Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

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Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby Forever Blue » Thu Sep 21, 2017 6:53 am

Cardiff City the worst in the Championship? The surprising stat that puts the Bluebirds bottom of the league -


By Tom Coleman

Thursday 21st September 2017


Cardiff City might be in the early frame for a promotion charge this season - but when it comes to passing they are rock bottom.



Remarkably, despite being second in the table, City's passing accuracy currently stands at 62 per cent, the lowest in the whole of the Championship.

Given that the Bluebirds are flying so high in the table, such a stat is likely to raise plenty of eyebrows both in the Welsh capital and indeed across the rest of the Championship.

But not only are Cardiff misplacing passes, they're reluctant to attempt passes too.

In fact, Warnock's side have attempted fewer passes (2,237) than any of their Championship rivals so far this season.

It means Cardiff have completed just 1,387 passes this season, which is a stat that will worry Warnock and at the same time strengthen his argument that his midfielders need to step up if they are to better service the likes of Kenneth Zohore. The Dane only has one league goal to his name so far this season.

While the reasons surrounding Zohore's current goal drought are perhaps a little more complicated than just a poor standard of passing, both stats are still surely preventing City from reaching their full potential.






Is there a solution?

Cutting down the number of misplaced passes subsequently has to be a priority in Warnock's bid to create a promotion-winning side, but there is plenty of room for positivity, particularly in light of City's capture of Craig Bryson.

The former Sheffield United boss was full of praise for the 30-year-old when he completed an 11th hour loan deal on deadline day, adding that he was his "number one transfer target" of the summer.

Such a claim perhaps raises a few eyebrows given that Bryson left the East Midlands having seemingly fallen out of favour with Rams boss Gary Rowett, but the stats point to a player that could really help to address Cardiff's passing problems.

Craig Bryson of Cardiff City is challenged by Steven Fletcher of Sheffield Wednesday (Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency)
Encouragingly, in his last four seasons at Derby County, Bryson's passing accuracy never dropped below 82 per cent.

To put it into context, Cardiff's best passer of the ball so far this season, Loic Damour, currently has a success rate of 75 per cent — a stat that on it's own suggests the Frenchman was unlucky to be relegated to the bench at the weekend.

If Bryson can regularly reach the levels achieved with Derby with the Bluebirds this term, it could potentially have a hugely positive impact for the team, particularly up front.




Too direct or too wasteful?

Interestingly, despite their wayward passing, City are having little trouble in creating chances.

The Bluebirds have had more shots on target (48) than any other side in the league, a stat that perhaps shines a light on their style of play.

The first thought is that it is the result of the sort of direct style of football that has become the hallmark of a side managed by Warnock, but you cannot help but get the feeling that it points to a team that still hasn't quite hit top gear - an incredible thought given where they are in the table.

It doesn't take a footballing genius to know that a team capable of passing the ball well is a team capable of creating more chances and, in turn, scoring more goals.

Whether it's Bryson, Damour, Junior Hoilett or even playmaker Lee Tomlin, Cardiff are lucky to be blessed with midfielders that genuinely have the technical ability to address what is arguably their biggest weakness.

If Warnock does find a way of improving the standard of passing, it will surely further sharpen the Bluebirds' attacking prowess even further — a thought that should be food fo thought for their Championship rivals.
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Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby Sven » Thu Sep 21, 2017 11:34 am

Ironically, this doesn't surprise me! :(

A couple pf us had a conversation at the Sheffield Wednesday game and remarked on how much ball City 'waste' in comparison to their opponents. It's been the same formats of the season and it seems to have been a City trait for a couple of seasons; maybe even back to the end of the Malky era

It is also the main reason (IMHO) opinion that players such as Declan John and Nooney (and others) failed here in the end; a simple lack of consistent end product that often resulted in counter attacks and goals against!

Hate to say it but it is a failing of Hoillett (a player I rate otherwise) and at the last game it was a failing of the whole midfield and also Kenneth Zohore up front!

If Neil Warnock can get that part of the game sorted, the Bluebirds will consistently fly high in this division and other teams will be even more reticent about playing us! :thumbright: :ayatollah:
"If you think what I say is 'offensive' to you, you should hear what I keep to myself...!"
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby BrightBlueFuture » Thu Sep 21, 2017 11:55 am

It just goes to show that off the ball we are hard as nails to play against.

We've lacked a real dynamic midfielder for a long time, this is something that simply won't change any time soon.

With the budget we play with, there's no point in actually changing the style of play too much. We play to our strengths and it's clear pondering on the ball isn't one of them!
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby JJ1927 » Thu Sep 21, 2017 12:28 pm

Passing statistics are totally unreliable and give absolutely no indication of a sides footballing ability.

I watched the Jacks play Newcastle last week and they had something like 75% possession in the first half and presumably a very high passing accuracy and high number of passes. At the same time it took them 30 minutes to get the ball into the Newcastle box. That's not 30 minutes to have a shot, but 30 minutes to simply get the ball in the opposition penalty area. It took them another ten minutes to actually have a shot. All they did was knock the ball around in the middle third of the pitch, going backward most of the time as they had no one capable of playing a killer pass or going past a player. But their passing completion record was certainly mounting up.

It was like watching paint dry. Give me our style of play any day.
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby pembroke allan » Thu Sep 21, 2017 12:38 pm

JJ1927 wrote:Passing statistics are totally unreliable and give absolutely no indication of a sides footballing ability.

I watched the Jacks play Newcastle last week and they had something like 75% possession in the first half and presumably a very high passing accuracy and high number of passes. At the same time it took them 30 minutes to get the ball into the Newcastle box. That's not 30 minutes to have a shot, but 30 minutes to simply get the ball in the opposition penalty area. It took them another ten minutes to actually have a shot. All they did was knock the ball around in the middle third of the pitch, going backward most of the time as they had no one capable of playing a killer pass or going past a player. But their passing completion record was certainly mounting up.

It was like watching paint dry. Give me our style of play any day.



Against spurs the entered spurs pen area 5 times in game no shots but plenty of passing inside own half! And spurs had 40% possession inside swans pen area! It proves Stats don't mean anything if don't get a result of some sort :thumbup:
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby ThomasC » Thu Sep 21, 2017 12:59 pm

Haven't been watching all the games. But, direct play is always the hardest pass. Forwards :ayatollah:
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby castleblue » Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:10 pm

Taking one single statistic like pass completion in isolation can give a misleading view on how effective team performance is. Last Saturday is a good example to prove that point as looking at possession, passing accuracy and action areas from that game clearly shows who made the most of their time "On The Ball".

Possession stats show Cardiff at 40% with Wednesday at 60%, pass completion was Cardiff 64% with Wednesday 80%, but when you look at the action areas only 17% took place in the "Home" 1/3 of the field, 48% in the middle 3rd of the field and 35% in the away 1/3 of the field. This clearly shows that whilst Wednesday dominated possession and had a much higher pass completion % it was pretty much ALL happening in the first 2/3 of the pitch from the away team perspective, or to put it another way in front of the Cardiff players.

Despite 20% less possession we still managed double the attempts on goal 16 against 8, and 4 times the attempts on target 8 against 2. So far this season 75% of the goals we have scored have come from open play and what a difference that is from the last couple of seasons.

I'd rather look at a bigger picture which clearly shows NW has the team playing organised and effective football with the only concern maybe the conversion rate from attempts at goal to scoring a goal.

:bluescarf: :bluescarf: :bluescarf:
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby angelis1949 » Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:26 pm

Hardly surprising,Warnock is not and never been an advocate of the passing game,he likes the ball pumped into the opponents half as soon as possible
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby Steve Zodiak » Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:38 pm

Not much point in making 30 successful passes if, as Swansea regularly do, the ball ends up back where it started, often with your own keeper. Only takes one good pass for the end result to be a goal. The stats I prefer are how many points have been accumulated, and our league position.
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby TaffEmbankment » Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:55 pm

We are joint top of the league for christ sake... trust WOL to be posting this negative sh@t :old:
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby SwampCCFC » Thu Sep 21, 2017 2:30 pm

this comes as no surprise to me. we play football the 'traditional' way, which is to get the ball forwards as quickly as possible, and attempt forward passes / long balls that in many cases aren't on. we don't play the ball backwards and sidewards ad nauseam. playing with someone of the physicality and ability of zohore up front means we can hoof it forwards and the ball will often be retained.

it is a tactic that can work very well at this level, as we saw when we were promoted in 2012/13.
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby Bluebina » Thu Sep 21, 2017 6:15 pm

SwampCCFC wrote:this comes as no surprise to me. we play football the 'traditional' way, which is to get the ball forwards as quickly as possible, and attempt forward passes / long balls that in many cases aren't on. we don't play the ball backwards and sidewards ad nauseam. playing with someone of the physicality and ability of zohore up front means we can hoof it forwards and the ball will often be retained.

it is a tactic that can work very well at this level, as we saw when we were promoted in 2012/13.

Exactly :thumbup:
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby jimmy_rat » Thu Sep 21, 2017 6:39 pm

Worst? Or most efficient.
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby dogfound » Thu Sep 21, 2017 8:05 pm

jimmy_rat wrote:Worst? Or most efficient.



the fella that wrote the article just isnt understanding...
is there a solution.?..ffs
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby jimmy_rat » Thu Sep 21, 2017 8:13 pm

dogfound wrote:
jimmy_rat wrote:Worst? Or most efficient.



the fella that wrote the article just isnt understanding...
is there a solution.?..ffs


I know. Only stat that matters is the points!
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby TopCat CCFC » Thu Sep 21, 2017 9:32 pm

jimmy_rat wrote:
dogfound wrote:
jimmy_rat wrote:Worst? Or most efficient.



the fella that wrote the article just isnt understanding...
is there a solution.?..ffs


I know. Only stat that matters is the points!


;) :thumbup:
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Re: Cardiff City the worst in the Championship?

Postby bluemun » Fri Sep 22, 2017 7:51 am

The way we gave the ball away consistently v. Wednesday, especially first half, shows that we need defenders looking for midfielders, more patience on the ball from midfielders and.....Tomlin, a link between midfield and attack. It's all too rushed and frantic.
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