Another 12.30 Saturday televised game, another 2-0 defeat, but if my piece on the defeat by Swansea last weekend was something of a rant, this time I’m more philosophical because all today’s loss at Norwich did was re-emphasise the problems caused by the policies pursued over years which has turned us into the sort of team we are.
We’re a side that can and will overpower and bully many of our rivals in this league, but the Championship has moved on since 17/18 when we were stronger than all but Wolves. Furthermore, with many of the survivors from the promotion squad having moved from the age where footballers are considered to be at their peak to when they are beginning their journey into the footballing Twilight Zone, we’re now a side that the better teams in the division can swat aside unless we’re really on our game.
We were some way short of that today and we only had Sean Morrison from set pieces to trouble a Norwich side that have taken over the mantle of best team we’ve played so far from Bournemouth as far as I’m concerned.
Two seasons ago while we were on loan to the Premier League for a year, the Championship seemed to become a quicker, more technical and more attacking league. Norwich were deserved Champions that season with a team built around a fairly ordinary defence for a side that were division winners (but they did have two young, dynamic attacking minded full backs), a midfield full of skillful, nippy footballers and support attackers and a striker signed for nothing who couldn’t stop scoring in Teemu Pukki.
I’d watch Norwich, and a few other teams in the Championship two seasons ago and think they were so much better than we had been the previous year. Norwich seemed to have the players and approach that could see them survive at the higher level.
In the event, I’d say that, apart from Huddersfield in 18/19, they were the weakest team the Premier League has seen in recent years – “weakest” being the operative word because, besides their defence being as porous as I feared it might, those neat touch players in the middle of the park found themselves overpowered by opponents who could match their ability and had the advantage of being physically stronger and at least as mobile as them.
Norwich returned to the Championship with a paltry twenty one points, but, like the other relegated sides, were probably helped by the shorter summer transfer window this time which meant that they may not have had the number of departures that they would have otherwise.
Whatever the reason, the signs so far are that Norwich are on their way back to the Premier League – they’ve lost one of their bright, young full backs, but their defence looks a little more secure than the 18/19 one and they’ve still got the same qualities in midfield, with Pukki finding Championship goals as easy to come by as he did first time around – most of the time anyway!
Based on what happened last time, I fear for Norwich’s attractive brand of pass and move football at the higher level if they do go up, because the similarities with two years ago are marked, but that’s for the future – for now, they look the best side in the division and this is backed up by what the league table says.
It seems Championship teams cannot cope any better with Norwich than they could the last time they were in this division and, sadly, there was further confirmation of that today.
I know I go on and on about our midfield, but that was the area where we struggled most today. While some allowance has to be made for the fact that Will Vaulks has played seven games in twenty two days in a two man central midfield that has often been outnumbered, I’m not sure it would have made too much difference if Neil Harris had approached things differently.
By that I mean if our manager had decided to employ the returning Joe Ralls, in for Gavin Whyte, in a deeper role to give Vaulks and Marlon Pack more support (as I would have favoured), I cannot see that it would have made a great deal of difference to the way things panned out.
Ralls, much like Robert Glatzel and Harry Wilson (pushed out on to the wing again), was largely anonymous, while Sheyi Ojo was better than he had been on Wednesday and was the one who suggested he might make something happen, but the brutal truth is that we offered virtually nothing in the way of an attacking threat from open play.
Ralls did bring a little bit of order to our central midfield when he dropped back after the fit again Junior Hoilett had come on to replace Pack, but the game was over by then as Norwich had doubled their lead within just three minutes of the change.
Vaulks tried his best, but he was chasing shadows in much of the way he did against Swansea, while Pack having shown on Wednesday that, contrary to what I often claim, we do have at least one midfielder who can pass the ball well if he is given the time, had a torrid afternoon as he was never given those seconds in possession that Birmingham allowed him. Misplaced passes by an under pressure Pack played a part in setting up a couple of what were a string of second half chances on the break for Norwich and, without an unusually charitable contribution by Pukki, who may have had his mind on other things following the birth of his family’s first child yesterday, it could have been a trashing for us I’m afraid.
City employed a higher press after the interval, which had worked well while it lasted on Wednesday, but this time all it did was allow Norwich to play around them and create overloads in our defensive areas. However, despite all of their chances, Norwich had to rely on long distance efforts from Emiliano Buendia and Todd Cantrell, both expertly taken in their different ways, for their goals.
Buendia and Cantwell were playing a different game to that of our midfielders – “between the lines” is a fairly new phrase which has crept into the game in recent seasons, but equivalents of it have been around for ages as players adept at exploiting the gaps between a team’s defence and those generally ten to twenty yards in front of them operate in areas designed to cause uncertainty in opposition ranks.
Buendia and Cantwell did much of their most effective work “between the lines” today, some of their team mates were eager to join in as well, and City never really looked like solving the problems they were causing. Early in the game, Sky’s commentators observed that City were getting the “little things” right as they enjoyed a relatively untroubled first quarter, but, for the first goal, especially, Pack and our two central defenders got a little thing wrong and the result was the ball ended up in our net.
We have players who are effective between the lines, but, in the absence of Lee Tomlin, there isn’t really someone who is reliably good at it in central areas – certainly none of our central midfielders are. Pack is our concession to passing football, Ralls can contribute effectively as well and we’re missing Bacuna’s athleticism in the middle of the park, but, in many ways our midfield four are much of a muchness – there is nowhere near the variety you’d expect from a group that, individually, I’d rate as being pretty decent Championship midfield players.
The reason we ended up with a midfield quartet like the one we’ve got can be traced to Neil Warnock and his liking for “bread and butter” players in that area. It was a “leave the fancy stuff for others” approach which he was able to make work in 17/18, but its limitations became more apparent with the signings he made in that area – Warnock never really improved on the two “bread and butter” players he inherited at Cardiff, Ralls and Aron Gunnarsson.
Despite the reputation he gained while managing Millwall, Neil Harris arrived here a couple of transfer windows ago with talk of a change of approach from the Warnock days and yet there has not been a single new signing made in the area of the team that you would have thought was most in need of adjusting if that change in approach was to be effective – I find that puzzling in someone who I’d still say has done a pretty good job as far as City boss.
All City had to offer in reply was three headers by Sean Morrison from a combination of free kicks and corners as he went halfway to justifying Norwich boss Daniel Farke’s claim that he was the best player in the Championship for getting his head on the end of attacking set pieces.
I say halfway there because, Morrison really should have scored at least once given his prowess in such positions. Veteran Northern Ireland international goalkeeper Michael McGovern, deputising for the injured Tim Krul, dropped on the first one just as the ball was crossing the line, but Morrison’s header was not as well placed as it could have been. I’d say the second one was more down to a great save than Morrison doing much wrong, while the third one was, perhaps, the best chance of the lot, as McGovern missed the cross, but our captain was unable to keep his far post header down.
Neil Harris said his team looked a bit “leggy” today and that was an impression I’d definitely formed. Therefore, having a week before they play again will help in that regard, but that period of recuperation is not going to give our midfield in particular the speed, mobility and passing accuracy that they lacked here and lack in most of the games they play – moving the athletic Leandro Bacuna into the middle would help with one or, maybe, two of those issues, but then who plays right back? Surely central midfield has to be the area that Neil Harris will be looking to strengthen next month, but, as mentioned above, I was saying much the same in July and nothing happened.
Given the, hopefully, unique circumstances of this Christmas, it seems to me that we may see a much increased number of gift tokens/cards given as presents. Therefore if you’re a City supporting receiver of such a gift why not take a look at my new book “Real Madrid and all that” when cashing in your present? In fact, if you’re buying for a City supporter or are one yourself, you could do a lot worse than buying a book which has received excellent reviews (with one exception!) – here are details of what the book is about, what formats it can be bought in and where it can be bought, you can also read its mixed reviews!
Once again, can I make a request for support from readers by them becoming my Patrons through Patreon. Full details of this scheme and the reasons why I decided to introduce it can be found here, but I should say that the feedback I have got in the past couple of years has indicated a reluctance from some to use Patreon as they prefer to opt for a direct payment to me. If you are interested in becoming a patron and would prefer to make a direct contribution, please contact me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com or in the Feedback section of the blog and I will send you my bank/PayPal details.
Finally, as I’m hearing of immediate lockdowns as I type this, can I wish all readers of this blog the best Christmas you can all make of it in the circumstances presented in this awful year.
Good morning Paul.
Whilst I hate city losing under Harris I expect it. Any point I feel is a bonus.
I keep saying that he cannot motivate players .
Is he really a manager??????
What are they doing in training??
Why so many hamstring injuries???
Firstly injuries. I done karate at a fairly high standard and rarely suffered an injury. Why??? Stretching was a massive part of training to elongate the muscles for the explosive side of the sport. Clearly city are not doing enough of it.
Training should be about tactics, improving play both as an individual and a team . The team bit is failing and personally I feel players at city go backwards after they join us. When was the last time we sold a player on for more than we paid.
Finally on training. Our ball control is shocking, how many times does a city player allow a ball to run a metre from him due to lack of skill.
We also rarely ping the ball around like Norwich. One touch football. Its, foot on ball, look up, oh oh I am closed down, rush pass, lose possession. Chase for next 5 minutes then same again.
Motivation. Luckily Norwich were slow starting yesterday. Not so 2nd half. With 2 minutes 50 seconds on the clock they had 2 clear cut chances to score. What is Harris doing to demotivate??? As for the excuses of looking leggy. Every other team is playing the same amount of games. Harris, like other managers. Manage it and stop looking for excuses.
Finally, is he a manager?? For me he isn’t. Take the right back position. A half decent manager knows he has replacements before letting players go. We could have kept jazz. Not great but at least the experience would have been there. As much as bacuna is trying there are teams who exploit him. He was pulled inside time and again yesterday.
As you stated Paul, he hasn’t improved midfield. He constantly played Wilson wide. Wasted. Yesterday we have won 5 out of 7 but of those 5, 3 could easily gone the other way and we would now be stuck on 20 points worrying about the visit of brentford.
Nope Harris should have gone so another manager would have had a run of games to first assess and then adjust during January. I dont think we are far off being a decent team.
Of course this is personal but a ball playing centre back.
A right back.
A right sided midfielder, one that can link play as Ojo does.
A central midfielder that firstly can control a ball, has vision, has a high percentage pass rate, has pace and is prepared to snap at heels and generally be horrible to play against.
4 goals have been conceded through the middle in 2 games. Yet we are supposed to have defensive midfielders. I fail to see it.
Summary.
Harris. You either sort it or ship out. Stop making excuses you are paid to see the issues and rectify them. We clearly are not going to sack you so you have a final period to make us doubters eat our words
Hello the other Bob Wilson,
I didn’t see the game yesterday but, from what I heard on radio Wales, we lost to the better team.
I would say that Norwich are one of the clubs we should be aiming to be like; what I mean is, they generally tend to play good attacking football, have the backing of decent vociferous supporters, they seem to be well run by owners who by and large make the right decisions in recruitment of managers and players, and also manage to bring through young talent into the team.
I personally think that in the previous few seasons we have seemed to have been ‘catching up’ with them, where matches played between us have been more evenly contested; and I tend to use teams like Norwich as a marker as to how we are progressing as a club.
However, and like I said I didn’t see the game yesterday, I would now say that we have stagnated (maybe fallen back), while they seem to have moved on again in terms of improvement, and there lies one problem we have, unfortunately we never seem to continually improve as a club.
Good morning Paul and everyone – I don’t think the result surprised me, nor to be truthful the performance. As you rightly point out, there was a gap between defence and attack which was fully exposed yesterday and exploited by a much more canny team. And this gap has existed for far too long, witness Birmingham’s second goal on Wednesday.
Mr. Harris will no doubt argue that he is only able to put together his team with players currently available, which is of course correct, but tactically, he needs to construct his team with those who are mindful of their responsibilities. Too often against Norwich I did not think that happened. Thankfully it was only two goals conceded.
Still, we are in the top half of the table but looking at a Warnock inspired Middlesborough now in the play off places. How did that happen? Wouldn’t want him back though.
I thank you for your many reviews over the year, and wish you a Merry Christmas in whatever way you can enjoy, and a Happy New Year. Stay safe.
Good morning Paul
Well done with you book certainly brought back memories
But onto yesterday
What is needed is a complete change in the way we play. We do not create anything for the forwards and I wonder if glatzel should have been on the pitch as the service to him was diabolical. It must be soul destroying for any forward the way we play. I do believe glatzel with the right service would prosper in this division.
We had a number of options to cross the ball in their penalty area but generally waited until the Norwich players stopped the cross or we lost the ball
Most of our players are unable to control the ball and pass to a man and even if we do it’s sideways backwards and if forwards they pass to an already marked man
We were simply out classed just like Swansea.
How on Earth we use Wilson on the wing I just don’t know as he was the only creative player on show for Cardiff.
No one in midfield can create and I have always been an admirer of Ralls but he is not being given room to play his game.
The defence is prone for mistakes and they are coming two at a time which leaves me to believe that a clean sweep is needed here.
I don’t think that I can take much more of this crap football from my team and long for the times of enjoyable football win lose or draw.
Thanks Paul.
Only seen brief highlights and heard the radio commentary to inform my opinions. However, feels like another case of deja vu. When we come up against more technically gifted teams who have real pace we get shown up – and it’s not a great look!
This season, Bournemouth, Swansea and now Norwich have exposed our poor control, lack of pace and gifting away of possession too easily. Against lesser teams – when we are on song – our power, aerial dominance and occasional flashes of magic from Wilson are usually enough to get the 3 points.
Fear that, as Paul has highlighted a number of times, the Championship has moved on in recent years and we have stayed the same.
We are still a Warnock type team, but with ageing Warnock type players who can collectively expect to achieve mid table to top 6 positions in the table. However, anything beyond this appears out of reach until we overhaul the squad and look for a more modern tactical approach. Even if – by some amazing good fortune – we were able to get promoted, we would not be able to survive and would struggle in much the same way as Norwich did last year.
On a separate note. Many thanks again to Paul for all your efforts and hard work in posting the material on this site over the last year. Always look forward to your analysis and constantly amazed how you keep up both high quality and timely reports – keep up the good work.
Merry Christmas to you and all fellow contributors.
Thank-you once again Paul for your lucid report after yet another rather inept performance. There’s not a lot left to say after reading yours but here goes.
If my Cardiff City were on, ‘Desert Island Discs,’ the eight records chosen by the contributor would be whittled down to just two, each one being played FOUR TIMES! That’s all we get from this Cardiff City. We either overcome fairly ordinary, standard British type of opposition or usually fail abysmally when trying to deal with teams with a more expansive game plan, based on players with movement and pace. For Norwich read Swansea, Brentford, Fulham, QPR, Bournemouth etc. If truth be told, going into this fixture I thought it would have taken a minor miracle to have come out of it with even a point. If you don’t have movement and pace against a team with movement and pace you are up against it. And so it was. The herculean rear-guard action was not within this heavy-legged City. Readers will be aware that I have spared you those games where we have played abjectly against below average opposition.
The folly of this encounter was, yet again exposed before the game even started. Once more our Manager chose Ralls at #10 and the left-footed Wilson playing on the right wing. Does nothing change with Mr Harris? Even when the foolhardy nature of these decisions are witnessed by anyone who cares to see, still our Manager dutifully obliges yet another opportunity to see why such a choice hamstrings us. I have yet to see a game where, in this advanced role, Ralls has contributed anything to the game or even been involved in the game. Ask any opposing manager where they would want Wilson to be and I’m sure most, if not all, would say, “Out on the wing as far away from our box as possible.”
Before commenting of the 95 minutes of action permit me a brief one liner on the irregular practice of re-admitting fans to the professional game. This fan sees something fundamentally wrong in teams in Tier 1 having 4,000 fans present, Tier 2 having 2,000 fans whilst Mr D at Cardiff Bay seems to be never better pleased when denying the citizens of Wales what other parts of Britain have. As things stand I would be surprised if CF11 sees fans before August 2021. For the record the football pyramid in England is one unified competition and our politicians should treat it as such. Until all clubs can have fans back then no clubs should be allowed to.
On to the game at Carrow Road, then. During a sedate opening 15 mins City eased themselves into the action but thereafter it all got a bit embarrassing. It was not until the 66th minute that Ralls reverted to his true position (in the centre of midfield) and only for the next 10 minutes that Wilson played at #10. Apart from three headers by Morrison and two wayward shots from Wilson that was the sum total of our potency all afternoon. For most of the time it was purely damage limitation. That Norwich only had 5 shots on target shows why they came straight down from the PL last season. Two seasons ago they went up with a good Championship side; spent nothing in the PL, sold no-one of note when they came down and still have a good Championship side. But with a good Championship side in the PL they stayed bottom all season. Norwich, unless they spend fairly heavily, should they gain promotion, they are what they are … a really good Championship side, but a side light years ahead of Cardiff City.
One gripe about the handling of the game by the referee, Mr Robinson. He was the archetypal homer. On about 50 mins with the home side 1-0 up, Norwich’s #17, Buendida, who had spent most of the first half moaning to said, Mr Robinson, over a whole series of coming togethers with City players promptly threw to ball away and swung an arm at, I believe Cunningham. The official’s reaction was to TALK to BOTH players. Within the next eight minutes two City players were in the book without the privilege of a diatribe from the ref, followed by another two in the last ten minutes. No home players were cautioned. As I have said to friends on numerous occasions: corruption runs through the game like Blackpool through a stick of rock.
Pack’s lack of pace prevented him closing down or committing a professional foul for the first goal; and none of the back-four sought to put pressure on the scorer of the second before he shot. So 2-0 it was and we got away lightly.
OK. Those two choices for, ‘Desert Island Discs.’ Matches such as yesterday would have to be King Crimson’s, ‘FraKctured.’ Listen to it and you’ll understand why. It jars so heavily. Admittedly there were a couple of others I could have selected from the kings of prog for this one. The few good days would be that beautiful, yet sad, ballad by Gentle Giant called, ‘Think of me with Kindness.’ There you go.
Before I close may I wish Paul and fellow writers a blessed and peaceful Christmas and that within the next 12 months we get to see some live football at the CCS.
Steve Perry,
Thank you. At last I read that someone agrees with me about the corruption in football.
Buendia should have had 2 bookings there.
1. Throwing ball away in a tantrum immediately followed by
2. Yellow for push.
Ungentlemanly conduct and violent play. Yet he speaks to both players.
They hate Cardiff and they show it in the way most, not all games are refereed.
Did not send off Swansea player. This one again.
I could go on but they will favour a lovely family club like those ahead of Cardiff.
I blame commentators too. They said Saturday the throwing of the ball was enough for a yellow. They should be calling him out as corrupt, one sided cowardly etc. I am sure he will have friends and family watching so it would get back.
Managers cant say anything as in football they hate honesty hence the human right of freedom of speech does not exist.
Last season for me and it is because of this corruption. Cardiff will be 2 season ticket holders less next year and the authorities are to blame due to their bullying corrupt one sided ways and over protection of their corrupt refs.
PR,
Man Utd have been awarded 32 (THIRTY-TWO) penalties since Aug 2019. I won’t go into yesterday’s against Leeds. It’s all so embarrassing and no hint of shame. This is compounded by the Establishment football media not being honest. Two questions:
(1) How many times have we seen Morrison having his shirt pulled off his back in the penalty area and nothing given?
(2) How long back do City have to go for our 32nd penalty?
As my friend Arthur says: “If that was a penalty they owe us a million!”
Once again, thank you to all of you who have replied. I suppose I better call our Siam correspondent your Highness, I agree that we have stagnated somewhat since our
relegation, but I would say that we have, largely, stayed at the same level while others have moved on over the last two seasons – I think you’re exactly right when you talk about looking to move on, we’re stuck in a cul de sac both tactically and results wise in that we are still good enough to beat sufficient sides in this division by playing the same sort of football we were doing in 17/18 (it’s so telling that we had to revert to what these players know best to get some consistency into our results), but the better sides have moved on to the extent that two of them have given us something of a hiding (even if that wasn’t reflected in the scoreline) in our last two matches.
BJA, I still receive e-mails from Dai Woosnam despite his absence from this site these days and he is tipping Middlesbrough to go up – to be fair, I think I’ve only watched them twice this season (against us and in some televised match) and was not overly impressed, but I bet that’s what lots of fans of other sides were saying about us in 17/18. I reckon they might be able to scrape into the top sic come May, but, unless they can do something in January to address their lack of goals, I would say it’s more likely that they’ll end up in the seventh to tenth region.
Barry, I won’t say too much about your message because I agree with about ninety five per cent of it – while I think that Morrison, Nelson and Bennett are now in a position where they always seem to be picked if available and so have become a bit more lax in their form, I would say that I don’t believe the potential replacements for them would represent an improvement.
Huw, same as Barry really, I’ve not much to say in reply to you except I agree and a thank you to you and to the others who spoken in such kind terms about the blog and the book.
Finally, a few words on Pr and Steve’s comments on refereeing and corruption in the game. In essence, I agree with Steve that football is a corrupt game in so many ways, but I’m not sure that corruption extends to an anti Cardiff conspiracy among matchday officials and the game’s management bodies. That said, I did think that the referee on Saturday was something of a homer, especially in the way he used his yellow card – four cautions to none was no sort of indication as to how the game was played. In truth, a look at Soccerbase;-
https://www.soccerbase.com/referees/referee.sd?referee_id=1256&season_id=141
shows that Saturday’s loss was only the third in the thirteen City games that Mr Robinson has taken charge of (six of them were won).
I did notice that the penalty Manchester United were given n Sunday was the thirty second they’ve been awarded since the start of last season and, for some reason, the word “dodgy” springs into my mind. I remember a time during the 08/09 season I think it was when we went through a spell of being given a penalty, or even two, in home games over quite a long period, but never on a Manchester United like scale – we had a lot of attacking players with quick feet at that time and none of them needed much persuasion when it came to falling down in the area. Seems to e that some players and teams are thought of as likely candidates to be given penalties among officials and some aren’t – in recent years, we’ve definitely fallen into the latter category.