So cruel on improved City.

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8 Responses to So cruel on improved City.

  1. Barry cole says:

    First of all a much improved performance and this is reflected in another great write up.
    This game was for the taking and having not scored early on I was beginning to fear the worst. Two goals again from set pieces should have put us out of sight, it didn’t.
    I am not slades favourite and I am still not after this game.
    The second goal for Burnley came after the substitution of Jones who to me would have been ideal to help the defence in that type of situation. By bringing on macheda he made a really big mistake. Jones should have been left on brought back into the defence and mason left up front. If Jones was injured then a swop with manga was the next logical step.
    These poor decisions continue from slade and if there is any one to blame for the second goal it has to be the manager.
    I believe that his lack of standing in the football fraternity lost us the other striker we need and having gone through so many strikers his management and choosing of players also leave a lot to be desired.
    We are just not going to make it because he is really out of his depth and nothing he does changes my view on this.
    That said watt had a good debut and if he continues at that level he could be a good loan move.
    The midfield looked more balanced as we all said it would with rolls in a central position.
    Most people say the defence is sound but I have my doubts about Morrison and Malone who had another nightmare against their right back.
    I have vowed not to renew my season ticket until slade goes but I pick and choose my matches covering a lot away from home.
    But at least when I get to the macron next week I will feel a bit more positive, my only worry is that we don’t seem to play well twice in succession so I hope we are turning the corner.
    After the Preston match I vowed not to travel again following such a poor performance by both sides but hey can’t keep away. Just need the change of manager who can motivate the players more and not make the glaring mistakes that slade seems to be good at. I can see us into the top 6 as I have no doubt that we have the majority of players in place but lacking direction and a good system.

  2. Apart from the result. I was genuinely pleased with much of Cardiff’s play yesterday. However, The Myth of the Competent Strikers has plagued our performance throughout the season. Our traditional combination of apparently undroppable strikers has inhibited (or even prohibited) the possibility of incisive and rapid through-balls to the front men. Yesterday, we saw what might have been. Take your bow, Tony Watt, for a somewhat electrifying sixty minutes – metaphorically, he lit up the game (100 watt in the old lightbulb terminology). I could see him and Saadi as brilliant partners – provided they received the right service of incisive and rapid passing (if Cardiff have the players to provide it).
    Passing is something I’d like to mention further. I have been somewhat critical of Craig Noone’s running from the right into “traffic”, but on many occasions this has been due to the passes he receives. (By the way, his courage and commitment yesterday deserves absolutely the highest praise.)
    So to my thoughts on passing. As a good winger should, Noone frequently stood as wide as possible on the right touchline, waiting for the ball from the centre of the field. Unfortunately, it tended to go round two sides of a triangle before it reached him.
    Diagrams are anathema to me – I break out into a cold sweat when confronted by , say, flat-pack furniture and a diagram of how to put it together. Nevertheless, I hope the following diagram clarifies what I’m trying to say:

    [B]

    [A]

    NOONE facing B and on
    right-hand touchline.

    [D] Space down the wing

    The ball would usually go from player A to player B, and then to Noone.
    1. But Noone would have to be static and facing B to receive the ball.
    2. In the meantime defenders would be able to get close to Noone.
    3. Because Noone was static and facing player B he would have to turn with the ball despite the presence of defender(s).
    4. As he stood right on the touchline the only direction he could turn would be to his right – with consequences mentioned above which I would say were not his own fault.

    A “rapid and incisive pass” would be from player A directly to Noone or, preferably, in front of him so that he is already turned in the right direction and already on the move into area D before the ball gets to him.
    Thus is rarely, very rarely, the case.

    Something else which struck me towards the end of yesterday’s game was that Whittingham was effectively playing as a kind of emergency left back. I didn’t know why this happened (and I still don’t) but he was playing as a left back mostly without cover or support from his colleagues, and despite his most valiant efforts his limitations in that position were exposed. Surely another defender should have been brought on to help the situation, instead of replacing Jones by Macheda. (Jones, incidentally, is only of defensive quality in dead-ball situations when he can dominate the near post. Leaving Mason up front also meant that, when Cardiff cleared the ball, it would inevitably come straight back.)

    Despite my comments, worthy no doubt of a grumpy old man, I was happy with Cardiff’s overall display, even to such an extent that I felt totally deflated by our failure to hold out to the end. But that’s football, and something from which all parties can learn (I hope).

  3. So much for my diagram Like many wonderful plans, it didn’t work. I’ll try again;
    B

    A

    NOONE

    If at first you don’t succeed, try it once more and then give up in embarassment

  4. Player A is in field
    Player B is behind him and closer to the touchline
    Noone is right on the touchline

    My limitations have been revealed even more than Whittingham’s at left back.

  5. terry brecke says:

    burnley fan here, a great and fair report . like many football fans i keep and eye out how different fans are treated by their clubs, and you guys are up there with the best when everything should be rosie ,the club manage to upset you all and take steps that appear backwards my question relates to the seating area in your modern purpose built stadium ,what on earth is Tans Folly ? ps good luck for the rest of the season play offs ?

  6. Blue Bayou says:

    Before the game I would have taken a draw, as Burnley were on a great run of 5 wins and 3 draws in their last 8 games, and have the Championships top scorer in Andre Gray. Due to the atrocious weather I thought we’d play lots of long balls down the channels, hoping for defensive slips, but we actually played the ball around on the floor in the middle very well. Ralls and the Gun were dominant in central midfield and Andre Gray was anonymous for them. Although I was disappointed that we conceded a very late equaliser in the manner we did, it reminded me of our own fortunate own goal at home to Middlesbrough, where their defender was in the way of a ball going wide, and deflected it over his own line. Swings and roundabouts, although I came away feeling I’d seen one of City’s best performances of the season! And to answer Terry, I assume Tan’s Folly is the extra tier added to the stadium on top of the Ninian Stand (the side opposite the players tunnel), which was added to cope with the sellout crowds we used to get when we were in the Premier League (@ 27,000). Adding the extra tier meant raising the height of the roof though, which means more rain is able to sweep into the stands on wet days like this. Due to the fall in our crowd numbers, the new tier isn’t open for Cardiff games this season, and so is currently only opened for Wales games!

  7. The other Bob Wilson says:

    Thank you for the replies (especially from Terry the Burnley fan who, from a distance of more than 200 miles has correctly diagnosed much that is wrong at City).
    Barry, Anthony touches on the subject of Malone when he talks about Whittingham playing like a left back in the closing minutes. It was something that took my eye at the game as well as I asked “where’s Malone gone?” about a minute before the equaliser. All I can think was that City wanted as many bodies as possible in the middle because they were expecting balls to be launched at them from deep at that stage of the game rather than from the flanks – got to say I’d have preferred our full backs in the full back position, Marney did well with the cross for Burnley’s second goal, but he wasn’t put under much pressure at all.
    AMO, I know what you mean about the time it took to get the ball to Noone. There was once in the first half where Sean Morrison tried to cut out the middle man so to speak and pass direct to Noone, but there was a groan from the crowd as it got intercepted – must admit I thought “well done for trying” to myself at the time, but the reaction the pass got probably meant the Morrison, and others probably, were put off from playing more ambitious passes.
    Terry, Blue Bayou has described “Tan’s Folly” perfectly. I don’t know if you are interested, but here’s a piece I did on the new stand extension last spring.
    http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/the-folly-of-it-all/
    Also, you ask about us making the Play Offs. If we played like we did on Saturday most weeks, I’d say we could do it, but that display was far from our norm this season – if we play like we have done most weeks so far, then I’d say our current position of tenth would flatter us a little.
    Blue Bayou, I agree with your summing up. Interestingly, it seems Paul Trollope was absent from Saturday’s match (think he may have been ill), so it would appear that Russell Slade was solely responsible for the way we played – fair play to him if this was the case, because I probably got more enjoyment out of the way we played in that game than I have in other home match since he was appointed.

  8. Dai Woosnam says:

    Paul,
    Thanks as ever.
    Sorry I will not join the chorus of voices calling for the removal of Mr. Slade.
    Not because I plead his case strenuously – I am no particular supporter of his – but I just get depressed when your excellent blog starts to descend into the area of abuse that stopped me reading the comments section of WalesOnline.
    There, you will see one chap whose particular shtick is to keep calling our manager “Coco”…in the hope that others will follow.
    And one or two others have.
    Hey, I will defend FREEDOM OF SPEECH till my dying day, but I do not HAVE to read such comments…so now I don’t…and indeed, rarely bother with their columnists either (basically because, despite their relative merits, their coverage is superficial, compared to your far more comprehensive approach).
    And only one step down from the Nazi technique of comparing someone to a clown (and hoping it sticks), is the cleverly insidious trick of thinking our manager is not a human being enough to warrant his surname having a capital letter.
    Well, call me old-fashioned, but nobody humiliates the manager of my club like that. Not without me – at least – filing a protest.
    Is Mr Slade overrated?
    No doubt he is.
    But there many people in leading roles in football FAR MORE overrated.
    Take Steven Caulker…that superbly athletic-looking chap with no positional sense whatsoever…and who often cannot tackle a …fish supper.
    Gets into the Soton team last night, and what happens? Simply, they go all to pot in defence.
    Don’t want to say “I told you so”.
    But, whilst Mr Caulker may be unworthy of a capital SALARY, he sure as heck – as a fellow human being – deserves his capital …LETTER.
    Kindest, as ever,
    Dai.
    daigress@hotmail.com

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