Borja Sainz’s brace against Middlesbrough has me scratching my head, trying to think of two finer goals in a game from one individual.
People have compared him to Darren Huckerby, and you can see why: he is never as swift as Hucks. You could put an engine on his back, but he’d never be as fast as Huck. However, there are certain similarities: they are both direct, score goals, and enjoy racing at defenders.
Probably the difference is that when we were defending, Hucks never went past the halfway point. We didn’t mind because we knew what he would give us in the future. We said, ‘Keep your energy up until we give you the ball, then go and do the rest’.
But Sainz comes back. Of course, we had Adam Drury, who was arguably the best left back in the league. Adam, one-on-one, defensively against anyone, you believe he will not be defeated. So you didn’t mind Hucks’ laziness because you had Adam as your left back.
Borja Sainz – flying (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)
Sainz is only 23 years old – I know it’s early days and he hasn’t accomplished nearly as much as Emi Buendia, but his price is skyrocketing right now.
What if he achieves 15 goals by the end of the year? And he has longevity; he is only starting his career. It’s similar to how Jonathan Rowe performed last season, when he burst onto the limelight and scored 10 league goals by the end of the year.
I’ve seen a lot of teams in the Championship, almost all of them, and I believe he’s the best player in the Championship in the first three months. And it is not just the goals that he has scored.
He appeals to the crowd, as do goal scorers. And he does everything right: he pats the badge and engages with the throng. That is very popular among supporters. You admire him for his passion. He’s got his petulant side under control, which is good.
By the way, Sunday’s game was just incredible. I would have gone down to Carrow Road, but my family was up from Kent, and I don’t see the grandchildren very frequently. So we all enjoyed Sunday dinner together and watched the game.
Both teams have excellent attacking capabilities. Two teams eager to score goals. Two clubs capable of scoring many goals.
George Long saves a penalty against Boro. I’m staring at George Long before he saves the penalty, and I’m thinking, he’s had to do better with the first; you can’t get beaten so easily at the near post.
I’m no goalkeeping specialist, but if I’m on that team, I’m dissatisfied in my goalkeeper. Seny Dieng was also affected by young Kellen Fisher’s equaliser. He’s put a hopeful ball in, hoping to find Josh Sargent on the back post, but Dieng has done his job on the near post.
The third goal, where Long has parried it, I believe he has to parry it out of danger. It’s finicky, I understand, and I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but it’s not good enough.
I’ve been so delighted with how the new leader has given kids a chance, but you always need experienced brains to settle things down when they need to.
At 3-1 down at home, it would have been easy not to throw in the towel, but to believe the game was over. But there are some older guys in there, such Kenny McLean, Shane Duffy, and, to a lesser extent, Josh Sargent, despite being younger than the others.
Experience counts
Kenny McLean gets his marching orders (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd) I’ve been so impressed with the way the new man has given youth an opportunity, but you always need old heads to calm things down when things need calming down.
At 3-1 down at home it would have been easy, not to throw the towel in, but to think it’s game over. But you’ve got older lads in there – Kenny McLean, Shane Duffy and Josh Sargent to a degree, even though he’s not as old as the other two.
I believe McLean is your heartbeat; he has been here for about six years and bleeds yellow and green. He’s captain for a reason; he’s a leader who is outspoken on the pitch.
He’s got a great left foot – I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves for his ability on the ball, not just his hard work off the ball when they’re out of possession, but I think his leadership qualities are maybe what we don’t have when he’s not in the team, and it’s a big hole to miss while he serves his suspension.
.
I figured he was unfortunate to see red. Yes, he was a little late, but I’ve seen it several times; it was a little high, I understand, but I don’t believe there was too much touch. The lad got up right away. It was just a little late; that happens. I believe a yellow card would have been the correct judgement.
You had Anis Ben Slimane and Emiliano Marcondes, who appeared to perform well, particularly in the first half. There’s no excuse for a lack of legs in the middle, but they’ve lost a player with hundreds of games of experience.
If you’re under the cosh, under pressure, then you need the likes of McLean, just to calm things down, slow things down a little bit, waste a little bit of time maybe.
The younger players’ enthusiasm is sometimes unnecessary.
Plus, Jose Cordoba appears to have an old head on youthful shoulders, which I believe is necessary in that position, so there are enough players ready to step up. Other players must now step up and accept responsibility for their leadership in the dressing room and in the starting eleven.
Bluebirds view
Omer Riza (Image: PA Images)
I’ve watched Cardiff many times this season. They had only one point in their first seven Championship games, but things have improved once they replaced Erol Bulut with Omer Riza.
It was difficult to watch Cardiff, and I honestly felt they had a good window in the summer.
But they were completely dreadful. It stemmed from previous season, when they lost six of their final nine games. They lost their final home game 4-1 to Middlesbrough and were thrashed 5-2 at Rotherham, who finished last. So, the writing was on the wall.
Even at home, football was dull and defensive. Before the victory over Millwall, they had lost six of their previous seven games at Cardiff City Stadium. Home fans were upset by the lack of goals and attacking quality. And defensively, they were allowing goals for fun: Riza’s debut game ended 5-0 against Burnley and 4-1 at Hull.
To be honest, Hull’s game wasn’t 4-1; they looked superior moving forward.
They have now won their previous three home games, including a 1-0 victory over Millwall on his debut. Then they defeated Portsmouth 5-0, their first league victory since February 2017, when Neil Warnock was manager.
Then they defeated Plymouth, 2-0. So they’ve won three straight home games while keeping a clean sheet in each of them. They have four clean sheets in their past five leagues, after keeping four in their previous 21.
They pose a far greater threat in the future. He has brought back players such as Callum Robinson, who should have scored twice against West Brom on Saturday.
Robinson has four in his last five Cardiff appearances.
Rubin Colwill is a player, with one in the league and two in the League Cup. He’s six-foot two and has excellent ball skills; he won’t be there long.
The manager has changed staff. The team now has more aggressive players than it did previously.
People have compared him to Darren Huckerby and you can see why – he’s never as quick as Hucks. You could put an engine on his back and he’d never be as quick as Hucks. But there are similarities – they’re both direct, they both score goals, they both love running at defenders.
Probably the difference is that when we were defending, Hucks never went past the halfway point. We didn’t mind because we knew what he would give us in the future. We said, ‘Keep your energy up until we give you the ball, then go and do the rest’.
But Sainz comes back. Of course, we had Adam Drury, who was arguably the best left back in the league. Adam, one-on-one, defensively against anyone, you believe he will not be defeated. So you didn’t mind Hucks’ laziness because you had Adam as your left back.
Sainz is only a young boy at 23 years old – I know it’s early days and he hasn’t achieved anything near at the minute of what Emi Buendia did, but at the minute his price is absolutely rocketing up.
What if he gets 15 goals by the end of this year? And he’s got longevity, he is starting his career really. It’s a bit like Jonathan Rowe last season, he burst on the scene, scored 10 league goals by the end of the year.
I’ve seen a lot of teams in the Championship, I’ve seen most of the sides and I think he’s the best player in the Championship, in the first three months we’ve had. And it’s not just the goals that he’s scored, though of course that helps his case massively, but his general performance.
He’s a crowd pleaser – goalscorers are. And he does all the right things, he pats the badge, he gets involved with the crowd. Supporters love that. He’s passionate, which you love about him. He’s got that petulant side of him under control, which is good.
By the way, it was one hell of a game on Sunday. I would have actually gone down to Carrow Road but my family were up from Kent and I don’t see like the grandchildren that often. So we all had Sunday dinner altogether, but watch the game.
Both are really good attacking sides. Two teams that want to score goals. Two teams that are capable of scoring a hatful of goals.
George Long saves the penalty against Boro (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd) I’m looking at George Long, before he saves the penalty, and I’m thinking, he’s got to do better with the first, you can’t get beaten so easily on your near post.
I’m not a goalkeeping expert, but if I’m in that team, I’m disappointed with my goalkeeper. And it happened to Seny Dieng as well with the equaliser from young Kellen Fisher. He’s put a hopeful ball in trying to find Josh Sargent on the back post and Dieng’s got done on his near post.
The third goal, where Long has parried it, I believe he has to parry it out of danger. It’s finicky, I understand, and I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but it’s not good enough.
But, to be fair to him, it was a pivotal point in the game. That goes in, and it’s 4-1. Goodnight, Vienna. Your home record has expired just before it reaches that year threshold. And as soon as he saved that pen with 22 and 23 minutes remaining, I looked to the kids and said, “Norwich will get something now.” It was a huge momentum change since 4-1 means game over.
You’ve have to give the custodian credit; he guessed the right way and he’s made himself a hero at the end of the day – even when Borja Sainz scores a pair of worldies.
Experience counts
Kenny McLean gets his marching orders (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)
I’ve been so delighted with how the new leader has given kids a chance, but you always need experienced brains to settle things down when they need to.
At 3-1 down at home, it would have been easy not to throw in the towel, but to believe the game was over. But there are some older guys in there, such Kenny McLean, Shane Duffy, and, to a lesser extent, Josh Sargent, despite being younger than the others.
I believe McLean is your heartbeat; he has been here for about six years and bleeds yellow and green. He’s captain for a reason; he’s a leader who is outspoken on the pitch.
He’s got a great left foot – I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves for his ability on the ball, not just his hard work off the ball when they’re out of possession, but I believe his leadership qualities are something we lack when he’s not on the team, and it’s a big hole to fill while he serves his suspension.
I figured he was unfortunate to see red. Yes, he was a little late, but I’ve seen it several times; it was a little high, I understand, but I don’t believe there was too much touch. The lad got up right away. It was just a little late; that happens. I believe a yellow card would have been the right decision
You had Anis Ben Slimane and Emiliano Marcondes, who appeared to perform well, particularly in the first half. There’s no excuse for a lack of legs in the middle, but they’ve lost a player with hundreds of games of experience.
When under pressure, McLean can help reduce stress and waste time.
The younger players’ enthusiasm is sometimes unnecessary.
Plus, Jose Cordoba appears to have an old head on youthful shoulders, which I believe is necessary in that position, so there are enough players ready to step up. Other
Bluebirds view
I’ve watched Cardiff many times this season. They had only one point in their first seven Championship games, but things have improved once they replaced Erol Bulut with Omer Riza.
It was difficult to watch Cardiff, and I honestly felt they had a good window in the summer.
But they were completely dreadful. It stemmed from previous season, when they lost six of their final nine games. They lost their final home game 4-1 to Middlesbrough and were thrashed 5-2 at Rotherham, who finished last. So, the writing was on the wall.
Even at home, football was dull and defensive. Before the victory over Millwall, they had lost six of their previous seven games at Cardiff City Stadium. Home fans were upset by the lack of goals and attacking quality. And they were surrendering goals like crazy – 5-0 at Burnley and 4-1 at Hull in Riza’s debut.
To be honest, Hull’s game wasn’t 4-1; they looked superior moving forward.
They have now won their previous three home games, including a 1-0 victory over Millwall on his debut. Then they defeated Portsmouth 5-0, their first league victory since February 2017, when Neil Warnock was manager.
And then they defeated Plymouth 2-0. So they’ve won three consecutive home games and maintained a clean sheet in each of them. They have four clean sheets in their last five leagues, having kept four in their previous 21.
They pose a far greater threat in the future. He has brought back players such as Callum Robinson, who should have scored twice against West Brom on Saturday.
Robinson has four in his last five Cardiff appearances.
Rubin Colwill is a player, with one in the league and two in the League Cup. He’s six-foot two and has excellent ball skills; he won’t be there long.
The manager has changed staff. The team now has more aggressive players than it did previously.
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