Official Highlights, Cardiff

[Fulham1959]

http://www.fulhamfc.com/first-team/2015_2016/league/away/cardiff-city/cardiff-city-match-action

It seems (I hope) that they have dispensed with the obligatory 2-minute highlights, as this is 4 minutes.  Lots of action captured but not easy-on-the-eyes aesthetically as it is a series of very brief sequences.

[Fernhurst]

Oh Ross............. 090.gif

[Fernhurst]

Bit too harsh as Ross kept us up last season .......  :Haynes The Maestro:

[MJG]

Full 90 is here http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2015/august/09/90-minutes-cardiff

Sent from my Lenovo A5500-F using Tapatalk

[Fulham76]

Far more one sided, (in cardiff's favour), than I thought. Looks like we were lucky to leave with a point.

[Berserker]

I didn't see it as one sided at the match, seemed pretty balanced to me and the draw a fair result

[Denver Fulham]

I have no idea why Ross needed to even take a touch in the first place. That was more bizarre than bad by him. A poor touch instead of just scoring, and then toe-poking the ball well wide when not even really facing the goal, and then yelling at ... someone?

[MJG]

It just showed that Ross is a scorer of goals rather than a goalscorer. Smith and Dembele would have hit first time,  but it's not his game. And if he continues to come deep and narrow the space between him and the midfield we will continue to be out shot. He needs to be on the last man.

[HatterDon]

I was just thinking that it was a good thing that Ross did that yesterday rather than in his first match for us last season. He'd never get out of the doghouse.

[Wearethewhites]

Based on those highlights, we looked poor. Didn't go to the game, but Cardiff looked more aggressive in both defence and attack. Voser with far to much space on his side, Dan Burn flapping about all over the place, looked thin upfront with just Matt Smith. Sorry to say, but unless we add those 2 to 3 players we keep mentioning, I can see it being a very 'average' season.

[Ron91]

Oh my that Ross chance!! Thats a hard one to take but overall we march on. We need to find a way to keep Dembele this season.

[cmg]

Well done to the Club for getting the full 90 up so soon.
Based on a viewing of that, I would totally disagree that Cardiff had the better of this match. Certainly they may have had more possession, but much of that was spent fannying around in their own half, much as we have done in the past. Both sides made some chances, but we, especially for an away side, seemed to have more direct ideas and, as so often in the past, more clinical finishing would have seen us more than one in front going into the last 10 minutes.

The 'new' midfield was most promising, they cooperated well and all defended efficiently, making life easier for the back 4. Cairney began to show a bit more imagination toward the end and should be a good contributer.

Lonergan showed we can have confidence in him whatever our other keepers may do. The much maligned centre backs were fine both individually and collectively. Burn made a couple of errors but recovered well and was bailed out by Hutch who, I thought, had an excellent game. Voser and Jazz were OK.

Our goal was the result of much better football than the commentator gave credit for. Excellent build-up and Pringle's ball, whatever the intention, was a nightmare for the keeper to deal with. Fortunately he didn't.

Dembele, I still think, will be a massive player although he sometimes seems to have no idea how best to use his talent. He desperately needs more experience, but how, or where, he is to get it is another matter.
Ross's miss was pretty bad (sh!t happens) but really Mousa should have stuck his laces through it and saved all the bother.

My main man? Well I'm probably biased in favour of 'stocky', balding footballers, but, although I wasn't thrilled at his signing and his lack of pace may be a problem later on, Jamie O'Hara bossed the deal out there yesterday. He can 'see' a pass and execute it. He might look ten years older than his age but fortunately a sweet left-foot, like Jack Nicholson's smile, doesn't get fat.

[Milo]

Largely agree with cmg.

For me, the entire game was an accomplished away performance. We never looked threatened. They had perhaps one good spell of 5 mins in the first half but that's to be expected - we can't live a charmed life for the entire 90 mins after all! Apart from the freak goal we probably would've won 1-0 or indeed 2-0 as they would've pressed higher and higher (but just as in effectively I would imagine as they did throughout).

Their possession was limited to their half. Toward the second half we were playing it about in triangles on the wing and looked like we had our width back. Thought at 80 mins we were comfortable and should've started looking to run the clock down shortly after. I think it was the lack of any threat from Cardiff which made us continue amiably up until the goal without even thinking about holding it up in the corner. Let's put that down to inexperience still.

The goal itself was a freak. Clear to me that our new defensive strategy is to have our full backs mark the space in behind and stand off, while our wingers track back and hound the player on the ball. Because Pringle slipped, there was some space to shoot. 1 in 10 chance of it going in of course. It wasn't Voser's fault, they were playing the system and he was marking the space in behind as was planned - the space came from the slip which he couldn't have planned for.

All in all, hugely impressed. Thought LVC, Cairney, O Hara and Lonergan are particularly good. Pringle more so towards the end with his energy and tracking back as above to work well with Voser's who grew into the game.

Still can't help but feel the full backs are the weak link. Feel Voser will get better but Richards is lacking for me. We are short a full back and a striker for me.

Looking forward to Brighton. COYW

[westcliff white]

A point gained in my view, would have taken that prior too kick off. What struck me was Dembele's reaction to the Ross chance looked like he cared

[Barrett487]

Well done to the Club for getting the full 90 up so soon.
Based on a viewing of that, I would totally disagree that Cardiff had the better of this match. Certainly they may have had more possession, but much of that was spent fannying around in their own half, much as we have done in the past. Both sides made some chances, but we, especially for an away side, seemed to have more direct ideas and, as so often in the past, more clinical finishing would have seen us more than one in front going into the last 10 minutes.

The 'new' midfield was most promising, they cooperated well and all defended efficiently, making life easier for the back 4. Cairney began to show a bit more imagination toward the end and should be a good contributer.

Lonergan showed we can have confidence in him whatever our other keepers may do. The much maligned centre backs were fine both individually and collectively. Burn made a couple of errors but recovered well and was bailed out by Hutch who, I thought, had an excellent game. Voser and Jazz were OK.

Our goal was the result of much better football than the commentator gave credit for. Excellent build-up and Pringle's ball, whatever the intention, was a nightmare for the keeper to deal with. Fortunately he didn't.

Dembele, I still think, will be a massive player although he sometimes seems to have no idea how best to use his talent. He desperately needs more experience, but how, or where, he is to get it is another matter.
Ross's miss was pretty bad (sh!t happens) but really Mousa should have stuck his laces through it and saved all the bother.

My main man? Well I'm probably biased in favour of 'stocky', balding footballers, but, although I wasn't thrilled at his signing and his lack of pace may be a problem later on, Jamie O'Hara bossed the deal out there yesterday. He can 'see' a pass and execute it. He might look ten years older than his age but fortunately a sweet left-foot, like Jack Nicholson's smile, doesn't get fat.

Excellent summary CMG, i agree with just about everything you say. From watching the 90 minutes, my stand-outs are the same as yours except that i thought Hutch was our best performer on the day. Cairney, Pringle, Voser and O'Hara also played well.

My only criticism of Voser was he tended to pass backwards or sideways except when he was overlapping/crossing (Jazz made many more threaded/attacking passes). Voser's crossing seemed sound tho, bearing in mind his right is his stronger foot.

[res]

I have no idea why Ross needed to even take a touch in the first place. That was more bizarre than bad by him. A poor touch instead of just scoring, and then toe-poking the ball well wide when not even really facing the goal, and then yelling at ... someone?

Maybe he was yelling at Dembele saying that he should have gone for goal rather than hitting the by line and crossing.

[MJG]

I have no idea why Ross needed to even take a touch in the first place. That was more bizarre than bad by him. A poor touch instead of just scoring, and then toe-poking the ball well wide when not even really facing the goal, and then yelling at ... someone?

Maybe he was yelling at Dembele saying that he should have gone for goal rather than hitting the by line and crossing.

Well he would be wrong to do that.

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[cmg]

I have no idea why Ross needed to even take a touch in the first place. That was more bizarre than bad by him. A poor touch instead of just scoring, and then toe-poking the ball well wide when not even really facing the goal, and then yelling at ... someone?

Maybe he was yelling at Dembele saying that he should have gone for goal rather than hitting the by line and crossing.

I think that Ross was indulging in the reaction, very common among footballers, of looking to blame someone else for your own cock-up.
I never played with a goalkeeper who didn't immediately blame someone else (usually me!) any time they happened to chuck one in the net.
Personally I thought Dembele might have had a go himself, but, obviously, squaring it across was a valid and sensible option.
Mousa himself didn't seem adverse to giving his opinion. I thought the whole thing quite funny (if it hadn't been such a bloody shame.)

[McBride78]

My take aways:

1. Voser is not waste that I thought he was.  Actually looked serviceable and may be useful as cover this year on both sides of our defense.
2. O'Hara has long passing accuracy that I did not see anywhere else on the pitch for us.  The early long ball that he put right on the striker, that was impressive.  This guy could be a game changer for us once the chemistry tightens up.
3. LVC is very tricky with the ball at his feet and provides pace that is problematic for the defense.
4. Still not convinced that Cairney is not better served in the central, perhaps switch him and LVC?  Looked good though. 
5. Prefer Pringle over Kaka.  Thought he looked quite good. 
6. Offensively we have potential once chemistry tightens.  A couple of miscues and miscommunications.  Had a nice run started where Ross put a throughball for smith and smith was going another direction....that was actually a very promising attack we wasted.  Once the miscommunications get worked out I would say our shots will increase.
7. Smith looked the part.  That dude won a ton of headers and anytime a ball went in the air into our box he found a way to get head to it.  While I would like to see the ball on the ground more, not sure that any of our other strikers have earned the right to displace him.  I thought he outplayed Ross in this game.  Looked like a constant threat....had one off the post early, another over the bar, and then aggressively attacked the goal keepers mistake.  See no reason this guy could not at minimum make up the lost Rodders goals from last season.
8.  Not sure that I see Parker getting back in this team given the way O'Hara and LVC played.  I don't think you can afford to lose the passing of O'Hara or the spark that LVC provides on the ball.     
 
 
   

[Arthur]

Whilst a draw was a fair result, I feel that we had it within our capabilities to have outplayed Cardiff in the second-half, but we failed to do so.

That we missed our opportunity was confirmed in the ten minutes that were played after their goal. Cardiff fans, having seen their team score following a lengthy spell in which we had offered no attacking threat, would doubtless have been thinking that only their team, if either, could now win the game.

Instead, it was us who controlled the final minutes and pressed for a second goal. Having conceded, straightaway there was a sense of purpose and urgency to our play that had not been evident in the preceding twenty minutes-or-so. It seemed as if the players realised they were not going to get the victory that they thought was theirs and were jolted into raising their game. As it turned out, we could, and should, still have picked up all three points, had Ross converted his simple chance. (I disagree entirely with the earlier contributor who criticised Dembele: Ross' was a far easier chance than had our young striker tried to score for himself.)

Why it was that, for so much of the second-half, we played within ourselves when we possessed the ability to win the game on merit, I do not know. Was it Kit's instructions that we should be cautious and focus on protecting our lead or was it that the players simply slipped into that mode?

Whatever the reason, though a draw will be looked upon as a satisfactory result (and there were positives to be taken from the performances of individual players), on Saturday's showing, Cardiff did nothing to suggest that they would be play-off contenders and we shall face far sterner tests than this. In my view, we cannot afford not to win too many games of this sort if we are to challenge at the top of the table.