Reaction to latest defeat a reflection of how bad things have got at Cardiff City.

Posted on October 21, 2021 by The other Bob Wilson

Well, that wasn’t as painful as I feared it was going to be. Cardiff City slumped to their seventh consecutive league defeat (the first time this has happened since 1933/34 apparently) and, of course, we didn’t score again as we were beaten 2-0 by Fulham at Craven Cottage tonight.

However, if you were to ask a Fulham fan what they thought of their team’s performance, I think they would say something like they were some way from their best and that it was a routine, but deserved, win.

As a City fan, I couldn’t argue with that and it shows how bad things have become that a loss by a couple of goals, which could have been a lot heavier on another night, is being seen almost as a step in the right direction.

Don’t get me wrong, this was certainly better than Sunday’s surrender before a ball was kicked at Swansea and it was good to see us revert to the sort of formation and approach we saw against Reading.

In short, we had a go at Fulham and, although it was nothing like the Reading game in terms of balance of play and attempts on goal, we could feel aggrieved that we did not get that elusive goal as Sean Morrison’s header at Blackburn remains the only one we’ve scored in the losing run.

I must admit to being mystified once again by our manager’s selection and tactics though. For the life of me, I don’t get why, when faced with away games against Swansea and Fulham, Mick McCarthy would pack his team with central defenders and play with a flat back five with four not far in front of it against a team that was one place above us only by dint of a better goal difference and then revert to what could be called a 4-3-3 against a team that moved up to second in the table tonight!

Not only did McCarthy ditch the back five, he actually only selected two centrebacks as Perry Ng and Joel Bagan returned as proper full backs. Just selecting the two central defenders meant that the Morrison/Nelson/Flint axis was finally broken up with the first named dropping to substitute and the second not even featuring in the eighteen.

Aden Flint took over the captaincy with Mark McGuiness alongside him and with Joe Ralls out with a collarbone injury and Leandro Bacuna not featuring at all (he did pick up an injury at Swansea mind), there was a feeling of out with the old and in with the new to some extent as Sam Bowen and Rubin Colwill came back in with Keenan Patten and Keiron Evans among the substitutes.

I will not give a blow by blow account of the game in which I highlight all of the goalmouth incidents because this would end up being a very long piece indeed if I did. This was a game that really should have had more than two goals in it as heavy rain throughout led to the sort of conditions that forwards always seem to like and there were near things aplenty, mainly, but not exclusively, at the end we were defending.

City’s first scare came inside the first three minutes as former Cardiff man Bobby Decordova-Reid nodded just wide, but, shortly afterwards, Keiffer Moore crashed a shot from the corner of the penalty area on Fulham’s right against an upright and behind for a goal kick. Within another five minutes or so, the home side had also hit the woodwork and the pattern for an entertaining first half was set.

For a while, City, with Colwill doing well down the left, matched Fulham’s attacking intent and troubled the highly rated hosts, but, gradually, their opponents began to take command as City’s Achilles Heel, substandard passing, increasingly reared its ugly head..

It was frustrating, because I definitely got the impression that City could make life difficult for the Fulham defence if they had been able to maintain possession better, but, despite Will Vaulks, who came in to play alongside Marlon Pack, having one of his better games this season in my opinion, our passing was, yet again, not up to scratch and the difference in the speed at which the two sides moved the ball became more marked as the minutes went by. The consequence of this being that as the half went on, there were almost continuous waves of Fulham pressure coming at us as ball retention became more difficult.

With some good defending and blocking, plus a little luck, City were able to reach half time with the match goalless as Colwill with a shot not too far wide and McGuiness with a header which went just over, issued reminders that we still carried a threat of our own.

Sometimes the half time interval can help to change the pattern of a match, but, sadly, that didn’t happen here as Fulham continued to have the upper hand with City’s defending slowly becoming more desperate as they were unable to take the sting out of proceedings by retaining the ball for half a minute or so.

When the goal eventually arrived, it came from someone who has been synonymous with strong Fulham Championship teams in recent years, Tom Cairney. The Scottish international had come on as a half time sub for Harrison Reed who’d picked up a first half injury for his first appearance since being injured last December and he emphatically fired a left footed shot from the edge of the area past Alex Smithies after the ball had been half cleared to him as our defence creaked under the strain of what was continuous pressure.

Within a few more minutes, the match was as good as over with little over an hour played as, incredibly, City conceded a goal after they had tried to play out from the back from a goal kick!

Unfortunately, the way they went about it only served to prove how little practice they have had at this facet of the game – there were no split centre backs or anything like that just Smithies quickly, and inexplicably given the number of opponents close by, passing to McGuiness to his left and the man who had scored for Ireland’s Under 21s last week, who was otherwise good tonight, promptly went further left to Bagan who was stuck on the touchline with opponents close by to press him. This doesn’t fully excuse the pass Bagan came up with though as he presented possession straight to a white shirt and the ball was quickly transferred to Aleksandar Mitrovic who was left with the simple task of beating Smithies from around the penalty spot.

As always happens with this manager, it was the youngsters who made way when substitutions were made. Bowen, quieter than against Reading, again played in the number ten type position which I think suits him less than a deeper role where his ability to retain possession would be beneficial to this team, made way for James Collins, while Ryan Giles and Colwill were replaced by Mark Harris and Evans, with the latter giving the best of his three first team substitute appearances so far as he put over some good crosses from the left while giving experienced home right back Dennis Odoi a few problems.

Flint and Moore both came close to netting the goal which you feel would do quite a bit to lift confidence, but it must be said that City had reason to be grateful to Smithies as well for some fine saves which kept the score down to two.

In the end, Mick McCarthy has lost one of the two games he’s reportedly been given to save his job, but I get the feeling that, even if we were to beat Middlesbrough on Saturday, it might not be enough to save him.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but, on the face of it, there seems to be no logical reason why former Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder was at a very rainy Craven Cottage watching the match unless……….

In saying that, Wilder apparently has been going to games in London lately (he’s watched Charlton twice it seems) and so there’s a strong chance there’s nothing to be read into his presence at this game.

On further reflection, it seems pretty unlikely that someone who was seriously being touted as manager of the season for 19/20 would be interested in coming here, given the reputation that City must have within the game under this ownership – Wilder’s stock has fallen a fair bit after Sheffield United’s disastrous 20/21, but not to the extent that he’d want to come to such a poorly run club on a record equaling run of successive defeats surely?

It’s the time of year again when I ask readers of Mauve and Yellow Army to make a contribution towards its running costs. Before I go into detail about this, I should, once again, offer my sincere thanks to all of you who have helped ensure the future of the blog over the past three years through a mixture of monthly payments via Patreon, monthly Standing Orders into my bank account and once a year payments via bank transfer, PayPal, cheque and cash.

The first time I made this request for assistance, it was prompted by a need for funds to pay for three yearly web hosting costs which, frankly, I was in no position to meet following my move of house a few months earlier. However, I’m pleased to say that, this time around, the web hosting bill was settled back in June with none of the problems there were back in 2018.

Therefore, any monies received this year will go towards other running costs and, although it’s too early yet to make any formal commitments despite so many of the pandemic restrictions in Wales being lifted recently, I am minded to do another review of a season from the past book to follow on from “Real Madrid and all that” which looked back on the 1970/71 campaign. At the moment 1975/76, the first promotion season I experienced, looks to be favourite for the book treatment, which would mean a lot more trips back and forth to Cardiff than my finances have become used to over the past year and a half – hopefully, the majority of them will not have to be made via Radyr Cheyne!

As always, the blog will still be free to read for anyone who chooses not to make a donation towards its running costs and, apart from the one in the top right hand corner which is to do with Google Ads, you will never have to bother about installing an ad blocker to read this site because there will never be any.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, donations can be made through Patreon, PayPal, by bank transfer, cheque, Standing Order/Direct Debit and cash, e-mail me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com for further payment details.

Posted in Down in the dugout, Out on the pitch | 1 Comment

Cardiff City’s Under 23’s, everything that their first team isn’t.

Posted on October 20, 2021 by The other Bob Wilson

In the bizzaro world that is Cardiff City 2021/22, it’s not three o clock on a Saturday afternoon I find myself looking forward to, it’s one o clock Tuesday lunchtimes because that’s when I get the chance to watch a winning, effective and skillful City side play.

Today, our under 23 side regained their position at the top of their league they had lost yesterday following Bristol City’s 4-2 win at Watford, but, by beating Charlton 4-1 at Cardiff City Stadium, City extended their goal difference lead over the wurzels slightly – they also have a game in hand on the West Country side.

It’s now six wins from six for Steve Morison’s side and, in many ways, this was their best performance so far. I say that because I’ve said quite often on here that year in, year out Charlton have struck me as the most consistent and successful of the group of teams with an Academy grade two that we play each season.

Therefore, when I learned that Tavio D’Almeda, Keenan Patten, Isaak Davies, Keiron Evans and top scorer Chanka Zimba were all missing from the team (I wonder how many of them have gone to London as part of the squad for tomorrow’s first team game at Fulham?), then I felt there was definitely a chance that our 100 per cent winning record would go, but not a bit off it – City never looked back after scoring twice in the first eight minutes.

Right from their first game, which they shaded by 1-0 over Wigan, I have been struck by the change in approach from the under 23s compared to the freewheeling and high scoring stuff we saw in the second half of last season which produced some great entertainment, but a fair bit of inconsistency that was not helped by a pretty ropey defensive record.

If I’m being honest, I’d like to see a bit less sitting back inviting the opposition to try to break us down from the side as we’re often happy to let them have most of the possession and a bit more of a proactive approach, but, to be fair, it must be added that we’re usually leading when playing this counter attacking game, so there’s no real need to go bombing forward.

This change in attitude makes the side much more like the first team in its approach, but the embarrassing thing is that the so called second team is everything that the first team isn’t. The under 23s have wing backs, not specialist centrebacks playing out of position out wide, who are equally at home in either penalty area, they have three centrebacks who are all relatively comfortable on the ball to the extent that they look nowhere near as awkward as the first teamers do when they try to play out from the back.

Further up the pitch, the youngsters have an ability to break quickly and collectively in a manner the first team could only dream about and, of course, this equals far more of a threat from open play.

Today, despite an all new front three, the ability to counter attack from deep with skill and precision was seen to great effect with the third and fourth goals both coming in that manner.

I should add mind that Charlton did themselves few favours by playing with as high a defensive line as I think I’ve ever seen. This was a highly dangerous policy when you consider that at least two of our front three had the beating of the visitor’s back line when it came to pace.

As for that all new front three, one of them was a trialist and, with the club far less willing to divulge names these days, I’ve no idea who he was or who he’s played for, but he certainly made a big impression in the first ten minutes. The trialist tended to play on the left, while on the right it was Jack Leahy, the recent signing from Brighton, who was given a first start after some earlier substitute appearances, while through the middle was the Academy team’s top scorer James Crole who I believe was making his first appearance at this level.

City were ahead within a minute as Charlton became the latest team to learn, if they needed teaching, that a slavish allegiance to playing out from the back can be damaging to your footballing health as their goalkeeper Beadle tried to play a short pass to one of their centrebacks and instead made a present of the ball to the trialist who slotted it home easily.

Within another seven minutes it was two as the trialist got to the bye line and laid a pass back to Tom Davies who, like a good wing back, clipped in a fine cross that was nodded in by Crole as he left the keeper helpless with a clever header from eight yards.

Leahy should have made it three after about fifteen minutes when he was sent through the square Charlton defence only to poke his shot into the side netting and then he had another effort cleared off the line after rounding the keeper as City began to enter let them have the ball mode. However, with Olly Denham nodding just over, City still continued to have all of the worthwhile scoring opportunities as the very impressive Eli King in midfield and Denham and James Connolly at the back snuffed out so many Charlton periods of possession before they became a danger.

A shot which flew about a yard over George Ratcliffe’s crossbar represented the visitors only worthwhile first half goal attempt and they were three down just before the interval when Charlton’s offside trap was breached once again and Crole showed a decent turn of pace for someone who is something of a target man in under 18s football to burst clear and score at the second attempt after his first shot was blocked by Beadle.

It would be wrong to say the second half was a non event, but it was played as if both sides knew the game was won and lost – Charlton improved on their first half showing, but they were picked off again by a ruthless City side as Crole was sent through by King to score with a shot taken early which sent the keeper the wrong way.

As debuts go, it couldn’t have gone much better for Crole who can expect to play a lot more games at this level in the coming months and he was immediately withdrawn after completing his treble along with Leahy for another Academy team youngster, Caleb Hughes, and Ryan Kavanagh. Another sub, Cian Ashford, on for the trialist at half time, wasted City’s only other second half chance when he ballooned his shot over from a central position twelve yards out.

Richard Chin got a goal back for Charlton ten minutes from time, but there was never going to be a repeat of the 5-4 win the visitors gained in the corresponding fixture last season – the annoyance shown by some of the City side at conceding just their second goal of the season was another vivid reminder as to how this team differs from last season’s and also how different it is from this season’s first team.

Finally, Wales Under 16s, with their squad featuring seven City players, are having a good Victory Shield so far. There were five City youngsters, Luey Giles, Dylan Lawlor, Troy Perrett, Charlie Crew and Cody Twose, in the starting line up as they beat hosts Northern Ireland 2-0 on Sunday and a sixth Bluebird, Josh Beecher, came on as a sub. Today, a much changed team with Crew and Beecher the only starters from City, came out on top 2-1 against the Republic of Ireland.

With Northern Ireland beating Scotland 1-0 in the other game played today, they both have three points, while the Republic have none yet compared to our six, so if we avoid defeat in our last game against the Scots on Friday morning, we will win the title outright.

Posted in The stiffs, Wales | Tagged , | 2 Comments