Although it could be said that this blog has recently offered proof of a tendency in these days of instant reactions to talk up a crisis with a football season barely started, I like to think of August as being a month where supporters of most clubs can still feel optimistic.
Even though your head may be telling you that this may not be your season after all (in fact it could be a bit of a disaster!), the heart tells you there’s plenty of time yet for things to be turned around.
Okay, I concede that I would be struggling to see much light at the end of the tunnel if I was a Bolton or Bury fan, but the point is that in August you can still dream the sort of dreams that will be impossible to contemplate in a few weeks time.
The received wisdom is that it takes ten games for the league tables to sort themselves out. I’m not so sure about that myself, but leaving my opinion on that issue aside for now, I believe supporters are prone to analyse performances in early season looking more for positive signs than negative ones – the little indications that while things might not be great now, they are going to start improving soon. After all, August is a time when people feel good about football in general and their team in particular – they haven’t had time to get bored with either of them.
With that in mind, what is one to make of the reaction to Cardiff City’s 0-0 draw at Blackburn today? That point gives us seven from five matches with two wins and two defeats leaving us in fifteenth position and, as I sit here typing this about three hours after the match finished, the number of posts about the game on the City messageboard I use is probably the lowest I’ve ever seen following a first team match – most people are more concerned with Dan James’ alleged diving and Manchester United’s defeat than Cardiff City it seems.
That isn’t meant as a criticism, because I can understand that reaction. After all, I’m really struggling to write much about the game because, rather like a Chinese takeaway meal, I’ve virtually forgotten everything about it a few hours after I “consumed” it.
Should a goalless draw at an opponent with an identical record to us apart from their slightly better goal difference, be viewed as one of those hints of better days ahead I talked about or is it more evidence to back up a pretty uninspiring first four matches to the campaign? Is it a small step forward from where we were after the game against Huddersfield on Wednesday or is it more proof that fifteenth place is about right for us at the moment?
I honestly believe it’s a toss a coin job as to which one of those options is closest to the truth, but, if told I had to come down on one side or the other, I think I would just about opt for the tiny step forward one.
Although I can almost feel myself changing my mind as I type this, I think a first clean sheet of the season after conceding six in our opening two losing away matches has to be seen as a positive and the fact that most observers had us down as the better side is a plus I suppose.
The trouble is though that I, and I suspect many other fans, cannot stop looking at things from a perspective where it could be legitimately argued that, as the relegated side with the most number of points, we could be seen as the strongest team in this division for 19/20 as last season ended.
Yes, I know we lost important players we had on loan and two stalwarts of the team over the past few years left us, but I think it’s fair to look at things from a context of us being the eleventh best supported team in the Premier League last season, a side that was better than the team who finished above us for all but the first two and a half months of the campaign and think shouldn’t we be doing better than this?
It’s that awful word “expectation” again isn’t it – I expected better from our first five matches and I certainly expected better in the summer transfer window.
I’m sorry, but it annoys me that, after just five games of the season, our manager is saying the following in his post match press conference today;-
“We’ve got four tough points from two games so I’m delighted. You look at Leeds and Fulham and you look at a few lads who might pull away and we just have to hang on to their coat-tails.” .
So, with less than a month of the season gone, we are already thinking in terms of hanging on to the coat tails of other sides, I just think to myself, what on earth happened to the feelgood factor generated by that win at Old Trafford to finish last season off? I accept the result was meaningless, but we won the game deservedly and there was a definite blueprint there for a potent attack made up entirely of players that people expected to still be with us come the beginning of the new season.
It was interesting listening to Rob Phillips’ phone in tonight on Radio Wales, because, again, it seemed that no one really wanted to talk about the Blackburn game, the Cardiff City conversation was all about things like Neil Warnock’s legacy, the style of play at Cardiff and the need for some sort of recognisable structure and plan at a club that has given the impression of not having either of those things for almost all of this decade.
Others who listened to the programme may feel differently to me about it, but the impression I got was that the majority of contributors took a gloomy view. The two studio guests Ian Walsh and Jason Perry were united in their opinion that the lack of footballing expertise in the Boardroom at Cardiff meant that replacing Neil Warnock would be something of a lottery and that the club were ill equipped to handle the implementation of the sort of footballing philosophy that is, increasingly, being seen as an essential part of club management these days spreading through to things like recruitment and youth development.
The pair of pundits were in agreement about a possible appointment of Neil Warnock to the Board with responsibility for overseeing such matters in the future as being a bad thing – I believe the term “the worst thing that could happen” was used or words to that effect.
The whole tone of phone in debate and the messageboard reaction I mentioned earlier was downbeat and, for me, this originates from what happened over the summer and has been exacerbated by what’s happened on the pitch in the past three weeks.
Although I struggle to understand how any relegation can be viewed in a positive light, I will admit that there was a feeling abroad with many City fans that we had been relegated with honour as people were referring to a view heard in the summer of 2018 that our transfer business was being conducted with a view to having a very strong Championship squad in the event of us being relegated..
Sadly, all of that just seems so much pie in the sky now. I’m not having a go at the two men involved here because I think one of them can be a good signing for the club and the other one deserves credit for working so hard during the summer to reach his best level of fitness since signing for us a couple of years ago. However, if you told me as the final whistle was blowing at Old Trafford three months ago that the two players who would generate most excitement among Cardiff fans in the opening weeks of the 19/20 season would be Marlon Pack and Lee Tomlin, I would have said you were mad – it’s stuff like this which I believe explains why there is such a feeling of frustration and anti climax around the club currently.
Anyway, I should talk about the match that took place today. Firstly, it was a surprise to me to see Neil Warnock go for an unchanged side from Wednesday because I felt he wouldn’t trust Lee Tomlin in an away game. I’d give some credit to our manager there for a positive selection which came close to working in a game which saw the woodwork hit three times.
Leandro Bacuna was the first of the trio to be foiled by the frame of the goal when his shot from a similar distance to when he missed a good chance on Wednesday got a slight deflection on to the outside of a post. In the second half, Joe Ralls, who I feel is going to be a very important player for us in the coming weeks given the injury to Pack, showed the confidence he has in his shooting at the moment when his low effort from twenty five yards after Josh Murphy’s cross following a fine run had been half cleared to him, beat Walton in the home goal and clipped an upright on its way out for a goal kick.
Defender Derrick Williams, who scored late on to deny City a win on their last visit to Ewood Park, almost won it for the home side in the eighty eighth minute with a shot that rapped against the woodwork and bounced out, but this was a rare threat on the City goal in a second half that they generally had the better of.
Apart from that, there was a fine block by Sean Morrison and a good save from Alex Smithies to deny Blackburn in the first half, while Tomlin was foiled by a decent stop by Walton – sub Junior Hoilett also had a couple of chances to win it.
City’s Under 18s were also in Lancashire today, but they are still awaiting their first competitive win of the campaign following a 2-1 defeat at Burnley – Keiron Evans equalised for City after they fell behind early on, but a goal in the opening minutes of the second half for the home team proved to be the match winner.
I had intended to watch my first Blaenrhondda match of the season today, but then found out on Twitter that the game was being played on the artificial 3G pitch at Cambrian and Clydach Vale. Apparently, Blaenrhondda will be playing there for the foreseeable future following work to improve the drainage at their home ground in the summer – they did have a lot of home games postponed last season.
I’ll get down to Cambrian and Clydach Vale to watch the occasional game, but, judging by today’s outcome, Blaenrhondda may still show the strange fallibility at home which dogged them last season – after following up away draws in their first two games with a 5-2 win at Merthyr Saints in midweek, they were beaten 3-2 today by a Caerphilly Athletic team that had lost all of its matches before today.
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How the mighty have fallen.
The team is not a patch on last year especially losing arter, camarasa and gunnars and replacing them with pack at the last minute. Injuries happen and as a manager of some years NW should have seen that coming.
So who do we bring in but bacuna who was hopeless at Wigan and again on Wednesday against Huddersfield .
Without manga the defence is slow and that’s why we have let goals in. Bennett is no where near his best and that’s because he needed bother as he hasn’t any competition.
We have two wingers none of whom can cross a ball yet we have the makings of a good centre forward if he ever gets the chances. Tomlin provided some on Wednesday but I think Glatzel was that shocked he didn’t get the time to react. We allow madine and Bogle to stay ( truth is no one wants them) and we lose Zohore and Reid . Common sense tells you that we are lowering the standard of the team.
We take him off and lo and behold in comes Bogle , we take tomlin off and bring on another winger who at least can cross a ball but leave the two others on !!!!!
Why because we have no other midfielders, now whose fault is that.
I was one who thought that allowing NW to continue was a disaster waiting to happen. He had put himself into a position that all supporters would see him as one of our best managers ever, but that is now crumbling and I feel sorry for him after all he achieved. He should have walked away a hero that isn’t going to happen now and things are about to get worse because we have no depth in the squad now and what we have on the field is nowhere good enough
That was crystal clear at the match yesterday and I don’t want to talk about the rubbish that we played against another poor team that with a decent squad we would have hammered yet we could have lost in the end ,. Maybe time to ditch the orange as well
Never mind mate, it’s sunny outside.
Thanks, again, Paul – and to Barry C…a bleak analysis, but a hugely helpful and informative one for someone like me, a fairly distant exile.
Here’s a forlorn hope that all is not as grim as it appears.
Thanks for the write up Paul.
You’d think four points from two games would have us all feeling encouraged at least but somehow the sense that we are a club drifting aimlessly refuses to go away. It all feels a bit like it did under most of Russell Slade’s reign – no serious ambition for promotion but a squad playing functional if at times turgid football that will probably grind out enough results to not make relegation too much of a threat. Except of course, there was a kind of strategic logic at play during Slade’s time which was to cut costs and try to recover the financial position of the club after the profligacy of the Malky and Solskjaer days and still be reasonably competitive. I’m struggling to find any such logical strategy in play at the moment.
I’d be ok with a season or two of mid-table anonymity if it was clearly a time of transition with foundations being established to create a younger more tactically advanced team and a club ethos which begins to focus more on the importance of the academy and junior sides. However we now have a ‘lame duck’ manager who exudes tired clichés rather than positive structured ambition and I fear we will continue to drift aimlessly with the hope we’re not swept over a waterfall.
Fulham arrive next week. Could be interesting.
Thanks Paul and Contributors. At the end thank full for a point. We need practice in shooting at goals and the wingers to cross the balls correctly.
Warnock and the gang of three need to bring in a central midfielder from players out of contract as a top priority , as Pack is out for two months. Someone mentioned Bamba maybe fit to come back after the two week break.
My only pleasing moment yesterday, was Fulham were beaten at home by Nottingham Forest .
Do we have a chance on Friday against Fulham ? If we can win a further 3 points up to 10 points.
Wait and see.
Hi! Paul and friends.
Haven’t seen anything of the game but like Paul I was surprised but pleased that Tomlin played. The clean sheet is want I wanted to see, by what I’ve read we could have taken all three points.
From what I’ve seen on Sky there are quite a few poor sides in the Championship this year, hopefully we’ll be able to pick up enough points to avoid any relegation worries.
A team that had any serious ambition to return to the top table at the first attempt should, and would, have had little problem overcoming the mundane away opposition of Wigan, Reading and Blackburn. That we didn’t and were cruelly exposed by the first two shows how far we are adrift of the serious end of things.
As stated before, I quite like 4231 but we don’t have the players to play it to our advantage. Yesterday we were not as ruthlessly exposed by Blackburn as did Wigan and Reading but we still looked a million miles from creating and tucking away chances. Two efforts hitting the woodwork (Bacuna and Ralls), a longish pop or two from Ralls and a wayward effort from Hoilett were the closest we got. Thankfully Graham was as profligate for the hosts as our midfielders. A better home team would have utilised the space in front of Peltier and Bennett and scored a goal or two and thereby would have secured the 3 points. That said Ralls and Bacuna did an excellent job on restricting the gifted Dack.
If City are to persevere with this formation Hoilett and Mendez-Laing, our best defensive wide players need to play; Whyte, a bit of a handful yesterday, I’d alternate with Tomlin in the central link role. A Pack/Ralls defensive duo is more than adequate at this level, though Bacuna had his best game of the season at Blackburn. Glatzel didn’t have anything worthy of being called a chance during his afternoon’s endeavours and desperately needs a goal. Clearly, Etheridge will return when fit, Bamba probably will too, to add a little mobility in the back line, though Morrison and Flint are now starting to gell. Peltier, a defensively sound right back, is probably not as mobile as is required to get the best out of the space in front of him. Bennett, pilloried by some, has to get through a prodigious amount of running to overlap.
Unless there is a miracle ahead before next May, there will be some serious examinations and serious scores from better teams than the 5 we’ve played so far. Sadly the surreal Tan/Warnock-Speak of late has not reflected the reality of the 2019 close season’s signings and I just can’t see how this squad can mount a serious promotion challenge after being told we would. Yes, we are financially stable but I don’t know how Leeds, Villa, Derby and the like can spend on trying to build a PL squad when 20 out of Warnock’s 30 permanent signings have been squad fillers at best.
For the record Warnock transformed an underperforming mid table Championship club into promotion grabbers but since relegation the transfer dealings (in and out) have not improved the good ship Cardiff City, in fact at present, it is difficult to come to any other conclusion that it is either becalmed or holed beneath the waterline.
That City 20-21 will be Warnock-less is sure but what direction the Club takes is uncertain. Will the popular choice, the untested Bamba, be chosen? Will another older, been there done it, option be thrust forward or, my choice, a young continental coach take up the reigns? The City hierarchy had better start planning right away. Continual bargain-basement signings have not had the desired result. The Club must lift up it’s eyes higher up the transfer food-chain and demand a far higher success rate from those who are signed for any real progress to be made.
Excellent post, if I may say so, Steve.
Thanks Paul and all.
Also not managed to see any of the game other than brief Sky highlights. Can’t really add anything to other comments on the game itself. Clean sheet – tick; failure to win again against “winnable” opposition- no tick!
More interested in Paul and others contributions regarding where we are heading/ the future/ lack of ambition. Some excellent analysis on this above and got me thinking too. Trying to maintain early season enthusiasm, with the hot weather making me believe anything is possible as it’s still August. However, the reality is what I see before me in terms of quality of performances and the type of players we have.
Mid table mediocrity is staring us in the face and the managers pre/ post match soundbites are starting to jar. Meanwhile, down the road there is evidence of an upswing in fortunes with an attractive brand of football being maintained by another young, left field managerial appointment.
Sure we are all grateful for the re-uniting, promotion and general feel-good factor which Warnock has delivered. However, at a crossroads now and sincerely hope this is not the anti-climactic end to his reign some of us fear.
Points already well made by Paul and others regarding the type of players we have and the time needed to reorganise into a more attractive brand of football.
We have an immediate test of our methods against Fulham on Friday, but worry they too will find us out and we then face a long Winter of discontent!
Ta, Paul, Colin and the gang who have each given insights into CCFC 2019-2020. I have enjoyed reading your comments
It could have been so different, though, couldn’t it? Had a PL striker been signed 12 months ago then probably we’d have stayed up, irrespective of the decisions of the men in black. We would then have had a shout in keeping both Camarasa and Arter and I’m sure fewer mumblings would have been heard with Warnock’s stock rising even more. Sadly the Club chose a different course and it hasn’t happened. For what its worth my view is that signing one good player to better the team is more advantageous than three from the bottom two divisions to fill the squad. That said for all my realism going towards the Fulham game on Friday it would be just like City to get the unlikeliest of unlikely results.
Apologies to Mr Glatzel are in order. I failed to report that he had a powerful first half shot, too on Saturday.
Some great comments this week and although I can’t fault most of the players we are very short of quality. There is no doubt that another player who can see a pass like tomlin is the one we have craved for years. Someone to create because at the moment we have a centre forward who does not get the service he deserves.
I note in a few blogs that we have to believe in NW but that went when we took on the bargain basement transfers because no matter what is said we are nowhere near the team of last year and to allow the departure of Zahore , Reid and Cunningham and lose the options on arter and camarasa while not getting a midfielder in until deadline transfer hour doesn’t come over as good management. If tan wants to head for the premiership then he must know by now we are not going to do it with the lack of quality within this team and a bench that doesn’t scare anyone.
Hoilett is an impact player and a good one at that but we then have no wingers that can cross a ball accurately.
Bacuna is out of his depth and the defence is fragile to a fast forward line. We have a load of forwards on the bench no of which have shown that they have any idea at this level and to not move most of them on is another management error. Maybe nobody really wants them
So here we are holding on every word of NW protecting his players which he can do till it becomes an impossibility. I just wish he had left us at the end of the season and he would have been seen as one of our greater managers but now I can only see this going down hill.
The idea of allowing teams more percentage was right last time we were promoted because teams couldn’t work us out. They have now.
Thanks once again Paul for getting the best out of the replies
Morning everyone, I can’t stay on here long because I’m off out in a minute, but I’d just like to say that, although it’s happened occasionally in the past and I fear it may happen to Huddersfield this time, I’d like to think we have enough about us for relegation never to be a serious consideration this season, but, based on what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think we can have many complaints about our current position. A win on Friday would change the whole mood at the club, but, first we have to play another cup tie with the knowledge that if we play like we normally do in such games, things will get a lot worse before they start getting better.
Billy, it was too hot for me yesterday, so I stayed in, but, worry not, the cricket cured me of my miserable bastard syndrome!