Cardiff were always going to give us a battle and I guess that today was more a case of dealing with the opponents rather than try and do our own thing. We did just that and our players and manager deserve immense credit for that.

BUT...there’s still so much improvement needed. Our ball retention is weak, our hold-up play is sloppy and our showing off the ball is almost none existent. Joe Hart shouldn’t be getting MOM (another fine show) away against Cardiff. Thought JBG and Lennon were both excellent today, especially in their defensive shape.

Put Defour back in here alongside Cork and I’m convinced that we’ll find a new gear quite quickly.

Special word for Kev Long, who yet again, cane into a game cold and stood up to everything thrown at him.

Take the three points and run!!!

Now onto Huddersfield, where hopefully we can play the Burnley way!

Onwards and upwards!

Safe trip home fellow Clarets.

UTC

J

We aren't even showing 20% of what we showed last season, today I'd say we showed 2% of what we showed last season. Delighted with the 3 points (we actually won at Cardiff !!!!) but those improvements need to happen very quickly and we also need some new faces in January to help the lads out - far too many are in the comfort zone

Agreed smash and grab but nice nevertheless.
More like a Championship match with Cardiff reduced to endless, ineffective long throw ins and we hit them with 2 good goals. An ugly win is 3 points and, at this stage, that's all that matters.
Well done lads.

Our slow reaction time is my main concern. We just need to do everything so much quicker

It's important we put that performance behind us and be grateful
we got the three points.
Now we need to put in a much better performance next week against Huddersfield
and come away with the three points.
We're all over the place at present even though we've somehow managed to score
6 goals in our last two league games. Games we might have lost.

Let's hope Defour can get a start next week and get us playing better.

Just eight more wins and we could safe especially as at present it seems
it's going to be extremely difficult for those in the bottom three to get much more than 35 points
in total.

jdrobbo wrote:Cardiff were always going to give us a battle and I guess that today was more a case of dealing with the opponents rather than try and do our own thing. We did just that and our players and manager deserve immense credit for that.

BUT...there’s still so much improvement needed. Our ball retention is weak, our hold-up play is sloppy and our showing off the ball is almost none existent. Joe Hart shouldn’t be getting MOM (another fine show) away against Cardiff. Thought JBG and Lennon were both excellent today, especially in their defensive shape.

Put Defour back in here alongside Cork and I’m convinced that we’ll find a new gear quite quickly.

Special word for Kev Long, who yet again, cane into a game cold and stood up to everything thrown at him.

Take the three points and run!!!

Now onto Huddersfield, where hopefully we can play the Burnley way!

Onwards and upwards!

Safe trip home fellow Clarets.

UTC

J

For me, Long would start instead of Mee currently who looks a pale shadow.

I almost have to shake myself to accept that sentiment, but Ben Mee, since signing his improved contract, has been consistently poorer than I’ve kniwn him over the last three or four seasons.

I love Kevin Long - IDST

Great three points to follow the three last week.
Watching on TV it wasn’t pretty but the result was very important today
Agree re Lennon and JBG but the latter did not back track and his man Murphy was free to put his goal away
UTC

Not sure how much more will come from this side but 17th position at end of season is still the target

Long is quick and strong, Maybe Ben been targeted more but he won nothing in the air and his passing seems to have gone backward.

Aclaret wrote:Not sure how much more will come from this side but 17th position at end of season is still the target

It was last season, but you're spot on - it's the same again this season. We don't have unlimited money like Wolves and Fulham have. They have it EASY. We don't.

Fukin hope there is more to come, that was bloody awful

A lot more to come !

I bloody hope so - surely we can't play any worse than that

FactualFrank wrote:It was last season, but you're spot on - it's the same again this season. We don't have unlimited money like Wolves and Fulham have. They have it EASY. We don't.

But we make it hard for ourselves when the manager and recruitment team don't have the same hymn sheet, that we don't sign players till the last week of the window, that we don't cover all of the positions where we are short or lacking quality

You don't need unlimited money you just need to spend wisely and in the right areas

I'm finding it hard to give credit. We were very fortunate to come away with the win today. I don't think we dealt with Cardiff at all. The scoreline flattered us. I hope you're right that there's more to come - there certainly can't be less!

jdrobbo wrote:
Now onto Huddersfield, where hopefully we can play the Burnley way!


J

That was the Burnley way, its been this way since Dyche walked in the door, grind out results with disgusting football.

KRBFC wrote:That was the Burnley way, its been this way since Dyche walked in the door, grind out results with disgusting football.

Now I'm sure we haven't always done that, but don't let that get in the way of a good whinge.

Tbh, they can't be much less to come from them.

There must be a lot more to come because it's virtually impossible to get worse than that.
We somehow took 3 points, me and 30000 Cardiff fans don't know how, but we did.
Sheer dross.
Surely it must get better.

Ben Mee looks as though he doesn't want to be playing at the moment. Not sure what the problem is.

An absolute dogger performance. A smash and grab if ever there was 1.

A championship style performance and win against a team with championship quality.

Fine margins, a bit of experience and a terrific Joe Hart gave us the three points.

Not a pretty game to watch, but the three points are all that count at the moment.

We can do better than that

Astonishing KBRFC crap as always - you have to ask why she bothers !!

So pleased it was Cardiff we were playing-imagine had it been Arsenal. Only positives were the 3 points, Kevin Long stepping in to cover well from Tarks and Harts overall performance

Our possession was shocking as was our aerial winning of the ball in midfield. We won very few tackles in midfield and looked disjointed. It was crying for Barnes to come on and surprised Wood got the vote. Lets hope we can get it together next week and secure 3 more points before we play any of the top six

It’s looking like we are on the turn and have gone stale.
Dull anti football and even duller tactics which are out of date.

Any half decent side would have ripped us apart today.

"A lot more to come from this Burnley side"

There's not much bloody less.

The scoreline flattered us against Bournemouth last week if we take our claret tinted specks off. I certainly didn’t see the two goals coming just before half time the way we were playing and then we spent from about 55th to 80th minute on the edge of our own box playing with a back six. We broke well at the end granted.

Although I think KRBFC is a tad OTT with his assessment that to me today was not necessarily an untypical display from us under Dyche over the years.

It’s no coincidence we get goalies in the England squad. We give them plenty of exposure.

Cardiff were always going to give us a battle and I guess that today was more a case of dealing with the opponents rather than try and do our own thing

biggest load of tripe i have ever read on here and thats a big statement.

Gudmonssens and Lennons defensive shape was anything but good.Our main frailty has been Lennon and gudmonssens not protecting the full backs
Johann was asleep for their goal.
Luckily he made up for that at the other end.

To be fair, the defensive abilities of Lennon and JBG shouldn't even be involved in conversation.

We were awful and got out of jail because Cardiff were crap at the back

It sure is.

But following my post, both the SKY panel and the Burnley manager himself have said the very same thing. I’d be interested in your response to that.

One or two having a pop at Dyche and I totally understand. I always thought if we got established at this level the fans would start questioning the quality and rightly so. We have not improved our starting 11 one iota in the last couple of windows and we are now looking very wear

FactualFrank wrote:To be fair, the defensive abilities of Lennon and JBG shouldn't even be involved in conversation.

With more and more sides playing wingbacks they have to be able to defend. Thankfully both have excellent workrate.

piston broke wrote:With more and more sides playing wingbacks they have to be able to defend. Thankfully both have excellent workrate.

Spot on. Obviously really important for Dyche.

The last 3 results have flattered us. We were lucky today. We were awful. 56% pass retention says it all.

http://www.skysports.com/share/11513381" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Slide down to player ratings and be astonished that we out score them all over the field.

My biggest moan is our ball retention, or lack of it. At one point first half we had all XI in our box, the ball falls to our player with 30 yds of virgin grass in front of him and he hoofs it to the halfway line. Straight to the only player there who is, obviously, in blue. Carrying the ball at pace would have put them onto the back foot chasing us down. We have no composure whatsoever. This must be worked on at training, so who isn’t listening.

taio wrote:Spot on. Obviously really important for Dyche.

Obviously not the point I was making. Obviously about we're not discussing their attacking ability and all we've heard is about them defending. But you were obviously trying to aim an indirect pop.

I always thought that playing poorly and winning was a sign of a good team.

watsonsclarets wrote:For me, Long would start instead of Mee currently who looks a pale shadow.

Mee certainly is a pale shadow of previous seasons and should be dropped.
Among other requirements we also need a very tough on field captain. Mee won't do.

.

FactualFrank wrote:Obviously not the point I was making. Obviously about we're not discussing their attacking ability and all we've heard is about them defending. But you were obviously trying to aim an indirect pop.

I was replying to piston, not you, because I thought he made a good point. Imperative for Dyche.

The difference now is that away from home when sides throw players forward to swarm over us, we have players who can exploit the gaps left behind.

Particularly Gudmundsson.

As Craig Bellamy alluded to on Sky, Cardiff don’t have players with experience at this level at when they lose their shape they can be unpicked.

Dyche does have a very good knack of winning games that look lost, he did this quite a few times when we won promotion. I'm sure that he and his staff will be more than aware of our inability to keep the ball when we play away (and sometimes at home). Seems to come from lack of confidence in passing through midfield, especially when under pressure. Hopefully bringing Defour and Brady back will help.

KRBFC wrote:That was the Burnley way, its been this way since Dyche walked in the door, grind out results with disgusting football.

Can you not spin another record?

jdrobbo wrote:I almost have to shake myself to accept that sentiment, but Ben Mee, since signing his improved contract, has been consistently poorer than I’ve kniwn him over the last three or four seasons.

He has no faith in the left back who does not know whether to stick or twist.

TheFamilyCat wrote:I always thought that playing poorly and winning was a sign of a good team.

Spot on

Whilst he would have hoped the execution was easier on the eye and he would quite rightly have expected more quality and composure from some players - that was an archetypal SD set-up for a game of this nature.

It's a percentages game. His research and how we prepared will have told him that approach was likely to get three points or at worst one.

Someone posted above about evolving our style as an established PL club. We're not. Outside of the top 6/8 who is? Stoke and West Brom tried to evolve, they'd been around longer and accumulated much more wealth than we have.

I think it was a Sunderland fan who came on here and said after the excitement of the first couple of seasons dies down it becomes a war of attrition just to survive. We are attempting to do that the best way we know how. Recruitment is a whole different conversation but we are where we are. Given the strengths, weaknesses and current form of the players available then this basic set-up/execution, in SD's view is the most likely way of gaining the necessary points.

It might not make for high entertainment value but without a fully fit and functional Defour who can put in a regular 80/90 minutes there's no way to shuffle this particular pack to any greater effect.

If we continue to deliver performances like that attendances will fall off the edge of a cliff.

We can only get better. Let's judge when Detour and Brady are back. Also the January window will show how we want to progress.