Pope John XXIII
Vital Football Legend
Preamble
I very much doubt I am alone in saying this , but I bloody hate Cardiff.
It isn't because of our shocking record against them, which would be reason enough. It's not even a Warnock thing, as to be honest I would take him as manager.
It is because they and their fans have worked extremely hard over decades to ascend to Leeds levels of utter loathesomeness.
My only visit there was 2005, a 0-3 defeat which as good as sealed our relegation in January. Again, it wasnt the beating they gave us that did it, which was well deserved, but the racist chants and references to Harold Shipman being their friend because 'he kills English'.
Despite coming from prime braindead Brexit country in Nottingham, the only racist attack I have ever witnessed was when I was in Cardiff for a couple of days a few years later. I found the people there haughty, miserable arseholes and their fans utterly cretinous. Drive down the road to Swansea and the change is instant- Mansfield type roughness but genuinly nice people. Cardiff people were as self absorbed and arrogant as Londoners, but without the wealth and 9m population to back it up.
So yeah, I hate Cardiff.
NOTHING would make me happier than to be the club that completely derailed their season.
NOTHING would sum up this total non-entity of a season more than for us to roll over and capitulate to them in front of the TV cameras.
I am cheering on Fulham and would love us to absolutely trash their promotion hopes tonight. Make no mistake- with Fulham winning yesterday, this is the decisive game for them. When they were last promoted they won 25 games. They have done that already, so the 26th will be a milestone for them. A win sends them above Fulham with a game in hand and probably means they'll be promoted. A loss puts Fulham right in it. I honestly believe this is THE season definint game for them.
They are the unholy trinity of like fans, repugnant owner and (to some) anti Christ as a manager. It would give this worthless season some meaning to screw them over.
Team
I barely need to write this section. Cardiff are embarrassingly Warnock to a tee.
I could just share the stats, as they speak for themselves-
Possession av: 45%
Passing accuracy: 59%
Aerials won PG- 34
These are the lowest (and in the third case, highest) I have seen all season. Those stats contrast massively with us (54%, 79%, 18 respectively) and underline the differences between the two sides.
But the stats that matter are these: Cardiff have won 25 games (to our 14). They have scored 63 goals to our meagre 45 and have conceded not far off half the goals we have 35 to 60).
Their methods have been far more effective than ours and at little expense, having spent slightly less than us in the summer (around £5m, although they spent £6m on Madine in January). Their manager transformed them from relegation candidates to promotion candidates for bugger all, and that was a genuine transformation, no need for lies or doublethink, of a club that had been crap all last season rather than the last 1/3 of it.
Purists can say what they like (and they certainly do) but the history books reward the winners and offer little for good intentions.
Cardiff vary their formation according to opposition. Their most common is an attacking 4-3-3, but they have used 4-2-3-1 away and 5-3-2 when they last played at home against Wolves. However, more indicative is probably the 4-3-3 they played in their last 'easy' home game against Burton. They will no doubt see us in the same bracket and come out attacking.
in the attack they are everything we are crap at defending. They see a log ball side that like to counter attack, they like to score from crosses and they are probably the best side in the division at attacking set pieces. We are the worst side at defending them by a mile- we have conceded an outrageous 24 goals from set pieces (40% of our total), half of which have been corners (20%). Let me let that sink in- 20% of our goals conceded have come from corners. How fucking inept is that?
So the reality is that wither forest have to be a completely different side to the useless one we have seen all season at set pieces or we will lose, yet again, from conceding at set pieces. Simple as that.
They are good at creating chances as well, especially through their wingers and they are highly adept at stealing the ball from the opposition, getting it forward quickly and putting that ball into the box.
Once they have the lead, they rarely lose it.
This all adds up to plenty of worries. They'll score a set piece, and that will be game over. It would be even if we weren't shite at scoring, but we are.
So how can we win this?
To be fair, Cardiff have few weaknesses. They aren't great against skilful players, but Tomlin will not be playing. They aren't great at keeping possession, but we struggle to do anything with it. They give away lots of fouls, but it often feels like hell will freeze over before we score from another set piece.
So the main takeaway is the fact that this is the chanpionship and anything can happen, and that psychologically we have nothing to lose and this is the highest stakes game for ages for them. They have problems if they lose this in front of their own crowd. We've seen forest crumble under nerves like this but we've also seen us do well.
So to win this game we need to stay in it for as long as possible. The worst thing we can do is what we did at Milwall or Boro- concede a fucking brainless early set piece goal. Do that against these and the nerves will melt away and we'll never get close to them again.
But make it into the second half, earn the right to play our possession football and start creating some chances and the doubts will start to creep into their repugnant fanbase. They may still nick it late, but the only way to win this is to win the psychological battle and make them doubt themselves. Hold on for 70 minutes and then get a goal and desperation will pour out or those stands.
Players
Cardiff don't have a lot of big scorers. Warnock spent £6m on Gary Madine in January, and I couldn't for the life of me understand what the hell he was thinking of at the time. For me, Madine is a good L1 striker and a very poor Championship one. He has been promoted from L1 before and not made the grade, he was ok this season (10 for Bolton) but he is 27 and playing at the very 'height' of his career. He isn't going to get better and he isn't even great now.
Yet £6m down the tubes and Madine has managed 4 starts and zero goals.
So their many threat comes from Kenneth Zahore (9 goals) and Junior Hoilett (also 9 goals) who may well play in a front three with we other Madine or Nathan Mendes-Laing (6 goals).
All three are better than average in the air, but Zahore particularly is a concern- he wins more headers per game than any of our squad other than Figuerido (he beats Fox and destroys Worrall). He is a particular threat from set pieces.
But key man is Hoilett, who has 11 assists along with his goals. He specialises in making the key passes and putting in crosses for the others. By and large, if we could shut down Hoilett then we would cut out a real portion of the Cardiff threat (only part if it though). He often plays on the left, which worries me with Darikwa bit I wonder it Warnock might switch him to terrorise the dire positioning of Osborn instead.
In midfield they have Callum Paterson (9 goals, 4 assists) who is actually classed as a defensive midfielder despite his huge contribution in goals. He is yet another major aerial threat to us, both defensively and offensively.
Joe Ralls is another defensive midfielder with a great scoring record (7 goals, 2 assists) but he is a doubt for this game and could be replaced by Lee Peltier or our old mate Bryson.
It says plenty about Cardiff that all of their are multiple goalscorers. Their centre halves Morrison and Bamba have four each, whereas our entire collection of defenders have three between them (and two of those were in the cup). Bamba is a doubt for this game.
So there are plenty of goal threats throughout this team and at our place it really was men against boys. But if we could show some competence at set pieces and at fullback we would eliminate most of their threat. However, if we were capable of either of those things we wouldn't be celebrating safety with 4 games to go.
Form
They won on Saturday but have lost the two before that, with 3 wins, a draw and 2 defeats in their last 6. The defeats were against Wolves and Villa, which is hardly a disgrace. The less said about our form the better.
What is worth mentioning is our record against three. We have lost 7 of the last 8 and taken 1 point from the last 24 against them. That is miles beyond appalling. They have a real hoodoo against us that has gone on for years (we have not beaten them since 2010) and I honestly can't think of many wins against this lot ever.
Official Vatican Prediction
i know what I want, but Cardiff will score early from a set piece and stroll to victory from there. Sorry, but that's what will happen.
Weather
A lovely 18°c that will see it rain venom and bile from their awful supporters. Should they score we'll see the stands dripping with arrogance.
Inspirational Picture
What more inspiration can I provide than a picture of two of the most vile humans in this game. Come on forest, ruin their season
I very much doubt I am alone in saying this , but I bloody hate Cardiff.
It isn't because of our shocking record against them, which would be reason enough. It's not even a Warnock thing, as to be honest I would take him as manager.
It is because they and their fans have worked extremely hard over decades to ascend to Leeds levels of utter loathesomeness.
My only visit there was 2005, a 0-3 defeat which as good as sealed our relegation in January. Again, it wasnt the beating they gave us that did it, which was well deserved, but the racist chants and references to Harold Shipman being their friend because 'he kills English'.
Despite coming from prime braindead Brexit country in Nottingham, the only racist attack I have ever witnessed was when I was in Cardiff for a couple of days a few years later. I found the people there haughty, miserable arseholes and their fans utterly cretinous. Drive down the road to Swansea and the change is instant- Mansfield type roughness but genuinly nice people. Cardiff people were as self absorbed and arrogant as Londoners, but without the wealth and 9m population to back it up.
So yeah, I hate Cardiff.
NOTHING would make me happier than to be the club that completely derailed their season.
NOTHING would sum up this total non-entity of a season more than for us to roll over and capitulate to them in front of the TV cameras.
I am cheering on Fulham and would love us to absolutely trash their promotion hopes tonight. Make no mistake- with Fulham winning yesterday, this is the decisive game for them. When they were last promoted they won 25 games. They have done that already, so the 26th will be a milestone for them. A win sends them above Fulham with a game in hand and probably means they'll be promoted. A loss puts Fulham right in it. I honestly believe this is THE season definint game for them.
They are the unholy trinity of like fans, repugnant owner and (to some) anti Christ as a manager. It would give this worthless season some meaning to screw them over.
Team
I barely need to write this section. Cardiff are embarrassingly Warnock to a tee.
I could just share the stats, as they speak for themselves-
Possession av: 45%
Passing accuracy: 59%
Aerials won PG- 34
These are the lowest (and in the third case, highest) I have seen all season. Those stats contrast massively with us (54%, 79%, 18 respectively) and underline the differences between the two sides.
But the stats that matter are these: Cardiff have won 25 games (to our 14). They have scored 63 goals to our meagre 45 and have conceded not far off half the goals we have 35 to 60).
Their methods have been far more effective than ours and at little expense, having spent slightly less than us in the summer (around £5m, although they spent £6m on Madine in January). Their manager transformed them from relegation candidates to promotion candidates for bugger all, and that was a genuine transformation, no need for lies or doublethink, of a club that had been crap all last season rather than the last 1/3 of it.
Purists can say what they like (and they certainly do) but the history books reward the winners and offer little for good intentions.
Cardiff vary their formation according to opposition. Their most common is an attacking 4-3-3, but they have used 4-2-3-1 away and 5-3-2 when they last played at home against Wolves. However, more indicative is probably the 4-3-3 they played in their last 'easy' home game against Burton. They will no doubt see us in the same bracket and come out attacking.
in the attack they are everything we are crap at defending. They see a log ball side that like to counter attack, they like to score from crosses and they are probably the best side in the division at attacking set pieces. We are the worst side at defending them by a mile- we have conceded an outrageous 24 goals from set pieces (40% of our total), half of which have been corners (20%). Let me let that sink in- 20% of our goals conceded have come from corners. How fucking inept is that?
So the reality is that wither forest have to be a completely different side to the useless one we have seen all season at set pieces or we will lose, yet again, from conceding at set pieces. Simple as that.
They are good at creating chances as well, especially through their wingers and they are highly adept at stealing the ball from the opposition, getting it forward quickly and putting that ball into the box.
Once they have the lead, they rarely lose it.
This all adds up to plenty of worries. They'll score a set piece, and that will be game over. It would be even if we weren't shite at scoring, but we are.
So how can we win this?
To be fair, Cardiff have few weaknesses. They aren't great against skilful players, but Tomlin will not be playing. They aren't great at keeping possession, but we struggle to do anything with it. They give away lots of fouls, but it often feels like hell will freeze over before we score from another set piece.
So the main takeaway is the fact that this is the chanpionship and anything can happen, and that psychologically we have nothing to lose and this is the highest stakes game for ages for them. They have problems if they lose this in front of their own crowd. We've seen forest crumble under nerves like this but we've also seen us do well.
So to win this game we need to stay in it for as long as possible. The worst thing we can do is what we did at Milwall or Boro- concede a fucking brainless early set piece goal. Do that against these and the nerves will melt away and we'll never get close to them again.
But make it into the second half, earn the right to play our possession football and start creating some chances and the doubts will start to creep into their repugnant fanbase. They may still nick it late, but the only way to win this is to win the psychological battle and make them doubt themselves. Hold on for 70 minutes and then get a goal and desperation will pour out or those stands.
Players
Cardiff don't have a lot of big scorers. Warnock spent £6m on Gary Madine in January, and I couldn't for the life of me understand what the hell he was thinking of at the time. For me, Madine is a good L1 striker and a very poor Championship one. He has been promoted from L1 before and not made the grade, he was ok this season (10 for Bolton) but he is 27 and playing at the very 'height' of his career. He isn't going to get better and he isn't even great now.
Yet £6m down the tubes and Madine has managed 4 starts and zero goals.
So their many threat comes from Kenneth Zahore (9 goals) and Junior Hoilett (also 9 goals) who may well play in a front three with we other Madine or Nathan Mendes-Laing (6 goals).
All three are better than average in the air, but Zahore particularly is a concern- he wins more headers per game than any of our squad other than Figuerido (he beats Fox and destroys Worrall). He is a particular threat from set pieces.
But key man is Hoilett, who has 11 assists along with his goals. He specialises in making the key passes and putting in crosses for the others. By and large, if we could shut down Hoilett then we would cut out a real portion of the Cardiff threat (only part if it though). He often plays on the left, which worries me with Darikwa bit I wonder it Warnock might switch him to terrorise the dire positioning of Osborn instead.
In midfield they have Callum Paterson (9 goals, 4 assists) who is actually classed as a defensive midfielder despite his huge contribution in goals. He is yet another major aerial threat to us, both defensively and offensively.
Joe Ralls is another defensive midfielder with a great scoring record (7 goals, 2 assists) but he is a doubt for this game and could be replaced by Lee Peltier or our old mate Bryson.
It says plenty about Cardiff that all of their are multiple goalscorers. Their centre halves Morrison and Bamba have four each, whereas our entire collection of defenders have three between them (and two of those were in the cup). Bamba is a doubt for this game.
So there are plenty of goal threats throughout this team and at our place it really was men against boys. But if we could show some competence at set pieces and at fullback we would eliminate most of their threat. However, if we were capable of either of those things we wouldn't be celebrating safety with 4 games to go.
Form
They won on Saturday but have lost the two before that, with 3 wins, a draw and 2 defeats in their last 6. The defeats were against Wolves and Villa, which is hardly a disgrace. The less said about our form the better.
What is worth mentioning is our record against three. We have lost 7 of the last 8 and taken 1 point from the last 24 against them. That is miles beyond appalling. They have a real hoodoo against us that has gone on for years (we have not beaten them since 2010) and I honestly can't think of many wins against this lot ever.
Official Vatican Prediction
i know what I want, but Cardiff will score early from a set piece and stroll to victory from there. Sorry, but that's what will happen.
Weather
A lovely 18°c that will see it rain venom and bile from their awful supporters. Should they score we'll see the stands dripping with arrogance.
Inspirational Picture
What more inspiration can I provide than a picture of two of the most vile humans in this game. Come on forest, ruin their season
