Tonight, Cardiff City played their first match since their draw at Birmingham on 11 December after what was, effectively, a Covid induced mid season break and when you consider it was on the ground of the Championship leaders, Bournemouth, the 3-0 defeat they suffered was a fairly predictable outcome, especially when you consider that they were a man short for more than half of the game.
Actually, looking at the messageboards tonight, there are probably plenty who think we were a man short for the full ninety minutes!.
Now, I’ll admit to having some sympathy for Leandro Bacuna in the last fifteen months or so. When Neil Harris went into the 20/21 campaign with just the one right back, the very injury prone Jordi Osei-Tutu, it was Bacuna he turned to fill the role until he brought in Perry Ng about five months after he should have been strengthening at right back.
I thought that Bacuna fared pretty well for a while at right back, but he was struggling towards the time that Harris was dismissed. Therefore, I can imagine that it might have been music to Bacuna’s ears to hear new manager Mick McCarthy say that he did not consider him to be a full back. However, I wonder what Bacuna would have thought when McCarthy said he saw him as an attacking midfielder or even one of a front three? All this, despite a strike rate that has Bacuna scoring once every seventeen and a bit games he plays since he arrived at Aston Villa after being based in the Netherlands for the early part of his career.
Bacuna spent the second half of last season, and most of this one, proving that he is no attacking midfielder and, while I have believed he shouldn’t be a part of a first choice Cardiff eleven for some time now, I have often felt that he has been hard done by because he gets so few opportunities to play in what has to be his best position surely – central midfield.
Bacuna has been playing the occasional game in that position recently and he was picked in a deeper lying central midfield role tonight with Will Vaulks more to the right and captain Joe Ralls on the left. This should have been a chance for Bacuna to try to prove himself in a position which I assume he felt most comfortable in, but, instead, it proved to be something of a disaster which ended with some supporters saying he should never play for the club again.
It wasn’t Bacuna’s “low key” first forty minutes or so which was the problem, it was the scissor tackle from behind that brought down Philip Billing just inside the City half as he presumably tried to stop a possible counter attack just before half time.
There are ways and means of doing such things though. Although I don’t like seeing the increasingly cynical way players try to grab the shirt of an opponent who has got past them almost as a matter of course these days, Bacuna could have just got a yellow with a shirt pull or a more sensible professional foul, but, instead, he launched himself at Billing with a tackle which looks worse with each viewing.
Jason Perry captured the feelings of so many City followers in the second half when he said that the club should appeal against the decision in the hope that this would lead to Bacuna’s ban being extended to four games!
With Bacuna’s departure, any chance City had of getting anything from the match disappeared. Up until then, a complacent and careless Bournemouth side could count themselves somewhat fortunate to be 1-0 ahead courtesy of a lucky goal from what was just about their only worthwhile effort of the first half.
By contrast, Keiffer Moore will have been disappointed to have not scored from at least one of two fine chances City had. For the first of them, a clever flick by Mark McGuinness following a Vaulks long throw presented Moore with a diving header chance about six or seven yards out, but he didn’t seem to make great contact with the ball and home keeper Mark Teavers was able to save fairly easily.
Moore also was poised to flick in a cross from the increasingly lively Mark Harris only for Travers to fall on the ball and cut out the danger. Then a few minutes later Ryan Giles was worked into space down the left and his predictably fine cross found Moore stretching to try and guide the ball in – again the keeper foiled the Wales striker, but, for me this was the one Moore should have scored and, if he had done so, Bournemouth could have had few complaints at their visitors being on level terms at that stage.
City also wasted some decent counter attacking opportunities in the first period because they seemed to lack the self belief to be bold and aggressive as, instead of getting forward, the ball would more often than not slowly be delivered back to Alex Smithies thereby allowing Bournemouth to slip back into their preferred formation.
Ryan Christie will be credited with Bournemouth’s opener about midway through the first half, but it seemed more like a McGuinness own goal to me as the defender lunged at a shot I’m sure Smithies would have easily saved were it not for the deflection off the defender which left the goalkeeper with no chance.
McGuiness has been a little unlucky with deflections from attempted blocks going against him on a few occasions this season and I suppose it is a compliment to him in some respects that he is getting so close to blocking the shots which hit him and fly in, but this one just looked a little unnecessary to me because the shot was not going to result in a goal without the defender’s intervention. I realise that’s a harsh interpretation and McGuinness would probably have been criticised if he hadn’t tried to block it, so it’s probably best to put it down to bad luck – however, the use of the line “Cardiff were caught napping there” that we’ve heard far too much this season from commentators tells you that, yet again, we were opened up too easily in a situation where there was no way you could say that a goal for our opponents was coming.
I couldn’t watch much of the second half because the stream I was using turned all temperamental, so I only had the Radio Wales commentary to go by as the unlucky Harris was replaced at half time by Isaak Davies who was withdrawn about half an hour later.
Davies was criticised by Steve Morison after the game for being more of a hinderance than a help to the team and this very rash outburst capped what was not a good night for a young manager who has been given a pretty gentle and supportive ride until now by both media and supporters.
Singling out youngsters for stick when so many senior players have been performing so poorly this season without a word of public criticism from Messrs McCarthy and Morrison is not a good look – neither, on the form seen from both of them during 2021 is relying on Vaulks and Bacuna in the middle of the park as, not for the first time, I find myself wishing that Sam Bowen was fit to provide some poise and control in our consistently misfiring midfield..
Predictably, City didn’t come too close to finding the net in the second period it seems and Bournemouth may have ended up scoring more than the two they did, the first of which came about when Dominic Solanke comfortably beat Smithies after being set up by Billing.
In the past, two goals down with a quarter of the game to go would not represent an insurmountable task for the City players under Steve Morison, but, now there were only ten of them and the home side got lucky for a second time as Jefferson Lerma’s shot rebounded off a post, hit Smithies and ended up in the net to complete the scoring and leave City still hovering too close to the drop zone as we enter the New Year, and second half of the season, with just the single shut out since early August – if that stat does not improve pretty dramatically during early 2022 we must surely be heading for the drop.
Max Watters won’t be a great help in improving our goals against column, but the news that we are recalling him from an injury hit, but successful, loan period at MK Dons has to be seen as a positive. As for Ryan Wintle at Blackpool, he’s not been in their eighteen for their last two matches and with Steve Morison saying City were unable to recall him at the moment, it all sounds like the midfielder who has been earning some rave reviews over the last few months is another Covid victim. However, it would appear that when available, he will be returning to City to provide some much needed freshness in a midfield which has not been good enough in a defensive or attacking sense this season.
