When a limp, listless and lifeless Cardiff City were deservedly beaten 1-0 at Coventry six days ago, they faced the prospect of two home matches against sides in mid table positions (albeit higher than them) to try and get themselves in better order before they embarked on a run of five matches in six against teams that have started their seasons with a real statement of intent that they are serious promotion contenders.
When the fixtures for this season were released, Luton and Huddersfield at Cardiff City Stadium within three days of each other will have looked like an opportunity to record very rare back to back wins in one of those increasingly common pairs of Saturday/midweek or midweek/Saturday clusters of matches which make up so much of the Championship season.
City have generally been pretty ropey at getting six points from these games down the years and given the fact that confidence was so low following a run of one win in eight games from a side their supporters had been anticipating another top six challenge from and that they only won one of the first six home matches (three of which were lost), it was clear to see why the metaphorical vultures were circling around manager Neil Harris.
Well, with Luton dispatched 4-0 in the first of the two encounters which may possibly have seen Harris lose his job, the pressure had certainly lifted on the City boss, but not completely. That one home win I mentioned earlier had been another big one, 3-0 over Barnsley, but that had been the single victory in that run of eight matches I mentioned earlier. As such, it was a source of frustration as much as anything, because it showed what we were capable of, but remained a distance above the standard of performance that had been the norm in 20/21.
The challenge facing City tonight against Huddersfield was twofold, do not allow another Barnsley follow up situation to develop whereby things slipped back into their bad old ways and, second, ensure that the team would go into a run of matches that might well define their season in a much better frame of mind than seemed possible last Wednesday.
It’s fair to say that City managed this as they brought their tally of unanswered goals to seven in their last two matches with a comprehensive 3-0 win which may not have quite hit the heights seen on Saturday, but was, in some ways, more impressive.
I say that for a few reasons, first, Huddersfield had plenty of possession (sixty seven per cent according to the BBC) and made a strong start to the second half as they pushed us back for ten minutes or so. However, we responded with calm and organised defending which meant that we were never in serious danger of being opened up. Second, although set piece goals certainly have their place in any season where City enjoy a degree of success, scoring three goals from open play, even if one of them was an absolute gift from our opponents, is reassuring at a time when it seems to me we have reverted, to a small degree at least, to our Warnockball roots – I’ll make what I mean there more clear shortly.
Thirdly, and finally, two more goals from Keiffer Moore to take his tally for the season to seven offers the hope that we may finally have found a striker who can move us on from the days when we have been viewing ten goals in a season as a good return for one of our front men – that’s not to say I’m expecting our new striker to hit the twenty mark or anything like that, but, injury permitting, he’s on his way to allowing us the rare luxury of having a Cardiff player near the top of the Championship goalscoring charts come May.
Just a few words now about my earlier Warnockball reference, it was made only semi seriously. Neil Harris remarked after the Luton game that we had been a bit more direct than in recent matches, this was partly down to the type of team we were playing apparently (the same would have been true tonight) and I would say the movement and willingness to run the channels shown by Mark Harris has almost forced us into knocking early balls to him.
There was a telling comment in the commentary tonight (the commentators on the club website have their critics, but I must say that I think they do a good job and the addition of another knowledgeable and interesting guest in new Academy appointee David Hughes was a welcome bonus tonight) that Neil Harris tends to go with the Joe Ralls, Will Vaulks combination in central midfield in games where the opposition are expected to have a lot of the ball and brings in Marlon Pack for matches where we expect to have more possession.
There was a bit of a dogs of war mentality behind Ralls and Vaulks tonight as the free kicks given against them mounted up. In their defence, we had our first Premier League ref of the season in charge of a game tonight – Kevin Friend is someone who I’ve never been too bothered about when I see he is to take charge of one of our matches, but tonight he penalized us nearly twice as often as he did Huddersfield and I thought there were a few against us which certainly fell into the dubious category from him.
Anyway, Ralls and Vaulks were instrumental in showing that the much maligned 4-4-2 system still has a place in the modern game, especially when the wide players do such a good defensive job when the opposition are dominating possession as Harry Wilson and Sheyi Ojo did tonight.
More than in any other game since I’ve had to change my seat in the ground for the one in my computer room at home where the view of the pitch differs so much from what I’m used to, I was struck by the amount of disciplined defensive work our wingers were putting in during that period when Huddersfield briefly got on top. Wilson and Ojo were part of an organised and confident two banks of four which made it so difficult for the visitors to penetrate when they were pressing for an equaliser after half time.
Unlike some wing combinations we’ve used in recent years, Wilson and Ojo were able to display their ability up the other end of the pitch as well – in the case of the former, it was in the form of a succession of quality crosses when we were enjoying our best spell of the game in the quarter of an hour before half time, while the latter was able to add a couple more assists to the good one he came up with in the build up to Harris’ goal on Saturday.
Ojo’s long run down the left touchline on thirty five minutes ended with him playing a low ball to the near post where Moore got ahead of his marker to give City a deserved reward when they were playing well and there could have been further goals during that spell as the visitors struggled to cope with our physicality, urgency and quality.
The second goal came midway through the second half at a time when City were just beginning to reestablish themselves after Huddersfield’s strong spell.
Such is the determination of some sides to build from the back that they’ll occasionally have a nightmare moment or two and present their opponents with a goal. That’s exactly what happened tonight as Ben Hamer rolled the ball to centreback Naby Saah who was immediately put under pressure by sub Junior Hoilett, who had just come on for Harris. Hoilett was able to get the ball off Saah and from there a goal was inevitable as he played it to Moore who couldn’t miss from six yards.
The icing on the cake was a fine late goal by sub Robert Glatzel as he received a pass from Ojo, side stepped the last defender and fired an unstoppable shot high into the net from just inside the penalty area. It was the German’s first goal in sixteen games and, although that stat wasn’t really as bad as it seems because so many of those appearances were as a sub, it will still be a relief for him to have got off the mark this season. You can never have enough strikers with the confidence a recent goal gives them and I’m guessing it’s been some time since we had three of them.
Neil Harris made full use of his substitutes in the remaining minutes as City maintained their perfect record in matches in which they score first (played five, won five, goals for thirteen, goals conceded none), but you have to assume that is not a sequence we’re going to maintain in our upcoming run of fixtures – Watford A, Stoke A, Swansea H, Birmingham H, Norwich A, Brentford H.
However, what is encouraging is that we’ll begin this testing run of games, in front of a crowd of around a thousand at Vicarage Road on Saturday, in a far better place than would have seemed possible after Coventry – the pressure will be right back on our manager if we revert to the general form of our first thirteen matches at Watford and Stoke, but our last two games really couldn’t have gone better for him.
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 finish by making 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.
Coventry (a); Luton (h) & Huddersfield (h)
Thank-you again Paul for your recent reports. Whilst it must be so difficult to muster up the desire to write after so poor a performance as in the Coventry game the literary juices would clearly have been flowing more freely after our two games this last week. Well done, though, to have written so coherently after that woeful game at St Andrews.
It is said that one swallow does not make a summer but we haven’t been talking of that this season. Rather it’s been the litany of sub-standard offerings that has been a matter of grave concern. After the turgid effort against Coventry, thankfully the last two home games have given a somewhat more optimistic outlook as we head into the winter stretch of the season. Those two Luton and Huddersfield games can now be grouped with the Barnsley and first half of the Nott’m F game as hope for a better 30-odd game close to the season.
What has caused the startling change? I read somewhere that at St Andrews of our 16 crosses only one was successful. Needless to say most, if not all, were from deep positions. In contrast, the two encounters this week were characterised by a better tempo and better movement. Whilst I wouldn’t say that the reason was Pack starting both games on the bench a two from Ralls / Vaulks / Bacuna certainly makes us more mobile in the centre of the pitch. Furthermore, the inclusion of Mark Harris (who drifted wide and down the channels almost in the Chopra vein) gave midfield an outlet which had been lacking. His mobility and no little pace was a suitable No 2 to Moore.
In both home games it was noticeable the number of times we took on the full-backs. Harris’ goal at home to Luton came from a full 80 yd run down the left by Ojo. Against Huddersfield Ojo took the defender on before crossing for Moore to tap in from 6 yds. The final goal last night came from a move from deep beyond the 18 yd line on the right wing before an exquisite through ball from Ojo (again) found Glatzel who rammed home an unstoppable effort from a dozen yds.
City easily had the beating of Luton who seemed nowhere near the side that boasted their fine away record since March. Huddersfield, based on Bielsa’s Leeds, unsurprisingly had good movement and an ease on the ball but for all that (and their 562 passes to City’s 272) were nowhere near as clinical as the Bluebirds who ended up worthy 3-0 winners.
So after the awful Coventry game its two wins, 7 goals and none conceded. By any stretch of the imagination that’s a good return, particularly for this season’s Cardiff City. City’s manager, who has wedded his side to safety-first tactics most of this season, has come up wanting repeatedly. Surely the lesson in the first 15 games of the season is that movement and pace, allied to turning the opposition’s defence pays dividends. Will he hold his nerve in the next six daunting games [Watford (a), Stoke (a), Swansea (h), Birmingham (h), Norwich (a) & Brentford (h)] or revert to type? It is my hope that he will have seen enough to persuade him that the stodgy, safety first approach of much of this season has resulted in us conceding the first goal in most games and that goal we have not recovered from. Moreover, particularly against Watford, Swansea, Norwich & Brentford, teams with movement and pace, we will be up against it if we lack those qualities.
PS: Just to say, Paul, I’ve taken your advice and bought, ‘Real Madrid and all That.’ After reading some 30 pages I’ve been transported back to those great days and relived each of those games mentioned. I’m sure the remaining pages will not disappoint and look forward eagerly to further memories of that nostalgic time. Thank-you, again for an excellent volume that now sits on my shelves.
Thanks for the reply Steve, you’re so right about the sort of cross we’ve seen in the last two games. Against Luton, Ojo got close to the byeline and pulled a cross back to Mark Harris – I’ve always thought that crosses which make retreating defenders have to turn around again to advance a few yards are the hardest ones to defend against, certainly they’re are tougher to deal with that ones banged in from thirty or forty yards out where all of the play is in front of you so you always have a good idea where the opponent you’re supposed to be marking is. For the opening goal on Tuesday, Ojo wasn’t quite as close to the byeline as he was against Luton, but Moore’s near post run made his mind up for him as to when to cross and, when it came, it was a beauty, as was the short pass from a central position the same player put through to Glatzel for the final goal – besides being the highest scorer out of wide attacking players, I think Ojo may well have the most assists as well, not bad for a player I voiced my reservations about when we signed him!
Thank you as well for both buying and then praising my book – I hope the rest of it measures up to the first thirty pages!