My attitude during Cardiff City’s previous three matches when they had been beaten by increasingly large margins by members of the Premier League’s so called big six had always been to try and stay quite positive because we weren’t the only ones in the bottom fourteen who would be beaten by scores like 5-0 and 4-1 against the likes of Man City and Chelsea – in fact, other top six teams may be when they get to face them as well.
The time to make judgments on our survival chances was when we faced the sides outside of the top six, particularly at home, who, without doubt, will contain the three sides needed to finish below us if we are to survive.
Burnley at home, particularly given their poor start to the season, was exactly the sort of game we need to be winning if we are to avoid a relegation which it now seems everyone who isn’t a Cardiff City supporter (and quite a few who are!) is telling us is inevitable.
Some say that football stats are irrelevant, but I disagree – there are some from yesterday’s match which show, with stark clarity, just what the outcome should have been.
When the efforts on goal figures for a game show team A having nineteen attempts (five on target) against team B’s three (two on target), then there is a natural assumption that it would be team A which has come out on top. That’s what happened yesterday – Cardiff were team A and Burnley team B and yet it was the Lancashire side which scored from both of their on target efforts to come away with a 2-1 win.
It wasn’t just in terms of goal attempts that Cardiff had the better of things. They spent more time on the front foot than in any of their previous games this season and were generally more dynamic and pacey than their opponents – they were the better team in so many ways and yet, while I had sympathy with the side to some extent because it certainly wasn’t a game they deserved to lose, it was tempered to a degree by a definite feeling that they had brought on their defeat themselves.
Both of the goals conceded were shockers from our point of view and I couldn’t help but think as I left the ground that there was no way Burnley would have let in such simple goals.
To start with Sam Vokes’ winner first, perhaps Burnley would have been as wide open as we were if they had been a goal down and chasing the game, but at 1-1? There is no way that would have happened.
I have a tinge of sympathy with City for the concession of this goal mind because there was a definite feeling within the ground that the team could go on to win the game and the support they were getting was reflecting that – the team were responding and it was understandable in some ways that thinking seemed wholly attuned to attack, not defence, but it was only 1-1 at the time and yet we were playing as if it was 1-2.
As mentioned before, Burnley would not have reacted like we did in such a position, neither would virtually every other side in this division. It needed some cool heads in an atmosphere where it was easy to lose that ability to look at the match situation coldly and we didn’t have them – a harsh criticism maybe, but a realistic one I believe given the competition we are now in.
So, the winning goal could be forgiven by someone of a very generous disposition I suppose, but, for me at least, there was no excuse whatsoever for the first one.
Late in the game, Burnley’s right back Matthew Lowton blasted a clearance high up into the Grandstand from about fifteen yards from the touchline. It looked clumsy and amateurish in some ways, but he was just doing one of the basics of defending – he was buying his side time to get themselves organised for the defensive task to come while the ball was being retrieved from crowd.
Lowton was showing that although “sticking the ball in Row Z” evokes thoughts of matches played many levels below yesterday’s, there is still a place for such play on the grandest of stages as well.
No doubt, Greg Cunningham would have done the same around the fifty minute mark if he had been able to as well, but he had been forced to come across into the middle of the pitch as, not for the first time in the fledgling second half (Sean Morrison could easily have conceded a penalty moments earlier when he grabbed at Vokes as the centre forward got clear of him while chasing a long ball over the top), City offered Burnley hope by getting caught square by a fairly simple pass.
The reason why Cunningham had to react to danger was that a Morrison long throw down the line from inside his own half had not been competed for well enough by City and so a Burnley player was allowed to simply knock a pass into the central area which City’s skipper had vacated. Why this gap was not filled by someone else while Morrison was out of position is a mystery, but Matej Vydra’s pace allowed a position whereby City had the ball in a deal ball situation to develop into a threat on their goal within a couple of seconds.
City’s left back clearly expected his keeper Neil Etheridge to be better positioned to deal with the situation and with him having to slide across to intercept, his clearance to touch was never going to have the strength that Lowton’s did. Consequently, there wasn’t that few seconds to reorganise while the ball was being retrieved and so the last thing a defence should do in such circumstances is switch off for a while. However, that was precisely what City did as they were, hopelessly, caught out by a routine quick throw in as Ashley Westwood was given plenty of time to cross to the far post.
With all of this taking place on City’s right hand side, first thoughts as to culpability are probably directed at Bruno Manga, once again playing at right back to allow for the return of Sol Bamba, as a “reward” for a generally good display in his favoured central defensive position against Man City, but where was the support he was entitled to expect from team mates?
Victor Camarasa, playing on the right of our midfield, was still trying to get back when the throw in was taken and so was of little use defensively, but it was Joe Ralls, who was caught flat footed by Westwood’s run into space, who could be accused of switching off the most as he never got near his midfield rival once the throw in had been taken.
Even then, the goal could still have been prevented. Cunningham is a couple of inches taller than Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson, but the Icelander was allowed to tower above him to get in his scoring header which, while delivered from very close range, may have been dealt with a little better by Etheridge as he was beaten at his near post.
So, there you have it, an absolute catalogue of errors from City which allowed the visitors to score the opening goal from their first serious attack in a match which they had been second best in up to then.
While there had been some pretty good build up play involved in the second one, I wouldn’t say there was anything Premier Leagueish involved in either of Burnley’s goals. My belief is that City would have dealt with such threats last season had they been posed in the Championship when we were confident and resolute in our defending. However, what was the strongest part of our game is coming apart at the seams now and, at a time when concentration and getting the basics right are absolutely paramount, it’s just not happening.
With our back four as disorganised as it is currently, simple balls over the top are causing us problems and there were one or two more instances of last ditch defending from us, but, essentially, that was it as far as Burnley were concerned as an attacking threat on an afternoon where they were concerned far more with defending than they were with going forward.
Credit to the visitors, they mostly did that defending well as City played into their hands somewhat by overdoing the aerial bombardment stuff. You never know, some sides in this league may buckle under such as assault, but Burnley, the team held up as the example to follow for a side like, were never likely to be one of them.
If City have to persist with the long throw in every time they get one within thirty yards of the opposition goal, doesn’t it make more sense to have Morrison, their main aerial threat, in the middle contesting for them when you have someone like Callum Paterson on the pitch for the whole ninety minutes to take them?
Instead Morrison was left hurling them in all game and, on an afternoon when City were caught out by their use of him taking long defensive throws, it was noticeable how often Burnley clearances found their way back out to him so he was stuck out on the touchline expected to perform a winger role which he was completely unsuited for – Burnley were allowed to launch one of their intermittent dangerous breaks after robbing Morrison out on City’s left hand touchline.
I thought it was very significant that City’s goal of the season so far (okay, I know the competition for that award isn’t great!) came when they kept the ball on the deck as Camarasa and Manga combined effectively down the right. The latter has, rightly, been criticised for his inability to deliver quality crosses when playing as a full back, but he got it just right this time as he picked out Josh Murphy with a low ball in which the winger finished conclusively from around the penalty spot.
Joe Hart was given the Man of the Match award by the television pundits and the two saves which I feel were mostly responsible for that came from a stabbed Kenneth Zohore effort which he turned aside on his near post in the first half and a tip over of a Murphy shot from twenty yards which was the closest City came to a second goal (the winger also hit the post in the first half) – once again, these three efforts came when a more thoughtful approach than route one was used.
Murphy may do a lot of those winger type things which can be frustrating, but, once again he was our liveliest attacker and I’d say he was the player who most inconvenienced the Burnley defence. As for Zohore, he and Murphy were brought in for Danny Ward and Bobby Decordova-Reid, I thought he did slightly better than in his other Premier League games this season, but, once again, it was not enough from the target man.
Zohore’s rivals for the attack leader spot both got a run out as subs, with Danny Ward again doing his cause no harm by looking more lively than his two rivals. Gary Madine can, rightly, argue that he needs more time than the quarter of an hour he was given to make an impression, but, I still have to say that I’ve not seen anything from him yet to remotely suggest he can influence a game at this level.
Ward and Madine were the only subs used by City on an afternoon when I think it was the more nippy players which caused Burnley most problems, so it was disappointing not to see Decordova-Reid introduced, but, in truth, football is, yet again, proving me wrong in that it’s things I was taking for granted that are providing the biggest problems for us.
My attitude at the start of the season was that, although there were a few concerns at right back, our belief, nous and organisation defensively would stand us in good stead, but yesterday it was defensive naivety, indiscipline and inadequacies which cost us – what looked to be our greatest asset is, instead, our biggest problem currently.
Also, I wasn’t able to get to Saturday’s Under 18 game at Leckwith on Saturday when Craig Bellamy’s team returned to winning ways with a 3-2 win over Watford. Isaak Davies scored twice and Trystan Jones got the other one in a match which was goalless going into it’s last twenty minutes. The win wasn’t enough to keep City at the top of the table though because Ipswich’s goal difference of plus ten is one better than ours and City’s chances of changing that situation cannot be helped now by a weird fixture list which sees them play away from home in five consecutive matches until they return to play in Cardiff next on December 1!
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As always Paul’s assessment is well written and incisive. I am particularly impressed by his comments re Sean Morrison and the long throw — so impressed indeed, that I’d like to quote him verbatim: “If City have to persist with the long throw-in every time they get one within thirty yards of the opposition goal, doesn’t it make more sense to have Morrison, their main aerial threat, in the middle contesting for them when you have someone like Callum Paterson on the pitch for the whole ninety minutes to take them?”
What is more, Paul points out that Burnley scored from a a long throw down the line which was simply hit back into the area where Morrison should have been. Leaving aside Paul’s further point, “Why this gap was not filled by someone else while Morrison was out of position is a mystery”, it is also a mystery why Cardiff remain so committed to the semaphored and easily defended long throw, especially when Kenneth Zohore habitually goes missing under high balls.
I remember writing on this very blog some years ago that virtually the first thing I was taught in football was the value of a quick throw-in to the head or feet of a teammate, allowing him to return the ball accurately to the thrower or cross it with effect and no delay into the middle.
In addition, it is worth pointing out that when Morrison is taking a long throw, which is usually returned by an opponent, he (Morrison) does not have the speed to race back into a position where he can rectify the situation.
Yesterday as the game advanced, I turned to the young lady, a genuine and knowledgeable fan even though she comes from Treorchy, who sits directly behind me with her young son. and I remarked to her that Cardiff would be relegated and Mr Warnock would leave, either of his own volition or be pushed, if he continues to keep Zohore in the team. At first, I used to think that our much vaunted “striker” could learn to head a ball, but fairly soon came to the conclusion that he lacks the mental toughness to challenge for a high ball under pressure — or even, by and large , to challenge for any high ball. He once had a purple patch and scored several goals, I admit, but on further consideration it seems to be streaked with something of a daffodil colour. It’s all very well for Mr Warnock to tell him to work harder in training; it’s another matter to change his very nature. Unfortunately we cannot fall back on the First World War policy of giving soldiers a drink of rum before they went “over the top”.
Mentioning the young lady above has reminded me that she should be reimbursed for at least fifty or more per cent of her ticket money because she and her little boy(plus very many others) can see less than half the game thanks to the selfish and ignorant so-called fans who insist on standing up all the time even though they have no spectators in front of them. Surely it is time for the officials to tell people to remain seated out of respect for other supporters who have paid good money to see their favourite team in action (or even in inaction)!
As a final point I come to Cardiff’s style of play. It is clear we are never going to consistently outplay Premiership opponents blessed with greater skill and speed than our players. Therefore we have to rely much more on blunt force, on physical challenges, especially from our front men. Isn’t it time (and wise) to give Gary Madine an opportunity to play full games for our team? In his shortlived cameo appearance yesterday he injected a sense of urgency into the team and had the courage and ability to go for and win several encouraging aerial challenges.
Cheers, Paul.
What a soul-destroying game!
Two poor sides and a first half that will not stay in the memory long. Things picked up second half and from my armchair I was convinced Josh Murphy had put us in front (bloody Joe Hart). Burnley’s second goal really deflated the Cardiff team and their support.
I game that we could and should have won – but still “Nil Points”.
Where do we go from here? At the moment we have not got a striker that is anywhere near premier league standard, where are our goals going to come from? The Morrison long throw tactic needs to be binned.
I’m shaking my head about the rest of the season. Will our points total get to double figures?
Glass is almost definitely empty!
Not at game as in Spain but it hurt.
From my t.v. perspective.
Drop Ralls.
Camerasa in an middle 2
5 at back with jazz at right back Bennett at left.
Reid at 10
Lahore up front
Murphy left.
Yesterday’s game
Disallowed goal was shocking decision. Defender did not jump it was as morrisson was coming down he put his hands on him. Probably to protect himself from spinning over the top. Ok ref saw it as foul then how didn’t he see their first as a foul when he had his hands on Cunningham’s shoulders as he was jumping . There again there are different rules for Cardiff as there are for other teams.
The penalty. I have read dermot Gallagher agrees it was correct decision as his hand was in front of his face.
Well guess what his hand was there before the ball was struck. Did he know it was going to strike his face so he prepared for it. No of course he didn’t. I don’t walk around with my hand in front of my face and I guess neither do most of the world’s population. So it was in an unnatural position. Well unless you play for a team playing Cardiff city then it seems exceptions can be made and we can seen it natural so as not to give Cardiff a penalty
I am sick of the unjustness if crap officials. We should have had 2 clear corners in first half and over paid undertrained pathetic linesman gave goal kicks.
I often wonder what city players who come from clubs think of this.
Doesn’t take away the point of gross negligence in defensive responsibility of midfield players
Good afternoon Paul and others,
Yesterday’s proceedings saw me demonstrably become more animated in frustration as the game progressed at our complete inability to vary tactics when a change was clearly necessary. A game that we should have won comfortably ( forget the excellent Joe Hart saves ) was lost because of wretched defending and naive attacking.
In your usual excellent summary of events, you explain how we managed to concede the two goals and if we continue to have a defence that goes wandering without cover, then we will concede many more, starting this Saturday.
What caused my anguish? Well there were many.
Firstly Paul, if I have your seating position correct, three times in the second half we kicked off towards you. Each time the ball is passed back to Ralls who lumped it forward to the right wing position in the hope that the ball was won in the air with a knock down to a supporting player. The result each time was pathetic, and resulted in a throw in to Burnley. So in a matter of seconds, we lost possession. And this happens so regularly. Surely NW and his cohorts realise that this particular approach to a restart is a nonsense.
Next, our free kicks into the opponents penalty area. No variance whatsoever – no-one placed out on the flank to pull defensive opponents out wide, no short passes to colleagues, just the long ball into the area in the hope of a the headed goal.
Corner kicks, we had plenty, with no one prepared to attack the ball. A standing jump in the hope that Morrison was able to knock the ball across the area for someone to latch on to it and score. That almost happened only for the captain to be penalised.
And for those stupid long throws into the area, which you have covered eloquently, confine them the tactical dustbin. An occasional use maybe, but surely not every time.
And finally, just who is our defensive mid-fielder? Both conceded goals would have been prevented had we had an effective operative patrolling our last third of the pitch.
A role that Gunnarson would command if he was fit, but my understanding is that he is some way short of that.
So it was that I returned to Creigiau listening to Radio Five Live’s ‘phone in and hearing Chris Sutton’s provocative comments about how we are already relegated. My disposition was not improved.
Thanks Paul and others.
What to say that’s not already covered.
Feel so flat after that performance.
Defence has been shaky all season when so comfortable last year. Every game we have been punished and yesterday ‘s result more embarrassing what with National radio and tv exposure. Rarely is there only one game on a Sunday – and it would be yesterday.
Positives were scarce with Murphy the only shining light and Arter again getting stuck in.
Really don’t know where goals are going to come from, but we at least look better trying to play on the floor and not resorting to long throws, corners or free kicks as only chances of success in that department. Morrison taking the throws such an obvious no brainer and just cannot understand Warnock thinking that this was the stock tactic yesterday. Really embarrassing and showed lack of confidence.
It’s going to be a heck of a job now to lift the team given next couple of matches.
Only consolation was some of the other results yesterday, but we can’t rely on that as a survival strategy!
My perspective is from watching match on Sky. As usual it is difficult to argue with Paul’s detailed analysis and also the comments of AMO and BJA so the points I want to make are more for emphasis rather than original:
1) For heaven’s sake at least vary the long throw strategy by occasionally by at least getting two players to come short to provide a chance to work a better-angled cross.
2) If, for some reason, Morrison has to take the throw then someone has to drop back as cover in case of a break-away – basic common sense surely?
3) Great goal by Murphy resulted from his position near the penalty spot. There was at least one occasion in the second half when Murphy had the ball on the left and was given no such option by his team mates. The penalty spot position is so useful because it is a fixed one which enables wingers practice hitting that area accurately when that option is better than sliding it into an overcrowded 6 yard box. Ramsey has frequently provided that option for Arsenal and most other clubs seem to do this as a matter of routine.
4) City’s style of play does, to some extent rely on the luck involved in the bounce of the ball around the goal and we didn’t have any of that on Sunday!
Paul, I don’t know what happened but my comments on the game suddenly disappeared into the ether.
I was going to conclude by saying that when I watched my Sky recording of the game I found Craig Bellamy’s pre and post match comments very revealing.
Pre- match he was asked for his opinion on Zohore’s talents. His reply was to analyse his weaknesses (did Anthony O’B write the script?) say how disappointed he was with him and how he would prefer to see Bobby D-C in the team.
His post match comments , whilst supporting Warnock as currently the right man for the job seemed, critical of our coaching–he could see no reason why players good enough to play in the Premier League or Championship were not comfortable on the ball.
I got the impression he was saying that we are probably going to be relegated but the club has a bright future under his management when we will play a different style of football.
I have to thank Mike Hope for mentioning Craig Bellamy’s comments before and after the Burnley debacle. Although I had recorded the game and it is still available on my T.V. I didn’t have the heart to watch it after sitting through the live performance on Sunday. However, I’ve now managed to look at Craig Bellamy’s comments. On previous occasions he has shown himself to be a talented judge of a game, and his words on Sunday were up to his usual high standard. Over the years he has been regarded as something of a firebrand, but I have always held him in high esteem. To dip deeply into his own pocket to help young players in Africa, as he did, never received the acclaim it should have had. In addition, he was sufficiently independently minded when he ignored demands from Liverpool not to visit his African charity at a time he was not available to play. Furthermore, he was happy to return to his home-town team in a welcome act of selflessness, even though he could have joined a number of top teams elsewhere. His football knowledge is not confined to this country — I remember reading some time ago that he was very much aware of, I think, Dutch or Belgium football and had even travelled abroad to learn about the continental approach to the game he so clearly loves. I believe he will some day become an excellent football manager.
I was really gutted after Sunday’s game. We should have won that game comfortably. Murphy, Arter and Paterson played well. Bring back Reid and Bennett to replace Zahore and Cunningham. Come January we need a decent striker and a strong centre back.
I agree with Paul and all of your comments.
Anthony, that’s the worst thing about the bigger crowds we’re getting, people get to their feet as soon as we cross the halfway line – there’s absolutely no need for them to do so in the Ninian Stand because the view is fine if everyone sits down, there is a stand in the ground where the stewards are more tolerant when it comes to people standing up, so I don’t get why they can’t just go in the Canton Stand.
Colin, messageboard conversation (and Craig Bellamy on Sunday I believe) was advocating Josh Murphy for the main striking role, I reckon it’s worth a try with someone like Decordova-Reid playing as a number ten.
Welcome Martin, good to hear from you. Saying that, I’m still not convinced about our penalty shout because of the short distance between the two players involved, but I am struck by a conversation I heard between Martin Tyler and Gary Neville regarding a similar incident about a month ago when a penalty wasn’t given. Neville, like me, thought the decision was correct one arguing that the ball hit the hand rather than the hand moved towards the ball, but Tyler came back by saying that was a British viewpoint and, judging by the World Cup, the rest of the world thinks differently. If that is the case, then Britain should fall in line with everyone else – it’s the sort of thing that could be sorted out with an instruction to British refs that all cases where the ball hits the raised hand of a defender should be considered as handball wherever the incident takes place.
Huw, as I touch upon in my piece, it seems to me that we played to Burnley’s strengths by continuously launching the ball and a few weeks back, we did the same by trying to outpass Arsenal – while it can be argued that we could easily have got something from both matches, it seems to me that the Burnley approach against Arsenal and vice versa would have been the better way to go.
Mike Herbert, agree completely with what you say about having someone standing by the penalty spot – there was a situation in the first half when we got in on Burnley’s right that was crying out for someone to hang back slightly, but everyone ran forward towards the goal and the chance had gone.
Mike Hope and Anthony, regarding Bellamy, I don’t like the way we play, but there can be no doubt that it is a style which the current squad is better equipped for compared to one which tried to get us to play out from the back in the way he would like us to do. That said, I think the addition of Arter and Camarasa has helped us to the extent that we can pass the ball better than we did at most times last season despite the better standard of opposition we are facing, Trouble is, if we were to to go down, the odds are that neither of them would be here next season. That’s not to say that I would be disappointed to see Bellamy replace Neil Warnock when he leaves, but I think a change of style would necessitate a much changed playing staff and it could well be that supporters would need to be patient as we could see a pretty lengthy period of transition – there’s also how fans used to saying the ball knocked forward a lot earlier than it probably would be under someone like Bellamy would react as well.
Anthony,I agree with all that you say about Bellamy.
I hope that you were able to watch all of his contribution on your Sky recording –including the half-time chat.
Sky like to maximise their advertising breaks so the post match discussion was a bit stop/start around the adverts.
As he is a coach at the club his comments did not do much for ‘ togetherness’ and will not have thrilled Warnock.
I don’t recall him saying that Murphy should play as a striker –although it is not a bad idea and has been advocated by Nathan Blake–but he was critical of his having to drop back into defence and have to start attacking from the left back position.