" ARE CITY BEATEN AREADY? "
Sun Sep 18, 2016 3:16 am
Are bottom of the table Cardiff City a beaten club already?
By The other Bob Wilson
18/09/16
I daresay there’ll be plenty who will be pleased to read that this won’t be as long a piece as normal- after all, you cannot keep on finding different ways to say, essentially, the same thing indefinitely.
Yesterday lunchtime Leeds became the third ordinary side to come to Cardiff City Stadium and win this season and every time the story has been the same – City are competitive in the first half and could be said to be unfortunate not to be leading at the break, but, come the second half, there’s just nothing in the way of a goal threat from the team and our opponents know there’ll be chances as they have the better of the last half an hour especially.
So, City have now lost the first two of a series of five matches which were supposed to offer us the chance to turn around what had been a slow, but, hardly disastrous, start to the campaign, but now, with four straight losses, the tell tale signs of a team in crisis becoming more commonplace by the game and a Head Coach whose future is “in grave doubt”, according to this report from the BBC, the use of the word “disastrous” to describe our season so far looks less like overkill.
There’s little point in me going into much detail about how the game panned out because those of you who watched it on the telly could probably describe what happened more accurately than me, but here are a few observations I’ll make:-
1. I thought Leeds were the poorest of the three sides to have gained away wins at our place so far and they started the match very sloppily, but, as is always the case with us, we’re not good enough to take advantage when we are on top unless we get an unfeasibly large amount of help from an opposition player.
2. It was very worrying to see how quickly confidence drained from the players. This was especially true after Leeds went ahead, but the lack of belief manifested itself in the first half with two poor errors which handed very presentable chances to the visitors – it was if the team knew it was going to be another one of those days when all of their early pressure came to nothing.
3. It wasn’t all bad news, there were some pretty good individual performances. I’ve not had much that was positive to say about Ben Amos so far, which is a bit harsh really when he hadn’t been given a chance to prove me wrong. However, there was little I could be critical about with him on his debut – he didn’t do anything that was spectacularly good, but there was a general competence that offered hope that goalkeeper may not be quite as problematic a position for us any many fear it will be. Secondly, Jazz Richards played as well as I’ve seen him do for us so far and was getting forward from full back more often that he did as a wing back. Finally, I thought Rickie Lambert had a good home debut which suggested that he could become a big influence if we can get players running off him.
4. That last bit may be a problem though. You can change the formation, as Paul Trollope did to a 4-3-3, but you cannot change the truth which holds to this Cardiff squad no matter what system you use – there is just not the pace there to get enough support to our strikers quickly enough or to mount effective counter attacks.
5. One thing that struck me in particular was that so many of our players took poor first touches when in attacking positions that offered some promise – some of this could be put down to tension brought on by the poor run we are on, but it also betrayed that this has always been a squad that compared poorly to many in this division in terms of craft and touch.
6. There has not been a single goal scored at the Canton end of the ground in a Cardiff game this season. That’s not all bad because I’m talking about our opponents there as well. Indeed, with us doing a good job of keeping visiting strikers quiet, there’s barely been a goal attempt because, yet again, we suffered a complete fade out as an attacking threat after the break with, bizarrely, the closest we came to scoring being when a Leeds defender almost made it three own goals before a Cardiff player finds the net down here this season!
A few words now about Paul Trollope, is his future really in “grave doubt”? My instinct is to say no – he is Vincent Tan’s man after all and it would be an admission that our owner had got things wrong again if he made a change now. I also feel it’s too early to think of sacking anyone yet, but I say that knowing that two years ago Ole had already gone following a start which was a lot better than this one and the stigma that goes with being at the bottom of a division has often caused the men in the Boardroom to say enough is enough.
I was happy to see that Trollope was willing to change the formation and don’t see that as any sort of admission of defeat on his part, but I must say I found it odd that the change of system saw, arguably, the two fastest players in the squad (John and Harris) left out from a side that is consistently accused of lacking pace. The late introduction of Fred Gounongbe was also a revealing moment because it really brought home how one dimensional we are in the striking department with our three target men and a converted winger who lacks serious pace.
I have sympathy with Paul Trollope to the extent that the hand he’s been dealt in terms of finances compared to so many other Championship bosses is a pretty poor one, but our complete lack of a speedy front player who can stretch defences and help turn ordinary passes into good ones with his pace does not reflect well on him.
More than in any other recent season, we are stuck with what we’ve got now until January and, at the moment, we look like a squad that was a work in progress in some areas and plain not good enough in others as the last chance to bring in reinforcements for four months disappeared.
I’ll finish by saying that Leeds manager Garry Monk remarked that their fans took control of the stadium during the game. Such talk will hardly endear any already unpopular man to Cardiff fans, but I believe he was right, because the unpleasant truth is that, both on the pitch and in the stands, Leeds didn’t have a great deal to beat.
In fact in so many ways, Cardiff City already feels like a beaten club this season. The team seems devoid of the spirit to fight back if things go against them and three years of ineptitude on and off the pitch have ground down a once passionate fanbase who now give the impression of not being too bothered by what goes on out on the pitch – as so often in recent years, there was resignation, rather than anger, from supporters as their team slipped towards defeat and, in this case anyway, the bottom of the league.
I daresay that Messrs Tan, Dalman and Choo will be believing that relegation is not even a possibility today, but I happen to think that it can be a natural consequence for teams that have been run in the manner that Cardiff City has since the decision was made to stop the extravagant spending two years ago.
Even now as we look up at the other twenty three sides in this league, I don’t think there’ll be many, if any, City fans who would criticise that decision, but a side embarking on such a cost cutting exercise usually needs one or both of a thriving Academy producing youngsters who can handle the step up into the first team or a well thought out and effective recruitment policy that enables them to deal efficiently and well in cut price markets to handle this transition phase safely – sadly, both of these things have been completely lacking at Cardiff since we decided to “cut our cloth accordingly”.
By The other Bob Wilson
18/09/16
I daresay there’ll be plenty who will be pleased to read that this won’t be as long a piece as normal- after all, you cannot keep on finding different ways to say, essentially, the same thing indefinitely.
Yesterday lunchtime Leeds became the third ordinary side to come to Cardiff City Stadium and win this season and every time the story has been the same – City are competitive in the first half and could be said to be unfortunate not to be leading at the break, but, come the second half, there’s just nothing in the way of a goal threat from the team and our opponents know there’ll be chances as they have the better of the last half an hour especially.
So, City have now lost the first two of a series of five matches which were supposed to offer us the chance to turn around what had been a slow, but, hardly disastrous, start to the campaign, but now, with four straight losses, the tell tale signs of a team in crisis becoming more commonplace by the game and a Head Coach whose future is “in grave doubt”, according to this report from the BBC, the use of the word “disastrous” to describe our season so far looks less like overkill.
There’s little point in me going into much detail about how the game panned out because those of you who watched it on the telly could probably describe what happened more accurately than me, but here are a few observations I’ll make:-
1. I thought Leeds were the poorest of the three sides to have gained away wins at our place so far and they started the match very sloppily, but, as is always the case with us, we’re not good enough to take advantage when we are on top unless we get an unfeasibly large amount of help from an opposition player.
2. It was very worrying to see how quickly confidence drained from the players. This was especially true after Leeds went ahead, but the lack of belief manifested itself in the first half with two poor errors which handed very presentable chances to the visitors – it was if the team knew it was going to be another one of those days when all of their early pressure came to nothing.
3. It wasn’t all bad news, there were some pretty good individual performances. I’ve not had much that was positive to say about Ben Amos so far, which is a bit harsh really when he hadn’t been given a chance to prove me wrong. However, there was little I could be critical about with him on his debut – he didn’t do anything that was spectacularly good, but there was a general competence that offered hope that goalkeeper may not be quite as problematic a position for us any many fear it will be. Secondly, Jazz Richards played as well as I’ve seen him do for us so far and was getting forward from full back more often that he did as a wing back. Finally, I thought Rickie Lambert had a good home debut which suggested that he could become a big influence if we can get players running off him.
4. That last bit may be a problem though. You can change the formation, as Paul Trollope did to a 4-3-3, but you cannot change the truth which holds to this Cardiff squad no matter what system you use – there is just not the pace there to get enough support to our strikers quickly enough or to mount effective counter attacks.
5. One thing that struck me in particular was that so many of our players took poor first touches when in attacking positions that offered some promise – some of this could be put down to tension brought on by the poor run we are on, but it also betrayed that this has always been a squad that compared poorly to many in this division in terms of craft and touch.
6. There has not been a single goal scored at the Canton end of the ground in a Cardiff game this season. That’s not all bad because I’m talking about our opponents there as well. Indeed, with us doing a good job of keeping visiting strikers quiet, there’s barely been a goal attempt because, yet again, we suffered a complete fade out as an attacking threat after the break with, bizarrely, the closest we came to scoring being when a Leeds defender almost made it three own goals before a Cardiff player finds the net down here this season!
A few words now about Paul Trollope, is his future really in “grave doubt”? My instinct is to say no – he is Vincent Tan’s man after all and it would be an admission that our owner had got things wrong again if he made a change now. I also feel it’s too early to think of sacking anyone yet, but I say that knowing that two years ago Ole had already gone following a start which was a lot better than this one and the stigma that goes with being at the bottom of a division has often caused the men in the Boardroom to say enough is enough.
I was happy to see that Trollope was willing to change the formation and don’t see that as any sort of admission of defeat on his part, but I must say I found it odd that the change of system saw, arguably, the two fastest players in the squad (John and Harris) left out from a side that is consistently accused of lacking pace. The late introduction of Fred Gounongbe was also a revealing moment because it really brought home how one dimensional we are in the striking department with our three target men and a converted winger who lacks serious pace.
I have sympathy with Paul Trollope to the extent that the hand he’s been dealt in terms of finances compared to so many other Championship bosses is a pretty poor one, but our complete lack of a speedy front player who can stretch defences and help turn ordinary passes into good ones with his pace does not reflect well on him.
More than in any other recent season, we are stuck with what we’ve got now until January and, at the moment, we look like a squad that was a work in progress in some areas and plain not good enough in others as the last chance to bring in reinforcements for four months disappeared.
I’ll finish by saying that Leeds manager Garry Monk remarked that their fans took control of the stadium during the game. Such talk will hardly endear any already unpopular man to Cardiff fans, but I believe he was right, because the unpleasant truth is that, both on the pitch and in the stands, Leeds didn’t have a great deal to beat.
In fact in so many ways, Cardiff City already feels like a beaten club this season. The team seems devoid of the spirit to fight back if things go against them and three years of ineptitude on and off the pitch have ground down a once passionate fanbase who now give the impression of not being too bothered by what goes on out on the pitch – as so often in recent years, there was resignation, rather than anger, from supporters as their team slipped towards defeat and, in this case anyway, the bottom of the league.
I daresay that Messrs Tan, Dalman and Choo will be believing that relegation is not even a possibility today, but I happen to think that it can be a natural consequence for teams that have been run in the manner that Cardiff City has since the decision was made to stop the extravagant spending two years ago.
Even now as we look up at the other twenty three sides in this league, I don’t think there’ll be many, if any, City fans who would criticise that decision, but a side embarking on such a cost cutting exercise usually needs one or both of a thriving Academy producing youngsters who can handle the step up into the first team or a well thought out and effective recruitment policy that enables them to deal efficiently and well in cut price markets to handle this transition phase safely – sadly, both of these things have been completely lacking at Cardiff since we decided to “cut our cloth accordingly”.
Re: ARE CITY BEATEN AREADY?
Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:00 am
Trying to look at the positives Jazz Richards, Ben Amos and Ricky Lambert did offer hope. TOBW however did make one telling quote when he mentioned the team changes from Preston took pace out of the side (John/Harris)
As usual it is the youngest members of the squad who take the wrap so the older more established ones are not upset.
Time to rip that nonsense up. Peltier is just a static right back who does the basics well but offers nothing extra. Jazz Richards yesterday showed we have a great right back who should now take that mantle over on a permanent basis. John or Bennett should return to offer both pace and balance to the defence.
Same thing for Harris who could replace either Pilkington or Noone and offer a real outlet. Personally I would move Pilks to a more central midfield position and put Noone on the left.
Ralls should be dropped and O'Keefe should be brought back as soon as he is fit for Gunnars.
As usual it is the youngest members of the squad who take the wrap so the older more established ones are not upset.
Time to rip that nonsense up. Peltier is just a static right back who does the basics well but offers nothing extra. Jazz Richards yesterday showed we have a great right back who should now take that mantle over on a permanent basis. John or Bennett should return to offer both pace and balance to the defence.
Same thing for Harris who could replace either Pilkington or Noone and offer a real outlet. Personally I would move Pilks to a more central midfield position and put Noone on the left.
Ralls should be dropped and O'Keefe should be brought back as soon as he is fit for Gunnars.
Re: ARE CITY BEATEN AREADY?
Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:11 am
Agree with all that Tony
Re: ARE CITY BEATEN AREADY?
Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:26 am
Lots of good points raised in there Bob any of which should promote a good debate but unfortunately given our current position any attempt at reasoned debate will probably go out of the window.
Still I'll give it a go, I don't think we are beaten already, but I do think we look like a club that is beaten already and that can be a bigger problem. I was shocked yesterday that the team didn't come out for it's pre-match warm until 11.57, Leeds had been out a full 10 minutes before. When the players did arrive they went through what could only be described as a lacklustre warm up compared to Leeds. Even before a ball was kicked it left me feeling more than a little concerned , does that make me, as a fan, already beaten or just thinking we were beaten? Whatever the answer to that within the stadium I was not alone.
When the team was announced it was clear that the 3-5-2 had been abandoned a with Amos in goal, Lambert heading up the attack and with Whitts back in the team it looked all over a 4-3-3 game plan. However shortly after the game started it looked more like a 9-1 with the emphasis solely on getting men behind the ball when Leeds were in possession. With the team sitting so deep we desperately needed pace to counter attack but where was it going to come from? Harris had been dropped and try as the players did it nearly ALL attacking threat from City was little more than huffing and puffing. In fact the only real threat came from set pieces with a heavy emphasis on Whitts delivering the telling cross, it nearly worked with Morrison but for the woodwork.
So despite a change of formation we were still back a relying on Whitts to delivery the piece of quality to get us in front. Unfortunately it didn't happen and worse still Leeds got the first goal and the wafer thin veneer of confidence on and off the field evaporated.
Sadly after a summer of cost cutting PT has been left with a squad which lacks numbers, lacks pace and lacks belief and as fans, I believe, we need to adopt a siege mentality and get behind the team 100% from the first to the last kick.
We may lack numbers but there is quality in this team and as fans we need to help give the team belief and that is possible. Do that and I really believe we will be OK this season, lower bottom half of table but OK.
We just need to show what it means to be Cardiff City fans.
Still I'll give it a go, I don't think we are beaten already, but I do think we look like a club that is beaten already and that can be a bigger problem. I was shocked yesterday that the team didn't come out for it's pre-match warm until 11.57, Leeds had been out a full 10 minutes before. When the players did arrive they went through what could only be described as a lacklustre warm up compared to Leeds. Even before a ball was kicked it left me feeling more than a little concerned , does that make me, as a fan, already beaten or just thinking we were beaten? Whatever the answer to that within the stadium I was not alone.
When the team was announced it was clear that the 3-5-2 had been abandoned a with Amos in goal, Lambert heading up the attack and with Whitts back in the team it looked all over a 4-3-3 game plan. However shortly after the game started it looked more like a 9-1 with the emphasis solely on getting men behind the ball when Leeds were in possession. With the team sitting so deep we desperately needed pace to counter attack but where was it going to come from? Harris had been dropped and try as the players did it nearly ALL attacking threat from City was little more than huffing and puffing. In fact the only real threat came from set pieces with a heavy emphasis on Whitts delivering the telling cross, it nearly worked with Morrison but for the woodwork.
So despite a change of formation we were still back a relying on Whitts to delivery the piece of quality to get us in front. Unfortunately it didn't happen and worse still Leeds got the first goal and the wafer thin veneer of confidence on and off the field evaporated.
Sadly after a summer of cost cutting PT has been left with a squad which lacks numbers, lacks pace and lacks belief and as fans, I believe, we need to adopt a siege mentality and get behind the team 100% from the first to the last kick.
We may lack numbers but there is quality in this team and as fans we need to help give the team belief and that is possible. Do that and I really believe we will be OK this season, lower bottom half of table but OK.
We just need to show what it means to be Cardiff City fans.
Re: ARE CITY BEATEN AREADY?
Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:36 am
Two great posts from Tony and Gary above 
I'm glad I wasn't alone in thinking Lambert actually had a good game against a big Leeds defence and did his job well. The unavailability of others to play off him on times or supply proper balls to him resulted in some around me questioning his worth to the team
Too many holes in midfield second half allowed Leeds to counter attack at will (whoever he is! LOL) and that was a big problem
Harris and O'Keefe appear to be obvious replacements for the disappointing (of late) Ralls and the ineffective (for some time) Noone
I agree we are not yet 'beaten' as a team and a couple of goals should turn things around, as the team up to the 18 yard box are not that bad but thereafter lies the problem
I thought on the whole, the attending City fans yesterday were pretty positive for most of the match but the defeatist attitude of many from the penalty on certainly didn't help
I'm glad I wasn't alone in thinking Lambert actually had a good game against a big Leeds defence and did his job well. The unavailability of others to play off him on times or supply proper balls to him resulted in some around me questioning his worth to the team
Too many holes in midfield second half allowed Leeds to counter attack at will (whoever he is! LOL) and that was a big problem
Harris and O'Keefe appear to be obvious replacements for the disappointing (of late) Ralls and the ineffective (for some time) Noone
I agree we are not yet 'beaten' as a team and a couple of goals should turn things around, as the team up to the 18 yard box are not that bad but thereafter lies the problem
I thought on the whole, the attending City fans yesterday were pretty positive for most of the match but the defeatist attitude of many from the penalty on certainly didn't help
Re: ARE CITY BEATEN AREADY?
Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:38 am
How hard is to get upbeat atm guys? when you walk in the ground you feel dejected before the game even kicks off.. I think the city need to have a happy hour pound a pint old skool before kick off get us all pissed and rowdy and hopefully bring back the atmosphere. I love this club with all my heart and whilst its upsetting to watch us atm we all have to remember where we have come from to be here. I am up for this relegation battle its been a long time since we was in one so here goes because let me tell you this much Tan has proven before with Slade that he will stand by HIS choice for manager
Re: " ARE CITY BEATEN AREADY? "
Sun Sep 18, 2016 4:41 pm
Noone is so predictable get Harris right wing attack the flanks whip the cross in Lambert half chance of getting something. Noone cuts In and momentum is gone
Re: " ARE CITY BEATEN AREADY? "
Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:58 am
gwentbluebirds wrote:Noone is so predictable get Harris right wing attack the flanks whip the cross in Lambert half chance of getting something. Noone cuts In and momentum is gone
Totally agree with this! I've always been a fan of noone but his form has been way below par. I've been sat on the fence with Harris but he does offer direct running and looks to get forward putting the defenders on the back foot every time. He just needs to be playing on the right. But not as a bloody Wing back!!