Current Staff Matt Bloomfield

 
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uptheus said:
See what positive football does, Hearts v Rangers! Get’s the home crowd behind you.

Makes me angry how f*****g negative we’ve played this season!

Some say you cannot question the effort this season, but I could!
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I sort of agree re the effort but I’m not sure whether we are confusing effort with intensity. I certainly think we could have played with more intensity, we’ve generally looked slow, weak and a bit clueless - it gives an over all perception that the effort wasn’t there but I’d probably just give them the benefit of the doubt on that. It’s been a dreadful watch for the fans whatever you want to call it - the lamest, most boring season in years.
 
tonyw said:
The outgoings are the key this summer, even more than the incomings.
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On Cardiff's approach, we've got to learn from the trust they put in academy players.

Maybe they had a bigger pool, and more who were further along, but it's been the saving grace of their relegation.

There's a long list of academy graduates who were given minutes, but three players stand out because they've really come through, and are all now full internationals - having had very few chances in the Championship.
  • Lawlor, who had made 1 league appearance for Cardiff, has had 32 this season.
  • Joel Colwill, who had played 2 league games for them, was given 39 this season.
  • Kpakio had 3 league appearances (including a Kassam assist) and 33 this season.
I say this partly because our assistant manager has a glowing reputation as an academy coach (at Birmingham) and also as senior coach (at Sunderland) with a club that has enjoyed a lot of success by investing in their youth players.

I've seen some people laying into Dodds, but isn't he exactly the bloke you want behind the scenes right now?
 
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HillBilly said:
On Cardiff's approach, we've got to learn from the trust they put in academy players.

Maybe they had a bigger pool, and more who were further along, but it's been the saving grace of their relegation.

There's a long list of academy graduates who were given minutes, but three players stand out because they've really come through, and are all now full internationals having had very few chances in the Championship.
  • Lawlor, who had made 1 league appearance for Cardiff, has had 32 this season.
  • Joel Colwill, who had played 2 league games for them, was given 39 this season.
  • Kpakio had 3 league appearances (including a Kassam assist) and 33 this season.
I say this partly because our assistant manager has a glowing reputation as an academy coach (at Birmingham) and also as senior coach (at Sunderland) with a club that has enjoyed a lot of success by investing in their youth players.

I've seen some people laying into Dodds, but isn't he exactly the bloke you want behind the scenes right now?
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Cardiff have a cat 2 academy so it's hardly surprising that they are able to bring through more academy players than we can. We aspire to having a cat 2 academy but it's a way away yet, so until then we have to accept that our academy players are less likely to make the breakthrough than at somewhere like Cardiff
 
I get that. And I'm not saying let's make Golding a starter.

But we need to blood a few in this season. And we have an expert to oversee it.
 
BicesterU said:
At times it was almost like there was another side on the pitch, and sometimes it even felt like *they* were trying to beat *us*.
Madness, I tell you. All this 'trying not to concede' stuff is so bloody woke!

I'd much rather of lost every game 8-2, but given it a go. Bloody cowards! Get it forward! Not like that!
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The last game was so annoying as there was nothing to lose, but we still remained soo negative. 2000+ fans turn up and we just sat back and made no real attempt to play on the front foot.

I actually didn’t think Millwall were all that great, and didn’t really have anything to play for once they knew Ipswich were winning 2-0, but obviously they wanted to remain professional/keep the momentum going for the play-offs etc. We allowed them to dominate as we’ve done for a lot of games e.g. not having much possession, shots on goal, crosses and being so negative etc.

I just wished we’d bloody gone for it, showed intent, attacked and wouldn’t have minded losing if we’d tried that rather than just going out with a whimper! Disappointing, but I’ve come to expect that from safe Bloomfield.
 
uptheus said:
The last game was so annoying as there was nothing to lose, but we still remained soo negative. 2000+ fans turn up and we just sat back and made no real attempt to play on the front foot.

I actually didn’t think Millwall were all that great, and didn’t really have anything to play for once they knew Ipswich were winning 2-0, but obviously they wanted to remain professional/keep the momentum going for the play-offs etc. We allowed them to dominate as we’ve done for a lot of games e.g. not having much possession, shots on goal, crosses and being so negative etc.

I just wished we’d bloody gone for it, showed intent, attacked and wouldn’t have minded losing if we’d tried that rather than just going out with a whimper! Disappointing, but I’ve come to expect that from safe Bloomfield.
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Is it us letting teams dominate us or just the fact we don’t have enough quality in the side to dominate teams?

For me, our failure to compete in the Championship is down to poor recruitment. Rowett tried against Stoke at home to be more attacking and on the front foot and we just got picked off by them.
 
Steve Gilbert said:
Is it us letting teams dominate us or just the fact we don’t have enough quality in the side to dominate teams?
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The former.

People seem to have conveniently forgotten the times (such as Coventry at home, all the way back in August) when we've gone toe-to-toe with the better sides at this level.

It can be done, it has been done. We just didn't try to do it enough.
 
Steve Gilbert said:
Is it us letting teams dominate us or just the fact we don’t have enough quality in the side to dominate teams?

For me, our failure to compete in the Championship is down to poor recruitment. Rowett tried against Stoke at home to be more attacking and on the front foot and we just got picked off by them.
Click to expand...
I think we have to get the fullbacks to overlap the winger e.g. ter Avest and Spencer who I think are capable of doing this, but we never see it. It makes the opposition think e.g. who picks up these players, forcing them to drop deeper and puts them on the back foot. It also enables the midfield to get up the pitch and get closer to the forward(s).

It’s very tiring both mentally and physically to continually be on the back foot defending with the ball constantly coming back at you. It would have been nice to have a bit of the ball, make the opposition work with pass & move etc.

I believe that we did had a nucleus of 14-16 players throughout the season that could have done this, but agree that the recruitment was found wanting too.

I just truly feel we could and should have made a better account of ourselves which is the most disappointing thing that led to relegation.

We just became so predictable which in turn meant no one feared us, mainly because we were so negative, had very limited chances on target etc, so basically allowed the opposition to play with freedom and without fear.

I was so hoping that Bloomfield would have ripped up that negative football book that we’d come to see under Rowett, but I think he just put in in the waste bin and he glanced over at that bin and took it out too often to refer to it, and that’s why I do not believe he’s the man to take us back up.

He’s interviews are so cliche e.g. I know what needs addressing and we will address etc, but nothing changed and still made the fundamental mistakes he said he’d address. He also said he’d learnt by his mistakes at Luton and things would be different here, but they weren’t. Based on this, he feels a bit of a fraud to me!

Rowett was brought in last season to keep us up/in the Championship which he achieved, hence him starting as the manager at the beginning on the 25/26 season, but there were concerns about his style of football etc. Whereas, Bloomfield failed to meet his first objective (keep us up), and there are concerns about his style of football, plus he failed at Luton, so the question I would be asking is, have we learnt as a club?
 
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SirAndyOfCrosby said:
The former.

People seem to have conveniently forgotten the times (such as Coventry at home, all the way back in August) when we've gone toe-to-toe with the better sides at this level.

It can be done, it has been done. We just didn't try to do it enough.
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We also did it very effectively with Des on many occasions and if we thought this season’s squad was short of quality, what chance did he have?

I wasn’t Des’ biggest fan, but I felt his approach was perfectly plausible and the right one. Stick broadly to what made us good. He needed someone of experience to balance up his ideas but also stave off the panic and depression of a bad run. As we well know, that didn’t happen and he got completely bullied to nobody’s surprise except those at the top.

People ask what could’ve been expected of Bloomfield? Well, I honestly thought we might return to those days - brave, possibly a bit stupid, trying to play but ultimately a bit naive and not really good enough in key areas to pull it off. Down with a fight but green shoots for next year… I didn’t think he’d keep us up, but I felt he could if we got in enough faces and really started making teams worry about us. We did nothing of the sort.

After a year of trying to 0-0 our way through a season with Rowett, that for me would’ve made more sense than what we got, which was a re-energised Rowett-ball.
 
Steve Gilbert said:
Is it us letting teams dominate us or just the fact we don’t have enough quality in the side to dominate teams?

For me, our failure to compete in the Championship is down to poor recruitment. Rowett tried against Stoke at home to be more attacking and on the front foot and we just got picked off by them.
Click to expand...

Think of it this way - in two seasons, how many games did we have like Stoke where we got battered for playing more attacking and how many games did we have where we played excellently when we were on the front foot?

Recruitment was part of the problem, but being so negative for no f*****g reason apart from incompetent management was another.
 
HillBilly said:
On Cardiff's approach, we've got to learn from the trust they put in academy players.

Maybe they had a bigger pool, and more who were further along, but it's been the saving grace of their relegation.

There's a long list of academy graduates who were given minutes, but three players stand out because they've really come through, and are all now full internationals - having had very few chances in the Championship.
  • Lawlor, who had made 1 league appearance for Cardiff, has had 32 this season.
  • Joel Colwill, who had played 2 league games for them, was given 39 this season.
  • Kpakio had 3 league appearances (including a Kassam assist) and 33 this season.
I say this partly because our assistant manager has a glowing reputation as an academy coach (at Birmingham) and also as senior coach (at Sunderland) with a club that has enjoyed a lot of success by investing in their youth players.

I've seen some people laying into Dodds, but isn't he exactly the bloke you want behind the scenes right now?
Click to expand...

Joel Bagan has had an outstanding season, another academy player. Was on loan at Notts County with Ruben. When he and Callum Roberts were ripping up the conference
 
uptheus said:
I think we have to get the fullbacks to overlap the winger e.g. ter Avest and Spencer who I think are capable of doing this, but we never see it. It makes the opposition think e.g. who picks up these players, forcing them to drop deeper and puts them on the back foot. It also enables the midfield to get up the pitch and get closer to the forward(s).

It’s very tiring both mentally and physically to continually be on the back foot defending with the ball constantly coming back at you. It would have been nice to have a bit of the ball, make the opposition work with pass & move etc.

I believe that we did had a nucleus of 14-16 players throughout the season that could have done this, but agree that the recruitment was found wanting too.

I just truly feel we could and should have made a better account of ourselves which is the most disappointing thing that led to relegation.

We just became so predictable which in turn meant no one feared us, mainly because we were so negative, had very limited chances on target etc, so basically allowed the opposition to play with freedom and without fear.

I was so hoping that Bloomfield would have ripped up that negative football book that we’d come to see under Rowett, but I think he just put in in the waste bin and he glanced over at that bin and took it out too often to refer to it, and that’s why I do not believe he’s the man to take us back up.

He’s interviews are so cliche e.g. I know what needs addressing and we will address etc, but nothing changed and still made the fundamental mistakes he said he’d address. He also said he’d learnt by his mistakes at Luton and things would be different here, but they weren’t. Based on this, he feels a bit of a fraud to me!

Rowett was brought in last season to keep us up/in the Championship which he achieved, hence him starting as the manager at the beginning on the 25/26 season, but there were concerns about his style of football etc. Whereas, Bloomfield failed to meet his first objective (keep us up), and there are concerns about his style of football, plus he failed at Luton, so the question I would be asking is, have we learnt as a club?
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I'm struggling to actually see what is MB (& Dodds) style of football

is it the attacking football that saw wins over Watford and Wednesday for instance , or is it the chuck away wins to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory due to trying and failing to defend a narrow lead Pompey , Charlton being examples , or the clueless debacles where his/their team using very strange, and costly experimental line ups ( like Longy in midfield or CB in the 10 role), or the gutless showings where thier/his team failed to turn up like v Derby, Wrexham, Millwall among others)?
 
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uptheus said:
That’s the concern about him, he didn’t have to play it safe.
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But that was our best chance. As others have said we just got picked off in games where we went to gung ho. I think there is a balance and in certain games - Charlton away for example - the points were sitting there for us with just a bit more intent to our play but in others - QPR at home I think was one of them - you could see they were miles better than us despite it on paper looking a very winnable game. Our best option over two championship campaigns has been to stay in games and go toe to toe in the last quarter and I think that’s about where we are as a championship team. We just aren’t good enough to go at teams from minute one, you can see it so clearly that the players just aren’t at that level.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
But that was our best chance. As others have said we just got picked off in games where we went to gung ho. I think there is a balance and in certain games - Charlton away for example - the points were sitting there for us with just a bit more intent to our play but in others - QPR at home I think was one of them - you could see they were miles better than us despite it on paper looking a very winnable game. Our best option over two championship campaigns has been to stay in games and go toe to toe in the last quarter and I think that’s about where we are as a championship team. We just aren’t good enough to go at teams from minute one, you can see it so clearly that the players just aren’t at that level.
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It's not about going 'gung ho', it's about giving yourself a platform to compete.

By only playing two in the middle of the park (especially if one is Vaulks) we regularly conceded the battle before it had begun.

On the rare occasion we played three in midfield (half a dozen times this season) we've gone toe-to-toe, got results, kept clean sheets.

I don't think we needed to go all out attack. But we should have recognised that you need to have more of the ball and a degree of control in order to consistently win football matches at this level, which we certainly could have done more often.
 
90syeIlow said:
Think of it this way - in two seasons, how many games did we have like Stoke where we got battered for playing more attacking and how many games did we have where we played excellently when we were on the front foot?

Recruitment was part of the problem, but being so negative for no f*****g reason apart from incompetent management was another.
Click to expand...
The thing I feel people overlook is our very low percentage successful pass rate. If you can't pass the ball to a team mate the possession stats will inevitably be low regardless of tactical set up. Teams press us, we lose the ball and so on. Quite often attacking moves break down for the same reason.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
But that was our best chance. As others have said we just got picked off in games where we went to gung ho. I think there is a balance and in certain games - Charlton away for example - the points were sitting there for us with just a bit more intent to our play but in others - QPR at home I think was one of them - you could see they were miles better than us despite it on paper looking a very winnable game. Our best option over two championship campaigns has been to stay in games and go toe to toe in the last quarter and I think that’s about where we are as a championship team. We just aren’t good enough to go at teams from minute one, you can see it so clearly that the players just aren’t at that level.
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Tend to agree. We were normally overrun in midfield. Up front we were poor.
'Going for it' against some teams could have meant some real batterings.
At times it seemed to me that we wanted to offer more going forwards but weren't good enough.
Now in L1 things will be very different and at home especially, quite a few teams will come to defend with a very low block. We need to be far far better going forward
 
pidaman said:
The thing I feel people overlook is our very low percentage successful pass rate. If you can't pass the ball to a team mate the possession stats will inevitably be low regardless of tactical set up. Teams press us, we lose the ball and so on. Quite often attacking moves break down for the same reason.
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Part of this is because we don't try and keep the ball. Teams who knock it around the back playing low risk passes will have a high pass completion rate. We don't want to do that, so play higher tariff passes. So to an extent it will be by design rather than an indicator of not being good enough. Although in our case I think both things are true.
 
All valid posts on the subject of defensive play , I believe that staying in the championship both with GR and Bloomfield was a priority, alas to no avail.
I for one don’t want to see a manager merry go round at the club as it shows signs of panic let along upset for the players with having to cope with different types of play .
Realistically, I believe luck and Murphy was on our side when we won the playoffs as we have struggled ever since with only two seasons in the championship and after at least three transfer periods during that time .
We were buzzing at the new players we brought into the club yet we still got relegated, I for one want to know why , why wasn’t GR contract cancelled long before it was , so many questions unanswered.
Is it bad management running the club, has the triangle project taken over as a top priority, I sincerely hope our loyalty to the club is not taken for granted .
 
Foley said:
Tend to agree. We were normally overrun in midfield. Up front we were poor.
'Going for it' against some teams could have meant some real batterings.
At times it seemed to me that we wanted to offer more going forwards but weren't good enough.
Now in L1 things will be very different and at home especially, quite a few teams will come to defend with a very low block. We need to be far far better going forward
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Needed - and still need - more pace in this side, we are a very slow, pedestrian team who aren't particularly good on the ball and don' pass it particularly well either (see Saturday just gone for possibly one of the worst passing displays I've seen from a team, any team). Prelec looks as though he might have a burst of pace over 10 yards, Mills can beat a man for pace but then what ? Need some speed through midfield and up top. In 92 Championship games (I've seen about 85 of them) virtually every other team in those 92 had quicker, sharper, superior attackers. Often not much in it defensively, we looked an equal for a lot of teams in that area but going the other way we've been terrible.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
But that was our best chance. As others have said we just got picked off in games where we went to gung ho. I think there is a balance and in certain games - Charlton away for example - the points were sitting there for us with just a bit more intent to our play but in others - QPR at home I think was one of them - you could see they were miles better than us despite it on paper looking a very winnable game. Our best option over two championship campaigns has been to stay in games and go toe to toe in the last quarter and I think that’s about where we are as a championship team. We just aren’t good enough to go at teams from minute one, you can see it so clearly that the players just aren’t at that level.
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It’s not just a case of either being completely defensive or going gung ho, it’s a bit of both e.g. sure, if you’re under the cosh against the better teams, then sure you may have to stay tight/more defensive, but against teams (Charlton, Hull, Wrexham, Birmingham etc) which are fairly equal and not putting us under pressure, then you can be more attack minded and shift the pendulum, especially at home. It doesn’t have to be either or!
 
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We were being picked off anyway. Just over 45% of our goals were scored in the first 30 minutes of matches (compared to 26% at the end). We usually saw our strongest spell between 11 and 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, this season, it felt like we huffed and puffed to no avail (because we lacked decent attacking threat), only to concede in the minutes before or after half time. From midway through the second half, if chasing a lead, we reverted to long balls. Usually completely ineffective given the size and ability of the opposition backline.
 
The fans have been amazing, great following away from home all season but the performances like Derby and Millwall were so poor .So many games where we played Hoof ball i remember BDK saying there was to much Hoof ball he will be the first sold ,he wasnt fighting the cause .We were poor we need a shake up let's hope this is the start .But if we don't get a few players in this team is destined for mid table.
 
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