Nathan Blake " Its No Wonder Cardiff City Fans are Failing "

It isn't doing it's job!Nathan Blake blasts Peter Whittingham and Aron Gunnarsson midfield pairing


Nathan Blake "It’s no wonder supporters are failing to buy up season tickets, you can hardly blame them.


Monday 20th April 2015


Cardiff City legend Nathan Blake insists Russell Slade's system is falling down in central midfield


Another home game for Cardiff City, another very poor performance from Russell Slade’s men.

It’s no wonder supporters are failing to buy up season tickets, you can hardly blame them.

There have been many disappointing facts surrounding Slade’s time in the Welsh capital, but it is perhaps their performances and results in front of their own fans which have been the worst and the most damaging to their campaign.

Inconsistency is the word that has blighted Cardiff’s season and you need look no further than their home form to see that in action.

Cardiff actually won their first four home games after Slade officially took over at the club in early October, there was in fact hope that things were going to be turned around after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but since then, well, it makes grim reading for Slade and his men. The goalless draw with Millwall on the weekend made it just two wins out of the last 13 league games in the Welsh capital and to say that is not good enough is, of course, a bit of an understatement.

When you are failing to turn it on in front of your own supporters, there is a big problem within the heart of the side and that is a lack of confidence.


The Bluebirds just simply do not impose themselves on sides in the Welsh capital and we have seen the result of that.

A dull draw with a poor Millwall team, dismissed and easily so by Bolton the time before. It is something that has to be sorted out next season by Slade or there are going to be real problems. You cannot go through a whole season with home form like that and not expect to end up in deep, deep trouble.

One of the things that struck me in the Millwall game was just how isolated the Bluebirds strikers are in Slade’s system. In this instance Joe Mason and Eoin Doyle barely saw any service at all.


Now, when you are a striker, it is quite easy to keep going on about a lack of service during games, it can be a nice excuse, but, to be fair to the lads up-front at Cardiff, they really have been suffering this term.

The problem? Well, for me central midfielder right now is just not doing the job required of it.

You cannot expect your frontmen to thrive when your midfielders are offering minimal support.

There is just not enough drive in the middle of the park as far as I am concerned.

I’ve always been a fan of Peter Whittingham, a great servant to the club of course, but I just don’t think you can play him in there any more in that formation, at least.


Whittingham can do a job for you. He can play the holding midfielder role for you because of his great passing. He can even play a No.10 role for you.

What he cannot do is play in a two like that and expect to have a good game. It’s not natural to him. He’s not a box-to-box player, he can’t break play up for you there. It’s like asking Aron Gunnarsson to play out-wide or something, it is just not Whittingham’s natural game I’m afraid. Anyway age catches up with us all in the end too.

But there are so many decisions made at Cardiff City, both on and off the pitch, that confuse and confound me and I’m sure make other supporters feel exactly the same way.

The hierarchy at the club seem always to believe they have done the right thing, made the right decisions, but, in my opinion, there have been plenty of mistakes.

One big one for me this term was the announcement that the Bluebirds were now going to embark on ‘cost-cutting.’ Now, I have no problem with finances being reined in, it’s just the message it sends out to supporters when you put things in those terms that bothers me.

It gives the impression that things are going to go backwards. The take is that you cannot cut costs and be successful at the same time.

No wonder people are hesitating when it comes to buying season tickets.

Angry Cardiff City fans head for the exits during the Bank Holiday battering against Bolton

For me, the Bluebirds should have said it was a change of philosophy at the club, instead of throwing money at things, the club should have said they were going to utilise the Academy and under-21 players. They should be doing that anyway.

I just cannot see the point in loaning out a player like Declan John and then paying £150,000 for a full-back. It does not make sense to me. For me the Bluebirds need to look to their Academy and younger players now as a way forward. Bring them through and mix them in with the older heads. Signings would still be made obviously, but the emphasis would shift to blooding homegrown talent much more.

If you go to the Academy and these players are not there, then you look at the coaches there and ask them what they think they have been doing.

I truly believe that is the best way for Cardiff to move forward now. There has to be progress seen, some kind of hope given or the unhappiness and disappointment witnessed at the Millwall game is going to get worse rather than better.

Ffs has Blakey started a coarse of sensible pills or something
Got to agree 100% with him on this

Blakey correct for once!

Whitts & Gunna for me have been dire all season - offer us fk all going forward. Whitts has played far too deep all year. He is acting like a sweeper and at this level we dont need it.

I know there are still some Whitts hangers on, but Blakey got it right. If we want to progress and challenge I think midfield is our starting point and I think Whitts should only be used as a sub now, or even ship off. We need creativity

I often don't agree with him but, there it is, bang on.

Ipswich was the last game I've enjoyed for ages and then when you think, despite the loss, that we are going to kick on at home, yet again, it doesn't happen.

The only thing that you can guarantee is inconsistency and it's not right.

The club needs sorting from top to bottom and if it was any other business that was consistently underperforming, it would be happening today.

Emperors New Clothes appears to be the board's defacto status and I believe if this continues that we will be in a relegation battle this time next year.

The owner and management have presided over perhaps the greatest lost opportunity in the clubs history and still continue with the same incompetance.

Sort it out.

Why is Blake being so vocal about Cardiff lately ?

great article, he is bang on the money about cheap players stopping our academy players having a go. 'Change of philosophy' or 'Cost-cutting' fans like seeing academy players given a chance