After settling down to read the messageboard responses to Cardiff City’s 1-0 win over Stoke City upon getting home from the game, it didn’t take me long to come across the first of what I’m sure are many references to us “winning ugly” – my response was to say wistfully to myself “can anyone remember the last time we won pretty?”.
City have won two thirds of their home matches and these wins have included 3-0 and 4-2 scorelines and yet, almost without fail, they have been grim, grinding affairs typified by backs to the wall defending for long periods.
Neil Warnock may have gone, but this was typical Warnock stuff – barely a third of the game in possession of the ball, long spells on the back foot and very little in terms of the thrills and spills that got you interested in the sport in the first place.
However, I do not intend this to be a completely negative piece for the simple reason that any new manager deserves a honeymoon period if you will where serious criticism is allayed for a while on the grounds that the club is going through a transition period where the new man needs to find out about his players and vice versa.
Let’s be fair here, did anyone really think that all of our games under Neil Harris would be as open as his first one was? There was quite a bit wrong with our performance at Charlton, but it all added up to the most entertaining ninety minutes of the season so far as far as I’m concerned.
Our new manager dropped a heavy hint that his second match would be quite a bit different from his first when he talked of wanting a more controlled approach from his team after Saturday’s game.
There was plenty of talk (not least on here!) from supporters about how suspect we were at the back on Saturday and how easy it was for Charlton midfielders to get the wrong side of Marlon Pack and Leandro Bacuna. Therefore, wouldn’t we all be very concerned about our new manager’s credentials if it was to emerge that he had done nothing to try and improve the quality of defending from our back four or the tracking of opposition midfield runners?
It may not have made for enjoyable watching, but City were much better at these aspects of the game tonight than they had been three days earlier and winning ugly or not, the fact of the matter is that this was a deserved win by them.
Of course, going a goal ahead early on is a great help for any side looking to iron out defensive problems because it gives you something to hold on to if morale isn’t great and I don’t think it can have been after a run of two wins in eight games.
Mind you, I will admit that I came out of the stadium not sure if we had won because of greatly improved defending and diligent efforts by our midfield players or because Stoke were simply not very good.
Stoke really are an odd side. As one of their ex jacks, Sam Clucas, was trotting off to be substituted late on in the game with them chasing a reprieve, I asked who the sub was and found out that it was Scott Hogan.who is on loan from Aston Villa following his big money transfer from Brentford a couple of years ago.
Hogan was one of the stand out strikers in the Championship not so long ago and his call up into the Republic of Ireland senior squad came as no great shock, yet he was coming on very late on as the third substitute for a team chasing a goal to get back on level terms.
Yes, Hogan’s star has waned somewhat recently, but I reckon that he would have been out first choice striker tonight if he was on loan to us rather than Stoke. I make it Hogan is one of thirteen full internationals (six of whom were in action against us) in the Stoke squad and, with quality like that at their disposal, as well as uncapped players who are good enough to be very effective performers at this level, you have to wonder how they are in the mess they ate.
Stoke have gambled by keeping the likes of Butland, Martins Indi, Allen and Mame Diouf at the club and under contract and given, the effect that must have on the club’s wage budget, another relegation, this time to League One, would surely be disastrous financially for them.
On this evidence though, it’s certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility that they will go down. For all of their possession, Stoke did very little to bother the City rearguard and all their sixty four per cent share of the ball earned them was an occasional site of goal from a free kick on the edge of the box .
Given their powder puff attacking, it was very hard to reconcile this with the fact that they were coming off the back of successive wins which had seen them score six times.
Stoke passed and passed and passed and the end result of it all was a free kick which Tom Ince put about a yard over the bar in the first half and a promising second half move which was ended by another excellent Lee Peltier block – Neil Etheridge did make a good catch from a cross in added time and there was a routine save from an Ince shot after his first free kick had been blocked about midway through the second half, but this was probably his easiest game since he came back into the first team following his injury.
For all of their failings when in possession on the night, City were still able to look more dangerous than Stoke ever did with Gary Madine coming close to that elusive first goal for City with a stabbed effort from a Lee Tomlin cross that almost beat Butland, Tomlin himself was then twice denied by the keeper and Bacuna, looking for a second goal, saw his well struck shot shot fizz about a yard wide.
Then there was the goal of course which arrived in the tenth minute thanks to Gary Madine’s perceptive and well executed back heeled pass which set Bacuna in on goal and he took the chance with aplomb by lifting his shot over the helpless Butland.
That assist was the highlight of Madine’s evening because, apart from that, he did not reach the standards attained in Saturday’s game as he struggled in particular with the timing of his jumping when contesting high balls. Likewise, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing did not hit the heights seen on Saturday, while Junior Hoilett, although better than he was at Charlton, has, hopefully coincidentally, seen his form tail off under Neil Harris from the levels seen this season under Neil Warnock.
No, it was Tomlin, in for Callum Paterson in the only change to Saturday’s starting line up, who was left to supply what attacking flair we saw from City. As always when he plays for us, we struggled to get Tomlin on the ball, but when we were able to do that in the final third, it invariably caused a problem for Stoke – it was also encouraging to see him last eighty two minutes before being replaced by Will Vaulks, although he it must be said he was out on his feet by then.
Tomlin’s last act before leaving the pitch was to pick up a yellow card for diving which may or may not have been deserved, but it was totally in keeping with the performance of referee Gavin Ward that he saw fit to punish City because he gave us virtually nothing all night – I thought Ward was the worst referee seen at Cardiff City Stadium this season and it was somehow appropriate that such a bitty and ordinary match should be officiated in the downright poor manner that it was.
Neil Harris promised after the match that it will get better under him and I’m sure he knows that it will have to, because home fans were not happy under Neil Warnock despite us winning most of our matches at Cardiff City Stadium. This was too similar to games like Middlesbrough and, to a lesser extent, Luton, but, as I mentioned earlier, the new manager should have time to come up with the improvements he alluded to.
Therefore, I’ll end in positive fashion by saying that, although I find it hard to pin down exactly why it is, I think we do look marginally more dangerous when we attack under Neil Harris than we did under Neil Warnock. For example, would Bacuna have made that forward run for the goal before? Maybe he would have done, but I think what I’m trying to get over is a feeling that we are a little more dynamic in attacking areas under Harris,
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Thanks for the report Paul.
As you say, ‘winning pretty’ still seems a long way in the distance but I think we do have to allow Neil Harris some slack for now and the improved defensive performance gave a glimmer of optimism. Incidentally, Bacuna’s goal meant that he became the 15th different player to score a league goal for us this season in just 18 games. Without checking, I reckon that’s some sort of club record though I’m not sure whether it’s a positive or negative statistic – probably the hallmark of a mid-table team.
While it would be excessive to say that Neil Harris’ first two games were the chalk and cheese syndrome there was certainly more than a whiff of Cheddar and the remains of chalk-dust on the desk when we look back on City’s recent games. If Charlton/a showed a tantalising glimpse of what we hope will be of the future then Stoke/h exhibited all the hallmarks of the EFL Championship under Warnock in 2019.
Two misplaced passes in the Charlton half and 5 seconds later Etheridge was picking the ball out of his net … twice. Sure, in SE London, we played at a higher tempo, had more movement and tended to keep the ball on the grass more than any time over the last 3 seasons, but failure to shackle Oshilaja (base of the midfield diamond) and the diminutive Oztumer (apex of the midfield diamond) caused us problems throughout. Hoilett’s missed penalty was as bad as Paterson’s non-penalty in the first half.
It was good to see that Harris had ditched the daft ploy of having our tallest defenders marking space 6 yds out for corners. He also moved Flint to the right and Nelson to the left of the centre-back pairing. We played a fairly rigid 4411 which became 4312 towards the end. Though it was a creditable draw I’m sure Malky’s and Warnock’s promotion sides would have come away with 3 points without too much trouble from this encounter.
Again setting up 4411 for the he visit of Stoke, Tomlin was preferred to the slower Paterson behind Madine. The opening 15 minutes apart, when City actually tried to play some football, this was attritional stuff with the defensive four and midfield four dropping so deep that the opposition was gifted with as much possession as they desired. The stats show gloomy reading. Stoke’s (66% possession; 544 passes of which 80% were accurate) were in stark contrast to City’s (34% possession; 286 passes of which only 61% were accurate.) The goal was well executed, featuring a beaut of a reverse pass by Madine for Bacuna to slam the ball high into the near corner of the net from 6 yds out. But that really was it for the footballing connoisseur.
Charlton showed us that the home team were quicker in thought and deed whilst Stoke were far more comfortable on the ball, despite only having one shot on target, than the hosts. These must be two issues high up on Harris’ To-Do List. Though we have a glut of central midfielders and strikers, in January we will desperately need pace and passing ability to be brought into those areas. As Peter Sinfield concurred in King Crimson’s wonderfully surreal ditty, in 1970, called, “Cirkus:”
“Elephants forgot, force-fed on stale chalk,
Ate the floors of their cages … ”
There really is no lasting benefit to a diet of stale chalk. In fact it leads to more problems than it solves. Oh for more cheese before we even forget what it tasted like.
Oops! I’ve done it again. Apologies, Paul. After writing my bit above I failed to add thanks to you before I did the copy/paste thing it to your site. Profuse apologies are again in order. Your high standard of writing demands a far wider audience. As you said so pertinently, even with all our failings, “City were still able to look more dangerous than Stoke ever did.” We must not lose sight of that. What a perplexing game we love.
Thank you, Paul and others.
I agree, a poor game made even worse by (let’s be kind) incompetent officiating. If the advantage rule is going to be applied as it was by last night’s referee than it should be removed from the rule-book. So many referees seem wrongly, to think that to retain possession is enough to ignore a foul and the quality of that possession is ignored. Last night Mr. Ward applied that when ignoring a Stoke infringement (can’t remember the details) but when a Cardiff defender committed a foul just outside the box late in the second-half he allowed the game to run and a Stoke player missed a clear shot at goal, fair enough, but for him then to award the free-kick was surely wrong, Stoke were given two bites a the cheese (see what you made me do, Steve?).
Can we assume the dropping of the high-pressing game is down to the open nature of our ‘defence’ at Charlton. Perhaps the lack of pace and the lack of ability to recover in our squad, came as a nasty surprise to Mr. Harris. We were much more conservative in that department last night which led to a clean sheet but also meant a deadly dull affair. A manager can’t win can he?
Just a couple of comments about the individuals last night. Pleased to see Etheridge dominating his box in the dying moments of the game but can someone explain to me why he, Etheridge, probably the worst passer/distributor in the side is asked to take free-kicks from around the half-way line?
Curtis Nelson, liable to make a mistake or two looks as if he could become our best centre-back. No more free-kicks by Bennett please. Bacuna, another who probably will make mistakes but he is growing on me. Pack, I like, pity we didn’t get him when he was younger, one of the few who showed composure late on last night. When he finishes his playing career I think he would make a fine coach for someone. Hoillett looking out of sorts, he got little out of Carter-Vickers last night and perhaps he should revert to the role of impact sub, with a 30-minute cameo substitute performance. Tomlin can be his own worst enemy, he has built up a reputation as a diver and referees are always going to be looking for it but he should definitely start. I had hoped that Madine would get a goal, almost, he’s not a great footballer but he did well early on.
Excellent report and comments.
On times yesterday there was evidence that management and players are trying to diminish many of the problems the team has in passing the ball, but much further work clearly needs to be done. In fact, there are rumours that the cleaners of the changing-room urinals are up in arms because the players cannot even pass water with accuracy. The current high water-mark record is embarrassingly low and scattered!
Nevertheless, the management seem to be aware of the passing problem (which — to use a play on words — will hopefully become less passing as the weeks go by.)
Skill on the ball is part of passing, whether short or long, but vision and good decision-making are also integral to playing the right ball accurately at the right time and at the right pace to the recipient, who must also have vision, movement, ball-control, and the ability to do something useful with the ball when it arrives. All this has to be drilled by constant practice into becoming second-nature for any or all of the players at every level of Cardiff City football. The ability to use both feet would also be a welcome step forward for some of the team, especially for those who think their right-foot is merely for standing on!
I should add that Madine showed genuine football intelligence and skill with his back-heel pass for Bacuna to snap up and score a crowd-pleasing goal last night. Let’s hope it is a sign of things to come!
Paul – Thanks as ever for your views and also those of your followers. A win is a win, but in my view only some frenetic defending on times made the result possible. Of course, it is the function of defenders to put their bodies on the line, which Peltier does regularly, but how I wish for a more measured approach to the art of defending. I fear a more sophisticated attacking team will pass the ball through us and that may well happen on Saturday when we visit Nottingham. The whole team needs more pace but that quality does not appear to be capable with our current personnel. And don’t we miss Bruno.
I do not share the current euphoria about Tomlin, a poor man’s Grealish. An undoubted talent for about a third of any game, but for the remainder trots around making little impression on events. It is no wonder that he has had so many clubs in his career to date, permanent or on loan. Including ourselves, I believe it is at least seven (one of them twice). I had hoped that following a more serious training regime that he had reportedly adopted during the summer months he would have produced the player that he could become with his undoubted talent, a 9o minute full on menace to any opposition, but for me, sadly, that has not happened and I really question if he is deserving of a starting position. A substitute at best.
Our progress in this division will only be achieved by the whole team being sharper both mentally and physically, and I hope that Mr Harris will recognise that sooner rather than later.
Thanks everyone for your replies. Richard, you would hope Madine would eventually get a goal if he had a run of games, likewise Gavin Whyte has to find the net someone along the line this season shouldn’t he? Joe Bennett is usually good for a goal or two at this level as well and even Lee Peltier was making runs into the penalty area on Tuesday, so maybe even he could get one – throw in a new signing or two and, perhaps, a youngster given a chance by Neil Harris and it’s conceivable that we would have twenty or more scorers this season – having so many in November is usually a sign of a team doing a lot better than we are though I would have thought.
Steve, I’ll be sixty four in February, have high blood pressure,am overweight and have a heart condition. Granted, the latter is not as serious as I make it sound provided I keep on taking the tablets, but it’s safe to say that I’m a lot more aware of my mortality than I was. With fifty six years of supporting City behind me, I know that I’m probably into the last quarter of my City watching life and I feel this has given me different priorities. I used to say that the result was all important when it came to my team, but I have had more than my fair share of the sort of ground out, winning ugly, 1-0 wins that we saw on Tuesday (in fact, I would say I’ve seen enough of them to last a lifetime in the last decade!). It would be nice to have a few more truly memorable matches to add to the ones that have been accumulated since 1963, but seem to have dropped away to almost nothing in recent years – there were a few games last season where my mood was really lifted and I felt a sense of pride at the final whistle last season, but that hasn’t happened at all since the beginning of 17/18 in the Championship.
Colin, I agree about the advantage rule, while I would say that I think people were kidding themselves if they thought what we saw at Charlton would be typical of what we would get under Neil Harris – like most people earning a living from the playing side of the game, he is, essentially, a mercenary, so his decision making will be centred on the best way he can keep himself in a job rather than what supporters want to see. Any manager worth his salt would spend time in the preparation for his second match at a club addressing the sort of defensive concerns seen in his first game. As you say, righting the concerns he saw at Charlton, to some extent at least, led to a drastic reduction in the frequency of the aspects of play that were encouraging on Saturday – I’m not sure the current squad has it in them to get things right at both ends of the pitch in the same game.
Anthony, I liked your high water mark remarks! I mentioned after the Millwall and Bristol City matches right at the end of the Neil Warnock era that all the greater share of possession we had in those games did was emphasise our limitations when it came to creativity and quality of passing. There was a period of about fifteen minutes after half time when our passing just went to pieces in the same way as it used to fairly often under Neil Warnock even while we were winning promotion. Such passages of play conclusively prove to me that our inability to retain possession and move the ball from one blue shirt to another with the sort of quality you would expect at this level can only be put down to our method of play to a small extent – our previous manager was never too bothered about things like that was he and this showed in the sort of signings he made.
BJA, I think Stoke, with their lack of attacking pace and movement, were ideal opponents for us, but there are less teams like them around in this division compared to two years ago, hence our low number of clean sheets. As for Tomlin, I’ve never been fully convinced by him, but this season he is the one player in the squad who you feel can open up a defence when receiving the ball in what is now called the number ten position. I’m more pro Tomlin this season than I have been, but you’re right, it is an indictment on City that they are almost wholly reliant on someone who seems incapable of lasting ninety minutes in one aspect of the game – in the end, despite ostracising him for long periods, Neil Warnock was forced to play Tomlin because he had no one else who could offer what he does.