" STEVE MORISON: PRAISES DENHAM BUT CRITICISES HARRIS "

Cardiff City boss Steve Morison picks out 'excellent' teenage duo and delivers verdict on contentious Liverpool red card call


The City boss spoke in glowing terms about two of his young players' performances after the game against Liverpool


Sunday 6th February 2022

By Tom Coleman

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Cardiff City boss Steve Morison says he's keen to focus on the positives from his side's FA Cup fourth round defeat by Liverpool at Anfield, but insists his side should have had a first-half penalty.

Liverpool were worthy winners courtesy of goals from Diogo Jota, Tanuki Minamino and Harvey Elliott, although Rubin Colwill did come off the bench to secure a late consolation.

But despite Cardiff clearly being second best, there was still a bit of room for pondering what might have been.

Indeed, referee Andrew Madley made two contentious calls that both went against the Bluebirds.

Mark Harris was surely unlucky not to win a spot kick for his team in the first half after seemingly receiving a nudge from Ibrahima Konate, with the Wales international then scythed down by goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.

Kelleher was perhaps lucky to avoid a red card for the foul, which was examined by VAR before Madeley opted for a yellow card.

But Morison said he was more focused on the efforts of Harris to try and round the keeper, rather than the foul itself, adding that he thought the right call was made.



STEVE MORISON:


“I don’t think it was a sending-off," he said. "There were too many players around. Konate was there. From my point of view, I was more frustrated Mark Harris didn’t take the ball round the goalie and go and run it into the goal. I thought that option was on.

"It could have changed the complexion (of the match)."

However, Morison, while remaining diplomatic, suggested his side should have had a penalty before the break.

“I think the penalty incident in the first half, if that’s outside the box it’s a free-kick so I don’t know why that should change in the box. It is what it is," he added.

"We’ve come through it unscathed, we’ve had another three debuts, we’ve had two excellent performances from debutants and we’re in a much better place now than when we started the game."

A couple of those positives, according to the City boss, were the full debuts of 19-year-old pair Oliver Denham and Eli King, who were both handed their first starts in senior football at Anfield.

It proved a tricky assignment for the pair, but Morison was pleased with what he saw, instead ruing the nature of Liverpool's three goals, which he believes were all preventable.

“I thought Oliver Denham was excellent," he continued. "It was his first ever start and I thought he was fantastic. You don’t get bigger challenges than playing Liverpool at Anfield. I thought Eli King was excellent.

"I thought our intensity, our work, our shape in the first half and when we did take a touch and find a pass we were good. Loads of positives – attitude, application, the whole shebang really.

"The big frustration was the three goals. You don’t mind if Trent Alexander-Arnold puts the ball in the top corner from a free-kick or you get ripped apart but that didn’t really happen.

"We gave them goals. We can’t allow someone to have a free header in the middle of the goal.”

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For me Mark Harris and James Collins need to move on this Summer.

Def both not good enough

James Collins offered absolutely nothing up front today.
Not a threat at all.

Keep Harris he has potential, Collins can go for me,don't see anything in him whatsoever.

James Collins offered absolutely nothing up front today.
Not a threat at all.

I was talking to a Liverpool fan after the game and he said your worst player on the pitch was Collins, he offers you nothing upfront at all.

Keep Harris he has potential, Collins can go for me,don't see anything in him whatsoever.

I have to disagree, 4 different Cardiff managers he has failed with.

Aged 23

41 appearances for Cardiff in 5 yrs , 5 goals as a striker.

He is still here because he is very very cheap wages.

Failed at Wrexham on loan and Newport County was ok.

Laughable to criticise our strikers today when we simply didn’t have the ball for more than 5 seconds at a time. They need service and got none.

For me Mark Harris and James Collins need to move on this Summer.

Def both not good enough

The reality for me is today Collins offered nothing but his usual hard work and right now of ALL strikers at the club he is probably at the bottom of the pecking order. Mark Harris offered more today but in reality Isaac Davies offers more in what is his breakthrough season.

As Mark Harris and James Collins will have a year left in the summer we should look to get something for them and let them move on. Isaac Davies also has a year left and we should be trying to extend his deal he is looking a player on the up.

Collins is more of a liability than a threat. Can't keep the ball and gives away a lot of fouls - I don't think we will see much of him with Hugill, Ikpeazu and Colwill available.

For me Mark Harris and James Collins need to move on this Summer.

Def both not good enough

Collins definitely but not Harris. He’s a young lad whom will get better.

For me Mark Harris and James Collins need to move on this Summer.

Def both not good enough

Collins definitely but not Harris. He’s a young lad whom will get better.

He's 23, I wouldn't call that young.

He's had chances to prove himself in the first team recently and had loan spells over the years. But he hasn't realised his potential.

He'll be 24 in December and you would normally expect players to have made significant progress by that age. It's true that some are late developers but, as I've said, Harris isn't a player who has been given zero opportunities to play first team football.

He's a striker and strikers' peak is normally when they're 25-30. Harris is less than two years away from the start of that period. If he's close to his peak now, he's not good enough.


I hope I'm wrong so that he stays and does very well for us, but I think the right decision would be to let him go when his contract expires.

I see Davies as having much more potential.

When Harris and Collins went off we looked much more of a threat, unfortunately it was to late then

My only recollection of Collins doing anything was when he forearmed Van Dyke in the face. In his defence, he had virtually no service.

Harris was arguably our best player out there today, collins did well he might not have had the ball much but he was getting into tackles and winning the ball back. So i think he played his best game potentially today. Overall every player did us proud today and against the odds too. That would of been an eye opener for our players and hopefully this would make them a better player going forwards. I cant be prouder of them today. BLUEBIRDS !!!

Harris was arguably our best player out there today, collins did well he might not have had the ball much but he was getting into tackles and winning the ball back. So i think he played his best game potentially today. Overall every player did us proud today and against the odds too. That would of been an eye opener for our players and hopefully this would make them a better player going forwards. I cant be prouder of them today. BLUEBIRDS !!!

Thought Harris did well considering the service he got. Derham did well too but I can’t agree that Eli King was excellent as I personally can’t recall him touching the ball or his name being mentioned.

Quite happy to keep Harris as a squad playe, never going to be a great striker but he is versatile and might just be a late developer.

For me Mark Harris and James Collins need to move on this Summer.

Def both not good enough

Up until today I thought Harris was going to have to be moved on as he wasn’t good enough, so would have agreed with you.

However, today I thought Harris was a real threat and played well as did many others watching. I’m still not totally convinced that he’s good enough but there was something there today that showed promise.

Collins, however, is now just a back up to Hugill and Uche so completely with you on that.

For me Mark Harris and James Collins need to move on this Summer.

Def both not good enough

Agree colins too old and Harris league one player at best

Harris was good today and Davies apart, does more to stretch opposition defences than anyone else we have.

I’d love to see what him and Davies could do together - two strikers that have movement and would pull defences all over the place.

We don’t need a ‘target man’ striker in the style that Morison is building and we have plenty of big players at the back for set pieces.

For me Mark Harris and James Collins need to move on this Summer.

Def both not good enough

Agree colins too old and Harris league one player at best

Wez,

It’s the truth, they need moving out this summer, if they are our strikers in the Championship next season, we will end up bottom of the Championship.

They are both lower leagues players.

Steve Morrison says "There were too many players around. Konate was there. From my point of view, I was more frustrated Mark Harris didn’t take the ball round the goalie and go and run it into the goal. I thought that option was on."

Isn't that what he tried to do?

I am not a big fan of his but give credit where its due I thought Harris did very well considering the class of defenders he was up against.