Cardiff City brought the curtain down on their pre season programme by playing for the first time on home soil as a clever and classy Real Betis side left with a 2-1 win in front of a crowd of just under 10,000.
City only lost two league matches after scoring first last season (at QPR and Derby), but it’s happened twice already to them in their warm up matches – Rotherham, like Betis, were able to come back from conceding early on as new signing Josh Murply found the net for us, but the Yorkshire side, hammered 5-1 yesterday by Brentford on the opening day of the Football League competitions, were also able to turn things around to win by the odd goal in three.
It was my first chance to watch City in the flesh this season, but, with the match being televised live on S4C, my guess is that most people reading this will have also seen the game in one way or another. So, this will be no blow by blow account of proceedings, more a set of reflections on an encounter which I felt was both interesting, in terms of the complete contrast between the way the teams went about their business, and entertaining when judged by the normal standards of these pre season affairs.
Before doing so though, I’m going to lay a bit of background to things by commenting on what seems like the ending of our summer long pursuit of Marko Grujic, Liverpool’s Serbian international central midfielder.
At various times during the last few months, it seemed like a formality that Grujic would be returning here for another loan spell. Indeed, I think it was in my piece last week that I confidently predicted that he would be here with us come the start of the season.
However, I began to change that opinion when I read an interview with Grujic early last week that included comments about how he would wait and see what happens before making a final decision on where he will play his football in the coming season – he also claimed that there was plenty of time yet for things to be sorted out. I’ve just been looking for the interview but can’t find it at the moment – suffice it to say, it hardly read like the views of someone who was committed to coming to Cardiff for the season.
Word is that the deal fell through because the new contract Liverpool wanted Grujic to commit to before letting him go out on loan (Harry Wilson was only allowed to make his temporary move to Derby after signing a new contract) remains unsigned and Neil Warnock mentioned that, with Liverpool in three competitions where the Premier League’s twenty five man squad rules would not apply, there may be first team opportunities for the Serb, even if he cannot play in the Premier League.
Whichever way you look at it though, its been a bit of a mess and, although I accept that I could be accused of being wise after the event here, I think questions need to be asked about why City were so keen on holding on for Grujic as long as they did (Neil Warnock spoke of possible transfers City didn’t follow through on because they were so confident Grujic was coming here).
After all, it’s hardly as if Grujic did anything last season to suggest he would be an indispensable performer for us in the Premier League is it. If we were talking about, say, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, then waiting for months on the understanding that we were likely to get him while we allowed other possible targets to come and go would make complete sense, but we aren’t – Grujic did a pretty good job for us last season in the Championship and an argument could be made for saying that he may be one of those players who are more suited to the Premiership, but I think there are plenty of City fans (including this one) around now wishing that we had moved on from the whole thing weeks ago.
So, with just days left to do something about it, that’s how we find ourselves in a position whereby our central midfield options are considerably fewer than they were last season with Greg Halford, Craig Bryson (who played ninety minutes for Derby in their win at Reading on Friday night) and Marko Grujic all having left the club since May with no one brought in to replace them.
The real extent of our problems in this area were emphasised when Aron Gunnarsson’s name was missing (presumably because of injury) from the team sheet for the Betis match. Did the use of a three centreback formation, with Sol Bamba often pushing forward into a deep midfield position, with wing backs and a very flexible front three come about because of a lack of central midfielders?
So it was that we went with Lee Peltier and the excellent Joe Bennett as wing backs and Junior Hoilett, Bobby Reid and Murphy in forward positions. In the middle, Joe Ralls was supported by Callum Paterson who would move forward to become the target for Neil Etheridge’s long clearances and, occasionally by either Bamba moving forward or Reid moving backwards. It all looked a bit England in the World Cup to me where for Ralls, read Jordan Henderson – England, essentially, played with a one man central midfield in Russia because Gareth Southgate didn’t think the others within his squad in that area were good enough to start in games, whereas City went with a central midfield of Ralls and, er, no one else because they didn’t have any one else!
Yes, I know Loic Damour came on for the last half an hour or so, but the point is that it only took an injury to one of Ralls and Gunnarsson for us to look totally threadbare in the middle of the park.
I suppose the one consolation is that we are probably better placed to cope with a situation where we only have a couple of fit central midfielders because, if you judge the need for them in terms of time spent in possession, we don’t need many – if any!
This was really brought home because of the total contrast in philosophy between the two sides. Where Betis keeper Pau Lopez would venture thirty yards from goal to join in when his central defensive team mates passed it around until they spotted a colleague in a good position further forward, our goalkeeper would always look to bypass the middle of the pitch as he aimed long kicks towards Paterson.
There was a period between Betis’ goals when they seemed to have possession continuously for about ten minutes – in truth, it wasn’t really like that of course, but what touches City did have in this spell tended to be tackles which would present the ball back to Betis or misplaced passes which, again, ensured that the visitors never had to wait long before they got their ball back.
What yesterday’s match emphasised most to me was just how little possession of the ball is valued at Cardiff compared to virtually any other side in the Premier League or Championship.
I should emphasise here that I found yesterday useful because it really brought this attitude towards the issue of ball retention at Cardiff to the fore when you contrasted it to Betis’ way of playing the game. However, it should be said that quite often the ball wasn’t surrendered by City because of poor control or shoddy passing, it was given away because City were always looking to use their pace to counter attack and so were constantly looking to play early, high risk, passes to the trio up front.
When you do that all of the time, you will invariably hand over possession more than you’d want to. Even so, I dread to think what the possession stats were looking like at half time (something like 85/15 against us would be my guess), but that disparity cannot all be put down to Betis’ talent and our lack of talent or the fact we were playing in a way that was never designed to keep possession of the ball for long periods (we often “gifted” Betis possession because we were always looking to open them up in as few a number of touches as possible). Athough Burnley beat Liverpool a couple of years back with just 20 per cent possession, that game is remembered because it was exceptional – most times when you only have the ball for a fifth of the game, you end up getting beat.
What was encouraging though was that the combination play between Reid, Murphy and Hoilett was quite often causing the Betis defence serious problems.
If City were emulating England when it came to the centre of midfield, then I would say we were mimicking Spain circa 2012 with our lack of anyone who could be described as a centre forward. However, even when those possession stats must have been so much against us in the first half, the pace and movement of Reid, Murphy and Hoilett, along with our threat from dead balls, ensured that Betis had quite a few narrow squeaks before being able to go in at the break 2-1 up.
Now, although there was promise in the way the front three combined, it should also be noted that Betis are such an attacking side that it would often only take one pass to get City players running at an undermanned defence – I’ll be surprised if we are going to see a side which looked as open as Betis did at times playing us at Cardiff City Stadium, or anywhere else in the Premier League for that matter, in the coming months.
This trend continued in a second half which saw City, if not dominant, have the better of things. We were grateful at times for some good last ditch defending by Bruno Manga especially, but we were often able to build promising situations for ourselves by looking slightly more assured in possession.
However, City were unable to get the draw they probably deserved after their spirited second half showing and you couldn’t help but think it wasn’t going to be our day when Murphy shot wide when one on one with Lopez.
This was the only blemish in a man of the match display by our new signing from Norwich whose evening began with a beautifully struck shot inside five minutes, after being neatly put through by Sean Morrison, which beat Lopez all ends up on his near post.
Betis’ reaction to going a goal down was impressive and for a fifteen minute spell around the half hour mark they threatened to run away with the game – Etheridge saved well from Lorenzo Moron, only to be beaten by him within a minute and then the visitors took the lead when Cristian Tello’s shot was diverted in by Bamba. The veteran Joaquín then smashed a shot against the crossbar and great covering by Bennett I think it was, denied Takashi Inui what seemed a certain goal.
At this stage, you could be forgiven for despairing of our Premier League chances, because we just couldn’t get the ball off our opponents and were being opened up seemingly at will, but, by the end, our ability to fashion chances out of very little possession suggested we have a chance if we can defend better than we did at times today.
Our fluid play at times in the final third offered hope that we aren’t going to be just a one trick pony in the Premier League, but, despite the four new signings, I must admit that we still look like a side that has a Plan A and not much else.
Most, if not all, of our Premier League opponents could start their campaign with a certain playing philosophy (e.g. a patient passing approach) and switch quite comfortably to something more direct if it was failing, but I don’t think we are able to be as flexible as that, because our squad has been put together to play and behave in a certain way and I doubt we would succeed if we attempted to pass the ball more with our current squad, so, although I cannot see it happening, I would argue that, if we are to make a couple of midfield signings in the coming week, they should be players who are also comfortable at playing a more possession based game.
Just a couple of quick news updates to end things. City’s Development team were able to beat Armiens in a practice match on Friday by 3-1 with Anthony Pilkington and Gary Madine adding to a first half own goal which had got us level again after falling behind early on.
Finally, Mark Harris joined Newport County on loan until January during the week and he was an unused sub as they opened their league season with a disappointing 3-0 defeat at Mansfield, while there are also reports linking Omar Bogle and Lee Camp with similar such moves to Ipswich and Bolton respectively.
Thanks, Paul. I watched the game on the box and the S4C graphic reported the possession at 20:80 at one point in the first half (I think).
Don’t know if it was me but the bright sunshine and the contrasting shade made following the ball and spotting players difficult. I managed to see enough to make me fear a season of much embarrassment. We had a defence and we had attacking players but there didn’t seem to be much of a plan to get the ball from the former to the latter. I felt sorry for Ralls!
The ease with which the Betis players went past Peltier suggested to me that we need a right full-back urgently. Even though he improved second half I am concerned with the lack of pace Manga showed.
Perhaps the only positive for me was the showing by Murphy, certainly has the ability to go past the full-back on the outside. Undoubted too early to pass judgement on the other newcomers but I was expecting more from Reid.
All that we can hope for is that Neil and co. have some good shopping excursions during the next couple of days.
Just a word or three on Mr.Woosnam’s liking for Barry McKay. Like Dai I have been impressed with what I have seen of the little Scotsman. I remember telling my neighbour (who is both a Rangers and Liverpool fan) that Liverpool should sign McKay.
I was surprised that he went to Forest where he made a promising start but the fact that he was allowed to go West for such a small fee suggests that the East Midlands club weren’t that impressed.
Cheers again Paul for an excellent summary. The lack of possession in the first half was embarrassing at times, obviously not helped by the midfield selection. Sol is no William Carvalho and as much as I like Paterson his touch and control is not premiership quality.
Which leads me on to another concern, if Decordova- Reid is to replace Paterson in the number 10 role there will be no point in banging the ball high and long and we will also lack a physical presence, leading to even worse possession stats.
We are down to the bare bones in midfield and Gunna’s recent injury record ain’t great. In hindsight the luxury of buying a quality backup keeper and left back were not priorities, midfield and right back were. Danny Simpson and Harry Arter please Mr Tan or we will be threatening Derby County’s embarrassing record.
Thankyou, Paul, as ever.
We should have gone for Chris Gunter in the close season, as I suggested. We have left it late now to replace Peltier. Mind you, had I realised Wolves were going to let go their talented refrigeration engineer for a relative song, I would have pounced there.
As for a midfield grafter, we have one unbeknownst to us. I refer to Joe Bennett. He is very good, going forward. But defensively, I predict that the likes of Theo Walcott, Marko Arnautovic, Raheed Sterling (and not to forget a certain Herr Leroy Sane…!!)…will all cut him to ribbons.
As for left back, presumably the new chap Cunningham must be really good if he costs a third more than the chap I thought was the best full back (after Ryan Fredericks) in the Championship, last season…viz., Barry Douglas, who I mentioned above.
I write this before the Leeds game kicks off. Every season great things are predicted at Elland Road…and they proceed to disappoint. But this year, with that manager, and those shrewd signings, I think they will at least make the playoffs. Even if they lose their opening fixture today.
As for Colin suggesting that wonderful McKay fell out of favour at Forest…I respectfully suggest Colin that no, he did not. He fell out of favour with just one man…Aitor Karanka.
Remember he was very much Mark Warburton’s baby. He knew from their time at Ibrox, what magic the boy could do. And once Warburton was shown the door, McKay was playing for a manager who wanted to bring in his own clever playmaker. And we all know who he was…!! The very talented Lee Tomlin.
I love Tomlin …but that explosive pace over the first 15 yards that was oh so evident at Peterborough and Middlesbrough, had deserted him by the time he had got to Ashton Gate. McKay has the legs of the young Lee, all the tricks, and a greater willingness to track back. I predict he will be the Championship buy of the season.
Good afternoon Paul and others – as ever, a thoughtful and accurate report on events of the last seven days, and which has me puzzled for a number of reasons.
Yesterday’s match produced worrying defensive deficiencies which no amount of last ditch challenges ( Bennett’s marvellous block being the stand out one ) will prevent top class opponents from breaching our goal. There is so little pace in our back four or five as a unit, and the leisurely way we try to recover when our attacks break down will only result in Etheridge/Smithies standing almost alone against pacy attackers. Why our Management team have not seen it necessary to address these defensive frailties has to be of concern, for any research carried out on the Premier League’s attacking personnel will reveal just how quick most are. Sadly, I fear Messrs Peltier, Manga and Morrison will be found wanting.
Whilst I enjoyed Murphy and Reid’s first showing at the CCS, our Ken on his arrival was somewhat poor in his control of the ball, and seems to have gone backwards in his ability to forge an opening for himself and others. And as Jeff has stated, Paterson in the mid-field position he started was like the proverbial fish out of water. And is Gunnars injured already?
Finally the sage of Grujic ends badly and for all concerned. Just where we go now for his like I’m unsure, but we really do need a competent defensive mid-fielder, I’m afraid Bamba is not the answer.
So it is off to the South Coast we go on Saturday, and having seen the highlights of their demolition of Olympique Marselle by 5 goals to 2 yesterday, my optimism of 24 hours ago has receded somewhat.
Balanced and acute comments from our Blogmeister and all contributors as always.
Several alarm bells kept ringing as I watched the game. Apart from the excellent goal and a few occasions, which suggested a more “footballing” approach, Cardiff were locked into a strategy which remained immune to tactics, A strategy is an approach worked out beforehand; tactics are ways in which that strategy is implemented, be it totally as the strategy demanded or simply altered to an extent ranging from small to total. Cardiff’s strategy was primarily for our goalkeeper to hoist a long ball for Paterson to head. Etheridge seems to have a longer kick this year (which is good) and Paterson did get his head to a fair number of high balls (which is also good)
BUT, that was more or less the full extent of Cardiff’s creativity.
If we are going to play that way, as we all seem to agree we must, we need someone apart from Paterson to win the aerial challenges with accuracy. There was one example of this in particular I can recall from the tail-end of last season when Madine got his head to a cross at the far post and headed down to the feet of Kenneth Zohore who managed to scramble the ball into the net. Given Madine’s aerial ability, not to mention his excellent goal scoring record and hold-up play before he came to Cardiff, I was surprised and disappointed not to see him called into action on Saturday. He is both the blunt implement and hold-up merchant which the Cardiff strategy would seem to demand.
Such a strategy depends on long and accurate clearances from the goalkeeper, successful challenges from Paterson plus accurate downward headers to a comrade’s feet or to space he can utilise. If some or none of these factors materialise, how else would Cardiff play? Presumably, same old, same old. That is potentially alarming for forthcoming Premiership games.
Implicit in what I’ve said regarding reliance on strategy rather than tactics is the lack of midfield dominance and creativity.
Equally alarming was the way in which Real Betis had our central defenders leaving gaps as they were chasing shadows and relying on last-gasp tackles. I’ve mentioned previously that there is a weakness dealing with an opponent coming in from the wide left onto his right foot. Compounding this might well be a lack of speed and mobility in our central defence (something which Dai Woosnam has often mentioned).
However, if faults can be highlighted, this is the first step to rectifying them. I hope and pray we can do great things in the coming season.
Morning everyone, I think that there was a general feeling that, after signing four fairly early on in the summer, we would have got. or were very close to getting, the two or three others that most would agree were needed to give us a decent chance of surviving. The fact that we haven’t and we are now so close to the start of the campaign is concentrating minds and I suppose people are being more realistic about our prospects. For myself, and I’m not saying this for effect, I can see no way we can stay up if we forced to play with the current squad up until January – in particular, our central midfield (I’m not talking about Reid/Tomlin type number tens here, but what I’d call proper midfielders) is not good enough for this level. In saying that, get a couple of decent quality additions to that part of the side in over the next few days, and I’d say we’d have a fighting chance of avoiding the drop.
Perhaps it’s because I watched Saturday’s game thinking that there is no way we’ll be playing in the Premier League with a midfield like this that I don’t feel as gloomy about things as you all seem to. Colin, I agree with you about Joe Ralls – I posted that if he is given a workload like he had on Saturday every week, he going to be knackered by mid October on a City messageboard yesterday. As for Barrie McKay, we were in for him last summer before he chose to join his former Rangers boss at Forest, so despite him hardly being of a Warnock type player build, it would seem that he is a Warnock type player – I think Dai is right about his fate at Forest owing most to the fact that the current manager there didn’t fancy him, but he also left Rangers for a very cheap fee and I’d say he is the sort of player who has the talent to stand out on highlights videos, but maybe he would look a bit different if he was playing for your club week in, week out?
Jeff, I’ll be surprised if we are in the market for a right back, but I think Arter is a good shout. However, there are other City fans who say that “possession type deep midfielders” like him have no place in the way we want to play the game. Where an Arter would want to get plenty of touches and bring other players around him into play, the plan at Cardiff is to get the ball forward as quickly as possible to set up counter attacks – we may give the ball away again within seconds when we finally get it back, but the view seems to be that this is a price worth paying if we can create, say, a twenty five goals in this way.
Not sure Lee Tomlin ever had “explosive pace” Dai, but he did have the ability to beat markers by using his far above average technique – whether he had the ability to do it in the Premier League has never been proved mind, Eddie Howe didn’t think he could when he was Bournemouth and I’m pretty sure that the current version wouldn’t be able to. As for our defence, the step up in class means we are always going to look more porous there – Manga was comprehensively beaten on a few occasions on Saturday and there has to be questions about how 33 year old Sol Bamba will cope, but with a limited budget, I can understand why Neil Warnock has decided that there are higher priorities for the introductions of new faces elsewhere, central defence can stay as it is.
While, as BJA says, there is a need for more pace at the back, our needs elsewhere are greater. As someone who always fights Zohore cause, I agree with BJA about him on Saturday – off the pace somewhat and I’d say he’s unlikely to start at Bournemouth even if we do not get another striker in.
I would also say that, unless he was injured, Gary Madine’s absence from the squad on Saturday means that Anthony is unlikely to get his wish this weekend. I agree with you Anthony in so much of what you say, but the introduction of the static Madine would mean that one of Saturday’s mobile front three or Paterson would have to make way for him, but what sort of midfield are we going to have if it is the latter who is left out? This all goes to the heart of the problem as I see it, we are a side that plays in a certain way and all of our signings so far have been made with that in mind. We are not a side which wants to build from the back in a style which would be helped by the addition of someone like Arter, we want our goalkeeper to kick it long to someone who can win headers, so, if we want the three up top we had on Saturday, then that targetman for Etheridge has to Paterson because we cannot go committing too many players forward.
I say that mind, but the truth is that we are going to concede the first goal far more often than we did last season, so then, even if we’re playing a top side, our opponents won’t be leaving themselves as open at the back as Betis were at times despite their lead. Our style worked last season because we were mostly able to get ahead in games and then pick our opponents off as they pushed further forward, but logic suggests we are going to need more than we have currently if we are going to seriously inconvenience sides we are trailing to. That’s what I mean about us needing a Plan B and C when the current squad looks solely able to carry out Plan A – we need Arter and, possibly, McKay types to give us that something a bit different.
Paul,
Pleased I did not have egg on my face re the Leeds opener. This is the manager who had that Chilean team playing almost the most thrilling football imaginable. Were I a betting man I would put my tenner on Leeds for automatic this season.
You are right Paul to question my comment re Tomlin’s “explosive pace over 10/15 yards”. As usual, I could have been more precise.
I think I saw every Saturday goal Lee scored for Peterborough, and played them all back after the screenings. Always marvelling…especially at some of his interplay with Boyd.
And what I was talking about perhaps was really explosive speed off the MARK…and a lot of that is linked to the old football adage…”the first two yards are in the head”.
Look at his second goal here…and also his part in the fifth goal
https://youtu.be/g-b1Rz77k8U
Paul,
Just to show I am not in a direct line of descent from Nostradamus, did you see that incredibly stupid headed back pass from my boy Aden Flint at the weekend …?!
There is no way he will try that nonsense again with Tony Pulis in charge.
And talking of nonsense, Villa’s second goal tonight was down to a stupid, deliberately underhit kick from David Marshall aimed at trying to find a colleague just short of the halfway line. Madness. Please David Marshall, hit the ball thirty yards further forward, and take pressure off yourself. I reckon Paul that when you say that Neil Etheridge has developed a longer kick, we should say in the words of Frank Loesser…”Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition”.
And just do what our Anthony ‘AMO’ Mor O’Brien* suggests, viz., play a man up front ahead of SuperCal who can win a ball in the air even better than Callum.
And that man as AMO suggests is…our non-striking striker, Gary Madine. And who knows…with a goal or two to end his drought, he could suddenly rain goals…!!
*I normally call him AMO…even to his face. But today I gave him his proper name, as I did not want his acronym nickname in the next sentence to one where I had mentioned ammo …with two Ms…!!
Well, the Deadline has come and gone. And SKY pundits Ryan Mason, Ian Wright and Alan Smith all think that the Bluebirds have had the worst transfer window of all the teams in the EPL.
But I am unconvinced. I am reminded of the phrase “when everyone moves West, it is smart to move …East”.
Particularly inspired has been getting two vital midfielders on…LOAN.
Brilliant. For this way, if City go down, we won’t be saddled with huge EPL salaries in the Championship.
Conversely, if we don’t go down and the two midfielders signed today really cut the mustard, then we can buy them a year from now.
I still think though that we missed two Bristol City players who are better than their one we paid so much money for. Those two are Aden Flint (who deserves to play in the top flight, but has had to settle for Boro) and Joe Bryan, who is everything Joe Bennet is going forward, and even better defensively.
The latter has gone to Fulham, who even more than Wolves, have bought astonishing numbers of new recruits. We can only hope that they both have so many players stockpiled that some will cause internal dissent to break out. Too many cooks spoil the broth, etc.