Was at the game on Saturday and didn't get home until really late. Then very busy yesterday, so first opportunity to post anything.
Firstly, great to see so many faces from the forum before & after.
Basically, Cardiff (and Warnock) did a complete and utter number on us. We could all tell you how this game was going to go beforehand, unfortunately Nuno thought we'd be good enough to stick to the game plan and knock it around them. We weren't.
Defence looked shaky for the first time since Nuno took over. Boly seemed to struggle up against Zohore (who was excellent), which is a concern because this is the first real physical test he's had and on the most part, you'd say he probably failed. Boly *did* bring the ball out of defence well, so that side of his game is of no concern - but he also lost the flight of the ball for their second, which cost us dearly (we were on top at that point).
Miranda had a stinker. I was sat right in front of him for their first and he backed off a good 15-20 yards allowing them to slot the ball through for a shot on goal. He also lost out physically to Zohore and Junior Hoilett on a number of occasions.
I don't have any faith in Coady. Once the ball has gone past Boly (so Boly is effectively in front of the ball) and we are relying on Coady to mop things up, unless it's a Stearman-esque last minute goal line clearance, I just don't trust that he can cope physically with the centre forwards of this division. I like his organisational skills and how vocal he is - but do I see him in that position in our best 11 moving forward? No I do not.
Douglas has obviously got a knock, but even before that he was having his worst game in a Wolves shirt. And rather than having the freedom of Molineux, they pushed right on to him and he actually had to defend (which he didn't do very well).
Sitting and watching the game with a neutral was very eye-opening. For what it's worth, he felt that the referee missed things for both sides, though he admits there were a lot of calls that went against us (Jota's shot for a corner, Saiss being assaulted, and on one occasion in the second half, Jota literally passed the ball to Doherty, and their lad ran in and fell over his foot - the referee gave Cardiff a free kick!). He also said Bright was our "worst" player, which I think is interesting as I felt he had a pretty good game and he was the wrong player to bring off, and he was disappointed with Neves.
I felt for Bonatini. He worked hard but was so isolated he just couldn't get involved (and now it looks like we're about to sign another two forwards). Pleased he got on the scoresheet.
There's plenty more to say about that performance, but it's mainly already been covered. Cardiff came with a gameplan, they executed it perfectly and at the end of the day, they won't care less about our moaning as they have the three points. I still think we'll go to their place later on in the season and play them off the park, but it was their day and are entitled to enjoy it.
