This piece could go one of two ways. I could write a normal length reaction post to tonight’s miserable 0-0 draw between Cardiff City and Stoke City at Cardiff City Stadium which would be yet another long lament about the fact that we are so bad at passing the ball and for much of the time, we don’t bother trying to do so as we opt instead for the vague “lump” in the direction of our knackered centre forward.
Alternatively, I could decide to only refer to our chronic limitations when we have the ball merely in passing – hardly the most apt of phrases under the circumstances I know! Going with this option would make this report quite a bit shorter than usual because there’s so little worth saying about the match otherwise.
I’m going to go with the second alternative with the proviso that I may slip into criticism of our passing inadvertently because I’m so sick and tired of seeing us turn what could and should be something simple into something that we make look impossible a lot of the time, but I promise I won’t go on too much about it.
Anyway, to the game. I’ll start by saying that, although it would have been very harsh on a Stoke team that could legitimately claim that they had the better chances to break the deadlock, this was the sort of scruffy home game we used to win 1-0.
For an example of what I mean, you only have to look at last season’s match against the same opponents when we scored early on through Leandro Bacuna in what was Neil Harris’ first home match in charge and then ground our way through the remaining eighty minutes against opponents who were lacking in confidence and too close to the bottom of the league for comfort.
We don’t win home games in such a manner these days though – we don’t get the three points at home often enough, but when we do, they tend to be gained by conclusive margins.
A week ago, we played well in seeing off a poor Derby team by 4-0. That was a fairly typical 20/21 home win for us, but top six finishers should also be able to eke out the dour 1-0 wins on their own patch as well – for a side that had mastered the art of “winning ugly” during our previous two seasons in this division, we have certainly lost the knack this time around when it comes to home games at least.
City were forced into defensive changes because Curtis Nelson had not recovered from the calf injury which forced him off on Saturday against Watford, so Ciaron Brown dropped into the back three in his place and Perry Ng stayed on the left, with Tom Sang returning on the right. Mick McCarthy also rested Harry Wilson and Josh Murphy and went instead with Sheyi Ojo and Leandro Bacuna, while Marlon Pack replaced Joe Ralls in central midfield.
Those defensive changes may have accounted for the fact that we looked shaky at the back early on as Stoke, first, worked a short corner routine which included an air shot that I’m pretty sure was not deliberate (it was a truly superb move if it was!) and ended with a shot that deflected narrowly wide. The visitors came closer soon after when City were opened up too easily on their right and Dillon Phillips had to save Steven Fletcher’s close range shot, then it needed a goal line clearance by Ng to keep Jordan Thompson’s follow up effort from going in.
Shortly after that, a blunder by Aden Flint led to a bad miss by Nick Powell who side footed wide with only Phillips to beat, but that was the last we saw of Stoke as an attacking force until Joe Allen headed against the crossbar in added time at the end of the match.
For much of the time, City were unable to create anything that could be called a genuine scoring opportunity – Bacuna had a couple of shots saved pretty easily by Welsh international Adam Davies and Sean Morrison was inches away from connecting with a Will Vaulks free kick in the first half, but it was after the break that City will feel that they could have got the goal which would have won the game.
Unfortunately, Keiffer Moore was the villain of the piece this time missing three chances of varying degrees of difficulty. The first one looked bad as Moore fired well over the top from close in as Stoke struggled to deal with a Vaulks long throw, but the ball had to be hit early as it dropped and I thought it was quite a difficult chance. By contrast, his second one when his poor touch after being put through by a combination of substitute Jonny Williams and Bacuna enabled Davies to make a simple save was quite an easy chance by his standards, while the third one when he was through again and opted to try a side footer from fifteen yards that passed narrowly wide of the post looked a tired effort to me.
In fact, I thought, for the first time this season, it looked like a tired performance almost from the start by Moore who is, in some ways, paying a price for making himself indispensable to City. Tonight, Moore played the full ninety minutes again as Mick McCarthy, for reasons I couldn’t understand waited more than seventy minutes to make a change in a game where his team were playing very poorly – Williams for the disappointing and inconsistent Ojo was the substitution and it was odd that there was only one other, delayed until the eighty third minute when Wilson came on for Bacuna.
Our manager explained the decision to keep Moore on by referring to his value when defending free kicks and corners, but what about giving him some support up front by bringing on one of max Watters, Mark Harris or Rubin Colwill? Also, this doesn’t explain the lack of changes to a misfiring midfield and why it took so long to make the meagre number of substitutions we did see.
There was one other moment when City could have won it as Davies was too casual in going for a Vaulks long throw, fumbled and the ball rolled agonisingly close to the goal only to pass inches wide of the far post with Williams just unable to apply a scoring touch.
Trying to take something positive from the game, I thought Sang’s passing in the right wing back role was an oasis in what was, the occasional contribution by Pack apart, a desert of mediocracy when it comes to that part of the game. The question is would Sang be able to maintain such standards if he was given a concerted run in the largely pass free zone that is our first eleven?
So, City drop another place following Middlesbrough’s win over Preston and, with a fourth poor performance in their last five games are looking a long way short of a top six team going into the game at Swansea on Saturday – the jacks were beaten 3-0 at Bournemouth tonight, but, even so, you’ve got to think that the record of there never having been a league double completed in fixtures between the two clubs is likely to end on Saturday on this evidence and the evidence of our recent matches.
A few hours earlier, the Development team had also drawn a blank, going down to a single goal defeat at QPR – it’s not just the Play Off hopes of the first team that have diminished recently, both the Under 23s and Under 18s have lost two out of their last three games now.
Finally, some words about a couple of books. Firstly, regular Feedback column contributor Anthony Mor O’Brien has published a novel recently – in Anthony’s words,
“The story is about Stanley Sharp (*”Sharp by name and sharp by nature!”) who, with his friend, come out of the Army just after VE Day. They experience several escapades usually involving the quick mind of Stanley at various venues they reach by motor car with petrol from a government storage facility they have discovered.
Stanley briefly meets a WREN named Gloria Munday in London and some time later encounters her again in her home town of Pontypridd. Various adventures in other parts of South Wales occur (Including Tiger Bay) and are generally historically accurate.”
The book is called EPONYMOUS SHARP ESCAPADES and can be bought at
Also, the fiftieth anniversary of City’s 1-0 win over Real Madrid on 10 March 1971 passed on Wednesday, so here’s a further reminder of my book Real Madrid and all that which is a review of both that match and the 1970/71 season in which I’m afraid another home defeat by Watford played a major part! Real Madrid and all that can be ordered from;-
Although I praised the team and the management a few weeks ago I was somewhat shocked by the level of ineptitude of yesterday’s debacle. — and that includes the tardiness in introducing subs. In addition, the manager’s “explanation” for not giving Keiffer Moore a break as the game wore was rather disappointing. To say that the visibly exhausted Moore was kept on the pitch to help our defence against corners and the like was almost proof of hanging on rather than going all-out for victory.
Of course, Mike McCarthy was very much a no-nonsense defender whose job was to stop attacks (charmingly criticised by the ever pleasant Roy Keane for a lack of skill (i.e. ” touch”) but the old adage of attack as the first line of defence could surely have been attempted.
Incidentally, Moore uses up his energy by chasing and challenging for balls out wide rather than making a bee-line for the goal area and attacking crosses (which, admittedly, are tellingly infrequent). I think the reason he missed good goal scoring opportunities yesterday was at least in part due to his tiredness.
Overall, the team performance against Stoke was a mess of ineptitude with minimal skill or football intelligence. Among the few who earned their keep, however, were the two fullbacks
Bill Shankly once accused Southampton as playing “alehouse football.
Although this was in response to a defender rackling with his legs as head height it is a relevant choice of words.
I would define Cardiff’ recent performances as “alehouse football but this would be unfair on alehouse footballers where.
Inevitably professional footballers would have to have an unusual combination of skill and will to be where they are and managers would necessarily be capable of adapting the pre-arranged strategy to effective tactics and player changes during the course of the game. The proof of the pudding will be in the upcoming games (s) and I look forward to better times beginning on Saturday
Again, thank-you Paul. I know what you mean when you say your blog could have gone one of two ways. That was my feeling exactly after last night’s game. Either you could have written a book about it detailing what went wrong or the suffering that would entail, dredging up memories for that writing, would be better left alone and a one-liner would have sufficed. Under the circumstances your valiant effort is deserving of a medal.
For the record City played 3421 throughout the entire game, a formation that never got to grips with Stoke’s 3511 (or 31411 for the pedantic). John Obi Mikel sat just in front of their three centre-backs whilst Nick Powell played behind Steve Fletcher. With both teams having their lone striker against three opponents it was hardly going to be riveting entertainment. Moreover, with our sweeper not coming through into midfield we, not for the first time this season, seemed to be out numbered in the middle of the park. Had the viewer been unaware of the previous manager’s sacking, he or she could have been forgiven for thinking he was still in a job. This 90 mins was easily as bad a showing as the worst of offerings under Neil Harris. It was dire! What compounded this fact was that with City’s formation not causing the visitors much trouble at all (we had 2 shots on target in the entire game) Mick McCarthy chose to limp along to the end of the match without changing it. Why we didn’t dispense with our sweeper at half-time I do not know. In fact it was not until the 74th minute that he made any changes in personnel: Williams (for Ojo) and Wilson (for Bacuna). Only then did we see an attacking midfielder show any purposeful play. Williams, inside his own half, set up Moore with some delightful work and Wilson busied himself in the pursuit of chiselling a chance out of a miserly Stoke defence. Overall, this showing was the proverbial million miles away from the team that went 11 games unbeaten.
OK, I may have a thing about wing-backs, but in my thinking they have to be as much wingers as defenders or the system will grind to a halt without leaving harbour. It virtually did last night and Moore was as much marooned up front as a beached whale on a sandbank. We have now scored 1 goal in 3 games since Bennett’s unfortunate injury. And isn’t he missed for his play in the opposition half? Admittedly Sang gave a good account of himself in his unfamiliar role at rwb and Ng did himself no harm playing on the left but, to me, there are reasons to say that both should be utilised in a different role. To return to the point I made in an earlier post, Hoilett would be a natural for the lwb role. What has he done to our Manager that he’s not getting a look in anywhere in the team? It’s not as if we’ve been carving up the opposition like a knife through butter, is it? When we don’t get forward out wide it’s the trusty 40 yd thump from the back that again so littered our game. There’s nothing in between. Moore could have been forgiven for not being enamoured with his service. Our three at the back, Morrison, Flint & Brown made 66 forward passes of which almost 40% of them went to a Stoke player. Gone was the fluidity of previous weeks when defences were turned and Moore had chances to come onto in the box. Seeing him drop back 40 yds to get the ball is all the information that is needed to show that last night the system did not work.
I can hear some saying: well, its fine to be critical but what would team would you have selected? Here goes, then. I would select Pack at sweeper with license to come forward into midfield whilst Hoilett would play at lwb and Ng at rwb. Of the present three at the back, it would be hard on one of them to accommodate this but the balance of the team would have to take precedence. I guess Ralls and Vaulks would play in the centre of midfield whilst Wilson would play behind Moore and Murphy. In away matches, certainly in games like Swansea (a), I would play Bacuna or Sang in the centre of midfield alongside Vaulks with Ralls playing behind them. To accommodate this either Wilson or Murphy would play behind or alongside Moore.
Well, we won’t get relegated, that’s for sure, so our new Manager has done the job he was brought in to do. Well done, sir. However, when the present formation works its fine but when it doesn’t its awful to watch. We certainly need Plan B and Plan C before next August. The deficiencies of the team are there for all to see. To what extent MMc will address this matter for 2021-22 is a mute point. Is he so set in his ways that, at best, he will only tinker with it and even more games, like last night, are on the menu when we play against a manager who has out-thought our system? Or will August 2021 herald a bright new future? We can but dream.
Thanks both for your replies. Anthony, there’s not a great deal I can say about your message because, especially when it comes to what you say about Keiffer Moore, I agree with all of it. As for alehouse football, I think we’ve been playing something akin to it for years. I think I’ve said before that a reason I turned out to be more of a watcher than a player of the game in adulthood is that I wanted to see better players than I would ever be doing things with a football that I couldn’t – currently, City are playing a better version of alehouse football than any team I’ve ever been in could, but, if you strip it right down to the basics, we play the sort of football you’d expect from a pub team.
Steve, I have no problem with Ng playing as a right wing back, but I don’t think he is quite the same player on the left and so, with Brown required in the centre of defence (unless we reverted to back four and use him at left back), it might be time to look for the a wing back who is more of the former than the latter. I’m guessing here, but could the reluctance to use Hoilett be down to the fact that he has indicated that he will be leaving us at the end of the season?
As for what the future holds, our recent performances make it likely that we will have four or five matches at the end of the season where we’ll have nothing much to play and, if that is the case, then I hope we will take the opportunity Russell Slade didn’t back in 14/15 and give a few of the younger players a chance.