City’s high energy approach already beginning to take it’s toll?

Posted on September 26, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

Yesterday’s 0-0 stalemate with Leicester at Cardiff City Stadium raised plenty of questions as far as I am concerned. Trouble is, I don’t think it is possible to answer most of them with any certainty because the way that City’s gameplan was disrupted by injury meant that anyone wanting to argue against any of the more ominous conclusions I may come to has a ready made and, very possibly, valid reason for why the game panned out as it did. So, all I can do is raise the questions, I don’t know the answer to them, but I just hope that my suspicions aren’t correct.

To start off with, Malky Mackay has told us that we can expect a hard working, high energy pressing game from the team this season and, apart from too much of the Brighton match, that’s just what we have got so far. I would say this approach has proved popular with supporters so far and, by and large, the response to our new team has been favourable. However, I’m sure I’m not the only City fan who remembers Watford’s finish to the two seasons in which Malky was in charge (particularly last year) and thought the real acid test for us will come in six months time when bodies and minds get tired – watching us labour away yesterday for much of the match though had me wondering whether we may already be beginning to pay the price for pushing some of the team too hard and too quick?

Of course, a small squad and our insistence that any match we play in the League Cup has to last for one hundred and twenty minutes doesn’t help matters, but was the slow and lethargic start we made to the game just down to the injury Craig Conway picked up or was there more to it than that? My suspicion is that Conway’s injury did effect the way we began the game – he has become a very important player for us in the short space of time he has been here, so many of our goalscoring opportunities are down to his crossing ability and the fact that he is really the only player we have of his type could well explain much of the hesitancy we saw early on when the team were, to all intents and purposes, denied their go to attacking outlet.

The injuries picked up by Conway and Mark Hudson appear to have been impact injuries that can happen at any time, as to when Earnie picked up the knock that forced him off, I’m not sure, but, listening to Malky Mackay after the game it seems to have happened when he was trying a shot. Therefore, it would appear that, just like Steve McPhail, Andrew Taylor and Rudi Gestede, Earnie picked up a pull or a strain that did not involve contact with an opponent during the course of a game. Ben Turner is also still unavailable because of injury picked up in training when he stretched to attempt a block in a practice situation while Tom Heaton is also unavailable with what we are told is a calf injury, so that’s five or, possibly, six players currently receiving treatment for non impact injuries – coincidence, bad luck or the result of a group of players being pushed too hard in training? I don’t know the answer to that, but when we have more than half of a team out with such injuries, I think it’s a fair question to ask.

The largely ineffective Kenny Miller is closed down by Leicester captain Matt Mills (at £4 million, the most expensive of the big money buys by the Foxes this summer).

Going back to how we started yesterday, I reckon any theory about us being tired going into the game can be dispelled by how we played in the third quarter. It was the only time that I ever thought that a goal might be coming as we showed plenty of urgency and endeavour in forcing Leicester back time and again. As Malky Mackay said, we looked to be likely winners at this stage, but Gestede’s injury seemed to change all of that as the visitors dominated late on. Just as with Conway in the first twenty minutes, it can be said that any superiority Leicester had in the last few minutes was down to the fact that, essentially, they were playing ten men, but there were a few others making tired mistakes in those closing stages – a sign that the whole ethos of the Mackay management style is already catching up with some or an understandable reaction in a match played out in a pretty unique circumstances? Again, a question which I feel cannot be answered with any certainty until we see how the team reacts against Southampton on Wednesday.

A more left field question occurred to me in the closing stages as Peter Whittingham sliced  a decent shooting opportunity well wide with about twenty minutes left. Although there were a couple of occasions when he caught shots really well yesterday, it seems to me that Whitts isn’t hitting his shots as cleanly as he usually does this season – could that be anything to do with the fact that he is covering so much more ground and working so much harder this year? Obviously, this would not effect him in dead ball situations, but in open play is he finding it more difficult to “set” himself properly because he is on the move so much and could, perhaps, be stretching when he gets shooting chances? Whatever, although I didn’t think he had his best game yesterday (he was overhitting a lot of long passes that he would usually make), I’d say the new Whitts this season offers more than the one we grew used to seeing in his first four years with us.

Two of City's best players (McNaughton and Gerrard) combine to deny Leicester's Andy King with the sort of desperate defending that kept our goal intact during a frantic finale to the game.

During our period of dominance in the second half, the main threat came from the marauding runs down the right of Kevin McNaughton. Although there were times when his passing, once again, wasn’t the best, the fact that he was our main (or, indeed, only!) attacking outlet made him my City man of the match. Unfortunately, the other candidates (Gerrard and Gunnarsson) tended to impress because of their defensive work as did Darcy Blake, who in my book, improved the central defensive pairing when he came on.

Of course, some credit has to be given to Leicester. If a side deserved to win the game, I would say that it was definitely them – they looked a lot more solid defensively than they did whenever I saw them last season and, just as on Wednesday, they edged the midfield battle, but, overall, I couldn’t help thinking that all of that money spent should give them a better team than that – maybe when the very poor Jermaine Beckford stops thinking he’s too good for this level, they might start justifying that enormous outlay over the summer, but there still looks to be something missing there to me.

As for us, I think it needs to be remembered that we now have exactly the sort of side that many of us were crying out for after the Reading defeat last May. They all work very hard, they all play for each other, there is a great team ethic and they are a lot more resilient than most recent City sides have been. However, after the last three home league matches, I think it’s fair to say that sides visiting us this season can do so knowing that if they can keep Whittingham quiet, there is not much in the current squad that is going to take them by surprise in the way that Joe Mason probably did to the wurzels. There is plenty of honest endeavour and that will be good enough quite often in this league, but every side needs a few players capable of turning tight matches like yesterday’s in their favour with a bit of magic from somewhere and I’m afraid that we probably only have one of them at the moment.

City have made a loan signing in the last few days with Aston Villa keeper Elliot Parish being brought in for six weeks as cover for David Marshall in Tom Heaton’s absence, but you got the feeling that Malky Mackay would not be rushed into making other signings if they weren’t exactly the type of player he wanted. It’s hard to argue with such reasoning, but I’d like to think that this situation might change now in view of all of the injuries we have picked up in the last week or so. Whether we have just been plain unlucky or there is a more ominous reason for what has happened, we are fast getting to the stage where our squad will not be able to remain competitive at top six level unless we can draft one or two loan signings in.

Posted in Down in the dugout, Out on the pitch | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Opening skirmish goes to City.

Posted on September 22, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

If we get a home draw in the Fourth Round of the Carling Cup, I wonder if the club will give any thought to moving the kick off time forward to, say, seven o clock so that people will be able to get away at their normal time for a night match once extra time and, probably, penalties have been completed? Beginning their journeys home at around half past ten has become the norm for City fans this season when it comes to League Cup matches as last night they saw their team edge through to the last sixteen of the competition with a penalty shoot out win over Leicester City following the extra time wins over Oxford United and Huddersfield Town.

With the sides level at 2-2 at the ninety minute mark and the thirty minutes of extra time unable to separate them, it was time for another penalty shoot out against Leicester and, just as on that never to be forgotten night just under seventeen months ago, it was City who prevailed – this time by a score of 7-6. The tension, drama and subsequent celebration that was witnessed in May 2010 may not have been present to the same degree, but it was still great to see City come through this test of skill and courage with flying colours. To be brutally honest though, much of what preceded the shoot out was pretty low key stuff – that’s not to say it was particularly boring, but, understandably I suppose, the intensity of that Play Off Semi Final was never present as two weakened, but pretty evenly matched, sides slugged it out in increasingly wet conditions which were in marked contrast to those of that glorious May evening last year.

A calf injury to Tom Heaton meant that it was just the seven changes from the Blackpool match with Marshall, Taylor, Cowie and Kiss surviving from the starting eleven at Bloomfield Road, while Sven kept only captain Matt Mills from the eleven which beat Brighton on Saturday and even he was withdrawn at half time with a minor injury. Therefore, City will be facing a Leicester team on Sunday which will have a fresh set of players, while some important members of our likely starting eleven will be trying to raise themselves again after a very gruelling one hundred and twenty minutes. Both Filip Kiss and Don Cowie played the full two hours as did Paul Quinn and Darcy Blake who are candidates, along with Lee Naylor, to replace Andrew Taylor who limped off around the hour mark with what looked like a hamstring injury that would sideline him for a fortnight at least.

The moment victory was achieved - the Official site captures the reaction of the team as Paul Quinn's penalty hits the back of the net.

Aron Gunnarsson was another of Sunday’s likely starting line up to get involved as he completed what was virtually a full ninety minutes after replacing the desperately unlucky Steve McPhail, who was making his first team debut for the season, around the thirty minute mark. McPhail seemed to tweak a groin muscle as he stretched to prevent the ball crossing the touchline and so his stop/start (make that mostly stop actually) campaign continues I’m afraid. Looking back, City probably played their best football of the night while he was on. Although, with Earnie and Joe Mason pretty anonymous, there was little to come in terms of chances from it, our midfield were winning the battle in that part of the pitch in the first half hour, but, from then on, I thought the visitors gained the whip hand – that’s not meant to denigrate Gunnarsson, who I thought was one of our best players, but much of his good work came in the form of fighting midfield fires started by increasingly shoddy play from some of his colleagues.

Before City went off the boil though, they had gone in front when their Mr Perpetual Motion Don Cowie reacted quickly and cleverly to score with a header on thirty three minutes from around the penalty spot after the visitors defence got in a mess trying to deal with another good cross by Taylor. This goal made Cowie our top scorer with four so far – it seems that there is some amazement that three of them have come from headers, but I must say that his goals at Blackpool and then last night suggest that he has some ability in that department. Apart from a lack of serious pace, it’s hard to spot too many weaknesses in Cowie’s game and when you also consider his tremendous stamina, I’d say our signing from Watford is someone who could get a starting birth in virtually every team in this division. It didn’t take Leicester long to level things up again though – Paul Quinn and Dekel Keinan showed early signs of rustiness and the latter was beaten very easily by the impressive young Leicester striker Jeff Schlupp who put over a low cross which that old warhorse Steve Howard nudged in from close range.

Quinn improved after a poor first half, – as did Keinan, but not to the same extent as his colleague as, possibly carrying a knock, he never looked like the player who was so impressive for much of the second half of last season. With Ben Turner having picked up what is described as a a none too serious injury in training this week, I’d say that Darcy Blake might well be the third choice centreback at the club at the moment. Last night, one important mistake aside, Blake did well as his pace was shown to good effect on occasions to deal with awkward looking situations. However, the poor pass he played out of defence halfway through the second half undid so much of his earlier good work as it was seized upon by Neil Danns who burst into the penalty area and looked odds on to score. A superb tackle by Gunnarsson appeared to have snuffed out the danger though, but, unfortunately, the ball landed at Lloyd Dyer’s feet and he drove low past the helpless Marshall.

Paul Quinn is engulfed by team mates after the winning penalty.

Given that, Cowie’s goal apart, it was hard to think of too many times City had threatened to get on the scoresheet up to then, it was hard to see them getting back into the match from here. Leicester were comfortable and, without Peter Whittingham’s inventiveness, there was no sign of City putting a move together of sufficient quality to trouble them – it needed a mistake or a moment of inspiration if they were to draw level and it was the latter that was provided eight minutes from time. A few weeks ago I posted on one of the City messageboards that I could not see Rudy Gestede scoring too many goals for us, but he had other virtues that could still make him an asset. The Frenchman was still waiting for his first goal in a competitive match for City when he brought down a free kick, turned and planted a low right footed drive past Weale from twenty yards – in doing so, he didn’t exactly prove me wrong, but he did show that he is capable of scoring high quality goals at a time when they were most needed. Gestede’s fine goal was a just reward for not just a City man of the match performance last night, but also for what has been a very impressive first couple of months at Cardiff – there are times when he can look very raw, but he definitely has something.

In the way we have come to expect from this City team, Gestede was still full of selfless running in an extra time period which, unlike the previous two rounds, largely passed without incident. However, in the last minute or so he went down with cramp and yet he still had the resolve to put away a penalty in the shoot out which would have seen us go out if he had missed. Given that he must have still been hurting and that David Marshall had got much closer to some of the Leicester penalties (I wouldn’t be surprised if he felt he should have saved the very first one from Dyer) than Chris Weale had to any of ours, I was sure Rudy was going to miss. Instead of that though, he held his nerve superbly and calmly fired into the opposite corner to where his earlier shot had ended up to join Messrs Naylor (another improved performance from him when he replaced Taylor), Earnshaw, Cowie, Conway and Kiss as successful penalty takers. Next up was Leicester’s Swiss international Gelson Fenandes who took a long run up and ballooned his shot over the bar – it now only needed Paul Quinn (another cramp victim) to score and City were through and the skipper came up trumps as he found the corner of the net despite Weale diving the right way.

In his post match interview, Quinn said he had volunteered to take a penalty and was a bit surprised to be told by Malky Mackay that he could take the seventh one. To me this indicates that our manager was not having to look around to find candidates to take the penalties, there were plenty who were willing to do their bit for the team. I’m not sure that would have been the case in some City teams of the recent past and although I shouldn’t forget that we scored all of our spot kicks in the Play Off semi, the fact that we scored seven out of seven makes you think this group of players might have the mental fortitude that has been absent from sides which may have had bigger “stars”.

 

 

Posted in Out on the pitch | Tagged , , | 2 Comments