I’ll start with the positives from Cardiff City’s 0-0 home draw with Preston North End this lunchtime. Jazz Richards replaced a presumably injured Joe Bennett and looked like he’d never been away, if you take Neil Etheridge’s poor kicking as read, he did well with two good saves and I thought Leandro Bacuna played quite well. Finally, City got something out of a game where they played poorly (to put it mildly!).
Right, that’s that out of the way in just three sentences, now I can get on with the negatives and, at the risk of sounding stupid, I’ll start with the last of those positives I mentioned.
To have a successful side over the course of a Championship season needs more than just two qualities, but without these two, I would say it is impossible to be successful.
I’m talking about the aforesaid ability to get something from matches where you don’t play well and then there’s also the ability to win whenever you do play well.
Today marked the half way point of the season and Cardiff City have spent it proving that they have mastered the first of those things. Indeed, I would suggest that, over our first twenty three matches, we’ve picked up thirty three points while not playing well and now the challenge for the second half of the season is to pick up the first of those wins when playing well and then keep on adding to them!
Okay, that’s a bit flippant, but is it unreasonable to say the following?
We have played twenty three games, facing each team in the division once. Therefore, every other club in the Championship has had first hand experience of us and, with that in mind, do you seriously think there is a supporter of another Championship side this season who would think “they’re good, I can see them making the top six this season” after having watched their side take us on?
What matches have we played well in this season so far? I thought we did well up to a point at Hull and Millwall, but we didn’t fulfil the second of the two criteria I mentioned because we only drew 2-2 in both of them. Of the matches we’ve won, I’d say Birmingham was impressive in its way because we were a man short for a significant period of the game and yet I’m sure Birmingham fans would have come out of the ground afterwards wondering how on earth they managed to lose a match they had completely dominated in the first half an hour.
Likewise, our sole away win, at Forest, had a lot to be admired to it, but, essentially, it was something of a smash and grab whereby we got a goal early on and then hung on to it for about eighty minutes,
I’m afraid that, when you consider our general standard of performance over the first half of the season, out points total really does flatter us and this from a squad which our former manager says is top two in terms of quality!
That remark was just Neil Warnock being Neil Warnock in my opinion, but, if he genuinely does believe that, then I’m afraid he is being delusional.
Take today’s game for example. despite missing the likes of Morrison, Bogle, Cunningham, Vassell and Connolly, who cost in the region of £15 million between them, for various reasons, we put out a squad today which cost £47.5 million – that figure may not be quite correct because I’m going by “reported” fees, but I wouldn’t say it is that far off the mark.
On the other hand, our opponents, who were better than us all over the park except for goalkeeper, have a squad which I’ve seen it said cost no more than £3 million to assemble. I’d say that is too low by some way and it may be that we are talking about a net spend there, but I’d still maintain that Preston’s squad cost about a fifth of what we paid for ours.
Yet, despite this seeming disadvantage, the distance we were so far behind our opponents today was just plain embarrassing at times.
I see little point going into a blow by blow account of proceedings because most of you reading this will have either seen the match live or watched it on Sky live, so you don’t need anything like that.
However, I watched with interest at half time when the first half “highlights” were shown on the big screens at the ground. For those who don’t go to home games, these always consist of highlights entirely from a Cardiff perspective – our opponents could be 5-0 up after forty five minutes, but you’d still only get to see only action which had taken place in their penalty area!
What we got today, was a much longer shot than normal of the teams coming on to the pitch to pad things out a bit, followed by them shaking hands and then we moved on to a effort from Lee Tomlin which flashed no more than a yard wide and a shott by Bacuna which finished about halfway up the Family Enclosure as it flew harmlessly over the bar.
After forty five minutes of the second half, that highlights video would have looked exactly the same as it did at half time, because, forget about goal attempts on target, City had not had a goal attempt full stop during the whole of the second period.
Those efforts by Tomlin and Bacuna of widely varying quality were the only goal attempts Cardiff had mustered as the clock ticked by the ninety minute mark and we not been able to force a single corner. However, a minute into added time, the man between the sticks for Preston, who we were told was called Declan Rudd, but could easily have been their coach driver masquerading as him for all he had to do, was finally called into action.
Preston manager Alex Neil claimed Tomlin’s shot was going over anyway when Rudd decided to take a no risks policy and touch it over his crossbar and he was probably right, but City had finally registered on an target effort, according to the stats people at the BBC at least, to take their total goal attempts score up to three and they’d also gained that elusive corner!
Mind you, I say “shot” when describing Tomlin’s effort, but I do so merely because it was him who had it. If it had been any of the other nine outfield players on the pitch at the time (or the three who had been replaced by then) who had been responsible for it, I would have said it was the sliced centre that it looked like, but as it was Tomlin, you could not be sure.
In my opinion, Tomlin’s shot in the first half which went just wide as Rudd dived full length for it represented the only time in the entire match when Preston would have been genuinely concerned about conceding a goal and even this incident told you something about the nature of City’s miserable performance.
I say that because it came about entirely through a driving midfield run from the energetic Bacuna of some thirty yards which saw the ball break to Tomlin when the Dutchman was tackled, What made this relevant was that it came about because it was an individual burst, nothing to do with team play.
There were the occasional instances of something similar happening as the likes of Tomlin, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and, say, Marlon Pack produced something which would get the crowd (whose enthusiasm levels throughout were way above what was justified by the “action” on the pitch) going, but it would fizzle out as soon as the player tried something to get others involved – that is, attempt a pass.
When I think about it, that sums up the Warnock attitude towards attacking play in a trice – rely entirely on moments of individual brilliance, rather than anything approaching team work, and, if that fails, welly the ball up the pitch to “the big man”.
Before the game today, the announcement of the team was mainly greeted with enthusiasm by those I was with – they liked the recall of Robert Glatzel (as did I), were pleased to see Bacuna back and were agreed that Neil Harris was trying to play more football than Neil Warnock’s did.
Come kick off, Glatzel, who we keep on hearing does better with balls played into his feet and would prosper with passes played through to him that he could run on to, was having to survive on a diet of long aerial balls from our defenders or goalkeeper that he had little success with months ago and had little success with here.
Just as they have done way too often this season, City started very slowly as a Preston team that had way more pace, energy and physicality about them pressed Cardiff into mistakes. Surprise, surprise the visitors passed the ball far better than us and made very effective use of the somewhat derided long, diagonal pass which caused City problems all game long.
Before the game was a quarter of an hour old, Preston had shots which hit the side netting on both sides and another one which rippled the top of the net as it flew just over. There was an near post effort not far wide and a stabbed shot which brought the save of the game out of Etheridge shortly after that as the visitors completely controlled the first half an hour.
After that, City dragged Preston down to their level somewhat, but they still looked the more likely scorers with Republic of Ireland international Allan Browne wasting their best chance in the second half presented to him by Curtis Nelson in another example of the poor passing and judgement which blighted City’s day. Paul Gallagher also bent a shot about as far wide as Tomlin’s went and Etheridge made a sprawling save to keep out another shot.
As for us, if we are supposed to be introducing more of a passing style, I saw little evidence of that today. In fact, Neil Harris’s substitutions, Gary Madine for Glatzel, Danny Ward for the anonymous Josh Murphy and Callum Paterson for the endlessly frustrating Mendez-Laing, bore the hallmark of someone who had given up on trying to get anything like a passing style out of this group of players and had just gone for a route one or bust approach.
This was as bad as Warnockball at it’s worst and I’m sure many, if not all, of the new faces I saw sat around by me in what I thought was a good crowd given the proximity to Christmas and the fact the match was being televised won’t be back anytime soon.
Of course, we should really have known what was coming given City’s woeful record in terms of results and performance in matches screened live on Sky this season. The only possible exception to this came at Charlton where we recovered from a two goal deficit, but were wide open defensively for most of the time.
Our home record when it comes to televised games is extraordinary – we have won every single non televised match and none of the televised ones!
I’m afraid I cannot report anything better from the under 18s in their lunchtime match with Crystal Palace at Leckwith yesterday as they were well beaten by 3-1.
In fact, the margin of defeat could have been a lot worse than that. Maybe things would have turned out differently if Harry Pinchard’s early shot had gone in instead of coming out off a post, but I doubt it, because, rather like Preston a day later, a bigger and stronger visiting team pressed us into errors in our defensive third – the only difference being that Palace were two up inside twenty minutes through goals by their right sided attacker Addy.
City’s only other chance of the first half came when a wayward pass by a Palace defender let Isaak Davies in on goal, but, unusually for him, he dragged his shot some way wide.
City made a couple of substitutions at half time and this livened them up for a while, but Palace soon reestablished their superiority and made the game safe with a header from a corner with about a quarter of an hour left.
There was a consolation for City courtesy of a beautifully struck Sam Parsons shot from distance in added time, but they ended a well beaten team as their league season continues on a course which is disappointing in terms of points and position after their title win last season.
Lastly, can I wish all readers of this blog a very merry Christmas.
Excellent report. Well in its writing. Not the reading because like you say. There was nothing good to write about.
Woeful would be an appropriate word if you had to sum it up in one.
Regarding players. Jazz done ok. His worth was proven 1st half when a Preston player was in the box and jazz shepherd him wide to prevent the shot.
Whilst we did not deserve to draw on the balance of play the ref did allow them to get away with pushes and nudges while punishing us for less.
We didn’t deserve to win but I did think it was a nailed on penalty when flint was taken down late on.
As he did all game the defender had his arms wrapped around him, his body weight on him which took him down. Where was ref from?? Lancashire. Not exactly neutral.
Ref. Passing.
I was saying weeks ago that Warnock was coaching good players to become bad. It is going to take a long time for the players to get through this and get their passing confidence back.
On a sour note. I was disgusted with the booing of Murphy as he went off. The lad is suffering with lack of confidence. Warnock!!!! Booing will just make the situation worse for him. Perhaps to a point he will not want to have a ball passed to him.
Thank you, Paul, and a very merry Christmas to you.
We turn up with hope and very little expectation and we are very rarely surprised, it is getting very difficult to remember a game in which we played well.
As you say, Jazz Richards’ return was encouraging, Bacuna worked tirelessly and I’m willing to forgive Curtis Nelson that pass (how did he know that Flint was playing statues?) because I think he is becoming a decent find.
Considering the way we played it is probably incidental to talk about the ref. but he wasn’t very good (except for the yellow card for the dive) and we had another example of a referee unable to use the advantage rule.
If you look at the table we still have every chance of getting a play-off place but does anyone of us believe that is possible or that we are deserving of one.
Unless our manager can work some magic in the transfer window I think we can ‘look forward’ to another season in the Championship.
Paul – Once again many thanks for your summary, accurate to a “t” as always. And as you imply, we were handed a “kiss of death” once it was announced that we were awarded another home game to be broadcast by Sky. It is about time our City medical team had a few of our players on a shrink’s couch to establish and then banish their fears about appearing on live TV particularly when at home. That performance was dreadful.
There was only one consolation for me. It allowed me sufficient time to return home, have a decent glass of Bordeaux in my hand, put the fire on and watch some proper football played by the two Cities, Manchester and Leicester. ( Is it really less than a year that we beat the latter team?)
Now I have been watching the City team on and off since 1951, and have seen us take some drubbings in my time. But never, never am I able to recall a match where we had so few attempts on goal, just three with only one on target and that some ninety seconds before the final whistle. And I am not sure if Tomlin’s effort was a genuine attempt on goal, or just a hopeful lob into the mix. On Friday I tuned in to the Club’s TV page and saw a training session which involved players running onto passes and striking for goal. The session was impressive. But what happened yesterday – apart from Tomlin’s first half effort that was quite close – nothing.
Again as you state, Etheridge’s long punts up field were a complete waste of possession as poor Glatzel, in spite of his physique, is a player who needs passes to run onto, as demonstrated against Leeds. And sadly his replacements against Preston fared no better.
Millwall next and thankfully no cameras, or no live one’s anyway. I just hope Father Christmas will be kind.
I wish you and your devoted followers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year at the same time as thanking you for all of your wise words in 2019
Thank-you, Paul for yet another excellent article.
What of yesterday’s encounter?OK, I’ll cut to the chase. After 7 games under the Harris’ regime twelve points (1.7 pts/game) is maybe a good ish return for a club in our predicament. In fact, over the course of a season that would represent a most healthy 78 pts. However, apart from the odd glimpse of something new at Charlton, the only difference I can see between Harris’ team over Warnock’s is that Tomlin is now playing. Whilst change on the pitch was never going to be immediate, we must say that if there has been any change in playing style it has been imperceptible, save from what Tomlin brings simply by his inclusion. City’s squad, despite its size, is still remarkably threadbare when viewed against movement, pace and creativity. To compound this, as Warnock did by refusing to play a fit Tomlin this season, we were like a boxer going into the ring with one hand tied behind his back. At least with Tomlin now restored to the starting line-up (and playing the full 90 mins) it gives us a bit of a chance, even if the overall fare produced is still pretty poor. Without his assists and goals where would we be?
There was little of creative note at CCS yesterday apart from the odd bit of flair from Mr T. But more of that later. That said, with Bacuna (offering a bit of mobility in the middle of the park) and Nelson (an assured presence at the back) they have now settled into the team and yesterday stood out from the rest. We would be the worse if they weren’t included. Richards’ return to active duty was also pleasing.
However, most concerning for me, for the fifth game in his seven in charge, is that our manager got the formation wrong if he desired to reduce the effectiveness of the opposition. Simply put Preston played a predictable 4231 and City a predictable 4411. The problems City encountered revolved around not getting to grips with the, ‘Preston 2,’ (#4: the excellent Pearson and #12: the ageing Gallagher) and how they related to Tomlin. When Tomlin dropped deep to cover Gallagher’s forward runs, Pearson controlled proceedings without a care in the world. When Tomlin stuck tight to Pearson, Gallagher moved upfield unchecked. Consequently little was seen of Tomlin as an attacking force, save his 25 yd shot in the first half. This was the scenario for a full 62 mins until City went 442 with Tomlin on the left flank. Is it too much to expect the City coaching staff to know how the opposition will set up and counteract it before the game starts? This fact has largely been the reason for our slow start in 5 out of 7 games.
On wider issues I’ve mentioned before that absentee landlords rarely care about their houses and had Tan and Dalman lived in Machen and not Malaysia and Monaco respectively they couldn’t run the Club as they are. After 3 years at the helm, Warnock’s player recruitment (costing an approximate £50m transfer budget excluding wages) has had little impact on the pitch. Moreover Tan’s lack of planning and failure to invest for the future off the pitch has hamstrung the Club’s progress. A change of ethos and many personnel are needed to drag the Club into the 21stC. Will Tan spend money to do that? If he is willing to, perhaps he should have been looking higher up the food-chain for a manager as well.
Some may be pleased with, ‘the progress,’ at City (we’ve not been up in the Courts with HMRC, admittedly) but I’ve seen little to substantiate real progress.
Like Paul, I’ve been roundly criticised by some for daring to say anything but the Tan-mantra. But for me delusion has no virtue over honesty. At this time of the year let me be permitted to borrow a verse or two from the Bible concerning two houses: one built on rock and the other on sand. There the importance of planning and investment are honoured if something long lasting is to be built. Foundations are so important. To deny foundational truth will be seen when a storm arrives.
My friend, Arthur, a friend from the late 60’s when we stood behind the Boys’ Enclosure (gosh what would the PC brigade have made of that term?) always said: ” When we’ve got a good team we’ve got a bad pitch and when we’ve got a good pitch we have a bad team.” Going into 2020 we have an excellent pitch.
A peaceful Christmas to one and all.
A PS for BJA,
Actually the Millwall/h game is live on the red button on Sky Sports. Sorry to bring that up.
Thanks Paul and others.
I think Paul’s first paragraph sums it up and us all such an unforgettable encounter merits. However, like others I feel a strange urge to analyse and try to understand why?
Apart from the obvious full utilisation of Tomlin I agree there is very little discernible change in approach or tactics. I think we are all looking for something and reluctant to admit that little has changed really.
Players who were inconsistent under old Neil are madly inconsistent under new Neil! First touch – last touch in danger areas – leaves a lot to be desired and surely unacceptable at this level. Various teams in recent weeks have demonstrated far better compactness, fluidity and passing ability in recent weeks. Albeit our up and at ‘em attitude- with a liberal sprinkling of Tomlin magic – has usually been enough to get us out of jail.
We cannot say that the new manager isn’t giving players a chance as we have got behind different combinations of strikers and support runners/ widemen. As each game starts I usually think this is the “winning” combo, but have to admit that a sinking feeling usually sets in after an hour and we can all see the flaws. At least the manager is not afraid to then make changes decisively but I really don’t think he knows his best team and too many players are playing distinctly averagely – honourable exceptions for Tomlin, Nelson, Pack and Bacuna (usually)!
My over-riding frustration though is the sheer predictability of the approach play and the lack of urgency. Even in the dying minutes yesterday there seemed little rush to pass the ball and move forward more quickly as players strolled around and wingers could not use their skill to beat a man – much less cross accurately. Instead waited for Etheridge long kicks ( ??) and our predictable long throw tactics! No corner until 90 minutes must be some kind of record for us.
Finally couldn’t agree more about the curse of Sky tv and early kick offs. We have always struggled and surely Sky should give us a rest now as we are the total opposite of box office at the moment!
Anyway, enough of the negativity at this seasonal time of year and Happy Christmas to Paul and all contributors.
As usual, thanks for your replies. Only got time for some quick observations on what you have to say this time;-
Paul, I didn’t think a great deal of the ref either. As for our “penalty”, I reckon it was the sort of thing that gets given as a foul outside the penalty area, but only very, very rarely inside it.
Colin, I’d say Nelson is shaping up as Warnock’s best signing of the summer and would argue that he is now our best centreback. I wasn’t in the best position to see Flint’s “playing statues”, but, having now seen it on the club highlights, I can see what you mean, but I still say Nelson’s pass was a poor one which left Flint with a decision as to whether he should stand off or commit himself and leave Preston with a man free to run in on goal if he had lost the race for the ball – I think he may have made the right decision.
BJA, with the benefit of having watched those highlights, I’m now 99% certain that Tomlin’s “shot” was not going in.
Steve, having spent in the region of £50 million when we first got promoted and the same during Neil Warnock’s time in charge, I wouldn’t be surprised if Vincent Tan decides he’s not going to do so again.
Huw, I agree that not a great deal has changed since Neil Warnock’s time in terms of how we play. Apparently, we have had just six on target goal attempts in the three home matches under Neil Harris (something which rather ridicules Mehmet Dalman’s talk about thirty five goal attempts per game). Saturday’s substitutions and change of tactics which accompanied them were very Warnockesque – it was unashamed route one stuff and I don’t think it worked one iota (neither did he judging by his post game remarks). I still feel it’s too early to jump to any firm conclusions about Harris yet – I think we may have a better idea of the sort of football he wants to play come the end of January.
Hard to believe that £50 million plus another £50 million can look so utterly wasted.
I have to blink and gulp, and think “can we REALLY have spent that?”.
Whatever, as the youngsters would say…Season’s Greetings to One and All, and here’s to 2020 including some football that’s about GLORY and beauty and skill (I’m with Danny Blanchflower on all that).
Morning Lindsay and Merry Christmas. By coincidence, it struck me yesterday that all of that money had been spent (I forgot to include Decordova-Reid as well, so it’s about £72 million spent in assembling this squad) putting together a squad which, apart from someone who cost £1.5 million and was picked as an afterthought and, occasionally a winger we signed after he had been released on a Bosman, has produced virtually none of those qualities you list.