It’s a bit rich of me jumping to conclusions as I sit here writing this a couple of hours after Cardiff City’s 3-2 defeat at Wigan on the opening day of the 2019/20 season when I have seen so little of the match and am, largely, going by what I’ve heard on the radio and read on messageboards from those who were there. However, I do feel it brings to the fore doubts I had which I chose to set to one side in a spirit of pre season optimism.
I saw more than I normally do of our pre season games this time around as I was able to watch most of the San Antonio and Real Valladolid matches online and was at Cardiff City Stadium last weekend to watch us beat Nice. The signals I got from these matches were that we were going to be the same sort of team that we were during our 17/18 promotion season – physically imposing, resilient and attritional.
Two seasons ago, we were a team that liked to keep a lid on proceedings – to keep things on the simmer. We were able to do this by making matches bitty – we gave away lots of free kicks while, mostly, making sure any offences committed were not of the serious kind that can lead to straight red cards and looked to make frequent use of time consuming long throws even when we were in our own half.
The long throw was missing as an attacking weapon for most of the Nice match due to new signing Will Vaulks being left out of the starting line up (he was again today), but, apart from this, our warm up matches had the look of the sort of game I would have thought Neil Warnock would have wanted us to play because it is the style this group of players are probably most comfortable with.
As can happen when what you are cooking is on the simmer, there will be moments when the water reaches boiling point and can escape from the saucepan over the stove.
Most times this can be contained by quickly turning the temperature down thereby returning things to how they were and this is what City have been able to do on a regular basis under Neil Warnock in the Championship at least – we have been able to get things back to how we want them to be, but, for me, today has the feel of a time when the boiling water was not quickly controlled, instead it spat and flew everywhere causing some considerable damage in the process.
Why do I suspect that? Well, there’s the score for a start – 3-2 after being a goal up at half time is a very unusual outcome for Cardiff City under this manager. Thinking back to 17/18, I can only come up with one match that was similar to today’s and that was the 3-1 loss at Pride Park against Derby County.
On that night late in the season, we were largely comfortable in the first half and deserved the lead we had earned from a fine Callum Paterson goal only for a succession of uncharacteristic individual errors to lead to home goals and leave us a well beaten team at the end.
We can only hope that, like that match in the Midlands, today’s visit to Lancashire will prove to be a once in a season event, but, and I emphasise I can only talk about a “feel” picked up from what I heard not saw here, whereas individual errors cost us at Derby, this seemed more like having to fight fires all over the pitch and, generally speaking, we weren’t able to put them out.
Today’s game had a much more open feel to it in the second half than you normally get in Cardiff matches. I don’t think Neil Warnock wants to see this squad go toe to toe with our opponents in a basketball style attack and counter attack encounter because he’s sensible enough to know we’ll come off second best more often than not in those sort of games.
It seems pretty obvious that our manager feels that the methods which proved successful two years ago can be again for us this time around, but, having been impressed by the attacking quality shown by a lot of the teams taking part in what was a very entertaining Championship last season, I do feel there are question marks against us in certain areas.
There is, of course, another way of taking the heat and pace out of a game if you are so minded and that is to monopolise possession, but that is never going to be an option under this manager. Neil Warnock seems perfectly happy for his team to concede possession for long periods and when it is won back, the desire seems to be to go for a quick, decisive, but risky, pass rather than taking safer options.
This is very laudable in some respects, but, taking things beyond just today’s game, could the players we have, in particular those in central midfield, be able to maintain possession for much longer periods if they were told to or are they told not to try to do that because it is felt that they can’t?
It’s a classic chicken and egg situation, but I can’t see our manager giving the likes of Ralls and Bacuna the chance to prove they have more to their game because he will stick to his tried and trusted methods, which, to be fair, have often succeeded for what is left of his managerial career.
Last week saw us add two new players to our squad. I’ll talk about them in more detail later, but, for now, I just want to talk about the positions they play in. One of them is a target man type striker and I think every City fan will be pleased to see someone come in there because he was obviously needed. The second arrival was yet another winger – yes, I suppose we could do with another one after the loss of Kadeem Harris (who scored Sheffield Wednesday’s opener in their 3-1 win at Reading), but I think I’m right in saying that most City fans would have put another central midfielder as a more pressing need.
More than that, it seems there is another striker being targeted to come in before the window closes on Thursday with very particular details being given in the local press about him (he’s young, very quick, is not based in the UK and can be bought for £2 million it seems). On the other hand, there is vague talk only of a loan player coming in from the Premier League – no concrete details as to his position have been given, but I think the assumption is that it surely has to be a central midfielder.
As alluded to already, any newcomer in that area of the pitch would, almost certainly be told to play “the Warnock way” so it’s probably irrelevant as to whether he has the requisite technique and tactical appreciation to bring a new dimension to our passing.
Anyway, it’s the defence which my pre season doubts were mostly concerned with. I’ve always believed that there is a fine line between “experienced” and just plain old and, for all of the talk about the defence and keeper being much the same as they were in 17/18, many of those involved are of an age where the passing of a couple of years can have a significant impact on their powers.
Apologies if I’m going over ground I’ve already covered on here (I know I’ve mentioned this on the messageboard I use), but two of today’s back four were thirty or over, another one will be thirty during the course of this season and the other one will be twenty nine, while the player most likely to break up today’s back four and become a regular starter will be thirty five early in the new year.
It’s not only the matter of age which concerns me though. The replacement of Bruno Manga with Aiden Flint is hardly a like for like one – our two first choice centrebacks for the foreseeable future are both stopper types who are happiest having a non mobile, big target man to deal with.
Morrison and Flint are, essentially, attack the ball, head and kick it centre halves, but how many sides in any league play with two big target men up front these days?
I mentioned earlier that the impression I got as a not as interested as normal observer of the Championship last season was that many sides did not even play with one striker of the type Morrison and Flint are best suited to mark.
There was more emphasis on attacking pace and movement with centrebacks being moved into areas they weren’t happy in more often. Invariably, at least .one of today’s centrebacks will come up against someone like Wigan’s Josh Windass every week and, by all accounts, it was our skipper who had to look after him today.
There seems to be almost universal agreement that Morrison was given a rough ride by Windass today – he gave away a penalty while the score was 1-0 us for a foul on the former Rangers player who then hit the post with his spot kick.
A missed penalty might have left Wigan thinking that it was not destined to be their day, but the sight of Neil Etheridge leaving the field with what looks to be a hamstring injury which will keep him out for a couple of months or more must have lifted them.
Conceding three times in sixteen minutes on your competitive debut for your new club must be a chastening experience for any keeper, but, seemingly, Joe Day had little chance with any of the goals and it has to be doubtful as to whether the score would have been any different if Etheridge had stayed on.
With both full backs also having their problems, it was not a good day for our defence. A fit and in form Sol Bamba would leave us better equipped to deal with the new and different challenges the Championship is likely to pose compared to two years ago. However, I can’t help feeling Bruno Manga would have been in his element as he faced up to challenges which would allow him to show his full range of defensive skills, while also keeping him honest when it came to those errors in the Championship which looked to be down to wandering concentration – without him, I fear we are going to have trouble containing things when simmer turns to boil this season.
Anyway, let’s hope that I can forget these doubts of mine once our new striker (who was suspended for today’s match after a sending off in the final game of last season) comes into the team and starts banging in the goals.
I’d be very impressed with any City fan who could say with hand on heart that they had identified Robert Glatzel of Heidenheim in Germany’s 2 Bundesliga as someone who could be the striker we had been looking for since the death of Emiliano Sala.
At six foot four, twenty five year old Glatzel has the height which is a prerequisite for a centre forward with our manager, but he says he is equally happy with the ball at his feet as he is when it is aimed towards his head,
While his career up to last season had been a pretty modest one, there is evidence of a gradual improvement which culminated in his hat trick at Bayern Munich in a German Cup Quarter Final which Heidenheim lost 5-4.
Certainly, his goals from last season video while not showing anything that could be termed spectacular showed a level of general competence and confidence in his finishing which is promising and at £5.5 million for a three year contract, this has the feel of quite a shrewd signing by City.
The other newcomer was Northern Ireland’s Gavin Whyte who we signed from Oxford United on a four year deal for a fee of £2 million. Whyte, whose signing has been widely predicted for a week or more before he put pen to paper, was introduced late on today for an ineffective Josh Murphy – he had little impact in what were difficult circumstances, but it’s far too early to judge him yet.
Finally, a few words about the Under 23s and Under 18s who were both in action in warm up matches yesterday. An experienced Development team selection which included Alex Smithies, Greg Cunningham and Lee Tomlin beat Kortrik 4-1 at Leckwith with Callum Paterson, playing his first game since his injury picked up while representing Scotland in April opening the scoring around the hour mark. Ben Margetson got a second and James Waite a third before the visitors responded = Waite completed the scoring just before the end.
Meanwhile the Academy team, which had already won 6-4 at Leicester a week or so ago, gained an outstanding 5-0 win at Southampton – given the reputation the Saints’ Academy has earned itself down the years, that has to be the best result of our pre season.
Just to add as a PS typed first thing on Sunday morning after I had completed the main body of this piece on Saturday night, the headline from the Daily Telegraph’s article on the game captures very succinctly the doubts I was trying to get over last night. It reads “Josh Windass inspires Wigan rally and runs relegated Cardiff ragged” – Wigan proved last season that they are a strong outfit at home, but we will face many better attacks than theirs this season, will our ageing defence be able to rediscover their 17/18 meanness, or will being “run ragged” become a common occurrence?
Morning,
Great report and I have to agree about our defence. Peltier is a great tackler but pass that round white thing that we seldom have and he can be pulled out of position. Moz. Slow and too quick to manhandle opponents. Has he learned nothing from Mo Salah. Or his career. He also put in an innocuous challenge for second goal. Flint????. Bennett, can go from great to where is he on the pitch.
What annoys me is when Morrison states we are ready in public. Just shut your mouth and wait until 10 games have been played, look at your position in table and then decide if you were ready.
Wigan, like Bournemouth last season, is not the opener you would pick but the players need to be mentally ready for the onslaught that is coming from a team that wants to bring down an ex premiership team.
From the highlights city were far below where they should be in those stakes.
Do they practice finishing?
Over the last few seasons we have constantly witnessed good chances not even hit the target.
Having written this let’s not be to downbeat as this is a marathon not a sprint.
As posted elsewhere: the game was lost before before it started. Last season we exclusively played a 4141/4411 with a solid central midfield. This credo was torn up at Wigan.
Warnock’s 4231 formation was never going to work with the duo of Ralls and Bacuna being too weak. Neither are the commanding presence this system requires (a la Gunnars, Kavanagh or Paul Ramsey). With only a couple of days of the window open we still crave this player. The system resulted in yards and yards of space infront of Peltier and Bennett which Wigan’s wingers exploited at will. A 4141 would have done a job on an ordinary, at best, Wigan outfit who ran and rolled about a lot at the littlest contact. They offered little else. A team with anything approaching a desire to be in the end of season shake-up at the top should have come away with a 0-2 win without undue problems. Our shortcomings were of our own making. Warnock may have said that we have had an excellent pre season but this fan thinks more games should have been played against better opposition.
Madine was completely ineffective, save a parried shot which resulted in the Ralls’ opener. There was little threat until Bogle came on. Day was a fault for the second goal. Wigan’s penalty was soft in the extreme. The referee was, if I’m charitable, inconsistent, if not then partial. That said however Ralls could have had no complaints if he had seen red for his clumsy lunge early on.
Still we need to look over our shoulders to see who is coming in through the transfer window for City 19-20 still look to have a couple of holes where, if not remedied, square pegs will once more be shoe-horned in. This should not be the way forward for a team with genuine aspirations of promotion.
Thanks for the write up Paul.
Losing yesterday was no great surprise but like you I wasn’t expecting a 3-2 scoreline. Having conceded only two goals in our four pre-season games had led me to putting to one side my suspicion that Flint was not the right sort of defender to replace Bruno but it seems more performances like yesterday and it will soon be conventional wisdom that Morrison and Flint are far too similar to form an effective centre-back pairing.
This brings me on to my other perpetual worry which is Neil Warnock’s record when spending anything more than nominal transfer fees.
The two players substituted yesterday due to being ineffective, cost nearly £17 million between them. Add that to the combined fees for Cunningham, Smithies, Tomlin, Ward and Vaulks who were all available but unused yesterday and we’re well over £30 million worth not on the pitch by choice at the final whistle. Glatzel could turn out to be a great signing of course, but I just wonder whether our relative restraint in our transfer dealings this summer reflects an understandable unease on behalf of Vincent Tan to sanction substantial spending by this manager.
The answer to the question you pose is probably yes, the Championship has moved on and by implication of course the problem is that we haven’t and I get the feeling that we could well have a season in mid-table ‘limbo’ before we hopefully find a manager who can move us forward. That will be no easy task however.
Thanks again, Paul.
Some very good posts already and as I have seen nothing of the game I am not in a position to argue or agree with what has already been said. My main surprise and disappointment is that we conceded three goals. After the way we defended against better sides last season and the way we defended against Nice, where I thought the back four was sound, how did we concede three yesterday?
Not surprised to see the midfield overrun. I’ve never been a fan of Bacuna when he was playing elsewhere and with little support from Murphy and Mendez-Laing (they don’t think defensive) Ralls was always going to struggle.
Let’s hope for better things against Luton.
An entertaining game with lots of end to end action. I checked the text I sent at half-time to fans who weren’t there, and it said – ‘1-0 half time, looks like more goals to come from both sides’. Although we marginally deserved our first half lead, Wigan’s speed in attack and willingness to move forward had caused our defence a couple of scary moments. Flint had an excellent game I thought, although I feared we would miss the pace and mobility of Manga at the heart of the defence. A tough baptism for Joe Day coming on and conceding 3 goals. He couldn’t be blamed for first or third, and I think he was caught cold for the second, where Windass beat Morrison far too easily, and then struck it very well.
Bogle coming on certainly improved our attacking threat, having a point to prove to the Wigan fans, and took his goal well. Although I’ve seen negative comments about Madine’s performance, he kept going and also won several crucial defensive headers from dangerous Wigan corners.
One other disappointing part for me was the reminder it gave me about the standard of the officiating, as we had a definite ‘homer’ yesterday. The Wigan players found out early on that if they went down easily and rolled over, the ref would usually give them free-kicks, and he also booked 3 of our players in the first half, to their none (from memory). On the other hand he either took a dislike to Mendez-Laing and Murphy, as they were barely awarded anything on the occasions when they were similarly bundled over, or he was just getting revenge on Warnock for previous incidents.
I’m not getting too down about the score, as there were several unexpected results in the Championship this weekend, and I remember many years ago when we won away 4-1 on the opening day, which raised all our hopes, and then got relegated at the end of the season!
Well Paul I arrived at the JD stadium full of enthusiasm and after the first half I couldn’t see Wigan scoring , not that our defence had shown great defensive nous but it seemed as though they had no idea on how to put the ball in the net.
As the second half started it was much the same till the penalty decision. As we were at the other end of the ground I couldn’t comment on only what I could see and that it was harsh.
The miss that followed definitely compounded my thoughts on Wigan not scoring when we had Etheridge taken off .
Things seem to change very quickly and all the problems and goals scored were defensive errors in which the Cardiff defenders allowed them to shoot from distance or walk through them
Going 2-1 down I was amazed but when we equalised I could only see it going one way and here again I was wrong. The same problem of allowing forwards space to shoot happened once more and there you are.
Make no mistake this Wigan team we’re there for the taking and losing this match was nothing short of sacrilege.
So if we look at individuals we have some major problems. The problems of course were compounded by picking players who were not as good as the players on the bench. That was down to NW. poor performances by peltier, Morrison and Bennett , coupled with the bacuna effect in midfield and with two forwards who really should not have played in Madine and Murphy then you got the recipe for dispaster. Wigan had the same problem with new players but the manager chose to play them, we didn’t .
So we had whyte and Vaulks on the bench when they should have been in the team.
I could go on but I really think it’s time to get that central midfielder in rapidly.
How on Earth we haven’t got arter back I’ve no idea because he protected the defence. Add to that the loss of manga and hey presto goals began streaming in.
Someone has already mentioned about two centrebacks playing the same type of game which in this division there will be a lot of very fast forwards turning them will cause a lot more problems that Wigan’s forwards.
I know it’s the first game but the problems were clear to see and it’s up to the manager to pick a team that will eliminate the basic errors from yesterday.
Good morning Paul and others – Thanks as always for your views. A family occasion prevented me from hearing about the game from my usual sources, but learning that we were one up at half-time to being three two down with just a few minutes to go was the proverbial bolt from the blue. But seeing the goals that we conceded on Sky this morning, I am left with the conclusion that we are going to have a few more going in our net this tear unless we defend with more commitment and intelligence. Message for NW to Morrison et al – do NOT let attackers run at us as they did yesterday. I gather that NW said he learned a lot from yesterday – really? He could do worse than reading your estimable blog and bloggers’ remarks.
So just a few days left before the transfer window closes ( thank goodness ) and I wonder if there are to be comings and goings in this period. As Richard rightly states, NW has not covered himself in glory spending Mr.Tan’s money during his tenure, but I confess to being encouraged by the prospect of Whyte and Glatzel’s arrival. Now go get the mid-fielder that we all crave, and allow Murphy to find pastures new.
Excellent report Paul and also the comments made by your good
selves. It looks like it will be a tricky season in the Championship. As you all say quite a few teams have creative, fast players in their forward line and can our present defence cope with that? Are Morrison and Flint able to cope or are they too slow? Perhaps better when Bamba returns and possibly Nelson playing. Once again Warnock did not adress the midfield problem in the game and perhaps should have brought on Vaulks to adress that issue. I think once Patterson is fit he will be an asset to the team, a strong player which is needed in this division. We need a Arter type player in midfield as a matter of urgency, rather than another striker.
I think Murphy has been a bad signing by Warnock he blows hot and cold not consistent for me. What a waste of £11 million pounds. Roll on Saturday and see what that brings? Maybe Arter will return.
Yes the Championship has moved on but unfortunately Warnock’s hasent
One of the pearls of wisdom I recall from the Slade era was that we were now shopping not at Harrods but at Asda -or was it Tesco.
This made sense because of the Ole legacy but based on our net spend during the close season we now seem to be shopping at Lidl.Why?
Promotion to the Premier League is said to be worth a minimum of £180 million.
We received a shade over £100 million for finishing 18th in the PL and will receive parachute payments of £42 million in our first Championship season with a further £34 million in our second.
So what is happening to this £42 million?
Our net capital spend so far seems to be about £6 million and I can’t believe that we have given ourselves a wage that will absorb a big chunk of the parachute money.
It surely makes good business sense to use the available funds to get back into the PL.
Our gate receipts from an average crowd of 25000 would be about £12million from 23 home games.So if we are still in the Championship when the parachute payments have ended we will be shopping in the Food Bank!
Lee Tomlin says, and I think he genuinely believes, that he is a changed man.
I am a bit sceptical about this (road to hell good intentions etc) but we are so lacking in the skills that he could provide that surely he deserves a chance.
Even if he is not Warnock’s first choice I am sure he could have an impact from the bench.
NW hints that he could bring in a loan player this week.
We should be able to afford someone who is more than useful as even a wage of £40k per week would make only a small £2million dent in this year’s parachute money.
City may not have started the season in the manner they wanted to, but I think Mauve and Yellow Army’s comments section has set a standard in the first game which matches, and possibly surpasses, the high standards seen in previous years! Thanks to all of you for a great set of replies – as I’ve mentioned before, if this blog is seen by some as a success, then the consistently high quality, and common civility, shown in the replies to my stories are a major reason for that.
Just a few quick thoughts regarding some of the points raised. Pr, having now watched the extended highlights of the game on the club website, I appreciate what you say about missed chances a bit more – there was one instance in the second half where Murphy was worked into a very promising position and proceeded to blast over a cross which, not surprisingly, none of his colleagues could get near- an £11 million winger should be doing far better than that. Bogle wasn’t as culpable, but, having done so well to get himself to the bye line,his effort to pick put Decordova-Reid was not good enough – talent can get you into such positions, but a bit of composure is needed when you get there and we don’t show that quality in such positions often enough.
Steve, I don’t think our pre season was ideal either, but my misgivings are more down to the amount of travelling involved rather than the quality of the opposition we faced. Back in 06/07 we spent much of our pre season in and around the Vancouver area and we started that season like a house on fire once the “proper” stuff began, but I would say the difference then was that we were based in the one place once we reached America/Canada, this time we started off about two to three hundred miles from the Mexican border and ended up in Canada.
When you see the total in transfer fees paid for those not involved on Saturday Richard it’s a bit of an eye opener isn’t it (and some of them weren’t even on the bench!) – given his low key performance on Saturday (and against Nice) and the trouble our manager has had in fitting him into the team, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the £10 million Decordova-Reid missing out on Saturday as well.
Colin, the defending for the goals wasn’t great, but the way the penalty came about was shocking. Joe Garner is good in the air for his height, but he should never be winning a boot upfield from a keeper against Aiden Flint like he did and then Sean Morrison was slow to come around on the cover, so was always struggling to keep up with Windass – long, high, straight balls down the middle should be so easy to deal with by Flint and Morrison, yet they couldn’t do so on Saturday.
Blue Bayou, I remember that 4-1 win, it was at Notts County in 85/86 and I also remember them coming down here and beating us by the same score a few months later in what I’m pretty sure was Phil Dwyer’s last match for the club. My optimism from such an unexpected win lasted about three days that season I believe it was when a poor Swansea side came here and won 1-0 in the League Cup – we were dreadful that season!
Neil Warnock had a bit of a go at the ref Barry after the match, but I thought that was just Warnock being Warnock until I began to read a few criticisms of him on social media saying much the same as you did – he’s called David Webb, which is not a name I’ve come across before, and while I’ve seen the penalty described as a “stonewall” decision in one of the reports I read, it looked more like one that a home side would get, but an away one wouldn’t to me.
BJA, I read somewhere on the weekend that the trail had gone cold on that striker we were linked with last week for £2 million, while we seem to be behind Bristol City in the pecking order for Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah on loan (there are twenty three clubs interested in him apparently!), so I’m hoping we switch our attention to a midfield player – although as I mention in my piece, I think our manager will want him playing “Warnockball” even if he has the ability to provide a bit more than that.
Nelson is the unknown in all of this Geoff. He played as a right back when he came on against Nice and was used as a defensive midfielder in other pre season matches, but I’m not aware of him ever playing first team competitive football at anywhere else but centreback and I can’t help thinking he’ll be getting his chance to play there sooner rather than later if we keep on defending like we did on Saturday.
Welcome to the Forum Mel – short, but sweet and I think you’re probably right!
Mike, like you I’m puzzled by our caution in the transfer market so far. I make our spend on transfer fees so far to be in the region of £15 million with none of the newcomers likely to be on wages that would make them the highest paid player on our books. We’ve recouped about £11 million of that and I would guess we would be almost breaking even if we sold Cunningham before the window closes, whereas our wage bill is, surely an awful lot less than last season and I say that not just because of our relegation as we’ve lost a couple of expensive loanees and at least two players who would have been among the best paid at the club – you would have thought that the first season after relegation would have been the time to have a bit of a go in the transfer market because we’re not going to be able to spend so much in subsequent seasons if we do not go up.