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‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:56 pm

Defence letting the side down


Sunday 25th October 2020

By Glen Williams

Neil Harris was right in his criticism of the Bluebirds' defence after the game on Saturday.



Neil Harris:

“It’s unacceptable by our defence.”

”our defence seems to be our problem, giving sloppy goals away and then we are on the back foot .”


"That's three times we've conceded from set plays and four games in a row here we have conceded first at home. That's not acceptable in my changing room.

"I'm majorly disappointed."

While Cardiff's form on the road is exemplary, it is their form in the Welsh capital that is stopping them from really catapulting themselves up the table in this early stage of the season.


"Work on the training pitch is obvious," he said. "Picking the right team, that's my prerogative, my decisions.

"Making sure we are a little more streetwise.

"First-goal mentality, we've got it away from home, we've had it for 12 months away from home, majority of the time we have had it at home as well. But all of a sudden, we've got key moments going against us at home.

"Ultimately, they've come from set pieces or giving the ball away cheaply.“




Let's be frank, the goals City continue to concede, at home, are poor. They are borne of sloppy set plays or errant passes in dangerous areas of the pitch.

We can wax lyrical about how good this Cardiff attack now looks on paper, and it is an impressive line-up, but the defensive shortfalls at the minute are undermining any good work ahead of them.

We thought Cardiff were lacking that consistent creativity at the top end of the pitch in recent months, with the defence mostly rock solid.

But it appears the defence is suddenly a concern, certainly at home, because away from home it's a different story.

So pick the bones out of that one.

Let's be clear, too, it's not just the players at the back, because conceding possession has often been a problem stemming from the midfield.

Harris rightly wants Cardiff City Stadium to be a fortress but if the Bluebirds keep gifting goals that is never going to happen.

Everything needs to be better, from the ball retention to the set-piece defending. Only then can City have the base to start building a promotion challenge.
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Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Sun Oct 25, 2020 6:34 pm

Nelsons reading of the game and certain situations is very poor and causes problems for our defence.

He consistently loses his man and gets dragged out by clever strikers leaving morrison stranded . Its not his fault as he is used to much lower leagues but the championship is a different animal with some brilliant forwards

Hopefully Benkovic will bring some stability

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Sun Oct 25, 2020 6:40 pm

thomasblue wrote:Nelsons reading of the game and certain situations is very poor and causes problems for our defence.

He consistently loses his man and gets dragged out by clever strikers leaving morrison stranded . Its not his fault as he is used to much lower leagues but the championship is a different animal with some brilliant forwards

Hopefully Benkovic will bring some stability



You say the same old crap about Nelson every time. We know you dont rate him but he has been one of our most consistent players since hes been here.
Maybe Benkovic will get in the side sooner or later as I'm sure hes not come here to warm the bench.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Sun Oct 25, 2020 6:44 pm

Morrison was as much at fault for Bournemouth’s goal. He didn’t get any backlash.

He’s the senior man in defence - he should be sorting out defending corners.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Sun Oct 25, 2020 6:52 pm

Danny Says wrote:Morrison was as much at fault for Bournemouth’s goal. He didn’t get any backlash.

He’s the senior man in defence - he should be sorting out defending corners.

Spot on

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:23 pm

Well bring in Benkovic for Nelson or morrinson then job done

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:27 pm

Kenbird1927 wrote:Well bring in Benkovic for Nelson or morrinson then job done

He wouldn’t drop Morrison.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:38 pm

Danny Says wrote:Morrison was as much at fault for Bournemouth’s goal. He didn’t get any backlash.

He’s the senior man in defence - he should be sorting out defending corners.




Morrison is at fault for lot of our goals conceded at home but then hes supurb away from home ! If was to drop anyone it would be Morrison then maybe we will utilise the rest of team at dead ball situations as wel.l

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:38 pm

Charlie Harper wrote:
thomasblue wrote:Nelsons reading of the game and certain situations is very poor and causes problems for our defence.

He consistently loses his man and gets dragged out by clever strikers leaving morrison stranded . Its not his fault as he is used to much lower leagues but the championship is a different animal with some brilliant forwards

Hopefully Benkovic will bring some stability



You say the same old crap about Nelson every time. We know you dont rate him but he has been one of our most consistent players since hes been here.
Maybe Benkovic will get in the side sooner or later as I'm sure hes not come here to warm the bench.


And I say it because he consistently does it and does nothing to change my opinion of him. He has the odd decent game but thats about it.
He has not been one of our most consistent players, multiple goals could and should have been prevented and a lot were down to him either losing his man or being dragged out of position leaving huge gaps in behind.

Its no surprise to me Harris is blaming the defence and a lot of the problem is down to the fact Nelson is not a championship quality centre back no matter how much we want him to be. He can fill a gap when needed but he shouldn't be playing week in week out in my opinion if we want promotion.

There is a reason he is 29 and never played this level before

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 8:17 am

And herein lies the problem. Its the championship, expecting to beat the opposition to nil is very difficult and it affects your whole mindset.

WE DON'T SCORE ENOUGH GOALS !!!!!!

Our wide forwards are expected to be midfielders and track back all game. The strikers whatever their ability to hold to the ball are often isolated. We have been playing an old fashioned "8" as a "10" in a lot of games. We play a defensive 451.

Soak it up and hit them on the break works if you have Manga, Morrison, Bamba (pre injury) Bennett with Gunnar sitting in front looking for potential trouble.

Playing through the thirds isn't going to happen with

Ralls - He is a runner, blocker, tackler and plays the simple ball forward but too often a second too late
Vaulks - He is a runner, blocker, tackler and plays some of the daftest balls I have seen for a while
Bacuna- He is a runner, blocker, tackler and runs into blind alleys too often
Pack - Great at holding onto the ball not so great in finding a meaningful pass, so it goes to Nelson or Morrison to thump it up field with the accuracy of Ben Turner.

The top three are all there to win the ball on the half way line or higher, not to be Pirlo. Hit it long, win the second ball (Malkyball) and strangle the opposition.
Or, win the ball back get it forward very quickly to your flyers and hit them on the break (Warnockball)

I doubt it will cost us much to get rid of Harris, there are bound to be clauses in his contract. Unless he changes and plays the the squads strength I can see him gone after Christmas

We play better when we go behind because we play at the pace the squad is assembled to do.

Morrison needs an athlete next to him to play really well, is the new guy quick ?

Neil, set up to win each game 3-1 and accept the opposition in this league may well score against this team, so we have to score 3.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 8:25 am

Danny Says wrote:Morrison was as much at fault for Bournemouth’s goal. He didn’t get any backlash.

He’s the senior man in defence - he should be sorting out defending corners.



more at fault really. and it happens, morrison is a very good CB and captain, but all this talk (from one poster in particular) about nelson when the fault for the bournemouth goal lies with morrison ( and hoilett imo) is a bit silly.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 8:32 am

paulh_85 wrote:
Danny Says wrote:Morrison was as much at fault for Bournemouth’s goal. He didn’t get any backlash.

He’s the senior man in defence - he should be sorting out defending corners.



more at fault really. and it happens, morrison is a very good CB and captain, but all this talk (from one poster in particular) about nelson when the fault for the bournemouth goal lies with morrison ( and hoilett imo) is a bit silly.


Couldn’t agree more. Like a broken record.
I can’t see Harris dropping Morrison and I’m happy about that so I can see Benkovic coming in for Nelson on Wednesday if he’s fit.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 8:33 am

OriginalGrangeEndBlue wrote:
paulh_85 wrote:
Danny Says wrote:Morrison was as much at fault for Bournemouth’s goal. He didn’t get any backlash.

He’s the senior man in defence - he should be sorting out defending corners.



more at fault really. and it happens, morrison is a very good CB and captain, but all this talk (from one poster in particular) about nelson when the fault for the bournemouth goal lies with morrison ( and hoilett imo) is a bit silly.


Couldn’t agree more. Like a broken record.
I can’t see Harris dropping Morrison and I’m happy about that so I can see Benkovic coming in for Nelson on Wednesday if he’s fit.



yeah same. I like Nelson but the other guy is highly rated, we need to see him play

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:56 am

He might sound like a broken record and I don't agree with all of it, but some of the stuff he says is true. The blame often lies with a few players but Nelson is often caught out of position and quite often loses his man. Which is due to his ability and the level he's played at for most of his career.

You've got to give Nelson a lot of credit as he's made a pretty big step up and has done a job for us pretty well. But football is ruthless. If Benkovic improves the defence then he needs to be playing ASAP. That means dropping morrison or Nelson - which is probably a straight forward decision for Harris.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 11:30 am

It's not just the defence though is it

The two midfielders in front of them are constantly either giving the ball away or not making it easy for the defence to find them. So while the defence have a poor passing accuracy rate, much of that is because of what is or isn't happening in front of them, often leaving them with few passing options.

I didn't think we defended particularly badly Saturday.. it was the middle of the park, creation of chances and lack of finishing that was more concerning.

As for the criticism of Nelson, he actually has a better passing accuracy than Morrison..

City's passing accuracy is as follows:

Pack 83.1%
Bennett 80%
Wilson 77.6%
Bacuna 77.4%
Osei-Tutu 74.4%
Ralls 73.4%
Ojo 71%
Cunningham 70.5%
Hoilett 69.7%
Vaulks 69%
Nelson 68%
Glatzel 68.4%
Bagan 67.9%
Tomlin 67.8%
Morrison 64%
Murphy 57.7%
Smithies 51.7%
Moore 40.7%
Bamba 33.3%

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 11:46 am

Don't read too much into passing accuracy through the team It's highly affected by where you play and tactics. Examples are our goalie who kicks more than most so his accuracy is low compared to a goalie who passes constantly 10 yds to defenders. Defenders often have high percentages because they pass around the back in their own half, but as you get further upfield where its congested and marking tighter more interceptions the accuracy drops off.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:33 pm

ManInBlack wrote:Don't read too much into passing accuracy through the team It's highly affected by where you play and tactics. Examples are our goalie who kicks more than most so his accuracy is low compared to a goalie who passes constantly 10 yds to defenders. Defenders often have high percentages because they pass around the back in their own half, but as you get further upfield where its congested and marking tighter more interceptions the accuracy drops off.


I think the point is that our team has bigger problems than a poor defence and I'm surprised Harris keeps blaming the defence for one mistake a game when we are still quite toothless in attack.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:22 pm

paulh_85 wrote:
Danny Says wrote:Morrison was as much at fault for Bournemouth’s goal. He didn’t get any backlash.

He’s the senior man in defence - he should be sorting out defending corners.



more at fault really. and it happens, morrison is a very good CB and captain, but all this talk (from one poster in particular) about nelson when the fault for the bournemouth goal lies with morrison ( and hoilett imo) is a bit silly.



It seems Morrison is bullet proof when it comes to mistakes... take look at previous home game... Morrison
gave the opponent yards of open space to score because he didn't track him even though he was next to him when opponent moved to the ball .. and it's not the first time hes made same error at home ! Prefer Nelson to him if there's to be a change. Wednesday

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:35 pm

AfricanBluebird wrote:
ManInBlack wrote:Don't read too much into passing accuracy through the team It's highly affected by where you play and tactics. Examples are our goalie who kicks more than most so his accuracy is low compared to a goalie who passes constantly 10 yds to defenders. Defenders often have high percentages because they pass around the back in their own half, but as you get further upfield where its congested and marking tighter more interceptions the accuracy drops off.


I think the point is that our team has bigger problems than a poor defence and I'm surprised Harris keeps blaming the defence for one mistake a game when we are still quite toothless in attack.




i agree about bigger problems..
pass accuracy percentages are obviously accurate re another Cardiff plater touches it next. but dont tell you how difficult the pass attempted was..how much pressure you were under or if the choice of pass was the correct one...

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:59 pm

City have 3 clean sheets away from home out of 3 games ergo city defend better away from home so if it ain’t broke then no need to fix it.

Is it as simple as that ?

No of course it’s not. That’s just coincidental.

2 away games in 4 days - if match fit then Benkovic should get a game.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:03 pm

llan bluebird wrote:And herein lies the problem. Its the championship, expecting to beat the opposition to nil is very difficult and it affects your whole mindset.

WE DON'T SCORE ENOUGH GOALS !!!!!!

Our wide forwards are expected to be midfielders and track back all game. The strikers whatever their ability to hold to the ball are often isolated. We have been playing an old fashioned "8" as a "10" in a lot of games. We play a defensive 451.

Soak it up and hit them on the break works if you have Manga, Morrison, Bamba (pre injury) Bennett with Gunnar sitting in front looking for potential trouble.

Playing through the thirds isn't going to happen with

Ralls - He is a runner, blocker, tackler and plays the simple ball forward but too often a second too late
Vaulks - He is a runner, blocker, tackler and plays some of the daftest balls I have seen for a while
Bacuna- He is a runner, blocker, tackler and runs into blind alleys too often
Pack - Great at holding onto the ball not so great in finding a meaningful pass, so it goes to Nelson or Morrison to thump it up field with the accuracy of Ben Turner.

The top three are all there to win the ball on the half way line or higher, not to be Pirlo. Hit it long, win the second ball (Malkyball) and strangle the opposition.
Or, win the ball back get it forward very quickly to your flyers and hit them on the break (Warnockball)

I doubt it will cost us much to get rid of Harris, there are bound to be clauses in his contract. Unless he changes and plays the the squads strength I can see him gone after Christmas

We play better when we go behind because we play at the pace the squad is assembled to do.

Morrison needs an athlete next to him to play really well, is the new guy quick ?

Neil, set up to win each game 3-1 and accept the opposition in this league may well score against this team, so we have to score 3.


I despair each time I see Ralls or Vaulks with the ball at their feet. They rarely do anything other than pass it sideways or backwards- they are not creative and cannot dribble with the ball forwards like eg Mutch.

Until and unless city get someone to do this they’ll be pedestrian and simply rely on the odd goal from open play as distinct to getting most of their chances from boring punts into the box and corners.

As for Harris, he’s not going anywhere soon.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:06 pm

Team gets done from a Warnock set play shocker!

He's a master at putting pressure from corners, we should have really dealt with it, but with no fans and less accountability defenders are switching off and making stupid mistakes.

It was quite a clever corner, with players putting Smithies off and running back to get on the ball, he was fairly lucky it could have gone anywhere, but it's one of those things, he shouldn't dwell on it.

I think he is just giving the defence a warning and a little bit of pressure and accountability moving forward, they probably need it without the fans there to let them know!

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:25 pm

OriginalGrangeEndBlue wrote:
paulh_85 wrote:
Danny Says wrote:Morrison was as much at fault for Bournemouth’s goal. He didn’t get any backlash.

He’s the senior man in defence - he should be sorting out defending corners.



more at fault really. and it happens, morrison is a very good CB and captain, but all this talk (from one poster in particular) about nelson when the fault for the bournemouth goal lies with morrison ( and hoilett imo) is a bit silly.


Couldn’t agree more. Like a broken record.
I can’t see Harris dropping Morrison and I’m happy about that so I can see Benkovic coming in for Nelson on Wednesday if he’s fit.


Its only like a broken record because it happens time and time again your just blind to it . I said the same about Etgeridge and was proven correct when everyone disagreed. I've said Glatzel was poor at this level and its being proven correct. Nelson is the problem with this defence and I expect Harris has also noticed it which is why Benkovic has been brought in to fix the problem.

Re: ‘ Neil Harris blames the Cardiff City defence ‘

Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:36 pm

Charlie Harper wrote:
thomasblue wrote:Nelsons reading of the game and certain situations is very poor and causes problems for our defence.

He consistently loses his man and gets dragged out by clever strikers leaving morrison stranded . Its not his fault as he is used to much lower leagues but the championship is a different animal with some brilliant forwards

Hopefully Benkovic will bring some stability



You say the same old crap about Nelson every time. We know you dont rate him but he has been one of our most consistent players since hes been here.
Maybe Benkovic will get in the side sooner or later as I'm sure hes not come here to warm the bench.


I agree Nelson out and Bankovic in for me. Or a back 5 perhaps?

Smithes
Nelson Mozza Bankovic
Tuto Bagan
Ralls Bacona
Ojo Moore Wilson