" ARE CARDIFF CITY REALLY ANTI-FOOTBALL? "

Are Cardiff City really anti-football?
By Jamie Kemble


Tuesday 27th November 2017


Why ‘bitter’ opposing managers couldn’t be more wrong about Neil Warnock’s approach


Neil Warnock has been heavily criticised by opposition managers this season for his team’s ‘dirty tactics’ and direct style of play.

The veteran boss has developed a reputation for playing a retro style of football over the course of his 37 years in management.

It may have served him well with seven promotions to his name, but the footballing purists of the Championship are still having none of it as he targets a record-breaking eighth promotion with Cardiff City.

The Bluebirds are currently sailing in second having beaten Nottingham Forest away from home on the weekend, and the victory in East Midlands proved to be the latest catalyst for a hounding of Warnock.

Forest boss Mark Warburton this week joined Brentford boss Dean Smith, Barnsley boss Paul Heckingbottom – and earlier in the season Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo – in criticising Cardiff for wasting time with throw-ins and set-pieces, and then Kenny Burns, a Forest legend, climbed aboard.

Burns told the Nottingham Evening Post: “He might have enjoyed a lot of success over the years as a manager, and he looks to be doing the business once again at Cardiff City, but he’s not my cup of tea.

“I know Forest talked to him when they needed a manager a while back, but I’m glad that never came to anything, because I don’t like his attitude or the way his teams play.

“He can have the three points from Sunday’s match between the Reds and Cardiff, I’d much rather have a manager like Mark Warburton in the home dugout at the City Ground – a likable manager who gets his teams to play exciting, attacking football.”

Burns, and indeed many managers across the division clearly take umbrage at the sight of Neil Warnock’s football, but hearing the bitter reactions from opposing teams following Bluebirds’ wins is the only compliment the 68-year-old needs.

Their reactions are the very confirmations that Warnock has won the battle between the two bosses, whether they like the way he’s done it or not.

And many of the world’s top managers also fall into that bracket, namely Jose Mourinho, who gets criticised week upon week for his poor displays, before having the last laugh when he lifts trophies with team after team.

Even Warnock himself, when quizzed on the ‘Warnock way’ consistently says, : “What, winning?”

And besides, you don’t hear Cardiff City fans complaining, and ultimately, they are the ones he must impress.

The Bluebirds have completed the second least short passes in the league, backing up the opposition managers’ theory, but it doesn’t always appear that way.

At home, at least, Cardiff appear fluent and slick with a real emphasis on playing attacking football.

It’s the type of attacking football the Bluebirds’ faithful haven’t enjoyed since the days of Dave Jones when relative success arrived at CF11 season after season.

Long balls or short balls aside, Cardiff go at teams with three up top. Two attacking wingers and a striker. Now, you would be hard pressed to find a coach who called a formation with three up top ‘negative’. Except, perhaps, if they were on the losing side.

Cardiff have taken apart the likes of Leeds United, Aston Villa and Sheffield United at home with relentless attacking football. Some of the league’s best have been unable to cope.

And don’t just take my word for it. GetWestLondon’s QPR reporter, Phil Spencer, this month labelled Cardiff as the best team QPR have faced.

“Having seen each of QPR’s games so far this season, I can’t look past Cardiff City as the strongest opponent,” said Phil Spence.

“Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves and Middlesbrough all possessed undoubted quality, but the Hoops were able to stop them playing their natural game while also finding a weakness in the ranks.

“Managed by Neil Warnock, the Bluebirds looked organised at the back, and incredibly fast and strong going forward.

“Whether Cardiff can last the pace this season remains to be seen, but the clinical nature of their attacking play will ensure they’re not far away by the time May rolls around.”

As with any Warnock team, the attack is built on a strong defence, sometimes even with five men at the back, but there’s always a threat with two quick wingers and a forward.

It’s been particularly difficult for Cardiff of late with key players such as Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Kenneth Zohore out – two players that are crucial to that dangerous front three.

However, while they’ve had to dig deep during something of an injury crisis, they have still been far too dangerous for teams, especially at home.

Has it been different away from home? Of course it has, but that’s where Neil Warnock’s experience comes in.

He knows that – unless you splash the cash like Wolves – you can’t get promoted from the Championship by consistently playing flashy football away from home. Just ask Sheffield Wednesday and Derby County.

Fulham are another. Last season, they were one of the most attractive teams to grace the Championship in many a year, and they were good, too. But again, they fell short – perhaps not streetwise enough.

If Cardiff City fans decide Neil Warnock’s football is too negative for the club and it’s not progressive enough, then the real jury has its verdict.

However, the current brand of football is the most exciting to grace the Cardiff City Stadium for many a year and while that lasts, the bitter reactions of opposing managers will only add an extra sweetness to victories and it will only motivate the players.

In a different type of way, cast your mind back to Wimbledon’s ‘Crazy Gang’. The players loved that tag and while it continued to work, they embraced it, they didn’t even consider changing to impress others, in fact, it gave them an advantage – teams feared them.

And that’s what you can expect from Cardiff City this season.

Nuno Espirito Santo, Dean Smith, Paul Heckingbottom and Mark Warburton. What have they all got in common? They have all been defeated by Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City this season.

That’s the key fact that will override any post-match comments and even above that is the most important fact of all.

Neil Warnock’s football is bringing success, it’s impressing the board and crucially, it’s pleasing the supporters who have rediscovered their excitement for the club.

Loving this (well written IMHO) article and the way 'losing' managers point to Neil Warnock's strengths rather than their own weaknesses!

Plays straight into his (Neil Warnock's) hands and he must play that stuff on his iPod to get to sleep at night!

Kenny Burns? Remember him (us veterans will) as a good player in a great Clough-led Forest side that marauded the (then) First Division and Europe in the late 70's and early 80's

Don't remember the brilliant and equally (maybe more so) abrasive Clough winning too many 'friends' for his highly successful tactics at that time and I don't remember Burns making a success of his short managerial career once he stopped playing!

I fully understand opposition managers 'deflecting' from their own team's defeats, particularly at home, but I always think it's too easy for ex-players (so-called pundits) to jump on a bandwagon; particularly when defending their own club's short-comings and I am sure the late great 'Cloughie' would simply tell him, "Listen here not so young man, it's winning that counts and all you need to do is worry about getting your own house in order!"

Carry on, Neil. We're on a journey and loving every minute!

Kenneth Burns during his playing days...and as he is now!

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Kenny Burns fat Scottish tw*t, when we are in the Prem next year, and Forest are still a mid table Championship side with an average manager playing their tiki taka football, we can all have a laugh at him.

Who cares about pass pass pass, bloody pass again, football games are won by scoring goals, not the highest number of passes in a game. In the final third, that's where it really matters, we have been brilliant. Warnock is a winner long may it continue.

If every team played the same way by passing and passing and more passing fans would soon get bored of it! Fans want success and football that gets them excited which is what city do especially at home.

If every team played the same way by passing and passing and more passing fans would soon get bored of it! Fans want success and football that gets them excited which is what city do especially at home.

Allan, it's still that moment the opposition goal bulges for me and it appears to most other fans

We only have to look on this Forum to see how the result alone will dictate many people's moods after any given game regardless of the real performance!

Its all about imposing your game plan on the opposition.

If we played Citeh today their Tiki Taka would rip us a new one, because their players are so good at it. Try the same tactics with inferior players and they give the ball away or are easily pushed off the ball and allow us to counter with our undoubted fierce pace and power up top.

There is such a clamour for playing "the right way" that teams like Brentford,Fulham and Forest do it and look beautiful when allowed, so i imagine when they play each other there is neither a foul nor a shot on target. When a team aggressively but fairly presses them they fold like a pack of cards. Wolves probably have superior players to the rest of the championship teams trying to play that way, and can out skill similar teams. We struggled to break down Millwalls strength.

Three out and out attacking players with sometimes an attacking midfielder can never be considered anti football. We are not another chairman led, monday morning quarterback fan appeasing club (we were 15 months ago) cardboard cut out easy touch team.

I think the analysts will go through the Warnock playbook and realise he is years ahead of the opposition. He plays his old school, stuck in the 80's persona brillianty. Teams expect long ball thugs then see Junior Holiett, Kadeem Harris, Mendez Lang, Paterson, Kenny, Bogle, ward absolutely burn you with skill

I think all this anti football stuff going around is a load of shite! This is the championship ffs!

If every team played the same way by passing and passing and more passing fans would soon get bored of it! Fans want success and football that gets them excited which is what city do especially at home.

Allan, it's still that moment the opposition goal bulges for me and it appears to most other fans

We only have to look on this Forum to see how the result alone will dictate many people's moods after any given game regardless of the real performance!

Sven tbh play crap and win everyone is basically happy, forest and the other pretty footballing sides will soon have fans on their backs if results are not good. City and NW seem to have right balance long may it last.

To answer the original question, no!

The aim of the game is to win simple as ! It's not as if we're boring anyway