' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has gone'
Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:53 pm
Tuesday 16th December 2014
The Cardiff City team spirit we all enjoyed under Malky Mackay has all but disappeared - Paul Evans
By Paul Evans
A year ago last weekend Cardiff City beat West Brom 1-0 in a bottom of the table Premier League clash, having defeated Swansea City by the same score about six weeks earlier.
I have always believed that those two matches offered a clue as to how relegation could have been avoided, but, in their wisdom, the decision makers at the club decided to go off in a completely different direction.
What follows is not meant to be yet another case of someone saying we should never have sacked Malky Mackay – Malky’s time is long gone and he should be, but isn’t, old news as far as Cardiff City is concerned.
However, as far as I’m concerned, the team spirit that marked Mackay’s Cardiff teams has virtually disappeared in 2014 and we haven’t half missed it.
Going back to those two home matches towards the end of 2013, they were the only ones in which we played sides in the bottom half of the table in what was a very demanding start to our home programme in our first Premier League campaign.
Having managed to get three points off Manchester City and draws with Everton and Manchester United, City had done pretty well against some of the big guns they were pitted against, but it was those wins against fellow strugglers that pointed the way to their salvation.
I think it’s fair to say that there wasn’t much good football played in either match, but City got stronger in the second half in both games to get the decisive goal. After that, a combination of disciplined defending and everyone working for the cause, enabled them to record wins that were just about deserved on the balance of play.
The West Brom win meant that City had eleven points from eight home games – very acceptable given the quality of most of the opposition we had faced. Form like that would have seen us end up with something like twenty six home points if it could have been maintained throughout the season, and with six points already picked up on their travels, that would have left us with a couple more points than we finished up with.
With eight of City’s remaining eleven home games to be played against sides with relegation worries, the opportunity was certainly there to get more than those twenty six points on their own patch as well.
After all, they had the template on how to beat the sort of sides we would be facing most of the time at home in the second half of the season, but, by making the managerial appointment they did, the club effectively ripped it up.
The tone for the sort of performances we could expect in 2014 was set in the year’s very first home game when a West Ham side beset by injuries that saw them having to borrow a player from a League One club’s reserve side to try to shore up a defence that had conceded eleven goals in their two previous matches, won much as they pleased despite having being reduced to ten men for the game’s final quarter.
Under Ole, the team always looked more brittle to me than it had been previously and it turned out that our home tally of points only reached twenty as three of those season defining home games against relegation rivals were lost and only two won.
Things would improve at the lower level of the Championship surely though wouldn’t they? No, you either have team spirit or you don’t, no matter what the quality of the opposition.
I thought there were signs that it was being rediscovered in some of Russell Slade’s early home matches and in the fortunate, but very hard fought, win at Watford, but our last two matches have, in my opinion, seen one or two individual performances that have been simply unacceptable in a team context.
Also, I see a self indulgence in this team that would have been nipped in the bud during the Mackay era. The recent match with Reading in particular saw several City players taking long range pot shots at goal while better placed colleagues were ignored and there were other example of this happening at Bournemouth on Saturday – I see little sign of the old “all for one, one for all” attitude in this City team.
The Cardiff City team spirit we all enjoyed under Malky Mackay has all but disappeared - Paul Evans
By Paul Evans
A year ago last weekend Cardiff City beat West Brom 1-0 in a bottom of the table Premier League clash, having defeated Swansea City by the same score about six weeks earlier.
I have always believed that those two matches offered a clue as to how relegation could have been avoided, but, in their wisdom, the decision makers at the club decided to go off in a completely different direction.
What follows is not meant to be yet another case of someone saying we should never have sacked Malky Mackay – Malky’s time is long gone and he should be, but isn’t, old news as far as Cardiff City is concerned.
However, as far as I’m concerned, the team spirit that marked Mackay’s Cardiff teams has virtually disappeared in 2014 and we haven’t half missed it.
Going back to those two home matches towards the end of 2013, they were the only ones in which we played sides in the bottom half of the table in what was a very demanding start to our home programme in our first Premier League campaign.
Having managed to get three points off Manchester City and draws with Everton and Manchester United, City had done pretty well against some of the big guns they were pitted against, but it was those wins against fellow strugglers that pointed the way to their salvation.
I think it’s fair to say that there wasn’t much good football played in either match, but City got stronger in the second half in both games to get the decisive goal. After that, a combination of disciplined defending and everyone working for the cause, enabled them to record wins that were just about deserved on the balance of play.
The West Brom win meant that City had eleven points from eight home games – very acceptable given the quality of most of the opposition we had faced. Form like that would have seen us end up with something like twenty six home points if it could have been maintained throughout the season, and with six points already picked up on their travels, that would have left us with a couple more points than we finished up with.
With eight of City’s remaining eleven home games to be played against sides with relegation worries, the opportunity was certainly there to get more than those twenty six points on their own patch as well.
After all, they had the template on how to beat the sort of sides we would be facing most of the time at home in the second half of the season, but, by making the managerial appointment they did, the club effectively ripped it up.
The tone for the sort of performances we could expect in 2014 was set in the year’s very first home game when a West Ham side beset by injuries that saw them having to borrow a player from a League One club’s reserve side to try to shore up a defence that had conceded eleven goals in their two previous matches, won much as they pleased despite having being reduced to ten men for the game’s final quarter.
Under Ole, the team always looked more brittle to me than it had been previously and it turned out that our home tally of points only reached twenty as three of those season defining home games against relegation rivals were lost and only two won.
Things would improve at the lower level of the Championship surely though wouldn’t they? No, you either have team spirit or you don’t, no matter what the quality of the opposition.
I thought there were signs that it was being rediscovered in some of Russell Slade’s early home matches and in the fortunate, but very hard fought, win at Watford, but our last two matches have, in my opinion, seen one or two individual performances that have been simply unacceptable in a team context.
Also, I see a self indulgence in this team that would have been nipped in the bud during the Mackay era. The recent match with Reading in particular saw several City players taking long range pot shots at goal while better placed colleagues were ignored and there were other example of this happening at Bournemouth on Saturday – I see little sign of the old “all for one, one for all” attitude in this City team.
Re: ' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has go
Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:19 pm
Funny Paul Evans should say this, Yes I am a fan of Malky.
But is this the Paul Evans who does not give a dam about the rebrand and was supporting Newport County on Saturday v Stevenage?
But is this the Paul Evans who does not give a dam about the rebrand and was supporting Newport County on Saturday v Stevenage?
Re: ' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has go
Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:23 pm
Forever Blue wrote:Funny Paul Evans should say this, Yes I am a fan of Malky.
But is this the Paul Evans who does not give a dam about the rebrand and was supporting Newport County on Saturday v Stevenage?
Yes ,I disagree think we have got better team spirit under slade than ole ,
Re: ' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has go
Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:26 pm
wez1927 wrote:Forever Blue wrote:Funny Paul Evans should say this, Yes I am a fan of Malky.
But is this the Paul Evans who does not give a dam about the rebrand and was supporting Newport County on Saturday v Stevenage?
Yes ,I disagree think we have got better team spirit under slade than ole ,
Wez,100% got a better team spirit now than under Ole
Re: ' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has go
Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:28 pm
It's amazing how we had such a great team spirit under Malky with him being a horrible person, a racist, a homophobe, milking our club dry etc... 
Re: ' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has go
Wed Dec 17, 2014 6:53 am
Forever Blue wrote:Funny Paul Evans should say this, Yes I am a fan of Malky.
But is this the Paul Evans who does not give a dam about the rebrand and was supporting Newport County on Saturday v Stevenage?
I've been going to watch Newport play occasionally for forty five years and I enjoy it - some people go to watch Partizan Belgrade while Cardiff are playing at home, I sometimes go and watch Newport when we are playing away.
As for not giving a damn about the rebrand, I've mentioned to you before on here that I freely admit I was wrong in my initial opinion on the decision to play in red. I remember that what I said in that meeting didn't stop you and Carl introducing yourselves to me afterwards and neither of you seemed bothered about my stance on the change of colour then. It seems odd that, now that I've changed my opinion to something similar to yours, you want to hold my former view against me - surely the important thing is what I feel now?
Re: ' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has go
Wed Dec 17, 2014 7:20 am
the other Bob Wilson wrote:Forever Blue wrote:Funny Paul Evans should say this, Yes I am a fan of Malky.
But is this the Paul Evans who does not give a dam about the rebrand and was supporting Newport County on Saturday v Stevenage?
I've been going to watch Newport play occasionally for forty five years and I enjoy it - some people go to watch Partizan Belgrade while Cardiff are playing at home, I sometimes go and watch Newport when we are playing away.
As for not giving a damn about the rebrand, I've mentioned to you before on here that I freely admit I was wrong in my initial opinion on the decision to play in red. I remember that what I said in that meeting didn't stop you and Carl introducing yourselves to me afterwards and neither of you seemed bothered about my stance on the change of colour then. It seems odd that, now that I've changed my opinion to something similar to yours, you want to hold my former view against me - surely the important thing is what I feel now?
Bit of a difference being invited to watch a foreign club though.
Re: ' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has go
Wed Dec 17, 2014 8:49 am
Tonteg Bluebird wrote:It's amazing how we had such a great team spirit under Malky with him being a horrible person, a racist, a homophobe, milking our club dry etc...
I´m sorry I have to destroy a good story with facts, but the numbers do not support the theory that the spirit was that high under Malky. I have not seen any stats for this season, but in the PL last season the players ran more and we won more duels under Solskjaer than Malky, which suggests that the team spirit was NOT that high under Malky as one might be led to believe.
Malky brought Cardiff to the PL, and all credit to him for that. I´ll still be careful about declaring him being a genius. I´m not seeing him performing any miracles with Wigan - and like Slade and Solskjaer, he now has to show that he can do a job for a divided club with a divided fan base. Those things matters.
Re: ' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has go
Wed Dec 17, 2014 11:13 am
Dve wrote:Tonteg Bluebird wrote:It's amazing how we had such a great team spirit under Malky with him being a horrible person, a racist, a homophobe, milking our club dry etc...
I´m sorry I have to destroy a good story with facts, but the numbers do not support the theory that the spirit was that high under Malky. I have not seen any stats for this season, but in the PL last season the players ran more and we won more duels under Solskjaer than Malky, which suggests that the team spirit was NOT that high under Malky as one might be led to believe.
Malky brought Cardiff to the PL, and all credit to him for that. I´ll still be careful about declaring him being a genius. I´m not seeing him performing any miracles with Wigan - and like Slade and Solskjaer, he now has to show that he can do a job for a divided club with a divided fan base. Those things matters.
Who's talking about him being a genius?!! Ffs.
The topic was team spirit.
And I can tell you that anyone who has been involved that the team spirit is unrecognisable now compared with Malkys team.
Re: ' Cardiff City team spirit we enjoyed under Malky has go
Wed Dec 17, 2014 1:45 pm
OriginalGrangeEndBlue wrote:Dve wrote:Tonteg Bluebird wrote:It's amazing how we had such a great team spirit under Malky with him being a horrible person, a racist, a homophobe, milking our club dry etc...
I´m sorry I have to destroy a good story with facts, but the numbers do not support the theory that the spirit was that high under Malky. I have not seen any stats for this season, but in the PL last season the players ran more and we won more duels under Solskjaer than Malky, which suggests that the team spirit was NOT that high under Malky as one might be led to believe.
Malky brought Cardiff to the PL, and all credit to him for that. I´ll still be careful about declaring him being a genius. I´m not seeing him performing any miracles with Wigan - and like Slade and Solskjaer, he now has to show that he can do a job for a divided club with a divided fan base. Those things matters.
Who's talking about him being a genius?!! Ffs.
The topic was team spirit.
And I can tell you that anyone who has been involved that the team spirit is unrecognisable now compared with Malkys team.
Exactly OriginalGrangeEndBlue! Under Malky I saw every player giving their all from the first second to the last. We scored many late goals with our never say die attitude and the players run theirselves into the ground for Malky. Ole turned us into a soft touch. The difference in attitude, endeavour and character between our side under Malky and our side under Ole was miles apart. I 100% agree with the headline of this topic, the team spirit we enjoyed under Malky is definitely gone.
I firmly believe Russell Slade will get Malky's team spirit back mind when he offloads some of Ole's players and brings his own players in this January with the correct character. But at the moment, Slade is still inheriting Ole's squad and Ole's squad is still a soft touch who concede 5 goals at Bournemouth. Until Slade is given the January transfer window to bring in his own players who I believe will have a lot more bottle than Ole's fairies, I believe it's unfair to judge him and criticise him.