I’m going to start by saying that most of this piece is going to come over as the musings of a typical fickle football fan and it’s a charge to which I’ll plead guilty because the truth is that I’m perfectly happy to put up with the sort of thing I’m going to moan about here if we are winning.
It also needs to be said that Cardiff City football club has gone through an experience in the past few weeks that so few others can relate to, an experience that, by the law of averages, would effect the performances of some of its employees in their work place. Cardiff players already facing a huge challenge to maintain their team’s place in the top division have also had to cope with the death of a colleague in awful circumstances and, if we do go down, all inquests into how and why it happened will have to acknowledge the multiple effects of the loss of Emiliano Sala as a large contributory factor.
Furthermore, it needs to be accepted that we are talking about a team and manager that performed something of a miracle in getting promoted last season. There is no doubt that Neil Warnock is an excellent motivator who knows the Championship like the back of his hand and he was helped on his way to his record breaking promotion by a squad full of honesty, character and determination – that can never be taken away from them.
However, promotion was won a certain way, a way which, judging by the number of times it has succeeded for Neil Warnock at that level, is well suited to the Championship, but the evidence that it can succeed in the modern day Premier League is virtually non existent.
Six years ago in late February, Hull City came to Cardiff City Stadium in what was billed as a relegation six pointer and beat us 4-0. For many, that was the game when they accepted that we were going to go down – it’s one thing to be hammered on your own ground by the Premier League’s elite, but a Hull team that we had finished eight points clear of in the previous season’s Championship? Surely not.
For me, Friday’s 5-1 hammering by Watford had a Hull feel to it, but, if anything, tonight’s 3-0 home loss to Everton was even more like that day when people like me were forced to accept that our first stay in the Premier League was likely to last just the single season. Watford were a good team playing well, but Everton were pretty ordinary and you could see from the way that they started the game that they were very low on confidence – many Premier League sides would have beaten them tonight, yet we did not come remotely close to doing so as, for the second time in four home games, we failed to register a single on target goal effort.
In 2013, Hull cantered to their win against a City side managed by someone who you could never quite work out how he wanted his team to play – Ole was brought to the club to provide a more attractive, attacking style, but, perhaps hamstrung by the quality of players he had to deal with, came over as being impatient as he chopped and changed selections and formations from week to week.
By contrast, Neil Warnock knows exactly how he wants his City side to play in 18/19 – it’s essentially the same way all of his sides have played since he started in the management game in 1980.
It’s a nowt fancy, muck and nettles style with a “dogs of war” central midfield in front of what is usually a big back four that is full of players who are defenders first and foremost. In attack, there is nearly always a big target man and a pair of wingers with clearly defined defensive responsibilities who are also expected to be mainly responsible for any “moments of magic” the team may come up with.
The ball is played from back to front quickly and if it would be wrong to say that possession of the ball is not encouraged, it’s not far off the mark to say that it is something that is not valued too highly.
Great emphasis is placed on set pieces at both ends of the pitch with a long throw in being well to the fore as an attacking tactic.
Such an approach has certainly had its share of success in the past in the top flight. In fact, any manager learning his trade in the 80s like ours did would be able to see Graham Taylor’s Watford becoming First Division Runners Up and reaching FA Cup Finals in the first half of that decade and Wimbledon beating Liverpool in a Cup Final in the second part of it using that approach.
Wimbledon’s way of playing the game didn’t change a great deal in the decade or more they spent in the First Division/Premier League and their success brought plenty of imitators during a period where the long ball, in your face type of game practiced by the likes of Howard Wilkinson, Dave Bassett and Joe Kinnear among others became quite commonplace.
Recent years have seen something of a reaction against the unsophisticated, no nonsense stuff we’re used to seeing here at Cardiff and, apart from us, I’d say the nearest thing we have to a Wimbledon in the Premier League now is Burnley, but there is a “control” about Sean Dyche’s team that I don’t see very often, if at all, in Cardiff.
Apart from the horror show against Huddersfield, I would say that tonight offered the clearest example of this lack of control I’ve seen in a City home game this season. It’s one thing to struggle for that control against the division’s big guns when you expect to spend much of the time under the cosh, but when you are facing an underachieving team that has lost five out of its last six matches, it shouldn’t be as bad as it was tonight.
Bizarrely when you consider how shot shy and lacking in attacking ideas we were, we should have taken the lead within a minute as Kenneth Zohore burst clear down the left with an unmarked Nathaniel Mendez-Laing inside him, only to see his cross diverted behind by a defender for an unproductive corner. It was a start which got the crowd going straight away, but it was also a start which should have resulted in a goal and would have done for the large majority of teams in this league.
Unfortunately, Cardiff are not as precise, composed and ruthless in attack as your standard Premier League side and I’m afraid that the fact none of our wingers are able to come up with decent standard crosses on a consistent basis at this level is another symptom of a style of play where possession of the ball is not valued and respected as much as it should be.
As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think it’s that we don’t want the ball, it’s more that having it is lower down any list of priorities than it is at, I would say, any of our rivals in this league.
The inevitable consequence of such thinking is that you end up with a team that is not good at passing the ball. The preferred style of the manager means that you aren’t really looking for passers in your midfield, more “bread and butter” (to use one of our manager’s favourite phrases) performers who just concentrate on doing the “basics” well.
It’s hardly a surprise therefore that teams that play in the way I’m describing end up with low figures when it comes to possession of the ball. That’s what we’ve become used to under this manager over the past two and a bit years, but it really did reach embarrassing proportions at times tonight.
After that misleadingly positive start, there was a spell of play lasting about ten minutes until around the twenty five minute mark where I swear the only touches of the ball City outfield players had was when they lunged at it and knocked it out for a throw in or gave it straight back to Everton after making a tackle or interception. People around by me eager to get behind their team were reduced to applauding things like the ball hitting one of our players on the knee before an opponent took control of it again and a ball being passed carelessly out for a goal kick by an Everton player because their side was doing nothing anywhere near Premier League quality with the ball themselves that they could get excited about.
So it went on, misplaced pass followed misplaced pass by City as edgy opponents were almost encouraged into finding a semblance of form and confidence and, of course, the eventual outcome could not have come as a surprise to anyone.
I find it hard to be critical of most of our players for the woeful standard of passing by City tonight because they are not the sort who specialise in that part of the game – they are not selected for their ability to put their foot on the ball and bring some composure to their team, composure is for other sides, not Cardiff, not when we’re playing the “Warnock way”.
It took Everton forty one minutes to capitalise on our inability to convey the ball from one player in blue to another and when they did, they were, inevitably, helped on their way by a pass by a City man that went straight into touch. We went asleep from the throw in, Junior Hoilett (a shadow of the player he was in the Championship) let Seamus Coleman go and in no time at all, Gylfi Sigurdsson had the ball in our net.
Just as they did early in the first half, City had a bit of a go in the first few minutes of the second half, but their complete inability to retain the ball for more than a few seconds meant that our “pressure” soon fizzled out.
Despite there being no suggestion that City had an equaliser in them, the game at least remained competitive while there was just the one goal in it, but Everton, who were playing a bit better by now, were always likely to make the game safe somewhere along the line. It was Sigurdsson who duly did so after sixty six minutes as he finished off a simple move which was started by a City man playing what should have been an easy pass straight to an opponent.
The general inconsistency and ineffectiveness of our wingers was summed up by both Hoilett and Mendez-Laing being taken off to be replaced by Josh Murphy and Callum Paterson, the two wingers/wide men dropped after the Watford game. As for the third change, well that had a management by numbers feel to it as, with his side 2-0 down with ten minutes left, Neil Warnock brought on a striker for a striker as Danny Ward replaced Zohore.
Mention of Ward brings me on to the third goal which came in added time (sides always seem to get a very late goal against us when we are being thrashed at home this season) – it started when he crossed from the right, but Everton were able to gain possession and transfer the ball down the pitch quickly for Calvert-Lewin to score. The Everton striker worked his way clear of the our last defender (Bruno Manga I think) on the way to scoring, but the thought that occurred to me was where were the other eight outfield City players? I ask this because there was no one in the middle for Ward to aim for when he was looking to cross and, judging by the ease with which Everton were able to move the ball ninety yards into our net, they didn’t encounter many Cardiff players while they were doing that either!
A thoroughly miserable night then. You try to look for plus points and I’d say Leandro Bacuna didn’t do too badly (give him time to get fully indoctrinated into the Warnock way though!) while Zohore showed on a few occasions that he had the beating of the opposition centrebacks in a foot race, but we weren’t even good enough at hitting balls into the channels for that possible Everton weakness to be exploited – Ward won a few headers when he came on, but that’s about it I think.
Chelsea fans are reportedly sick and tired of “Sarriball” which I’ve seen defined as “essentially a fast-paced, possession-based style of attacking football often likened to a vertical tiki-taka” – what on earth would they make of Warnockball, a form of playing the game which has no saving grace whatsoever when it is performed in the manner demonstrated by Cardiff City in their last two matches?
I have a bad feeling that these two woeful losses in four days in matches that would have been in the winnable category beforehand are going to cost us come May and who can doubt that we are genuinely one of the three worst teams in this league when we play as badly as this?
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Good comments.
I know we shouldn’t criticise players but Hoillet was asleep for that first goal. The worst thing for me was the idiot who played it. Bennett. Poor free kick Friday then this pass. Everton’s were high and Zahore was pointing for a ball played over the top and into the corner. It would have been a foot chase then, in their half. Instead we are a goal down.
Friday goal one. Manga lack of control loses the ball. Last night his poor pass and goal number 2.
NW is trying to fit the proverbial square pegs into round holes.
Where is Jazz?????
You are spot on with us not playing the channels. The players constantly play it either to Zahores chest or head. The defenders just give him a nudge and play slows down as he tries to gain control. Play it into the space between defenders. BASICS.
Camarasa. Stop paying him.
Nw shot himself in the foot at the start of the season with the Grijic debacle. That put city on a back foot from the off. One striker who was untested in prem. Another from Rotherham is poor management. He must take a massive proportion of blame. Even he is resigned to being in bottom 3 after tonight. I am resigned to relegation. I wasn’t last Friday at half past seven. It looked as if the players have also given up hope too.
He wants fighters. I think we all do now. Problem is they are too slow and drained to fight any longer.
NW has said this is his last season. Perhaps early retirement wouldn’t be a bad thing for all concerned.
Good morning Paul and others – Your review said it all. We have relegation staring us in the face and our current personnel seem powerless to arrest our total decline over the past few days.
Your “Warnockball” comment and its description is so accurate. He likes wingers, and I suspect, so do many of us but currently all three that appeared last night and Paterson, who I would not describe as a wide man, performed as though they had never played in that position previously. It was really desperate. Will he try something else in our remaining games – I doubt it.
Everton’s first two goals were totally avoidable if the two culprits, Bennett and Manga, had any degree of composure about them. And their third goal was a simple through ball that split the defence with Morrison caught flat footed.
Prior to the goals conceded, we had two players on yellow cards in the first 15 minutes for reckless tackles which again indicates a complete lack of awareness in the defensive art because neither posed any threat to our goal.
Apart from Zahore who has regained some of this attacking flair, we threatened nothing. For the second match in succession, no shots on target. That statement is so hard to believe of any team. We may be low in the possession stakes, but continual no attempts on troubling opposing goalkeepers will surely only end up one way.
The Camarasa saga is disappointing. I really thought we had a find in securing his talents and coupled with Arter’s energy believed we had members of a mid-field that could prosper. Quite where we are now is puzzling but NW with his oft praised man management skills needs to put these into practice pretty quickly.
Its never over ’til its over, but a few around me last night were questioning whether season tickets will be renewed for next season. That demonstrates how bad it has been these last 100 hours have been.
Thanks Paul and Colleagues,
I was hoping for some improvement last night, but when i saw the team sheet not impressed. Peltier a substitute, perhaps not fully fit.Morrison back in again. I thought the whole team lacked determination and confidence. I think that Warnock at the age of 70, is under a lot of pressure and it is telling now after recent events. Perhaps it is time he stood down and get someone else in for the remaining games. Not too late, Leicester did it.
I remember in the summer will Hoillett sign or not, everyone hoping he would. What a let down he has become, except for his great goal against Wolves. Arter not picked as Warnock gave him detention, for not playing well enough in the second half against Watford. I think Bennett should have had had detention plus 500 lines for his bad play against Watford and should now be expelled for his performance last night. Warnock said 2 or 3 players did not perform well enough and will not play on Saturday. Any guesses?
Relegation is now hovering ever so near. Not sure where we can pick up 4 wins and a couple of draws from.
Sad to say it was a dismal performance all round. The chanting of “You Jack B__D” o by the Canton Stand towards Sigurdsson, seemed to spur him on, after all he did score two goals. Please note Canton Stand you were out of order he is not a Swansea player.
Paul et al
The really disappointing thing for me from last night was that we let in 3 goals against a very poor Everton side and we let slide an opportunity to pick up at least a point from a side whose season has been faltering.
We made a fist of it for most of the second half but Hoillet and Bennett should be strung up by their wedding tackle for the lack of tracking back,effort and application in the move down their flank that led to their first goal.Schoolboy errors again.
Second half I thought the whole team and Warnock on the touchline all looked as if their heads were down and that they knew another defeat was looming.The spirit seemed to have drained out of them.
The schoolboy errors in passing, hoofing and defending were glaringly obvious for all to see and sadly we did look like a bottom 3 side where all the ideas,spirit,fight,determination and surprise have been knocked out of them.
With no creative midfielders to call upon apart from a lame Camarasa, I fear that we won’t have much return from any of our 10 remaining games. We can write off any points coming from the Liverpool,Man City,Man United,Chelsea and probably Wolves and just hope we can get something from Fulham,Brighton,West Ham,Palace and Burnley.
Last night I felt our Premiership race has been run and we need to prepare for the Championship in 2019/20.I hope I’m proved wrong and that we finally see some football to entertain us in the remaining games.
Thanks, Paul, can’t be easy writing a piece about a game that must have been very depressing to watch.
I feel a bit of a fraud commenting on a game I haven’t seen.
As BJA has said above three hors of football and not a shot on target to show for it, in the last two games we have played relegation football and unless Neil and his side can find some inspiration from somwhere relegated is what we’ll be.
Difficult to comment on individual performances having not seen the game but Warnock’s insistence on playing Manga at right is not fair to that player or the team, general consensus after the Watford game was that Morrison had been rushed back and perhaps should be given more time. It’s tempting to say that Warnock has lost his way but hopefully he and the team will prove that statement wrong in the coming weeks.
Leaving our game aside, there was a little consolation in last night’s results with Wolvesalona and SuperLeeds both being beaten.
With 10 games to play, four of those are against:
Chelsea / h
Man City / a
Liverpool / h
Man U / a
Our other games are against:
West Ham / h
Crystal Pal / h
Wolves / a
Brighton / a
Burnley / a
Fulham / a
We need to get probably 38 pts for safety meaning we must get 13 pts more. For that we need to: Win … 4, Draw … 1 and can Lose … 1.
Will we?
The sad reality is that we have been woefully ill prepared both on and off the pitch for this PL season. Last time we shot ourselves in the foot but this time we haven’t even got the bullets. Sadly, even writing this, on some forums will result in me getting slated as a plastic, johhny-come-lately and further eulogising, about how character forming and wonderful the bad old days from the late 1970’s to the 1990’s were. Strange that, when I was at Ninian Park in the 1959-1960 Season when we beat Aston Villa 1-0 to get promotion to the old First Division and have missed only a handful of home games since the late 1960’s.
Those who are delusional, thankfully none on this august blog, hate the truth. But the truth is the truth and, however you dress it up. It needs to be said again: we have been woefully ill prepared on and off the pitch for this PL season. Sadly we are getting what we are getting for a reason. With very few exceptions its been Dinosaurs v Antelopes … on and off the pitch … and still we’ve not learnt.
The £25m spent on four Championship players this summer will buy you one average PL operator, even if you can then stump up the £60k-£80k/wk that might persuade him to join the Club. Apparently we are offering somewhere half that figure. That’s the scale of our un-preparedness this year. Lack of investment tends to poverty and failure whilst good investment (Wolves) tends to prosperity and success. That lack of investment has put a big burden on the Management and players, a burden which is showing signs of strain.
That said, I’ll be at Wolves at the weekend and hoping for the best. But let us at least be honest about the situation we are in. That doesn’t make us any less of a City fan, though, in the present climate, some try to make it so.
As ever, a very good article, Paul.
Thanks Paul for your write up – not that it made for very enjoyable reading. I didn’t think while driving home from the Watford game on Friday that it could be possible that in choosing that match over the Everton game I’d made a wise choice but your comments and those of others suggest that could well have been the case. I does seem that over the last two games we have finally become the team that Chris Sutton said we’d be back in August. So much of what success we have had this season has been on the back of team spirit, determination and a great work ethic and sadly when that goes there’s little left in the compartments labelled skill, flair or tactical sophistication to carry us through.
Two things now seem highly likely. 1. – We’re going to be back in the Championship next season and 2 – Neil Warnock wont be our manager next season.
Put along side each other, those two likelihoods make a good case for making the managerial change sooner rather than later but I see little chance of that happening so it could be another long journey back.
Thanks Paul and others.
Like Colin feel bit of a fraud as worked late and couldn’t get to the game. Only seen brief highlights – waiting for MOTD later- so hard to comment.
However, all feels a bit familiar and all above points re team selection, inability to pass/retain possession/ no shots on goal/ lack of creativity etc etc all resonate. Just 2 weeks ago it felt like we had turned a real corner with our back to back wins and considerable fighting spirit in the most difficult of circumstances. Just don’t really understand what has happened to see it all go so flat so quickly. The break, Sala funeral ( and agent back-story), Camarasa injury and Nantes payment all seem to have had an impact, to varying degrees, on both the team and manager.
I just hope that the penny has finally dropped re team selection and tactics as we are now really in the last chance saloon with the run of fixtures coming up. I can’t see us doing it but cannot give up all hope yet, despite all evidence to the contrary!
Morning everyone and thanks for some great replies.
PR, I think you captured it well when you talked about the change in attitude since before kick off on Friday. With a gap of only two points and thirty of them left to play for, our position is not hopeless by any means, but the nature of the defeats and, maybe more importantly, performances against Watford and Everton have left me, and I’m sure many others, expecting relegation now.
BJA, if you look at our starting line ups against Bournemouth and Southampton, they featured one specialist winger in Murphy who played more like a wing back against Bournemouth. The last two matches has seen three specialist wingers starting and I don’t believe it is a coincidence that we have struggled so much because, essentially, I think wingers are a luxury we cannot afford, especially when they are as inconsistent as ours have been this season. We need three in central midfield and losing at least one winger seems to me to be the best to ensure this – if we are to play a winger, then I’d probably go for Murphy who I feel, on his good days, is the one who has looked most at home at this level.
Geoff, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is Neil Warnock’s last season at the club, but I don’t think he’ll be gone before the end of the season. Generally speaking, I think he gets as much out of a squad which is not Premier League standard in terms of talent and technique as anyone else would – in fact, he probably gets more. However, I believe we have such a limited squad, by Premier League standards, because our manager puts more emphasis on other things which, for me at least, are not enough to ensure survival without the talent and technique I mentioned earlier – agree with you about “You Jack b***ard” as well.
Iain, you mention spirit. I really believe we have no chance of surviving if that starts to go and I’d be pessimistic about how we do in the Championship next season as well. Apparently, Camarasa will be available for Saturday and we need him in there straight away to give us, firstly, someone who can pass the ball and, secondly, to avoid our midfield having that “samey” look to it with “bread and butter” players everywhere and no one who provides the jam.
Colin, I didn’t think I’d ever say this about us while we were in the Premier League, but most of our best performances recently have come with Lee Peltier in the starting line up – he played at Palace, Arsenal and Southampton and was in the team which beat Bournemouth. Right back is one of those positions where you can say we should have brought someone in to play there, but, if we aren’t going to use wing backs, I think Peltier is the best option we have to play there currently.
Steve, an interesting and persuasive take on things for you, but I would say that if you include the fee it seems we may well have to pay for Sala, our transfer spending since promotion does not compare too badly with the many of the other sides in this division – I would say that the picture might well be a lot different if you’re talking about wages mind. I believe that Huddersfield staying up last season persuaded the money men at the club that we could do the same. Burnley are another side that defied the odds by staying up without Wolves/Fulham type spending, but they are the exception not the rule and, as you show, the odds have to be stacked against any team who tries to stay up “on the cheap” – we needed those four Championship players we signed to be a lot more influential than they have been so far.
Richard, I’ve already tackled much of what you say with my reply to Geoff. Reading between the lines, I think you and I are as one in thinking that our ageing squad is going to have to be broken up soon and my feeling is that this should be seen as a chance to begin a move away from the worst aspects of “Warnockball” towards a more rounded approach – for now though, we have just over two months to save ourselves with the players currently at the club and I feel that Neil Warnock is better placed to get the best out of them than someone else brought in at this very late stage.
Huw, you touch upon one of the things at the club that has changed in the period between the Southampton and Watford matches in that details have emerged regarding the club’s reluctance to pay the Sala transfer fee to Nantes amid media coverage of the club that has,in some cases, taken on a more negative tone. Now, I find the idea of some at the club almost downing tools sot to speak because of dissatisfaction with City’s attitude a very hard one to believe but the spirit that was there in abundance did disappear almost completely in that fortnights’ break didn’t it.