff's fantastic fighting spirit, and how we held on for a fortunate 3 points.
Absoloutly , team spirit at the best, when you can calibrate like that for a player that’s keeping you off the pitch you know Javi has the respect of the team Only problem is going to be our ability to keep all of our quality midfields when 1/2 of them can’t start , Cleverly Hughes Capoue Docuoure Quina Pereya Deuloefu Challobah Sema If a decent bid (£30m+) came in for Docoure and we spent the money on a new striker I would be happy if we sold
We don't score tap ins, which has been part of our issue the past few games. Kabasele was much improved, thought Pereryra wasn't at his best today, tucked in far too much. Quina is a talent.
Great performance, bar one or two, for the first 75 minutes where again we could and probably should have scored more than we did, but a shocking near capitulation in the last 15. Quina is looking like a ridiculous steal at £1m.
Just seen the table. We're back in the top half, but without dropping those silly points against Everton we'd be tied with Man Utd as the best of the rest. Considering our lacklustre run, we're right in the mix for the final European spot.
Odd bunch,standing outside the ground in the pouring rain, hurling abuse at Watford fans when they were ten yards from their coaches! Pleasing win and performance,Quina very assured and took his goal with such aplomb. I never knew Dame Edna Everidge was such a good keeper!
First of all, Quina has been fantastic in this moment. The performance today was nearly perfect for most of the game. If we had drawn this game, I would have cried and flooded my house. I truly believe that this season, we are a high quality classy CB and striker/poacher (hardest positions to find) away from being as good as we could ever dream to be. Plus VAR would have given us a fair few more points this season without any further additions.
It's really interesting how some people see the game. I know stats aren't everything, but: Pass Completion Doucoure: 85% Quina: 89% Successful Dribbles Doucoure: 3 out of 4 attempted Quina: 4 out of 5 Successful Tackles Doucoure: 4 out of 5 attempted Quina: 1 out of 2 One goal for Quina, one assist for Doucoure. Quina had the better game, but I don't think they were that far apart.
The points gained were more important than the score line, however when we scored our third I was wondering if it would be 4-0 or 5-0, anyone know the last time we slipped 3-0 to win 3-2??
Thought the build-up play was too slow for much of the first half. They were sitting very deep and we only threatened when we injected some pace and ran at their back line, ie Deulofeu’s goal. Improved in the second half, but they certainly seemed to leave us a little more space. We scored some good goals and everything looked very comfortable. In fact those goals looked to have given a lot of players a great deal of confidence and I would have put money on us scoring more. (If someone could make a gif of Quina’s nutmeg on that little rat Harry Arter I’d be forever grateful). Then we had two “just one of those” goals against us in the space of a few minutes! A worldie and a scrambled (offisde) goal from a penalty area melee. It happens. I’m just glad we saw the game over the line in the end. The villains of the piece were: a) Josh Murphy, who seems more susceptible to the effects of gravity than the average human b) The ref, who was diabolical c) Taking the crown, that bald lino, who didn’t have a clue what he was doing all evening. He didn’t even raise his flag on several occasions and left the ref to guess. Then when he did offer some assistance he was wrong. Shambles.
I would have been physically sick if we'd not won that! Quina is awesome. Incredible to think that someone at West Ham thought Mark Noble and Jack Wilshere are a better option
Am I the only one who was prepping my lungs for a long and deep boooooooooooooo if it went to 3-3? Their second goal prompted a ‘wake up Watford’ from me with some mild swearing and lots of head shaking. I’m still a bit annoyed that the result looks like it was a tight game. Only Watford can control a game for 80 minutes, get 3-0 up and then conceded two against a team who had offered nothing. After shutting their fans up, all of a sudden they’re back up for it and their players can smell blood. We stood off them and backed away for their second goal and we shouldn’t have. Maybe it’s just a confidence thing after a bad run and now we can get turn a corner, go again you might say.
All except Quina an amazing amount of different views on different players. £1m for Quina is incredible. For what it’s worth, I thought Deeney was ok, holebas excellent as was Delefeou. Pereyra was very decent and the back four as a whole were largely untroubled except for the last few mins. We should have won by a country mile and the score flattered Cardiff greatly. Good to hear their support is as charming as ever! I thought Doucoure was ok today and does a lot of hardwork that goes un noticed. I like the way Gracia is rotating the squad as it keeps everybody on their toes. Midfield is a problem now with Cleverley and Capoue back now but it does mean we can rotate and keep everybody fresh. What’s happened to Gray? Is he injured? A natural goal scorer would do very well for with the amount of chances we create. Nice to back in the top half again. Also nice to be dry and warm!
Interesting, I must’ve had a downer on Doucouré because I can remember loads of misplaced passes, passes straight into an approaching opponent and times when he was dispossessed. I think he is best when he is intercepting the ball and running with it committing opposition players. Quina made a few bad passes too but I wasn’t as critical as it was his debut and I felt he should have been playing further up the pitch not as a defensive midfielder, he should have been beating their players deep in their half and defenders out of position. In the second half he was allowed to push on and got his goal. I am however aware that I seem to be the only poster who is being negative tonight.
Don’t get me wrong Quina was awesome , but I think he actually gave the ball away when he had time and space to control the ball , which led to the first goal. No one is gonna criticise a young boy on his home debut for that though . I think we just have very high expectations of doucoure . Thought he was pretty good today . He does give the ball away but is a real driving force in midfield , always winning the ball and moving things on and I do think we would really notice his absence if he wasn’t in the team .
Also agree that would be great to see Quina in a more advanced role as I think he’d be a real threat buzzing around on the edge of the area
Yeah, not really criticising Quina on his debut, I mean he scored ffs. I just wanted to see him doing his stuff further up the pitch. When was the last home debut to score? Helguson, Gravilaine? Help @Malteser ! I think Doucouré is great charging forward with the ball. He is able to intercept and get past players using his strength and ungainly style. Sitting deep and looking for the through ball is not his game. Capoue is suited to this.
Not much wrong with Troy's challenge as they said on MOTD - went for the ball and their goalie made a bit of a meal of it .
