At the start of Cardiff City’s run of six fixtures against some of the Championship’s best sides which began three weeks ago at Watford I felt that eight points would represent an acceptable return. In the end, we finished up with one more than that from three wins and three defeats, so, by the standards I set for them, that represents a satisfactory return – it’s just that, with those three losses having come in our last four games, it feels like we’ve gone backwards in the last fortnight.
In our last match before we played Swansea, we had taken our winning run to four at Stoke while playing poorly for three quarters of the match, but I don’t believe the team that were beaten 3-2 by Brentford today, in what was a fifth home loss with the season not half way over yet, would have won at Stoke.
Although a 2-0 score line doesn’t sound like a thrashing, our defeats by Swansea and then Norwich last weekend were comprehensive ones of the type that knock confidence and, after a first half where we managed to edge in front just before the interval, we fell away badly today and could have few complaints about the eventual outcome. In fact, I’d say we were flattered by a one goal margin of defeat.
I have a fair bit to say about what I’ll call the values, ambition and approach of the club later, but, for now, what of a game that was almost devoid of significant action for forty five minutes and then produced plenty of it, mainly at our end of the pitch I’m afraid, during the second period?
Because we’re the kind of team we are, the early minutes of our games more often than not see the opposition having a lot more of the ball than us and that was the case here. Brentford were on the front foot territorially and in terms of possession, but, with the central midfield combination Neil Harris picks when we’re not expected to have much of the ball in Joe Ralls and Will Vaulks doing a steady job when we weren’t in possession, we had little to concern us defensively.
Indeed, with the free scoring Ivan Toney getting little change out of Sean Morrison and Curtis Nelson, all a Brentford side which were unbeaten in their last fourteen matches had to offer was a volley from their Spanish winger Sergi Canos from a well worked corner routine which flew a few yards wide – more on Canos later!
The commentators on what was called Bluebirds TV yet featured adverts all linked to the visitors and a director who must have been a Brentford fan given how many close ups and replays there were with a distinct Bees flavour, were very pleased with City’s showing at that stage. Yet, when both teams goal attempts stats were displayed around the thirty five minute mark, they showed two by the visitors (neither of which were on target) and none by Cardiff.
There still hadn’t been an effort at goal by City as the clock showed something like three of the four added minutes played, but when Junior Hoilett won a ball deep inside his own half and played a sideways pass to Vaulks, the midfielder laid the ball forward to Robert Glatzel a yard or two inside our half who then gave a good return pass to Vaulks and spun away, no doubt hoping for a ball into space behind what was a stretched visitors back line.
However, rather than doing that, Vaulks had spotted Brentford goalkeeper David Raya well off his line on the edge of his penalty area and floated a shot, it was definitely a shot, over a keeper who knew he had no chance of reaching it well before it plopped gently into the net.
Strangely enough there had been a message posted about a Mark Hudson podcast interview on the message board I use this week in which he talked about his amazing sixty eight yard goal against Derby back in 2012.
Now, I would rate Hudson’s goal as better than Vaulks because, firstly
, it was a centre back who scored it and, second, because it was scored from about ten yards further away, but, this was still a superb effort from someone who had scored what I’d rate as our best goal of last season against Blackburn.
A repeat of the defensive showing of the first forty five minutes in the second forty five would probably see City to a notable win, especially if they could have taken advantage of a truly bizarre kick off routine by Brentford after half time where all of their outfield players lined up rugby style on the halfway line for the restart and then attempted to rush to their normal positions as soon as the ball was kicked.
The thing was though that the move seemed to confuse Brentford more than it did us and we soon won the ball and broke forward in menacing fashion against a seriously undermanned defence, only to waste the chance through our trademark poor passing.
In the event, that fleeting opportunity was the only time we looked remotely dangerous in the first half an hour of the second period. The visitors took complete control as our defensive play fell away alarmingly and Alex Smithies produced his worst half of football since he signed for us two and a half years ago.
Smithies had produced a routine tip over from one of a series of corners Brentford forced in the first few minutes after the restart, but it only delayed the equaliser for a few seconds as the resultant flag kick was half cleared to Canos who saw his first effort from twenty odd yards blocked. Luck played a bit of a part then as the ball broke straight back to him, but he capitalised on it brilliantly to volley home.
It was another marvellous goal, but, from a City perspective, the ball entered the net high up in the middle of the goal and so questions will be asked about the goalkeeping – for me, it was not a situation where a goalkeeper should be rooted to his line, so I wouldn’t blame Smithies too much for it.
Brentford’s domination was given substance by a second goal on sixty five minutes when shoddy defending saw an isolated Leandro Bacuna beaten easily by Canos who then cut infield unchallenged before beating Smithies on his near post from twelve yards.
After this, Canos simply shot every time he had the ball within sight of goal as he searched for his hat trick. It was all very predictable, but City either didn’t realise this or, more likely, were powerless to stop him and the winger’s treble duly arrived on seventy three minutes with a chipped effort from the corner of the penalty area which represented a test for Smithies, but one you would have expected him to pass. Instead, the ball burst through his outstretched hands and into the net.
City looked down and out at this stage, but when they gained what was probably their first corner of the second half three minutes later which Morrison nodded down to Vaulks whose well struck volley from fifteen yards was deflected wide of Raya and in.
It looked like we were set up for a grandstand finish, but, apart from a couple of moments where sub Josh Murphy showed the ability which made him a £10 million plus player, one of which produced a shout for a penalty for a foul on Glatzel that I thought erratic ref Dean Whitehouse, he was equally so for both sides in my view, was right to turn down, Brentford held on to their lead quite comfortably.
After the Swansea and Norwich matches, I despaired at the poor quality of our passing- it wasn’t great today either, but it’s the direction and thinking behind the scenes at the club I want to discuss this time.
Quite often after we’ve played Brentford in recent seasons, I’ve contrasted our recruitment with theirs and concluded that we come up way short of them on so many fronts, but having watched how we set up today and considered the type of players we tend to recruit, I do wonder if we’re fishing in the same waters, so to speak, as clubs like Brentford?
Vincent Tan has been ploughing money into Cardiff City for more than a decade now, we’re not right up there with the superrich, but we’ve had more spending power than most at this level and, as much as any team in that division can be called one, have not been among the paupers in the Premier League either when we’ve been there.
Certainly, there are clubs that have spent a lot less than us down the years which have put together successful teams that have played a much more attractive brand of football than us.
Let’s be clear about this, those commentators on Cardiff City TV today were getting excited about us going out in a home game intent far more on stopping the other team, albeit one of the better ones in our division, playing than looking to dominate ourselves – it was a negative approach which didn’t produce a goal scoring attempt in the first forty eight minutes of the game.
After the match, Neil Harris, who, once again, chose to only make two of his five permitted substitutions, said his team were “excellent” for forty nine minutes and talked about how good we had been without the ball. Now I’m not saying that this isn’t an important aspect of the modern game, but I’m wondering if our recruitment and thinking down the years has been aimed more at what players do when they don’t have the ball than what they do when they have it? Is it a club plan for the team to go out and play in the turgid manner that we so often have done in the past decade or does it “just happen” that way?
I suppose a partial answer to those questions can be found depending on how serious you believe Neil Harris was in his attempt to turn us into a different type of team. For myself, I’m still not sure about that because I can see evidence on either side of the argument. We did look less like a direct, long ball team earlier in the campaign, but our manager, seemingly, needed little persuasion in returning to what has been the norm at Cardiff since Russell Slade’s tenure at least – certainly, if there was a genuine intention to change our style, what has happened since the Coventry loss about a month ago could be seen as an admission of defeat..
On the other hand, as I’ve mentioned before, you have to wonder about any manager’s commitment to more of a passing game when he has a squad where the senior central midfielders are Marlon Pack, Ralls, Vaulks and Bacuna – it’s a quartet hardly built to play like most of the sides at the top of this season’s league do, yet it was a group our manager inherited over a year ago and he’s done nothing to change things around in that area since then.
No, by accident or design, despite a wealthy owner who has, in the main, been generous to the managers he’s hired over the past decade when it comes to a football budget, Cardiff City have played what I call underdog football whereby, as Steve Cooper heavily hinted after his team’s ludicrously easy win here, we hit the ball into areas and hope for a good outcome, as opposed to trying to make things happen through our confidence and belief when we have the ball.
We play in “plucky little Cardiff” mode and today was a case in point as, despite all of the built in advantages that a club like us should have at this level given the amount of spending it’s had on it in the twenty first century, we went out with the aim of being good when not in possession and, hopefully, nicking a goal by which we could win.
Other clubs with much less than us are far more ambitious, both in terms of playing style and philosophy, why do we continue, both on and off the pitch, with the inferiority complex that was completely appropriate in the latter years of the twentieth century, but shouldn’t be now?
Moving on, I posted the following about our former winger Bernard Lewis on Christmas Day – apologies for repeating something a lot of people will have read already, but can anyone help?
“The Southend United former players group have been in touch with the blog asking if I could help them to trace their former player, Bernard Lewis who joined them in 1970 from Watford, having left us three years earlier to join the Hornets.
I’m afraid I couldn’t help, but said I’d put something out on MAYA to see if a reader could come up with his current whereabouts – if anyone can, would you let me know please and I can forward the information on.”
Finally, if you don’t know how to spend that Amazon token you were given for Christmas or know a City fan who is in that boat, there’s always my book Real Madrid and that to consider – details can be found here.
Good morning,
I guess you are by now feeling desperate when it comes to writing positively about city.
It’s difficult at the start of any game to think positive about the result. Harris should be a politician when after most games he tries to convince us we played well. Does he think we are stupid.
City hierarchy wanted us in the top 6 at Christmas. They need to be thankful we are not in the bottom 3.
Let’s not kid ourselves about the points we have. How many of the games could have been lost.
Birmingham, watford, stoke, won after a reasonable end to game against a stoke reserve team.
Without those we are down just outside bottom 3.
Harris talks of inconsistency. Well mate, it’s your job to stop it. I have thought for a while smithies is not up to it. Quite a few goals he could either have saved or been down to him.
Swansea 1st. He could have kicked that away. 2nd yesterday. Millwall. Running out to a cross against Matt Smith. I am sure there are others.
So Harris make that statement that you are in charge and demand a change by putting Phillip’s in.
Bennett had a good game yesterday, to a point. That doesn’t change my mind on Harris who will always play his favourite’s no matter how poor they are.
Here is my team for Wycombe.
Phillip’s
Bacuna, Morrison benkovic Bagan
Evan’s Ralls Vaulks Hoillett
Harris
Glatzel
Yep that will divide opinion but what has Wilson and ojo done recently to prove they are worthy of a place. Give a youngster his chance out wide. What a confidence boost for him to be picked ahead of Wilson.
Ojo rarely goes past players and Bagan done well early on only to be left out for a player who cannot tackle, makes mistakes, gets caught out of position and has lost his drive and enthusiasm.
At one point yesterday he, Bennett, was out of position when Brentford were attacking and I spotted him jogging.
To be honest I truly feel sorry for Ojo, Wilson and Glatzel. They are footballers playing under a manager with no technical knowledge. A manager who is killing players skills.
None of these players are poor and I am sure everyone would fit seamlessly into another championship team. They are being trained to ge bad.
There was a simple pass out wide yesterday by Morrison who just needed to move the ball on. A city was in plenty of space out wide. Morrison put his foot on the ball and both he and wide man were closed down so attacking chance ended.
Too slow. Too predictable. Too low in confidence. Too scared to tackle. Too scared to take players on. Ie. Canos style. Too frightened when players run at us.
Nope we haven’t a lot going for us under Harris. Too say he inherited those team is a bit of a cover up.
He has had 2 windows. Did not bring in a quick midfield player. One with vision and skill and the ability to pass. He brought in one right back whole releasing Jazz. He done ok up front but that was without looking at how the hell are we to get the ball to them.
I have read on line fans saying taxi for Harris. I cannot agree with that.
A taxi is too slow get a 2 seater fighter jet. Get him out of here.
“Inferiority complex” etc – it’s value judgement. This retrospective banging on about the money that has been wasted may syphon off some of your frustrations, but is it ‘on’ the money? Tell us the player(s) you know would have made the difference you crave, who would have come here, who were available at a price we could afford (by what measure) and/or whose parent clubs would have loaned us, whom Harris missed the opportunity therefore to bring in. The emphasis being on ‘you know’. “Tease us, Bob! Tease us!” as Delboy would say.
In July 2000, twenty years ago Sam was quoted as ; we need 20 years to get to the Premier League. Well it was achieved much earlier, but, in those 20 years it could very well be a full circle, back to where we were then in 2000.
City have developed a programme of stop go, aiming for the top and suddenly going for mediocrity. Now it is easy for us, the fans, to call for extra spending , telling others to spend big. To his credit Tan has, without him I doubt the club would have enjoyed the success of the last year or be where it is now. However, in my opinion, the money made available on the playing side has been badly managed and wasteful. Most of the big money players bought in have not worked out, and now there is a call to try the youngsters , and where have they suddenly sprung from and would they get City up to the top six or would we first return to the lower leagues, eventually struggling to gain promotion to the top two divisions.
The present Manager is not to be totally blamed for the team’s poor performances and results, but perhaps the club has elected to appoint a manager that , at this time in his career , is not up to what the club, and its fans, is looking to achieve. In a way the Club’s hierarchy are letting themselves down with this inconsistent policy of appointments.
Someday Neil Harris like all managers will leave , whether that is sooner or later we will eventually know.
Ta, Paul once more for your highly perceptive account of yesterday’s game and a broader look at where City stand in the pantheon of the footballing greats.
And there we were. Normal service was resumed: Brentford played as they have since Warburton was their manager (433; two wide strikers who switched sides and two deeper players who joined them making the obligatory 2 against 1 when they attacked). Yet, even before the action began I felt like switching off the Cardiff City stream. Again, following on the heels of Sky tvs love-in over Leeds & Brentford our own broadcasters were fawning over the opposition as if saying, behind cupped-hands, our woes are not too bad because the opposition are so good.
We have one of the most gifted players in our division, yet our Manager, half-way through the season, still can’t devise a way to get the best out of him. Wilson finally restored to his natural #10 position for 68 mins hardly ever had a ball worthy of the name. His one contribution, of note, was when he drifted out wide, picked up possession midway inside the Brentford half and was brought down bang on the 18 yd line.
But I run on ahead too far. We set up in our favoured 4411 (Ojo on the right, despite being left footed & Hoilett on the left despite being right footed). We never got to the by-line once! Why make it difficult for Brentford? Mr H, even the Brentford defence don’t like being turned.
Harris’ comment that we were, ‘excellent for the first 49 minutes,’ leaves me in utter disbelief. Excellent, in my book means coming off at half-time 3-0 up not pleased we’ve managed to hold a team to 0-0 at home. We could view those minutes one of two ways: either we simply stopped Brentford from playing or Brentford didn’t have to get out of first gear to hold us at bay. We had just one shot on target in the first half. The visitors eased into second gear for twenty-five minutes of the second half and scored three goals (all from the impressive Canos). I say impressive, he did play well, but Bacuna’s approach to preventing danger (for goals 2 & 3) was awfully passive. From a professional footballer it was nothing short of shocking. The fallacy of going into a 46 game season, squeezed into a month less time due to Covid-19, with only one recognised right back, and he a converted loanee winger, is certainly hitting us hard. Canos’ first of his hat-trick stemmed from Glatzel not clearing the ball on the edge of our area, fine finish that it was. Smithies was a little too far off his line for the first and maybe even third goal. Good though Smithies has been since he replaced Etheridge (who I felt was a little hard done by to be dropped by Harris) some errors have crept into his game recently.
In boxing terms here was a team that, instead of delivering the knock-out punch in the first round, decided to keep his opponent at arms left with his trusty jab before opening up in the middle of the 10 rounds. The ref could have stopped the contest then. Though we clawed it back to 2-3 with 15 mins left, it seemed to me the visitors still had a lot in the tank.
Vaulks’ first goal I thought was even better than Canos’ first effort. Sorry to disagree, though admittedly I may be wrong Paul, but I thought it was roughly from the same distance of that Hudson effort. It was an excellent strike: one worthy to win any football match. Of course had it been scored by Man U it would even have featured on the national news. But we are just Cardiff City … hardly the darlings of the media. He also did well to keep his shot down for the second goal.
You bring up a good point about our four central midfielders (Pack, Ralls, Vaulks and Bacuna) not being suited to quick football. That is so but I wonder, if after a year in charge at Cardiff the Brentford manager would still be persisting with shoeing square pegs into round holes. I have a sneaky feeling, that even if he should be wedded to our 4411 Murphy, or someone like him, would be partnering Ralls in the centre; Wilson would be a proper #10 with Osei-Tutu on the right and Ojo on the left. The mantra would be, ‘to play-through midfield and supply Wilson,’ You may say were are a bit light in the middle. Yes, we would be but did Brentford need the heavies there? No. Their movement won the day. There was always a pass or two on for any Brentford player, so good was their movement and pace off the ball.
Yes, we have spent a bit by our terms since Tan has been in charge. However, there’s no virtue in spending a lot of money if poor managers are entrusted to spend it. Since our first time in the PL in the 21st Century we’ve not done well in those appointments. Yes, I know we had the hiatus of the Warnock years, but he built no foundations for the future and left us with problems. His credo when his side removed to the top-table: ‘We don’t really deserve to be here so we’ll just enjoy it,’ is never the language from a leader of men. ‘Plucky,’ was never in the vocabulary of Churchill.
On I personal level I quite like Neil Harris. He comes over as a genuine bloke and I wish him no ill. On a professional level, sadly, his tactical ability leaves much to be desired. Where do we go from here? Until decisions are made I think it will simply be more of the same. We’ll manage to win some but against teams that are going in the right direction we will be found out, quite easily as we drift further away from our desired haven. Over to you, Mr Tan.
Good afternoon Paul and others – Thank you for your comprehensive thoughts on yesterday’s events and once again the better team won and it could have been by a larger margin if they had stepped up a gear. So December has now seen us beaten by three far superior teams, and I suspect the likes of Watford and Stoke are still scratching their heads wondering how they managed to lose three points to our band of misfits. Because that is the way I see out team at the moment, no continuity nor cohesion in the manner of our performances. No structured method of attack, and no assured defending – all rather depressing really. And Mr. Harris thought we were “excellent”for the greater part of the game! Well it certainly was not from where I was sitting.
We are now conceding goals for fun, and if the current average over the past four games were extended over a season, the total would be close to 100 goals against, and that frightening statistic would probably result in just one conclusion – a season to be spent in a lower division. Just what has happened to the defence. It may well be that we are without a recognised right back, but both Nelson and Bacuna have played there previously at former clubs, (Bacuna’s wanderings are a worry) and we supposedly have two players in the form of Bamba and Benkovic who are centre backs so surely we can muster a more solid unit than has appeared recently. Our current shakiness has affected Smithies who has not been on top form in recent weeks and it may well be that he is due a rest. What I really find hard to understand is how has the Manager allowed this to happen, and unless he becomes more appreciative of the current defensive deficiencies more trouble awaits.
The mid-field was outplayed once again and struggled to match the superior skills of those operating for Brentford. The consequence of this was that we never really able to develop an attacking strategy that would cause our opponents too much anxiety. As Steve has pointed out on more than one occasion, we again played wingers whose only tactic was to cut in on their stronger foot, and when they did that it was all rather too slow and no positive outcome. I feel so sorry for Glatzel who once again had no service that would allow him to display his strengths.
So we now visit next two of the division’s bottom clubs. It is said “Tis the season to be jolly” – I’ll reserve judgement on that ’cause it hasn’t been so far on the City’s front.
“Excellent” – bah, humbug. ‘Tis the season to be jolly”.
I have taken time before putting pen to paper so to speak.
There is a lot of attacks on the performances of bacuna but those attacks should be aimed at the manager for continuing a pathetic defensive idea.
It is clear that this wasn’t working weeks ago but still he continued. He had the Leicester man to come in for a below par Morrison and especially Nelson.
Moving Nelson to right back and bringing in the Leicester man would at least provide a more stronger right hand side of the defence.
It quite obvious we have a powder puff attack and as much as I like glatzel he isn’t the answer and neither is Harris
We are at a crossroads and if Harris (manager) is left in place after the new year we will be lucky to finish half way.
The excuses of losing the centre forward and right back should be re directed back to bad management mistakes. It was always clear that the right back was always going to be a problem.
Major mistakes are being made every game by Harris and to continue to defends what is the indefensible is getting silly.
He has reached his limit in fact he reached that a long time ago. We need a manager to change this philosophy over the next 5 months,ready for next season. If we continue with Harris it will be a wasted 5 months and we will only continue backwards and make the problem even more difficult to solve.
There are a couple of managers with good footballing ethos out there at the moment, there is a need to get one in place very very quickly.
Apologies for being a bit late in replying, but one of the replies in particular set me thinking and I’ve been contemplating how to answer it. Pr, six weeks ago the notion that Smithies’ place could be under threat would have been idiotic, but you’re right to highlight that Millwall goal and the Swansea one – as for Saturday, I reckon he could have faced questions about all three goals – as I said in my piece, I’d be reluctant to blame him for the first one, but I’m sure there are many who feel otherwise, as for the second one, the defending was poor, but that doesn’t mean the keeper gets away Scot free because he only added to the catalogue of woes that contributed to it and with the third one, I see the Brentford manager said it was meant as a cross, either way a confident Smithies would have saved it I’m sure. I’d stick with him for tonight, but Phillips is a good signing I reckon – certainly, there were a lot of positive things said about him last season and so you’d think Neil Harris would have no qualms about picking him if he decides he does want to make a change.
David, I’ll not say much about your message, not because I don’t rate what you say, but because I don’t think I can add much – your thoughts and mine are the same or similar on about 95 per cent of what you describe.
Thanks for your usual comprehensive analysis Steve. On the subject of Harry Wilson, perhaps seeing him every week shows that he’s not as good as highlights reels or videos which concentrate on his justified reputation for scoring spectacular goals suggests he is, but he still made a major impact at Hull and Derby in this division and did better than many at Bournemouth last season in his previous loan spells from Liverpool, so I think it’s fair to say he’s a real talent at this level and, yet, as you say, he is too often a peripheral figure at Cardiff – certainly early in matches, our players find it almost impossible to get him involved in the game and I’d put that down more to their shortcomings than his. As for the situation at right back, I have a degree of sympathy with our manager because Osei-Tutu looked a good recruit to me, but, with no real potential deputy in the age group sides who could be called a realistic candidate to step in, he was taking a big chance and there are plenty of City fans who were expressing their fears about a lack of depth at right back well before the transfer window closed.
BJA, I share your concerns about our defending – it wasn’t so long ago that we were being congratulated for keeping three straight clean sheets, but it’s nine in four let in now (seven of them in our last three home games). I think it might be time for a change at right back and Nelson (whose standards have slipped somewhat lately) might be the one to move over. For a side like Wycombe, maybe Bamba would be the better bet (Benkovic wasn’t great in the Development team match I watched last week) and, although my doubts about our four central midfielders remain, maybe we could do with Bacuna’s energy in the middle?
Barry, I’d be more inclined to keep Harris on than you because I’d still put him in credit overall after we managed to finish fifth last season, but I’m not sure he’s going to survive given Mehmet Dalman’s comments early in the season – our next two games are dangerous ones for our manager, because the expectation will be that we should be winning both of them and yet while Wycombe may not be winning many, they have a knack of battling to draws at home and although we won the last time we played at Rotherham, our record there has been pretty awful down the years.
Finally, there’s Royale’s post! I’ve known him for close to twenty years, he is a very valued friend of this blog and recently I was recommending his book
https://www.amazon.co.uk/know-when-youre-famous-Chris/dp/1729844405/ref=sr_1_2?crid=32JGHSJN5QVU&dchild=1&keywords=chris+clark&qid=1609248119&s=books&sprefix=chris+clark%2Cstripbooks%2C290&sr=1-2
to readers (I still do because it’s a great read), but some may have taken one or two of his recent posts on here to be confrontational – I’m pretty certain they’re not and would prefer to call them challenging! However Chris, although I find his failure to add some variety and guile to our central midfield baffling if he was genuine about wanting to adjust the way we play, I wouldn’t be too critical of Neil Harris’ signing in the summer – as mentioned earlier, I have a feeling Phillips is a good signing, Moore is an improvement on what we had, Osei-Tutu looked good before his injury and, lthough I was a bit dubious about Ojo and he’s has rather blown hot and colds, I think he’s an improvement on Whyte and the ageing Hoilett. My complaint is more about the way the club has progressed over the past decade or so until we’ve ended up stuck with a method of playing from which it seems we do not have the players to achieve the move away from the extreme long ball we were playing in the latter period of Neil Warnock’s time with us. Therefore, I’m not going to come up with a list of names we should have signed under Neil Harris’ management (I do think we could do with a Barry Bannan type, but he’s a bit old now), but what I have done is come up with a team comprising of players over the last decade who I’ve seen and thought they could do a job for us and I’m going to do a story on it which I’ll publish on here later this afternoon.
‘Challenging’ is absolutely the right word, Paul, although a bit of friendly confrontation isn’t always a bad thing. :)) I’m afraid diplomacy is not a skill I ever mastered; even Caliburn needed reassuring on occasions, but he never stopped ringing me right up to the end. I always think about starting my posts on here with words of appreciation for the sanity you bring to emotionally-charged debate. There have ben times in the past when it seemed you alone held together the dwindling fanbase remnant. But then I fix on the matter of the moment and assume you know me well enough. Others may get the wrong end of the stick. I thought I might get a bit of that stick this time. Except maybe the substance of what I said wasn’t that easy to argue with.
In your OP you questioned Harris’s “commitment to more of a passing game when he has a squad where the senior central midfielders are Marlon Pack, Ralls, Vaulks and Bacuna” – as if they were all his players. Coming up now “with a team comprising of players over the last decade who I’ve seen and thought they could do a job for us” is straying from the point, isn’t it? The question was I think, how much should Harris be blamed for the our present midfield and style of play, i.e. what choice does he have?
Thanks for giving my book another plug! Another ‘dwindling fanbase remnant’?