City 3 Leeds 1, Arrogance Required

Ok firstly there were three Morrisons on the football pitch today. But you won’t be as confused as Leed’s Morrison was when he thumped a header over the bar in the first half when he ought to have scored. 

The classy Manga thanking a higher deity, the rest of us will thank him.

City had controlled the first half reasonably well but rarely had an impact on the Leeds goal. Steve Morrison’s miss came out of the blue but reminded us of the dangers of being the best team but not getting a goal.

Cardiff’s Sean Morrison, let’s call him Morrison number two, then headed across the Leeds area for Bruno Manga to cap a wonderful game by heading wide of the struggling Leeds keeper.

The goal was wonderful for three reasons, one it was sublimely taken; two it marked a reward for the classy work that man gets through in every game he plays and three it meant we all breathed a sigh of relief.

To dominate a game yet fail to grab a goal often leads to the most miserable of defeats and we were beginning to wonder if it was going to be one of those days.

Macheda scored the second but the jury is undecided on this guy. He is pumped full of Italian class, exhibited in sublime passes along with extraordinary control when dancing through the opposition. 

But he looks like he lacks confidence. He had other opportunities to score, but seemed hesitant. It is as if someone needs to get hold of him and slap him around shouting into his face: “yes you are as good as people say. Start believing it!” Maybe the fall from Manchester Utd wonderkind to unemployed footballer is as big a strike to the ego as being made unemployed in any other walk of life. 

Kiko needs an injection of arrogance. So many footballers have the arrogance without the skills to back it up, Macheda has the reverse, the skills without the belief. Kiko could play for Italy, he just needs to do more. Kiko could be the championship top goal scorer. Kiko could make himself wanted by Premiership Teams. Kiko read this and believe. City fans are on your side. 3 goals in 4 matches. Let’s see that tally mount up.

There is something of a lack of arrogance about Morrison number three too: Ravel Morrison. Considering his press resume you’d think he would be full of himself but actually he also looks as though he needs a run in the side to boost his confidence. No shortage of skill. A sublime dummy which let the ball run for a further twenty yards to Fabio exhibits breath taking understanding of the game. But full credit to the guy. He came on to hold the ball and did exactly that. I think he lost it once and then raced around until we got it back. We like what we see with Morrison three. We have always admired Morrison three, (Sean Morrison, please keep up).

On came Kenwynne Jones for the last quarter of an hour and the Leeds defence went crazy. They were like a bunch of Piranhas in a feeding frenzy. 

Discovering that they could foul him in the most obvious ways without the linesman or ref seeming to care they grabbed him, hugged him, held him, kicked him and finally actually took hold of his dreadlocks (the ref managed to see that one!). His reward for being kicked from pillar to post came with him cementing the victory with Cardiff’s third goal. Wonderful Kenwynne.

This was a brilliant team performance. From Marshall to the very last player. Everyone put in a shift, everyone can hold their head up high when they pick up their pay check on Friday. It wasn’t just what we did with the ball.  We worked hard when not in possession to shut Leeds down from their defence, through their midfield to their attack. No white shirted player could dwell for long without feeling a city player close him down.

Make no mistake Cardiff have now combined the considerable footballing skills we knew they possessed to the degree of hard work necessary to win. If this continues over the next month then we will be in the playoff area or even in the automatic promotion places.

Unlike the Morrisons, Slade’s name is a one off. There was no one else called Slade today and there are no other Slades I am aware of in the championship. Russell Slade: you are a one off. You are more than welcome to soak up the praise of the city fans on the final whistle, we give it with enthusiasm. We want to thank you. We love what we see.

There really is only on Russell Slade. Tan seems to have got this one right!

Driving home after the match – or rather being stuck in the Cardiff City car park for twenty minutes!- I heard Nathan Blake speak nonsense. He claimed we wanted to see our team playing good football. Don’t listen to him Russell. Get the points in the bloody bag. The classy players we have will give us the entertainment Blakey wants as they grow in confidence, erm, grow in arrogance.