After about seventy five minutes of Fulham’s good 2-0 win over long time Championship leaders Wolves on Saturday evening, Don Goodman told the watching Sky viewers that, if the score stays the same (it was 2-0 at the time), then the result would send a message out that the Craven Cottage side were now serious automatic promotion contenders to the likes of Villa and Derby, there was then a pause of about five seconds before he added, almost as an afterthought, Cardiff.
Apparently, Talksport’s radio commentary of yesterday’s game between Cardiff City and Bristol City contained a remark which was along the lines of Cardiff were stopping their opponents from playing their normal, fluent passing game, hence the match was a poor one – in effect, we were dragging them down to our own level.
In the aftermath of City’s 1-0 win over the wurzels, some Bristol City fan who gives us the benefit of his wisdom through his Twitter account, told the world “Warnock and Cardiff are the Anti-Christ of Football”.
Fair play, in a world where, increasingly, you have one hundred and thirty characters (at least I think it’s one hundred and thirty – I tried Twitter for all of twenty minutes and have never returned to my account) to get your views across, it’s a good line. It’s certainly memorable and jumps out at you among the more mundane reaction quotes in this piece. In some ways, it epitomises what we have become in far more important aspects of life than football – who cares whether there’s any truth in the tweet, as long as it’s snappy and has a good hook?
All three of the examples quoted above manage to convey an impression that, as they stand only six points behind Wolves now in second place in the Championship, some four points ahead of Villa (4-2 winners at Sheffield Wednesday), seven in front of an ailing Derby (who were two points ahead of us at the start of this month) following their 3-3 draw at Reading and eight ahead of Fulham in fifth place, Cardiff City have got where they are as we head into March under false pretences.
Yes, the team that are now fifteen points ahead of seventh place Middlesbrough and have accumulated enough points already to get to the stage where they would have needed to take just one more point out of the thirty six still available to them to have qualified for the Play Offs in our Championship winning season, have, surely, entered into some kind of Faustian pact which has enabled them to defy the natural order of things and become interlopers at a top table normally reserved for those who play the game the “right way”!
In truth, the stereotyping of Cardiff City as a bunch of long ball cloggers probably started when we beat Bristol City at home last season. After all, that was Neil Warnock’s first match as City manager and there is no doubt that this perception of what type of team we are has much to do with the “baggage” that our manager has accumulated in his long career.
However, it really started in earnest from our fourth game this season when we went to Molineux and deservedly beat Wolves and, increasingly, we have become seen as something akin to the worst elements of those purveyors of “anti football” from thirty years ago, Wimbledon FC.
Is this reputation justified? Well, I’ve given my view on this before – I don’t think it was for the first year of Neil Warnock’s time in charge. We were direct, forceful and physical, but there was also a pace, quality and even flair to our attacking play at times which marked us out as something more than just Wimbledon mark two.
I will admit though that it has become easier to label us in the kind of derogatory way we’ve become used to seeing in recent months because, if we accept that the term “typical Warnock team” really does have the negative implications that I believe it does, then, yes, for me, it’s fair to say we are more of a typical Warnock team than we were.
A few weeks ago, one of the regular correspondents on here remarked on how the number of fouls we were committing in each game had gone up and, although I couldn’t find it when I looked last night, I can remember reading something, somewhere a while back saying that we were the team in our league which had committed the most fouls.
Certainly, the BBC’S figure of seventeen fouls committed by Cardiff yesterday seems a high one to me, but eight against Ipswich, thirteen against Middlesbrough and eleven against Bolton in the other matches which make up our current winning run don’t strike me as too bad.
A month ago, we got a preview of what it might be like for a “typical Warnock team” if we were to go up when Manchester City came here and brought the national media with them. That was the day of Joe Bennett’s “horror tackle” on Leroy Sane which, from some of the headlines, you might have thought had put the German winger’s career in danger.
Yes, it was a poor tackle and I reckon Bennett should have got a straight red for it, but the fact of the matter is that Sane started for Man City in their League Cup Final stroll against a miserable Arsenal team yesterday and I still believe that a lot of the reaction to the incident was over the top and originated from a, somewhat flawed, perception of what sort of football a team managed by Neil Warnock plays.
A picture which says a lot about the manner in which yesterday’s match was played – the caption in the Bristol Post says “Joe Bennett of Cardiff City is challenged by Josh Brownhill of Bristol City”!+
Even if we are still at the top of any Championship foul table, and I concede that our manager wants his defenders to “get stuck in” and that his sides are not averse to breaking the game up in attempt to stop our opponents gaining any rhythm, particularly if we are winning, this table, which measures team discipline in terms of red and yellow cards, shows us to be one of the better behaved Championship outfits. So, I’d argue that, while our discipline may be worse than it was in terms of the number of fouls we are conceding, the “cloggers” charge is not proven.
The long ball charge is one that I find harder to come to a conclusion on one way or another, because you end up getting into the realms of proving the old adage about stats being able to say whatever you want them to, to be correct. This table is a pretty damning one I think, because it clearly shows that we have, by some distance, played the least passes of any team in our league, but it also shows that our accurate long passing is the worst in the division, yet when it comes to inaccurate long passing we are seventh in that particular table. Our figures for short passes are poor as well, with us being the worst when it comes to accurate ones and we stand eighth in the inaccurate short passing table.
Of course, there is an argument for saying that we are so poor at playing accurate long balls that it is ludicrous to adopt such an approach. Also, if you combine the accurate and non accurate long ball figures, you discover that there are only seven sides in the Championship that have played fewer long balls than us.
So, that would seem to indicate that we are not a “typical Warnock team” when it comes to a long ball game either. However, I’d say the situation becomes blurred somewhat when you also factor in that no side plays anywhere near as few passes of any kind than we do, so while the stats show that we are the antithesis of, say. the Fulham approach, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are just knocking it long all of the time.
Therefore, I’d look at it from the point of view that for as long as I can remember, there has been a perception around that the “right” way to play the game is through attractive, passing football which can look great when it works, but, far more often than not, it doesn’t. This is the type of football I would rather see if I had the choice, but it doesn’t half become boring if it becomes passing for passing’s sake – there is nothing attractive about that.
On the other hand, you get the Neil Warnock approach which does not hide its refusal to adhere to “proper” footballing principles and so it becomes easy for this to be characterised as the “wrong” way to play the game – I can’t defend Warnock sides in general and Cardiff City in particular from that charge, but it is one that rather relies on definitions that are not as clear cut as many would have you believe.
Now, turning to yesterday’s match, I’d just like to make one small point about our manager and the way I believe he thinks about the game in general before going on to a description and analysis of yesterday’s events.
In his post match press conference, Neil Warnock called the pitch (which, once again, didn’t seem that bad to me, but maybe I’m missing something?) “terrible”. This was on the back of some less than complimentary things said about it by Middlesbrough manager Tony Pulis following his team’s loss here last weekend and what I would say on this matter in relation to “typical Warnock” is that I can imagine our manager being not too upset at all if his side’s pitch was not of the quality that most clubs in the Championship would want and expect!
Anyway, on to what can be described as a typical derby game yesterday. The thing about all of this “typical Warnock side” stuff is that there is, of course, only ever one team that plays like a typical Warnock side and yet I could have sworn I saw two of them out there yesterday – in fact, I thought the side in red looked more of a typical Warnock side than the one in blue did!
I’ve seen the match described as horrible by various people, including the wurzels manager Lee Johnson, and with a gusty, icy cold, wind, an, apparently, inferior pitch and a typical derby game attitude and atmosphere to contend with, as well as a very important three points at stake for a couple of promotion chasing sides, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it wasn’t easy on the eye.
To be frank, it was the sort of game where the ball welcomes the half time break, because it gives it an opportunity to have some treatment – it was the sort of game that only threatened to turn into a football match when someone like Junior Hoilett was on the ball.
If Talksport are to be believed, it was a game where one team had “proper” footballers in their line up and the other side was full of musclebound, hulking giants intent on turning it into a slugfest.
Anyone who watched Bristol City’s two leg League Cup Semi Final with Man City where, to be fair to them, they had a right go at the best team in the country and then saw our rather craven and cautious surrender to them in the FA Cup a few weeks later might just have seen yesterday’s contest in the terms that the person on Talksport apparently did – you know, good against bad, the anti Christ against God’s chosen ones etc, etc.
However, that was far, far from the truth as I saw it. If our team selection (which disappointed me, but, yet again, Warnock came up with the win), with Greg Halford in our midfield at the expense of Marko Grujic, Callum Paterson as our “number ten”, Liam Feeney on the wing and Gary Madine up front, gave a huge clue as to how we were going to play, then the deployment of a Pulis like four centrebacks across the back, the selection of two big men up front and the banishing of Bobby Reid into an anonymous deeper role by Johnson gave the lie to any theory that our opponents were going to, or wanted to, play the “beautiful game”.
Sorry, all this stuff about the wurzels’ footballers being stifled by Cardiff’s lumbering thugs is patent nonsense. We might have smashed the ball every time it moved, but so did they and you need to return to those disciplinary and possession stats that I was referring to earlier to get the real picture of what Bristol were all about yesterday.
I mentioned earlier that we gave away seventeen free kicks for fouls, but that was four less than Bristol did and, when you look where they are on that disciplinary chart, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. It wasn’t a Cardiff player who made contact with an opponent’s face in the dangerous manner that Nathan Baker did with Paterson in the first few minutes – presumably it was the fact that it was so early in the match that persuaded referee Paul Tierney to only show a yellow card?
When it comes to passing, this was a matter which came up in an acrimonious build up to the game as both managers took pot shots at the other’s club – Lee Johnson chose to mention the empty seats which he had noticed when he watches Cardiff home games (fair point, but we are talking about a ground which holds seven thousand more than Ashton Gate does), while Neil Warnock turned the tables as far as long ball football was concerned when he said that it was Bristol who had been playing the game “the wrong way” in the two previous matches between the teams.
Our manager returned to this theme after the game when he revealed that this had influenced his selection after he and his coaching staff had been taken by surprise by Bristol’s approach in previous encounters and, again, the stats back this up – only Burton Albion have played more long balls than the wurzels in this season’s Championship and even the Bristol Post conceded that Warnock may have a point.
If the approach was agricultural on both sides, then I’d agree with our manager’s view that we just shaded the game – in fact, scrub that, I think we did more than “just shade it”, we were the better side and were deserved winners when you consider the amount of goalmouth incidents at either end of the pitch.
Although those four centrebacks meant that Madine’s aerial strength was not seen to any great effect, it was City who carried what threat there was in the first half as Feeney caused early alarms by skipping past left back Magnusson and putting over a cross which led to Madine and Ralls having shots that were well blocked by defenders. The winger also moved dangerously on to a perceptive Bamba pass (Sol was a Man of the Match contender for me) and drew a save out of Fielding, while the keeper also had to make a diving save from a Halford effort from twenty five yards.
Zohore for Madine at half time saw the visiting defence faced with a different set of problems and the Dane was soon using his pace to burst clear and put over a cross, intended for Paterson, which the covering Korey Smith almost turned into his own net. Zohore and Paterson combined again when a Joe Ralls cross was flicked into the path of the Scot who fired just over as City made a forceful start to the second half, but Bristol came through a period where we were dominant to start to look a little more dangerous themselves.
Its been said, with some justification, that Kenneth Zohore does not score enough tap ins, but he’s scored two simple matchwinning goals in four days now to take us to a position where we are nearly averaging two points a game again. Zohore made a difference yesterday, looking confident and purposeful, he has produced the right type of response to Gary Madine’s arrival.*
Indeed, by the time the game had reached its eighty second minute, I was thinking that if it was going to produce a goal, it was beginning to look as if it might be from the visitors as they forced Neil Etheridge into what was a pretty routine save from a deflected shot. However, City had one more attack in them, as Bamba found sub Kadeem Harris who fell as he tried to take on Bristol captain Bailey Wright, but Ralls was on to the loose ball and burst past Reid to put over a low, near post cross aimed at Paterson, the ball was half cleared, but only as far as Zohore who shot home from five yards.
There was a scramble in the City area late on as Bennett blocked a close range Aiden Flint shot, but they were not to be denied their revenge for the defeat in November in the reverse fixture. Back then, Bristol were on a run which marked them out as automatic promotion candidates, but, unlike us, they’ve never recovered from a dodgy Christmas and Lee Johnson conceded after the game that they are now just looking for a top six finish – for the second successive game, a team had come here intent on taking us on in a manner which I believe makes life easier for us, if most of our remaining opponents have the same attitude, then we might just be playing in the Premier League next season.
+picture courtesy of https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/
*picture courtesy of https://www.walesonline.co.uk/
You’ve written exactly what I was thinking, a lot of media bias going on here, Bristol set the trend with some of their tackling and strong arm tactics, and we basically responded in kind, I was amazed that reid played to deep, (thankfully) as I believe he can do a lot of damage in the box. Once again thanks for an informative read.
Thanks, Paul.
Clean sheet, three points – that’ll do me, who’s next.
Thanks Paul , enjoyed your judgement on our alledged anti christ behaviours, hey all power to the old devil I say if we go up .
Like you I was both annoyed and aghast by TV and Radios lack of recognition we actually exist , and when they do release were second and by some margin its as if the anti christ has refused our name to be muttered by pure the illustrious judges of the perfect game, or is it just the case that it’s sexier to mention the names of once famous clubs ,like the Villa , stylish Fulham and the Wolves.
I for one thought Wolves were poor on Saturday puncheless in attack ,allowing Fulham a lot of space to dance around .
As for yesterday I thought it was a awful game, Bristol were berg cynical in thier approach in terms of pulling players , delaying any form of quick free kicks, basically looking for a draw agaisnt a side they announced pre match they weren’t scared off .
I thought they were very poor and our wingers had the best of them them all day , our lack of bodies in the box to support them was the issue and stopped us winning 3 nil ish .
Of the players I thought Connoly was not at the races will never be a full back,I was shocked Patterston didn’t slot in there ,however it does show NW sees him as our Pogba enforcer type midfielder .
Hoilett was superb as was Bamba ,Ralls just works his socks off , Zohore looked a better outlet than Madine.
Lastly I still have to pinch myself that were second , were not a particularly skilful side but very effective and I would not want to be facing us in the play offs .
In terms of the anti christ , hey better the devil you know I say
As ever Paul, you are the Aristotle, Plato and Socrates of football reporting, rolled into one. Reading your reports are my weekly gym visit for my brain.
I love the erudition. Words like “antichrist” are good for the old grey matter.
(Btw, it is a word I use myself from time to time, but I always see it as a word like “subeditor”…always lower case. Why it should be, I knowest not. Possibly because the antichrist is the FALSE Christ, and does not warrant His capital letter? Maybe. Other people more learned than I could probably tell me.)
This report is as interesting as ever, with various points that had me nodding in agreement, and just a couple of points that I queried.
And they were, first …(obviously ???…) the inference that Long Ball is bad, Short Ball is
good…and second, your assertion (in what at first seemed a very telling point) that Ashton Gate has a substantially smaller capacity than CCS.
Let us take the second one first. Yes, that is true. But we have to remember that Bristol is a two club city, whereas Cardiff is a one club one. Against that one should remember that the population of Bristol is substantially more…so on balance I would probably side with your argument there, Paul.
But on the Long Ball…ah Paul…you know where I stand. I stand firmly in the camp of Charles Hughes…and it might surprise many, in the camp of a certain Mr …Pep Guardiola…!!
One of the reasons he bought Edison was not just his superb cool ball control and short passing with his feet, but also because he noticed his prodigious long goal kicks for Benfica. Guardiola, has always known what so many Sunday League players don’t know…viz. that you cannot be offside from a goal-kick.
But yesterday, it was the much maligned goalkeeper Bravo who provided the assist for the best of the three Man City goals. And what a sweet goal.
An Arsenal raid had ended in a goal kick, and Bravo quickly noted Aguero in a “one-to-one” position in the opposition half. Even though Aguero was at a height disadvantage to his opponent, Bravo decided to risk it…not least because, the Arsenal player was seemingly trying to play him offside, yet as as Craig Bellamy said in his post match summary “you cannot be offside from a goalkick”.
A little nudge (one of the black arts Pep had previously honed in his players like Puyol and Mascherano in Barcelona) and Maradona’s son-in-law did the rest with a delicious lob.
What a goal.
Oh one final point of real variance. The Bennett horror tackle.
I am glad you see it as a red card.
But to me, the fact that Sane recovered faster than anticipated, should not be a factor.
If I choose to take out a bus queue with my car, and miss them and hit the side of the bus shelter instead, that does not make my driving less criminal.
And I submit that the Bennett tackle was criminal…nothing short. And Neil’s post match defence of the man*, really shameful.
* choosing really to knock him for his second yellow.
Let’s get one thing right, you did not beat the Wolves, you hacked and kicked us off the park.
Now to your team, they are the scum of the earth, dirty bastards that kick anything that moves, you have the audacity to moan about BC tactics, you are masters at it, you have a manager that makes Adolf Hitler look like a saint, this is a manager who instructs his players to break opposition players legs ‘re Notts county v Wolves, get his players to get deliberately booked because he is losing a match ‘re Sheff Utd v wba.
The difference between Hitler and Warnock is he looked after his own, Warnock can’t even look after his sick wife!
If God forbid you ever get promoted then premiership clubs should get extra insurance for their players because cardiffs hackers will cripple them.
You are animals with a low life scum of the earth manager, mind you your fans are no better that attack women and kids.
BASTARDS.
Paul,
No wonder you are not suited to Twitter! What an excellent detailed analysis of perceptions of City’s place in championship football. Many thanks.
Cheers Paul, enjoyable as always.
Johnson got his selection and tactics wrong. The masterstroke of playing Reid in midfield backfired as they were toothless up front. The unavailability of Pack enabled us to win the midfield battle, Karma!
The championship master again got his team selection spot on, despite all of our misgivings. It was never going to be a classic given the conditions and Bristol trying to match our physicality.
The self appointed best team in the championship are having a wobble, their forums are very entertaining, perhaps their Iberian contingent are struggling with this cold snap, just goes to show that without the championships most expensive player what an average team they are.
Paul is it true that there is no under soil heating at Brentford? May suit us to play them later in the season with a fully fit squad.
Thanks for the report Paul and your unforgettable headline. The only other point perhaps worth making is that during this eight game unbeaten run we’ve been on I make it that no fewer than 24 players have appeared in our team. Such runs like we are on are usually associated with having a fairly settled starting eleven with everyone knowing their jobs etc etc. Alongside the minus factors of ‘Warnockism’ one of the positives may be that it is a style of play which allows a large squad of players to slot into replacement positions without too much disruption. We’ve had a long list of injuries lately which we’ve coped with almost seamlessly. I’m not sure the more refined styles of Fulham, Villa or Wolves would cope with similar levels of disruption and that could be a crucial advantage in these last 12 games.
A week or so back I stated on this very site that Zohore can only score spectacular individual “wonder goals”. I’m glad to say that his two recent efforts have been close range tap-ins. In other words, he was in the right place at the right time. My hope now is that I’ll eventually be able to say, in addition, that he has learned to jump for a ball (even if he does not head it) and secondly, that he will not go down so easily when pushed by defenders. He is, clearly, still a work in progress, but progress there is.
A note on John’s comment above. Thank you for such a charming and fair-minded contribution to this blog; it surely says more about you than it does about Cardiff City or football in general. Please do not bother to write again.
Kind Regards
John Match stats taken from our unjust and thuggish win:
Please note the fouls column
64%Away36%ShotsHome12Away17Shots on TargetHome3Away5CornersHome2Away4FoulsHome13Away13
There seems to have been a campaign against us since earlier on in the season with opposing managers and media and club staff determined for us to be seen as a typical Warnock side yet, while we have become more “industrious” since the shaky run at Christmas, the talk started waaay back with the wolves game when it certainly wasn’t justified – even on football focus John Ruddy (wolves keeper) was talking about about the style of Warnock’s Cardiff, but did we bore against the famous Villa at home? No, we outplayed them with a skillful and quick front three that was a Jose team at its best rather than a Jose team at its worst. We probably haven’t helped ourselves to be respected with the poor audition against man city on the TV but while the Wurzels seem to be following the path of Malky’s first season here we seem to have grown stronger since that additional high profile fixture and are, thus far, getting ourselves over the line in the productive but not necessarily exciting fashion of the promotion season under Malky.
There are now 12 games to go and by all accounts Villa and Wolves have an easier run in than City so I agree with Warnock’s assessment that our aim is still the play-offs.
A lot will now depend on whether Zohore is about to go on a streak, how quickly returning players can make an effective contribution and a little bit of luck.
Have to agree with Anthony regarding the deep and thoughtful “John” – a man who needs to seek out a yoga class at the very least!
Dignitas might be better.
One further comment. How humbling it is that such an erudite follower of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC should honour us by his presence on this board.
john (in due deference and respect I use the non-capital version of his name which he clearly prefers) is obviously someone who respects the cultured finery of the game and regards each point his team wins as an emblem of purity and beauty. Even if, in the unlikely case that his team should end up with less of these points than the rather coarser, vulgar examples that teams such as ours may acquire, he sounds like the sort of jolly good fellow who would calmly contemplate such an outcome with a serene sense of inner satisfaction.
Hello Paul and others – Splendid article as ever, and one that I find nothing with which to disagree. I was surprised at the total number of fouls, but delighted that our count, although too many, was still some 20% less than the “Robins”. – the feathered varieties being delightful, the footballing versions clearly less so. How it was that Baker’s early assault only warranted yellow surprised me – but hey, what do I know.
Certainly referee Tierney was upset at Flint’s constant badgering of him, and I thought at one time that would warrant a booking, but once more I repeat, what do I know.
I have mentioned before that I have yet to second guess our manager when it comes to team selections, and like many, was disappointed at our starting eleven. But it all worked out in the end with only two substitutions made. As one of your other contributors stated, Connolly is no right back and he struggled early on. He did improve, but he caused a few anxious moments in the first part of the game. Halford and Feeney did better than I expected, and Madine still has not had the opportunities that he needs to display his goal scoring talents.
I appreciate that game as a spectacle was scrappy, with neither side displaying skills that would serve them well in the Premiership. The extreme cold and windy conditions had something to do with that, but what I fail to understand are the adverse comments about the pitch. Just what is wrong with it? If any of your bloggers have information on its supposed poor condition, I would be delighted to have it as the surface looks pretty good to me.
One game at a time has to be regarded as the sensible approach, and with NW giving more players run outs, the atmosphere and belief in the dressing room must be most encouraging. And so to Griffin Park – and I won’t be offering my team selection any time soon.
Great article again. I see that we one sick idiot, John, on here. Both stupid and offensive. Can you block the clown.
Thanks, Paul for the usual calm and measured report…and great stuff from the others.
You, of all people do not deserve to be exposed to the bile of a half-baked Wolves (or any) supporter – their Manager would certainly demonstrate more dignity than this fool.
Paul, I understand Robert’s indignation at the uncouth “john”, but please do not block* him.
Why? Well because “john” makes the rest of us seem like Sweet Reason personified. I reckon we should all club together to pay the fella to continue posting his bile. What sayest thou…?
Btw, I loved Colin’s dry wit above.
* How times change. Now we are requesting to block this john, when 47 years ago when I lived in a pseudo hippie commune, “unblocking the john” was the order of the day…!!
Thanks again Paul for excellent report and analysis.
Clearly not a classic but thought we shaded it.
Good points made re our use of so many players with Mr W not scared to slot in a few surprises. Yesterday’s selection was unexpected but, yet again, the manager was proved right.
Also noticed the pitch was not great with the ball bobbling around a fair bit. Too much head tennis and crying out for some control in midfield, but pleased our determination to keep going to the end paid dividends.
Reviewing our results for February that is a really impressive few weeks work!
The usual great report and heading.
There is so much bias and ill informed comments about us that perhaps we should start singing our own version of the Millwall song—–‘no-one likes us we don’t care etc ‘.
What little good football was played on Sunday came from us and the worst foul was by Baker of Bristol on Paterson – a stiff straight arm punch in the face!
It was delivered with a flat palm rather than a fist but was spared a red card because the ref was not brave enough to give a red so early in a derby
On the subject of a heading for TOBW’s report, after 80 minutes I was wondering whether Paul was a Don McLean fan, in which case the fitting heading would be –‘The day the football died.’
But then Zohore scored with his right foot and suddenly it was a beautiful Sunday and the team that had been trying to win were rightly victorious!
I think it’s a bit mean of some of our bloggers to say unkind things about poor John the so-called Wolves supporter.He is clearly a sad and lonely individual who needs sympathy and treatment.
He sent us an almost identical blog after we outplayed Wolves at the start of the season,although I don’t think he mentioned his Uncle Adolph on that occasion!
Dear John , just to say , sorry you team seem to be faltering . I can hear your pain in your considered points , best advise I can provide is to defend well. Your contribution has put a broad smile on the faces of Cardiff City fans and further lifted our spirits , god be with you.
Mrs Warnock also sends her love.
A very, varied set of replies this time, which, unfortunately, I cannot give full attention to because house move related stuff beckons today.
Just a few quick points about some matters raised about Sunday’s match which took my eye.
1. I agree that Bristol seemed happy enough to settle for a point Russell. I suppose, with Preston and Sheffield United losing and Boro drawing their approach made sense, but it did rather suggest what Lee Johnson confirmed afterwards – they are thinking in terms of a Play Off place, rather than any spectacular run of wins to take them into top two contention.
2. For a goalkeeper to kick the ball as accurately over a long distance as Bravo did for Man City’s first goal requires a level of skill that isn’t always appreciated Dai and the finish from Aguero was exemplary, but, nevertheless, it still needed a level of defending I’ve seen described as very poor by Sunday League standards for the ball to end up in the Arsenal net – Mustaphi was the main culprit, but Ospina made Aguero’s mind up for him.
3. Jeff, I found stories relating to Brentford’s promotion bid in 14/15 and I can confirm that they didn’t have undersoil heating then – the fact that there are no stories since then about it having been installed strongly suggests that this is still the case.
4. On the subject of injuries Richard, there’s a message on the new board from someone who isn’t generally a wind up merchant saying that he’s been told Joe Ralls has a knee injury which could keep him out for six weeks!
5. David, we are physical, direct and we do play it long a lot of the time, but what gets me is that we seem to cop all of the flak that’s been aimed at that style of football when I get the distinct impression that more teams than normal are playing that way in this season’s Championship.
6. BJA, the pitch seems to be coming in for an increasing amount of stick, but, I’m like you, I don’t see anything dramatically wrong with it – Lord knows what the critics would have to say if the had to play or watch matches on the stadium pitch at Leckwith!
7. Mike, you’ve got me thinking now, who sang Beautiful Sunday? It was no good, I had to look it up and it turned out that Daniel Boone had a second job!
8. Time was, I used to like a spot of banter, but I’m talking about the old version of it – I’ve just looked up an online definition of banter as “the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks.” and “exchange remarks in a good-humoured teasing way.”. My attempts at banter were of mixed quality, but, when I was good, I was pretty convincing and the best bit for me was to see the look on the “victim’s” face as they either couldn’t help but laugh or realised that I was winding them up. However, that’s not what banter had come to mean these days, now banter has become the property of online saddos who spout hate filled bile or “humour” that has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer and never get to see who that alleged humour is being aimed at.
John, your, second, attempt at modern day banter on here did not make me laugh, chortle, grin or even smirk. I’d guess what’s worse than that from your perspective is that it didn’t leave me fuming, distraught, vexed or even mildly angry either, so I have to ask a couple of things – first, what is the point in you posting it on here and second, what is it about Wolves fans and the need to indulge in feeble “banter”? In the past nine years, there have been some excellent and friendly contributions on here from supporters of other clubs and it’s only been Wolves fans who have ever felt the need to get all aggressive and confrontational.
We got to see what Cardiff are all about versus Man City. You couldn’t see Bennett’s tackle on Sane as potentially career-ending because you’re biased and you didn’t want to. Sane was lucky bones and joints bent but did not break. Your evidence that it wasn’t that bad was that Sane’s career *wasn’t* ended? Wow.
Fact is, if Warnock is your manager you can witter on as much as you like on a masturbatory blog and try to convince yourself and other Cardiff fans that you’re not what people are saying you are, but most of the football community will see what you can’t.
I always welcome new contributors on here Tim and I won’t do different with you because of the standpoint you come from. However, let’s look at what you say for a while. First, you say I’m biased – of course I am, I defy anyone who has being supporting a particular football team for fifty five years not to be biased towards them. That said, if you were to take a look around the blog, you’ll find plenty of, hopefully, constructive criticism aimed at various employees of the team I support. Furthermore, I posted a link to statistical confirmation of the fact that we pass the ball less often and more inaccurately than any other side in the Championship – I find that embarrassing when you consider our position in the table.
Your beef with Cardiff City and/or Neil Warnock seems to stem from the dirty play side of the “typical Warnock team” cliche, rather than the long ball team angle though. That being the case, someone was able to provide an updated version of the table for most fouls in the Championship and it shows that we’re now just below Bolton in second place
http://www.footstats.co.uk/index.cfm?task=league_fouls
Again, if I were someone whose sole function was to act as a cheerleader for my team, I wouldn’t be posting information like that on here, but the figures are undeniable – we do give away an awful lot of free kicks for fouls by the standards of this division. However, this is not reflected by the stats which show us to be in the top ten best behaved sides in the Championship when it comes to red and yellow cards.
I’m now moving into your territory because I’m going from fact into opinion and mine is that the fouls figures show us to be a streetwise team that is not too concerned about how it stops the opposition from playing, but is disciplined enough to generally keep the foul play to a “take one for the team” standard as opposed to the shrill potential career ending hyperbole seen in the national media as exemplified by the reporting of Joe Bennett’s foul on Sane – you conveniently ignore the fact that I said it was a poor tackle (as was the one that got him his second yellow card), deserving of a straight red.
The point remains however that, far from being an injury which would keep the Man City player out for months, as was being reported at the time, Sane was playing for them in the Champions League just sixteen days later – I’m not having a go at Sane when I say that but, self evidently, the injury was nowhere near as bad as first reported. One last thing on this subject, Bennett had some sort of brain freeze on the day we played Man City because in the same match he perpetrated the two worst tackles I’ve seen from him in the eighteen months he’s been with us – last season he was booked twice in twenty five first team appearances and this time around he’s had five cautions besides the two against Man City in twenty nine matches, he’s not the type of player who makes a habit of diving into alleged “career threatening tackles”.
Finally, I would like to assure you and other readers that in the nine years this blog has been in existence, I have never had a wank while reading or writing anything that has appeared on here!
Well said, Paul.
Great response Paul.
I wonder how many people realise that the immediate response of Pep to the horror tackle on Sane was that it was not even worth sending a trainer on?
Sane was allowed to pick himself up, play out the minute or so of normal time plus two minutes of added time and then walk off the field unassisted.
None of this excuses the tackle but shows that a two dimensional freeze frame can be misleading.
“It was like a rugby game, so many pushes and so many moments where I was a little bit confused about what the limits were in this battle, and what was over the limits”
I wonder for those who have seen Cardiff City and Bristol City play Man City on TV whether they would say this was a quote about Warnock’s side or the other? It’s actually the Fulham boss after they played the Wurzels in the game before us.
Paul – Such a good reply to Tim, and top marks to you for letting his unpleasant remarks appear on your blog. As one who looks at the Footstats site regularly, I confirm your comments with regard to fouls and yellow cards. We obviously could do better, but the percentage of “yellows” and “reds” to our overall foul total is minimal.
On the subject of that tackle, it was poor but mis-timed, but severe enough to warrant a “red” at the time. And we all know what happened later on.
But was it not only two weeks later that Man City’s Fernandinho committed an assault on an opponent that appeared much more violent than Bennett’e, but I do not recall any condemnation from Guardiola. Strange that.