'Cardiff City set-up against Brentford was a recipe for..'
Fri Apr 22, 2016 10:30 am
Cardiff City set-up against Brentford was a recipe for failure at a time when the shackles needed to come off
15:17, 20 APR 2016
OPINION BY PAULABBANDONATO
Paul Abbandonato offers his views on where Cardiff City went wrong as their play-off aspirations took a hit following a haul of one point from a possible six
For me, the seeds of Cardiff City’s crushing defeat to Brentford on Tuesday night came in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s equally desperately disappointing scoreless draw with Queens Park Rangers.
When Russell Slade held his post-match Press conference, he spoke of his Bluebirds ‘thoroughly deserving to win’ and being denied a stonewall penalty when Anthony Pilkington was supposedly ‘wrestled to the ground' .
Slade even spoke proudly of his team still trying to win the game in the 96th minute. Wow. And there I was thinking they should have been attempting to lose it in front of a bumper crowd of 27,000!
Look, I apologise for the flippancy there, but Slade’s stance on proceedings angered me. Why? Because in my view, he wasn’t addressing the REAL issues that needed tackling and, given that, I just felt the Brentford game was a disaster in the making.
Which, of course, it sadly proved to be.
What perturbed me about QPR wasn’t the denial of a so-called penalty, which at best was a 50-50 duel between Pilkington and the Hoops defender, nor that Cardiff were supposedly unfortunate in not winning.
What perturbed me, and doubtless many in the bumper crowd, was Cardiff’s lack of any creative guile and almost total reliance upon a set-piece for any credible threat at goal. What perturbed me was the lack of dynamism and energy in the first-half of a must-win clash in the bid to make the play-offs.
Hopefully, the manager would address those patently obvious pressing issues and change the team for Brentford to ensure the very zip and flair that was missing against QPR would be present to ensure victory over Brentford.
Instead, Slade seemingly happy with the performance, we had exactly the same players chosen and same old, same old in terms of style of play.
It was a recipe for failure. The Bluebirds duly failed.
Invariably, just one point out of five with the pressure really on has led to many calling for the manager to go in the summer.
This is not the time to make those judgements. Sheffield Wednesday’s own failures to overcome MK Dons and Ipswich at home mean that mathematically Cardiff can still make the top six.
While that is the case, at such a pivotal point of the season, we should be behind the team and the manager.
But we also need to have confidence that when something is as fundamentally wrong as it was against QPR, the manager accepts that and, more importantly, addresses it.
I promise the missing thousands, many of whom returned against QPR because of free tickets, that Slade’s Bluebirds have been playing with more style and panache at times this season. They really have. Their performance in thumping Brighton 4-1 was indicative of what they can do when the shackles are released.
But many of those who did flock back to Cardiff City Stadium at the weekend could have been forgiven for thinking ‘What’s changed?’ Still too little created, too much reliance on centre-backs getting on the end of Peter Whittingham set pieces. Charges directed Slade’s way for much of his first year at the helm.
Someone told me a statistic was doing the rounds saying Cardiff have scored more goals from headers than any other side in the Championship. I have absolutely no idea if that is indeed the case, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
15:17, 20 APR 2016
OPINION BY PAULABBANDONATO
Paul Abbandonato offers his views on where Cardiff City went wrong as their play-off aspirations took a hit following a haul of one point from a possible six
For me, the seeds of Cardiff City’s crushing defeat to Brentford on Tuesday night came in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s equally desperately disappointing scoreless draw with Queens Park Rangers.
When Russell Slade held his post-match Press conference, he spoke of his Bluebirds ‘thoroughly deserving to win’ and being denied a stonewall penalty when Anthony Pilkington was supposedly ‘wrestled to the ground' .
Slade even spoke proudly of his team still trying to win the game in the 96th minute. Wow. And there I was thinking they should have been attempting to lose it in front of a bumper crowd of 27,000!
Look, I apologise for the flippancy there, but Slade’s stance on proceedings angered me. Why? Because in my view, he wasn’t addressing the REAL issues that needed tackling and, given that, I just felt the Brentford game was a disaster in the making.
Which, of course, it sadly proved to be.
What perturbed me about QPR wasn’t the denial of a so-called penalty, which at best was a 50-50 duel between Pilkington and the Hoops defender, nor that Cardiff were supposedly unfortunate in not winning.
What perturbed me, and doubtless many in the bumper crowd, was Cardiff’s lack of any creative guile and almost total reliance upon a set-piece for any credible threat at goal. What perturbed me was the lack of dynamism and energy in the first-half of a must-win clash in the bid to make the play-offs.
Hopefully, the manager would address those patently obvious pressing issues and change the team for Brentford to ensure the very zip and flair that was missing against QPR would be present to ensure victory over Brentford.
Instead, Slade seemingly happy with the performance, we had exactly the same players chosen and same old, same old in terms of style of play.
It was a recipe for failure. The Bluebirds duly failed.
Invariably, just one point out of five with the pressure really on has led to many calling for the manager to go in the summer.
This is not the time to make those judgements. Sheffield Wednesday’s own failures to overcome MK Dons and Ipswich at home mean that mathematically Cardiff can still make the top six.
While that is the case, at such a pivotal point of the season, we should be behind the team and the manager.
But we also need to have confidence that when something is as fundamentally wrong as it was against QPR, the manager accepts that and, more importantly, addresses it.
I promise the missing thousands, many of whom returned against QPR because of free tickets, that Slade’s Bluebirds have been playing with more style and panache at times this season. They really have. Their performance in thumping Brighton 4-1 was indicative of what they can do when the shackles are released.
But many of those who did flock back to Cardiff City Stadium at the weekend could have been forgiven for thinking ‘What’s changed?’ Still too little created, too much reliance on centre-backs getting on the end of Peter Whittingham set pieces. Charges directed Slade’s way for much of his first year at the helm.
Someone told me a statistic was doing the rounds saying Cardiff have scored more goals from headers than any other side in the Championship. I have absolutely no idea if that is indeed the case, but it wouldn’t surprise me.