On Monday night, Leeds United went to Burnley for a top of the table clash which the Sky hype machine went into overdrive about, yet I bet there were plenty of fans of the Championship who were not surprised in the slightest by the result of the match.
It finished 0-0 (Burnley’s second favourite score this season after 1-0), but what would have been a shock to most was what a truly awful spectacle it was as home goalkeeper’s James Trafford’s last minute save from a Dan James shot kept out the only on target effort by either side of the night.
It’s only with hindsight that I say that the cautious and lethargic stalemate five days ago was the worst possible thing that could have happened to Cardiff City as the general slating the game at Turf Moor got seemed to fire up Leeds to show the world what they could do going forward in their next match.
So it was that Leeds annihilated City 7-0 at Elland Road this afternoon and, in doing so, inflicted on us our heaviest defeat since a 9-0 loss in a meaningless end of season match at Preston in 1966.
City travelled north with the confidence of an eight match unbeaten run that had helped open up a four point gap above the drop zone and soon mounted a promising attack which saw Callum O’Dowda get to the bye line and float over a cross to the far post which came to nothing, but the attacking momentum was maintained and Callum Chambers had the ball some twenty five yards from the Leeds goal.
It was at this point that City got their first view of the humiliation they were to suffer over the next ninety minutes or so – this was the afternoon when the consequences of the type of team we’ve become over the past five and a half years came home to roost with a vengeance.
Back in the summer of 2019, with parachute payment money following our relegation burning a hole in our back pocket, we completely wasted what I’ve always felt was an unfair advantage anyway given to teams not good enough to survive in the Premier League.
While we’d been away for a season, the Championship had changed as pacy, more technical sides had prospered and there was more of an emphasis on recruiting younger players.
So, pace, youth and technique was the way to go for most in the division, yet, with more funds to rebuild on those lines more productively than most, Neil Warnock stuck to his “tried and trusted” methods as he went with old, slow, (well, relatively slow), his “bread and butter” midfielders and size and power over technique as he, once again, opted to try and bully his way towards promotion.
It took about a month to fully confirm the obvious, this was nowhere near a top two squad and Warnock, quickly sensing how the land lay, was on his bike with the season barely a third over. However, the damage done by that summer’s recruitment still lives on even if all of the players brought in at that time are no longer with us.
Attempts are now being made to improve the technique level and average ages of playe at the club, but it’s being done with far less money available than there was back in 2019 and, afternoons like today suggest that any improvement in technique is coming with a parallel loss of the physicality and power that is still needed for success at this level.
However, when it comes to pace, it’s a source of genuine bafflement to me that no serious attempt has been made yet to address this long running weakness. We are now almost at the end of another transfer window and although there are rumours that we’re trying to bring in Leicester’s Will Alvez, who is supposed to be something of a speed merchant, on loan, we have done nothing yet to improve the speed level of what must be one of the slowest squads in the Championship.
Even if we do bring Alvez in, one man is not going to make a huge difference to what seems an obvious weakness to all but the club’s recruitment staff.
It was pace (by that I mean physically, in terms of speed of moving the ball and speed of thought), more than anything else, that did for us today. To go back to Callum Chambers in possession twenty five yards out, he was quickly robbed and what I have always called a counter attack, but now seems to be classed as something like a defensive transition situation was on.
Many teams at our level would waste such a counter attacking chance, but not Leeds who for the first time, but by no means the last, killed us with their pace.
At the heart of it all was Wales’ Dan James. Now, granted, he was facing a team that was absolutely perfect for him to be seen to good effect against, but he played with a cleverness, sureness of touch and ability to make the right decision that I do not always associate with him.
Chambers losing the ball soon led to James tearing through our back line and after it looked for a while that a combination of Jak Alnwick and Jesper Daland had foiled him, he kept his head to feed Brendon Aaronson who was left with a tap in.
I’m not going to go through all of the goals, but so many of them were tap ins after Leeds had rapidly got to our bye line and fed one of the many attackers who had burst into our penalty area in a manner we just don’t emulate.
Another Leeds player to have a field day was left back Junior Firpo who was constantly exposing the yawning gaps down our right flank (our left was little better) and at least two of the crosses for goals came from him.
When we were in the Premier League it was expected that sometimes we’d get blown away because the gap between top and bottom of that division is so great, but should that be the case in the Championship, especially for a team that was getting parachute payments until quite recently?
The usual discussions as to why we lost are taking place tonight with many querying tactics, selection, substitutions etc. etc . Usually, there are valid arguments to be had in defeat regarding these subjects and worthwhile arguments can be had, but I’m not sure that such things apply here.
I say that because a team playing with such pace, skill and power as Leeds showed are like Kryptonite for this one paced City squad who had no answer at all to the waves of attacks that rained down on them. The goal attempts figure of 29 to 2 in Leeds’ favour tells some of the story, but not all of it – this was more one sided than even 7-0 suggests, in fact, I’m struggling to think of any game I’ve ever seen where we were so much second best.
We’ve played away against two of the four sides that are dominating the division this season and the games have been lost by an aggregate of 12-0, but I’ve always maintained that there was a freakish element to the early season 5-0 loss at Burnley as they managed to score one goal more than they had on target attempts.
Perhaps, there was a freakish element to yesterday’s game as well as Leeds, perhaps fired up by having three former jacks in their line up intent on revenge for what happened a fortnight ago, kept on pushing for goals whereas at other times they’ve seemed happy to settle for three or four? It also needs to be pointed out that Leeds are very good at home this season – only Burnley, with their ridiculously good defensive record, Portsmouth, on the opening day of the season when you get all sorts of odd results and Blackburn have avoided defeat there.
As an aside, Blackburn are interesting in that their effective young manager John Eustace, no doubt considered to be too boring by the Cardiff hierarchy to manage here, has an unbeaten record against Leeds in his four encounters with them over the past two seasons and his teams have only conceded one goal in the process.
However, what cannot be ignored is that when it became clear that this could be a very heavy defeat for City, they struck me as being too willing to accept their fate. Yes, it was an awful situation to find themselves in, but there was a lack of resolve, pride and character on offer which was worrying..
Besides being an embarrassment, today was a reminder that, for all that we’ve had five weeks or so of relative positivity, we are still a very poorly run club with an apprentice manager who are stuck in a relegation battle that might well be lost.
On a day that needed something of a good news story, the under 21s provided it as they returned to form to deservedly beat Everton 3-2 to win their League Cup group. In an entertaining encounter which featured forty five minutes from Aaron Ramsey and striker Rocco Simic, the former was influential while he was on the pitch and it was his lovely pass that sent the Croatian through to coolly equalise after Everton had led through an early penalty. The visitors soon restored their lead with a deflected shot from the edge of the penalty area, but they were lucky to lead at half time because they had been second best most of the time.
The second half was more even, but with about twenty minutes left, Luke Pearce, who had replaced Simic, was put through by what was an even better pass than Ramsey’s by the impressive Tanatswa Nyakuhwa and finished emphatically to make it 2-2. Just three minutes later another sub, Isaac Jeffries, cut inside from the right to shoot home from twenty yards.
City held on to their lead without too many alarms to win and, in another game with plenty of goals, the under 18s recovered from a two goal deficit to come out on top 4-3 at Charlton with Dan Ola scoring twice as Osian Rees and Mannie Barton also netted.
In local football, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club won 2-0 at Ceri and Williams FC in the Ardal League South West Division and Treorchy Boys and Girls Club won 3-1 at Penygraig United in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Division One East.
Regarding our fate,I am reminded of American elections. (Eh? Yes really… for I mean the way that the various TV networks compete with each other to be the first to declare the winner in particular states.)
And alas I take no pride in saying that for the first time in my many years of MAYA contributions, I declared that we would be relegated… and I ‘went very early’ (to use the psephologists’ jargon) in saying that we were doomed to go down this season. I said it in print here, before Bulut ‘had the bullet’… so-to-speak…
And the reason? Shocking player recruitment. None of the close season purchases exactly thrilled me… and it is clear to me that desideratum is not a centre forward, so much, as a proper centre back.
D’ya know Paul… I watched the Plymouth game in full on Saturday… they have just got themselves two giant centre backs, and what a difference they made.
We are deluding ourselves if we think that Daland and Chambers cut the mustard… they don’t… though the latter is a half-decent midfielder at Championship level… though no more.
I know Harry Darling is an S.O.B. who did not have his best game in our recent derby, but I would love him to be our S.O.B… and it seems two other savvy managers see him similarly.
Finally, Omer should fine himself a week’s wages for yet again picking O’Dowda as a left back. He has little or no defensive qualities… but of course is a very decent left winger…
https://tinyurl.com/45svktxt
TTFN,
Dai.
Again, I don’t have much to add to your report, Paul, although this game reminded me a lot of our home defeat to Leeds under Erol Bulut earlier this season.
On that day I felt there was a similar gulf between the teams as on Saturday.
After that game the vast majority of fans comments I saw were from disgruntled Leeds fans, complaining that the 2-0 scoreline in no way reflected their dominance, and being very critical of Daniel Farke for being too negative after taking the lead after 30 minutes.
Most felt Cardiff were there for the taking by a much bigger margin, as happened on Saturday.
There’s nothing to gain from dwelling too much on this result though!
It’s a cliche, although true, that after a (very) bad day at the office, it’s how the players react in the next games that’s more important.
Monday’s last minute transfer activity sees our rivals get the very man on loan that I would have wanted in our midfield… leastways would have wanted 3 or 4 years ago. But somehow his career has nosedived ever since Steve Cooper took him to Forest.
Fine little film is this, produced at 5 minutes’ notice and immediately posted on YouTube. Two minutes from the end, check out the description (emblazoned on the wall) of the derby double…!! The girl asks some interesting questions, that our own in house films would do well to replicate.
https://tinyurl.com/amfvr7yw
DW
Morning both and thanks for your replies. Dai, I read what you dsay about our centrebacks and want to disagree – I think Goutas is a decent to good Championship quality defender and Daland has a poise and tenacity to his game which at timnes suggest she can go higher than second tier football. However, the facts say different, in particualr the one that tells us it’s now one clean sheet in nineteen league games and we have the third worst defensive record in the Championship after having the fourth worst one lasr season – Goutas has been a virtual ghe ever present during that time, so maybe he’s not as good as i think he is. Daland has not played in all of those nineteen games and there’s the possibility that the twice he’s been substituted in our last three games could be down to him not being fully fit in recent weeks. The problem is that, both at Millwall and Saturday, his performance was of a type that could have seen him withdrawn for tatical reasons (which is very rare for someone who plays in his position). Instead of improved performances as he settles in at a new club in a new country, Daland seems to have gone backwards a bot in recent weeks – he looks indecisive at times and is struggling for pace.
Lewis O’Brien has become a little like Josh Bowler (who I see is at luton now), a victim of Nottingham Forest’s scattergun approach to transfers before they went up and in the summer when they were promoted.You’ve got to ask why did they bother signing those two players? You could have made a case for O’Brien being the best central midfielder in the Championship in the season Huddersfield reached the Play Off Final and he was always going to move somewhere when they weren’t promoted that year but not Forest – I suppose they were very good payers. Certainly, O’Brien’s not really pulled up many trees when he was on loan at Middlesbrough – he could be a very good signing for the jacks if he starts playing like he did at huddersfield, but, given the choice, I’d have preferred to have kept Grimes.
Blue Bayou, I’ve not read any comments about us from leeds fans regarding Saturday’s game, but the fact that I read them saying we were the worst side they’d faced so far after the 3-0 win down here last season and they were saying we were the worst team they were likely to face e all season after their early win here this time around, I tend to agree that we were equally as bad against them back in September. Indeed, I look back at scores like 5-0 at Burnley and how comfortably Sheffied United won here in the end and you could argue that we are light years behind the top sides – certainly, there are games where we look beaten almost before a ball is kicked, but then i remember that we beat two of the promoted sides at home last season, albeit we rode our luck in both games, and you wonder why we take the fireld with such an inferiority complex against the leading teams in the division – I don’t think I can have been the only City fan who was thinking in terms of us losing the game 7-0, or some similar score, quite early on in the first half.
Someone on the messageboard I use produced a list of our defeats by five goals or more since we were beaten 6-1 at home by Sheffield United in 1977 and I did a breakdown of how we fared in the sic league games following each thrashing – here it is (I think it gives us some grounds for hope);
“The result on Saturday cannot be changed, it’s happened and the important thing now is how we respond to it. Having picked out the 6-0 at Preston to take a glass half empty view on the aftermath of a thrashing, it’s only fair that I look into what happened after the other games listed in the OP and, hopefully, this will result in more of a glass half full interpretation – where possible, I’ll look at the six games played after a heavy defeat as I reckon that’s a large enough number to get a definite idea as to how we reacted.
City 1 Sheff Utd 6 12/77 – it’s already been mentioned that we conceded six more at Bolton, who were toip of the table at the time, in our next match, we then drew 0-0 at home to Hull before winning two and losing two in the next four (despite the thrashing by Sheffield United, this was a season where we were strong at home and terrible away and through the second half of that season we tended to win at Ninian Park and lose away).
Luton 7 City 1 9/78 – we were bottom pf the table at the time, but six games later we were up to 17th as we responded really well to what happened at Luton by winning four and drawing one of our next six games.
Brighton 5 City 0 12/78 – strange one this, a cold, snowy winter meant that we didn’t play our next home league game until the end of February. The two league games we were able to play between Boxing Day and our next home match included anpther 5-0 loss, at Cambridge, and a 0-0 draw, but then when the weather relented and fixtures returned to normal, we won four on the trot!
Cambridge 5 City 0 1/79
The four matches we played after this were all won (see above) and they were followed by a draw and a defeat.
Bolton 5 City 0 3/86
I need say no more than Durban was our manager at the time, so you know how things went after this loss – a win, a draw and four losses!
Port Vale 6 City 1 9/88
Things were somewhat complicated by the fact that we were playing in Europe that year and winning games in that competition, but there wasn’t a win in our next six league games after Port Vale, but there were four draws.
City 0 Maidstone 5 1/92
A notorious defeat, but we responded by winning five and drawing one of the next six league games.
Preston 5 City 0 1/96
The season when we finished 22nd in Division 4 – the next six games saw us win two, draw one and lose three which was probably a bit better than par for that season.
Preston 6 City 0 4/09 – already covered, we drew one and lost three of the remaining league games for that season. For what it’s worth, we won one and drew one in our first two matches of the following season.
City 0 Man C 5 9/18 – part of a very testing set of fixtures to start that season, we won two and lost four in the next six games.
QPR 6 City 1 1/20 – a positive response, three wins and three draws.
Sheff W 5 City 0 4/21 – around the time it started to go wrong for Mick McCarthy, but we ended that season with two wins and four draws.
Burnley 5 City 0 8/24 – followed it up with a creditable draw at Swansea, but this was part of our poorest start to a season ever, so the next four games were lost before we managed a first win of the campaign in the next one.
So, the thirteen matches covered saw us win more than we lost in the next six games on six occasions and lose more than we won seven times. Given that it’s more likely for struggling sides to be beaten by five or more in games, I’d say those figures give reason for hope that our loss at Leeds will not be the disaster for our season that the 6-0 at Preston was.”
Paul compadre…
In my defence (oops… pun unintentional) I was specifically talking about last year’s recruits, when I dissed Daland and Chambers as centre backs. I regard Goutas as twice the player either of them are, and whilst he doubtless yearns for Mark McGuinness back alongside him, I have no hesitation in saying he is a player who could fit into most lower Championship teams.
Before signing off, I have just discovered this – on my iPad notes – ‘wot I rote’ on 31st Jan at 11.15am… but mysteriously forgot to then post on MAYA…
‘…
When I saw the European scores flash up on Wednesday last week, I saw a former Yugoslav ‘fanatically-supported team’ had won one-nil up away from home, and Kanga had been the scorer…!! I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.
I knew he had gone to the old Yugoslavia just a week or three back… and was shocked to the core…
Wilfried could not put the ball in the net to save himself for us, despite him ‘doing the Ayatollah’ with élan, as here…
https://youtu.be/-xG6Kovhnt8?si=C_lhQfRkRR0dPNy
… yet I note he immediately scores for his new Yugoslav employers.
‘Typical for ex-City strikers’, methought. They fire blank-after-blank for us, then become prolific as soon as they leave us.
And it took a good 24 hours for the penny to drop. It was a namesake who had netted for Red Star Belgrade…!!
You see, there are two fanatically supported teams from the old Yugoslav top tier. Wilfried had chosen not Belgrade… but 230 miles west: Dynamo Zagreb.
And looking at their impressive team and their list of substitutes for their own win over AC Milan on the same night, I note that Kanga is not listed. (He was hardly cup-tied…!!) The mystery to me is why they have signed him in the first place. What have I got wrong here?
TTFN,
Dai.
…’
O for Fortress Ninian! Cardiff City Stadium, so corporate-sounding, practically rolls out the welcoming mat. It’s only driving there for us that’s ’elland back, the traffic O-so-slo no wonder my VPN says I live in Norway. Can’t get a black coffee or an americano now, only lattes. The grand’stand’ fans sit there all meek and milky like pampered ninnies, ninnies in Pampers in some cases. Better than pissing themselves in the queue. The dubs at Ninian could be a bit foul, but at least you could get in and out quickly enough. Ah, the beery steam rising from the wedged! All Tan’s pissed up the wall is our parachute payments.
I still go down occasionally. Can’t shake off the habit completely. Wouldn’t want to. But the traffic is O-so-slo. My VPN says I live in Finland, fittingly.
Nice to hear from you again Royale, you’re getting me nostalgic for the days in the seventies when I’d drive to Ninian Park in about twenty minutes, park in one of car parks for the factories/warehouses on Sloper Road that worked nine to five Monday to Friday at about ten to three and get to my place on the Bob Bank just as the game was kicking off.
There was also a game in the 07/08 not long before Christmas when we had friends of the family who we’d not seen in ages visiting and they were still there at about twenty to three when the subject of City came up (they both used to be regulars at Ninian Park in the 50s) and I said they were kicking off in a mminute – the bloke we called Uncle Ken apologised, then said he thought that they were playing away and urged that I leave for the game straight away. After one or two feeble protests from me which I’m pleased to say were brushed aside, I left the house in Pentrebane with about fifteen minutes to kick off and I was in the ground watching the game by five past three – under the same circumstances now, I wouldn’t have even bothered trying to get to the game because I reckon it would be about half time before I found someway to park and then walked the mile or so to the ground.
Dai, Dinamo Zagreb’s manager is the great former Italy defender Fabio Cannavaro who had this to say about Wilfried Kanga
https://x.com/CroatiaFooty/status/1883237741615513807
Kanga gave an interview on Dinamo’s website after signing for them
https://gnkdinamo.hr/en/news/article/wilfried-kanga-is-the-newest-dinamo-acquisition
Jason Koumas second time around was pretty bad and I can come up with other ropey temporary players of ours, but I thought Kanga was maybe the worst loan signing we’ve made since we returned to the Championship in 2003. Most of our poor loan signinss wouild show in one or two games what they were capable of, but there was nothing from Kanga at all to make you think there could be a player there, he just gave the impression that he didn’t want to be here and I’m surprised Omer Riza kept a degree of faith with him for as long as he did – a raw kid like Michael Reindorf put Kanga to shame when he was given a first team chance.
Me too, Paul. So long as Royale1 landed in Rhoose by 2 I’d be strolling up Sloper Road well before kick-off. My pilot Woozy always wandered off down the Wynford. Dipped his nib in hell’s ink, ‘e did. His roots were in the valleys of South Wales not the eskers of Finland, but you’ll understand my confusion. O yes, Caroline Street! Did he love Caroline Street! Stank the plane out with his fish n chips. But it all came out in the wash. The old darling trundles around Grimsby now.
Toodle pip for now.
Chris