Silly mistakes and starting slowly For whatever reason, the

Silly mistakes and starting slowly

By Glen Williams


Monday 2nd November 2020



For whatever reason, the Bluebirds have just not started games this season.

It was a criticism of the squad last term, too, conceding early goals and leaving themselves too much to do from a losing position, which often resulted in drawing games week after week.

Too often are there sloppy passes, ceding possession and gifting the opposition chances to gain the advantage. Just this season, on the opening day, we saw Leandro Bacuna give away an awful pass in midfield, just four minutes into the match, and Izzy Brown slid in Josh Windass to net the opener.

Later that half, too, a second Owls goal came via some truly alarming defending from City, who allowed their opponents to head the ball unchallenged three times in the box to score.

Starting slowly also applies to after the restart, too. Michael Morrison was the beneficiary for Reading straight after the break in City's second home game, an unchallenged header borne of lackadaisical defending from Curtis Nelson and Greg Cunningham.

Reading's second? You guessed it, a sloppy mistake. Sheyi Ojo lost the ball in a dangerous area and Reading countered quickly and accurately to allow Lucas Joao ample time to turn his defender and fire home the second.

Middlesbrough's goal, again to put them into the lead at Cardiff City Stadium, came from a set piece, which was more evidence of simply being outfought and disorganised.

Derby County's opener was a double-whammy, a sloppy mistake and a set-piece goal. Joe Ralls gave the ball away to Tom Lawrence in midfield, he embarked on a driving run before the City midfielder hacked him down. Martyn Waghorn did the rest by sticking it in the top corner from the free-kick to put Cardiff behind again.

There are bound to be occasions when mistakes are made or defenders lose their man at the set piece throughout the course of the season, but it has happened so regularly early on and it is crippling City's prospects of winning football matches.

To put this into context, the Bluebirds have held the lead for just 125 of the 810 minutes they have played so far this season – and 87 of those came against Nottingham Forest.

I think there is a crisis of confidence at the moment with players lacking self-belief all over the pitch.

We desperately need a confidence boosting win at home to help kick start our season. A fit again Harry Wilson will hopefully make all the difference but tactically Harris will need to adopt a more positive approach from now on.