Watford, lobotomized chickens and chasing a relegation place

Ok, here is my moan to kick start the rest of the moans. I travel from a village in North Wales to watch Cardiff city. It takes me over 4 hours to get here and over 4 hours to get back. I have to ensure my company’s workload doesn’t go across the weekend so I end up working long hours in the week.

I do this in order to watch my team run around the pitch like lobotomized chickens. Ah no, I do not want to be unfair to lobotomized chickens, some of whom may have a clue as to where they are going.

midfield tussle

It is nothing to do with the quality of the players. 

The keeper Marshall is one of the best in the championship and by rights should be playing in a higher division. Without him we would be floundering in the relegation zone. Today Watford ought to have scored at least 6.

The back four or Declan John, Brayford, Manga and Morrison would not disgrace a lower premiership side. If any are injured we have quality like Connolly, Fabio and Turner ready to step in.

Across midfield we have Gunnarson, Adeyemi and Whittingham,  all of whom would be snapped up by any other championship side.

Upfront we have LeFondre who has scored goals for fun before coming here and Kenwynne Jones, described by John Terry as one of the best strikers in the world – ok maybe Terry was being generous. We did have a whole carpark full of strikers after Ole Solskjaer’s pre season purchases.

As subs we have the quality of Ralls and Harris who haven’t had the shit kicked out of them by the coaching staff. They always impress.

So we have the players. We have the stadium. We have the support. Over twenty thousand at every home match. Everything is in place.

Except for … the managers.

Why do Cardiff bring in inexperienced managers?

OK I know I have being saying this for an age now, but Malky, Ole and Russell just have not achieved anything at this level. Oh I am sure they would all have learnt. Ole would have cottoned to the fact that you cannot change your defence every day the way you change your boxers. Malky would have noted that upsetting your boss isn’t going to work out in your favour. Russell will, I am sure, get there. But we don’t have the time to train him. 

defence

In all his games going back to November the following has been true: the opposition manager has changed tactics and confounded Russell. Russell looks a s bewildered the lobotomized chickens. Indeed after every match he expresses the same shock, surprise and wonderment at how we lost. Isnt he the one who ought to know why we are losing the mid field battles?

Watford was no exception. For about twenty minutes in the first half we were playing well, not exactly bossing the match, but playing ball to feet football and getting up the field with some purpose. Our attacks are still way too slow and why is Declan John so isolated when he powers up field with the ball? Where was his support? But we scored and appeared reasonably confident.

Then they equalised. Now from where I was sat, there were two offside players for Watford in their build up to the goal both of whom the linesman missed. But once they scored City just imploded. It was back to hoofing it up field with hope in the heart and nothing in the head.

Watford bossed the game. They dominated midfield as every team seems to have done since Russell took over.

Cardiff haven’t an answer in terms of tactics nor do they possess bite. There are no leaders either on or off the pitch.

There may still be time to hunt for a play off spot, maybe. Just maybe. We can forget automatic promotion as we are 17 points behind Bournemouth, a team who were almost relegated from the football league back in 2009.

The manager

We are only 11 points from a relegation place and as we haven’t won a game at home for six weeks then you would be better putting your money on relegation over a play off spot.

I have been saying we are a middle of the table team but now I know the truth, we are a poor team in the championship. Everyone will fancy their chances against us.

The answer lives down the road. Tony Pulis. He is available. Dunno if he fancies this poisoned chalice. What I fear is that Vincent Tan will still be saying Russell Slade is an honourable man in May when we are relegated to the division Slade knows so well.

10 man Charlton equalise, we are an ordinary team in an ordinary league. Another blog of misery seeking to understand Vincent Tan.

Middle of the season and middle of the championship. Says it all.  A middle of the table side.

Adeyemi scores, Charlton go down to ten men and then it all goes backwards

All the promise pre season has evaporated. We need something special to be contenders and pretyy soon we will need a miracle.

How could we be under so much pressure in the second half against ten man Charlton who are in the same space as us in the table?

Again but for Marshall, some good fortune, a ref who favoured us and charitable finishing from the home team it would have been worse. Much worse. We should have been buried.

What’s deflating is that this team had so much promise when the season kicked off. Favourites for automatic promotion. I still feel we have the players to be battling for automatic promotion and I won’t bore you again with the problem of having three inexperienced managers in a row … oh ok I will. Malky, Ole and now Russell are new boys on the block learning their trade. It is hurting.

Bring back Big Dave Jones? Knock on Tony Pulis’s door?

Can someone explain to me why Vincent Tan has to say those things? It is as if he is looking to rile even those of us who have tried to support him. He seems to be desperate to kick up a fight he cannot win. The only way forward is for city to unite. That means players, manager, owner and fans all pointing in the same direction. Vincent Tan’s wording achieves the opposite.

Christmas messages are supposed to be of good cheer with a few glad tidings chucked in and maybe even a present, like a blue shirt. His interview was ill conceived, miserable and bickering. If he is not going to change the shirt colour than tough on us but why gloat about it? What’s this business about us agreeing to the short colour change? We didn’t. The board may have done so. Maybe it was wise for them to have agreed when facing the danger of the oblivion that crushed Portsmouth and Wrexham. But the fans were not given a choice. Ok, had we been allowed a vote then most would have agreed, I don’t know.

Why keep threatening to sell the club? If you do not want to be a part of Cardiff City FC then push off. Owning football clubs is a tough game and it is going to hurt at times, ask any football club owner. Personally I think Tan is up to the job. His business background will have toughened him up. But that means he should announce he is staying. Staying come what may. He will tough it out and expect the same of the players and manager. The fans have to tough it out, we don’t get a choice. Cardiff is our club and always will be, a bit like a life sentence.

There is a match coming up against Watford which could give us our first and maybe only double of the season but it is going to be an awful atmosphere. I am dreading it if we fall behind early on.  It will soon get to the point where even a 4 goal win won’t cheer us up.

Half way through the season with plenty of matches to go should have us feeling optimistic. We could even still make automatic promotion. 

We ought to give Russell Slade a chance, especially with the January transfer window coming up, but what is scaring us is that he may not grow into the job. What then? If by Easter we are still middle of the table then it will be too late even for Pulis or some other maestro to kick start the season.

These are nervous times and the owner isn’t helping. Let us hope it is the dark before the sunrise.

Brentford win. No more Trainee Managers, this is hurting.

Kadeem is one of the few bright spots for Cardiff

Hands up those who think Slade hasn’t got a clue.

Ok

Hands up those who KNOW Slade hasn’t got a clue.

I see.

Hands up those who think that unless we get a proper manager City will be finished for this season.

So we are all in agreement.

We have had three inexperienced managers. Malky did the best but failed to manage upwards and then bought a lemon for a striker for the Premiership. Solskjaer dreamed of changing the players and the way we played every few minutes, it was a disaster. Slade was found out after just a few matches.

We need a proven talent at the helm.  No I don't know where we find one either, but maybe not in the lower leagues or Norway?

Is it time we stopped employing trainee mangers and found someone who can actually do the job?

We have won 5 of the last 10 matches. Middle of the table stuff. Wasn’t this the best squad in the league? The one that was going to stick us on the top of the table by scoring tons of goals.?

At half time Brentford were 3-0 up and it should have been 5 but for two saves from Marshall, and let us be honest, Brentford playing silly buggers when it was easier to score.

The change to the diamond formation made us look more potent and Jones for Macheda made a difference.

There is potential there for sure, but where can we find someone to harness it?

I am not sure where go from here but surely it won’t be with Russell Slade.

Forget the shirt colour, the real problem may well be in the dugout.

Cardiff City, Bournemouth, the Ebola Plague and the Shirt Colour

I couldn’t bring myself to blog after the Bournemouth result. It was like the world imploding.

Don’t get me wrong. Bournemouth are what City should be. Top of the championship, scoring goals for fun and dominating matches. It was always going to be tough for the plodders of Cardiff to get a result there. It’s just that I sort of hoped, well dreamed, we could get something. The play off places were very close, but now they feel like they are drifting away.

It’s getting onto Christmas and we remain a dull middle of the table side. Grounding out results was something we grew used to under Malky but it doesn’t feel right now. Maybe simply because it is not bringing us the same success.

I have defended Slade so far, indeed I was pleased to see the City defence settle down after being so dreadful under Ole. Up until Bournemouth we were pretty frugal in conceding goals. In the centre Manga and Morrison are the real thing and we have confidence in Connolly coming in and not letting us down. Ben Turner does what it says on the tin. Either side of them Brayford and Fabio bring a great deal to the table. Fabio is wayward and somehow we have to learn to adapt to tha becuase he causes defences problems. Though why he leaves space behind him whereas the roaming Brayford doesn’t is beyond me.

I was initially happy to see Slade’s teams grind out the wins. They weren’t pretty but 3 points a home game shunted us up the table.

Now I am troubled. If a shape isn’t working then it has to be changed. Rotherham knew all about Slade’s 4-4-2 and coped with the mindless long ball the way an elephant copes with a currant bun being thrown near its gob. So Slade had to change things. He didn’t until there were only 5 minutes left. Maybe he cannot change things.

He blames the players. Well ok. Alex Ferguson never took responsibility for any of his team’s set backs so maybe it is the sign of a great ego. All successful managers need huge egos – else they will read blogs like this and weep.

His 4-4-2 requires 2 good classic wingers so he is unlucky to lose Pilkington, one of Solskjaer’s star buys. But Kimbo just ain’t a winger! No he isn’t. He is a true midfield player, plenty of skill, loads of class but wasted on the wing. Kimbo is an obvious like for like replacement for Whitts if he ever tires (does Whittingham ever tire?) or if he gets injured. Kimbo would come on and play either in front of the back four or driving the play on. But Kimbo is not winger, nor a goalkeeper nor an out and out centre forward. And please, no more talk of selling him. At some stage in the season we will need him.

To make the mistake of playing him on the wing once is forgiveable – well by me if not the rest of City supporters anyway - but to do it twice is ludicrous!

Kadeem Harris looked brilliant in the short time he was given preseason by Solskjaer. It looks as though he has got what it takes in his feet, his head and his heart. So he surely should have replaced Pilkington in the Rotherham match and not Kimbo.

Maybe then we could see what Kenwynne Jones is made of as centre forward. Noone is like a heart resuscitation unit for Cardiff right now. No matter how ground down we are, he can pick up the ball and lift the spirits with possibilities. So with Noone on one wing and Harris on the other maybe the strikers could have done what strikers do under a 4-4-2: score goals. Keep the opposition in their own half.

I take nothing away from the drive of the Cardiff players in the second half. This may have been the result of a great half time speech from Russell Slade who was apparently famous for them at Orient. 

It is the tactics that trouble me.

The misery is spreading around the supporters like the Ebola plague and without the World Health Organisation to rescue us the plague is being matched with despair.

The colour of the shirt debate has always been a hook for people to hang their resentment on. Yes, some people feel strongly about it but had Malky bought a striker who scored goals for 10 million at the start of the premiership season we would still be in the top flight and the shirt colour would be a side issue. The Cornelius purchase was a tragedy for us all.

But as the gloom continues the shirt colour is becoming ludicrously all important. Even I was angry about the white shirts against Bournemouth. I honestly buy the reason, (that blue was seen as too close to the black of Bournemouth), but it has got to the point where little things like that are blowing us all up.

You even get the paranoia taking over whereby normally level headed supporters think the evil Vincent Tan, on his evil island, stroking his evil white cat is behind us wearing white. That he instigated the white shirts simply to upset fans. How has it reached this?

BUT …

There is only one way forward now. And that is for Vincent Tan to reach out with his hand to the fans. We are grateful for him saving the club, his investment in players and ensuring the new stadium can proudly host our matches. We ask him to give us back the shirt colour and let us all get back together again and support the club. In return the fans must reach out a hand to Vincent Tan. Welcome him back. He has put his money where his mouth is and can now take the only decision possible to unite the club.

personally I could live with blue shirt and red everything else, though I only speak for one of the tens of thousands of City fans.

Maybe by January we will be in the playoff spots and within range of the top two slots. Maybe Russell will have sorted his style of play. Maybe we will emerge as a force you would expect given the quality of the squad. But it will only be of value if the team is in blue.