Middlesbrough, the condemned house and, surely, Ole's final match.

I don’t know if this is City’s funeral or just Ole’s. But the game is up. Vincent must find another manager for this poisoned chalice of a position.

 

Let’s start off with the positives. Cardiff City can walk out on to the pitch like professionals. They wear their matching lucky red shirts like a real team. No one was late. They then stand in their own half superbly until the ref blows his whistle.

After that they were clueless. 

City are blessed with abundantly talented players with little idea of how to use them.

After Solskjaer’s first match in the Premier league we all agreed the city were shapeless and lacking ideas. After this, surely Ole’s last match, it is exactly the same.

Put simply city cannot mount an attack.

How dire were Cardiff in attack? Put it this way: their keeper didn’t have to make a single save. Not even from a tricky back pass. Nor from a corner or set piece. Their keeper stood in goals for 90 minutes and might as well have been watching the Arsenal match on his Ipad.

Sometimes we can hoof the ball up to Kenwynne who does what is needed to win the ball, but thereafter it peters out. At other times Pilkington or Brayford will work their magic but no one seems to know what to do when we are about to cross the ball.

Middlesbrough are nothing special. Well organised with a high work ethic. Strong commitment and they work for each other. All that City are not.

When Middlesbrough go in for a challenge they come out with the ball. 

Middlesbrough attack with pace and purpose.

Middlesbrough pass to players with the same colour shirt as themselves. 

Is it so difficult? Is it like playing Rachmaninoff piano concerto or a Jimi Hendrix riff?

When Middlesbrough had the ball they knew what they were doing, where other players were. That is because they train together.  I am not sure if City trains in the same country let alone the same ground.

I like what Whits does. I like what Daehli, Pilkington and Kenwynne do up front but they are individuals. I do not see a team. I do not see organization.

The latest defensive line up looked as if they haven’t played together, just like all the previous defensive line-ups. That’s because they haven’t. If it wasn’t for Brayford constantly turning up on the right I would not recognise the team.

The defence grew better as the game went on, but that maybe because Middlesbrough had their goal and committed less people to attack.

Middlesbrough had chances to score more than just that single winner. Marshall pulled off a couple of excellent saves. Yes, it could have been worse.

City were so ramshackle that if they were a house you wouldn’t bother condemning it, you would just wait for it to collapse.

This is not down to the players. This is down to the management. Ole has rarely put out a team that has looked organised since he has been here. 

There were many of us who cheered when we appointed Ole, sadly there will be few tears when he moves on. It is not working for him. 

Whatever he is doing is as effective as a Red Indian rain dance. Maybe he will go on to bigger and better things, I hope so. He seems like a nice guy. I wish him well. If he ends up leading Man Utd to the Champions League final no one will cheer louder for him than I.

I don’t know who we will get next, but he cannot be worse.

How I would like to remember him. Good luck in your next job.