Sometimes my post game pieces on here are blow by blow accounts of games akin to the old reports you used to read in the Football Echo, but, mostly, I prefer them to be more reflective in the manner of the Monday reaction piece to a game played on the Saturday – this is definitely going to be one of the latter!
I’ll not waste too much time on the game – a pathetic Cardiff side were completely outplayed by a Swansea team who were worth more than their 2-0 win. Swansea were much, much better than us, but, in truth it’s hard to tell just how good they are because, yet again, City turned up in “local derby mode” which meant that their performance was a bizarre mixture of rabbit caught in the headlights fright, couldn’t care less indifference, complete ineptitude in front of goal and oh so slow out of the blocks.
I know that sounds contradictory and a bit mad, but, since we got relegated, our performances against our two local rivals have somehow managed to encapsulate so many of those faults. True, we did manage to grind out a 1-0 win at Ashton Gate in June with the only goal we’ve managed to score in those half a dozen games and we were unlucky to lose to the wurzels here a few weeks ago, but we were crap in the other matches. Swansea murdered us 1-0 at the Liberty and, based on the gap between the sides today, we managed to postpone the first league double in games between the sides for a year only with a miserable 0-0 here in January, while Bristol were pretty comfortable in winning 1-0 in Neil Warnock’s last game in charge.
Sadly, despite how poor we looked in the other matches, only our no show at the Liberty comes close to matching today’s shocker and, even then, I’d say we were probably worse today.
The tone was set right from the start, Swansea calmly retained possession with City barely able to get a touch as they conceded the first few of what seemed to be a string of free kicks given against them by someone who struck me as a poor ref who was not up to taking charge of such a game.
On an afternoon of embarrassment for City, perhaps the biggest one was that Swansea even managed to be better than us at the sort of football we’re supposed to specialise in. I’m referring here to Swansea’s first goal as left wing back Jake Bidwell whacked over a deep cross which saw right wing back Connor Roberts towering above Joe Bennett to nod down to Jamal Lowe who had got free of Sean Morrison to prod a shot from about eight yards out that Alex Smithies will surely have been disappointed not to keep out.
There had only been five minutes played and we’d barely had a kick (except when committing fouls) in that time. Still, that was three minutes longer than it took us to concede against the wurzels, but whereas our response to going behind had been quite impressive then, we just carried on being second best in every respect today.
That said, maybe things would have turned out differently if the already booked Ryan Bennett had got his just desserts. Bennett’s problem was caused by Swansea over confidence that was understandable given their total superiority, when Connor Roberts gave the ball away cheaply and Keiffer Moore was given the chance to run at Bennett who was last man and committed a clear foul. However, referee John Brooks, who officiated generally as if he thought it was bound to be a dirty game (it wasn’t) because it was a derby so he had to brandish yellow cards at every opportunity, bottled it and awarded the free kick while keeping his cards in his pocket..
Mind you such was the difference in basic skill levels, tactical appreciation and organisation between the two teams that I daresay Swansea would have been comfortable enough if it had been eleven against ten for half an hour or so.
Given our scoring record in derbies lately, I was more or less reconciled to defeat from the fifth minute onwards and there was very little in the following eighty five minutes to suggest we could get back into the game – Sheyi Ojo, one of our better players on the day, shot not too far over and sub Robert Glatzel should have done better with a header from a corner, but, apart from Harry Wilson’s clipped shot over following the incident which should have seen Bennett dismissed and an audacious effort by Moore which cost City dearly, that was it in an attacking sense from them.
It just wasn’t City’s day, Glatzel was on for Moore who looked to have pulled his hamstring in trying an extravagant backheeled shot and Joe Ralls saw a red card after a second yellow which I thought he could have few complaints about.
The best moment of the game was Swansea’s second goal, beautifully scored by Lowe who beat a couple of opponents before scoring from the edge of the penalty area with a shot skillfully hit with the outside of his right foot. However, even then, he was given considerable help by City as Wilson carelessly conceded possession, Will Vaulks dived in only to find himself beaten for the umpteenth time and Wilson, chasing back, was miles out with his wild lunge designed to stop Lowe in his tracks.
Of course, there should be recognition that City had taken twelve points out of twelve previously and had played well in beating Luton, Huddersfield and Watford, but we were lucky at Stoke and, it is not with hindsight after today’s match that I say that was a warning shot that was not heeded.
Neil Harris said after today’s match that he should be blamed for the defeat and I’d say he’s right up to a point, but our defeat, and the manner of it, raises fundamental questions on so many levels about how the people in charge of the club and the team want to play the game.
First of all though, to return to our manager, there were eyebrows raised when he stuck by the same team for a fourth successive game last Tuesday and to opt for the same again after a night where, frankly, the result was the only good thing about the ninety minutes had to be seen as debatable. While I’m not saying Moore should have been rested today, would he have suffered his injury if he had, say, only played twenty minutes as a sub against Huddersfield?
I’m also reminded of something I heard Joe Ledley say on a very good new City podcast called a bit of Swazz this week where he told of how Neil Lennon had showed his team a football before they played against the great Barcelona side of the first half of the 2010s and told them that they would not be seeing much of it in their next game.
By going with the 4-4-2 used since Mark Harris came into the team, Neil Harris effectively consigned his team to a Celtic like afternoon of chasing the ball. Don’t get me wrong, having been something of a moaner when it comes to us having less than fifty per cent possession, I now accept that you can be consistently successful with something in the region of thirty five to forty per cent of the ball, but when you go up against a passing side like Swansea, who have three in central midfield, with a 4-4-2 which includes a pair of scufflers in that area, you have to be asking for trouble don’t you?
Neil Warnock left Neil Harris four central midfielders in Pack, Ralls, Bacuna and Vaulks and I would say only the first named (who, for me, slows things down too much to be as effective as he might be) of those is the sort of technical player that a team like Swansea would like to see at least two of in their midfield – Neil Harris has opted not to change his central midfielders which, to me, rather gives away how he prefers to play the game.
Although I was edging towards the Harris out camp after the Coventry match, I’ve never called for his sacking and still believe that he is in credit after last season, but today’s dismissal of Joe Ralls is interesting because I believe he is picking up more cautions and committing more fouls than he ever did under the arch pragmatist Neil Warnock. Ralls will miss the Birmingham match now and one more booking when he comes back will see him suspended again.
I felt sorry for Ralls and Vaulks today because, in that set up, they were there to do an Everton dog’s of war type job for the fifth consecutive match – they had coped against a three man midfield early in our run of victories, but against a better team today, they found it too tough in their fifth match in a fortnight.
Ralls is someone I think who can offer more than he has been asked to do recently, but it is worth noting that the foul which got him sent off today came from a faulty first touch of the type you see so often from Cardiff players no matter who we’re playing. Often, such errors are brought about because the player has received a pass which is not played with the accuracy or appreciation of speed which you would expect to be a prerequisite at Championship level and this combination of poor techniques has been a constant at Cardiff for close to ten years now.
Given that he has kept the players he inherited, Neil Harris has sent out a signal that he is not too bothered about having a central midfield which cannot pass the ball like so many of the teams we play against can. Add to that the fact that our central defenders are not what you would call comfortable in possession and that our two “big man” centre forwards are among the better technical players at the club (the two young players introduced into the league team this season look to have a more reliable first touch and general technique than many of their more established team mates as well), is it really too much of a surprise that, just as with Paul Trollope and “the Cardiff way”, attempts to integrate a more possession based style of play have been put on the back burner somewhat? I genuinely don’t think we have the players currently in central defence and central midfield to cope with a full transition in our playing style..
I’ll finish on today by asking have we had to suffer the near ten years of long ball stuff that has largely been so unattractive to watch because that’s how the people who run the club and the team think we like to see the team play?
For myself, Dave Jones’ sides were so frustrating in some ways with their bottle jobs and inconsistency, but, out of those forty six games every season, you’d end up feeling you had been entertained in over half of them. Through the last decade, that number has dropped markedly (I would say a very generous estimate is that it happens a quarter of the time now) and, in truth, we relied to a large degree on the great Peter Whittingham for a long time to stop it dropping even further.
Clubs like Millwall, Birmingham and Cardiff are perceived in a certain way – they are working class teams (most clubs are aren’t they?), but, whereas at a side like West Ham, they are known to appreciate and want to see their team playing “good football”, we, along with those other sides I mentioned, are thought to prefer the crash, bang, wallop stuff that has been our diet since Dave Jones left – why is this?
A relegation battle looked a possibility at one time, but the last fortnight has shown that we do have the quality for that not to be a realistic outcome. We’re good enough for top six to be our more likely position than bottom three, but we’ve become a club where, given a choice between the rapier and the bludgeon when it comes to transfer targets and/or team selection, we invariably opt for the latter.
I’ve said plenty of times on here that I don’t see the jacks as our main rivals, but I can’t remember when I was as angry as I am tonight as I write this a few hours after the game. Neil Harris annoys me somewhat when he says he knows what City fans want to see from their side. Yes, City supporters appreciate effort from their players and always have done but today we were made to look oafish, slow thinking, under prepared and unable to understand what today meant to so many of our supporters – why does it have to be this way and why do we always have to accept “winning ugly”? I’ve almost forgotten what winning with a degree of panache and style feels like.
I should just mention before finishing that a poor day was completed by the Academy side losing 3-1 to Charlton across the road at Leckwith while the first team were playing, but, at least they had the excuse that their side contained seven players who were sixteen or under – what excuses could their seniors offer for their humiliation?
