Uncle Slade and his big knockers, why City are like a hot young couple and Pullis needs to chuck in his missus and another fifteen million for Marshall

Forest 1 Cardiff 2

Another good performance, a couple more goals and we are suddenly 5^th.

It is early days and the stats are funnily enough not brilliant: we have won only two out of five games, but we drew the other three. Fortunately there have been a lot of draws from the teams around us in the championship which has played kindly for us.

There is a togetherness about this team. This is isn’t so much the man and wife married for 60 years, this is the rampaging sexual hunger of a pair of youngsters who have just met and cannot believe what fun it all is.

This isn't how Cardiff City are playing ...



...but this is!

 

Perhaps for the first time we are seeing Slade’s famous man management. It could also be that we are seeing why Trollope has been made assistant coach for the Wales team.

It doesn’t matter why. It is happening and like all good recipes no one should touch it. If we are still in the top 6, still chalking up the points and still scoring the goals come mid October then this must be the coaching staff that will see us through to the end of the season.

Tan and the board were right to have stuck with Slade despite the appalling soccer and dispiriting results at the Cardiff city stadium last season.

Who's the main man? Answer ...it doesn't damned matter. Leave 'em to it

Certainly the players are treating Slade like a big friendly uncle and when Fabio gets his after match cuddle he appears to think Slade is his dad. Long may Fabio get his after match cuddle! He is showing what happens when his amazing skill and athleticism are pointed in the right direction. It shouldn’t be forgotten that a few years ago he was in the Brazil squad and played in the Champion’s League, now he is giving his all against the likes of Nottingham Forest and Wolves in the Championship. We are lucky to have him.

Kudos also to Connolly, a talented guy, who has been bounced around every position on the field apart from assistant referee. He appears to be a natural leader, he was the guy who went over to Trollope to discuss some problem against Notts Forest, maybe the right sided defence? Like Fabio he comes with pedigree. A few years ago he was captain of the Arsenal reserve side, maybe he should be our regular captain.

Marshall showed yet again why Tony Pullis would need to offer 15 million plus his wife if he wants our keeper for West Brom. How many points is Marshall worth to us across a season? It could be the difference between being outside and inside the top six at the end of the season. He could even mean a top two placement.

Is he worth ..5 million? Twenty Million? How much is possible promotion worth 

 

Then there is that damned enigma Kenwynne. If he played to his best ability he would be strutting his stuff at a top side in Europe. This season we have seen a man with a point to prove. He is collecting goals because he is being brave, strong and determined. Some tv journalist described his goal against Wolves as a goalkeeping fault. Twat. Kenwynne had to battle two hulking championship defenders and then head the ball with pace at the goal from just inside the penalty area. To make life hell for him the keeper was hammering towards him with his gloved fist on a trajectory to bash the head of the amiable Kenwynne. No sir. No goal keeping error, nor fluke. That was a striker who wanted the goal above all else.

Really pleased to see Mason get a goal. I have been touting him for a while and in some ways he can disappoint. He appears light weight; championship defenders lug him too easily off the ball. Yet the kid bounces back up, time after time he is hunting the through ball, making himself available, causing a nuisance of himself in the area and turning and having a pop from any angle. Maybe Jones needs a terrier like Mason and Mason needs the clout Kenwynne offers.

And the Slade knockers? As I said in the previous blog, this is crazy. It is the same squad of players, give or take an Ameobi or two and the same coaching staff yet the performance attitudes and results are polar points apart from last season.

Explain that because I can’t.

An easier problem than working out the difference between City this season and last season. (BTW he has got his Derivations wrong near the M-squared). Still easier than why it works this season for City. 

 

 

Russell Russell Slade sells his soul to Dame Shirley Bassey to learn the secrets of Championship management

Cardiff 2 Wolves 0

A win. A clean sheet. Cardiff playing like a team and dominating the match ...again.

So what are to make of this?

It is the same bunch of players give or take an Ameobi, the same manager and the same team. Yes, I have checked, there is only one Russell Slade. It is the same crowd, though minus about 10,000 stop at homes.

Yet totally a different result.

Continue to play like that and you will be a Cardiff legend. Kenwyne reminds us of his amazing talents.

 

Fulham wasn’t a flash in the pan; these players do seem to have some idea, guts and hwyl. They play for 90 minutes just like they did for Malky, they keep on playing for each other as if they all get along like old muckers, and just to demonstrate the new team spirit picture this: when Fabio is dragged off because he can barely walk, he and Russell engage in a huge man-hug, like long lost father and son.

Even the hard to please city fans asked Russell to do the Ayatollah. This, for the uninitiated, is the equivalent to being invited to join the Masons. So before Russell rolls up his trouser leg let us analyse what has happened.

Ameobi scores a great goal, but more importantly makes an impact.

 

Hmmm. Same players. Same coach. Same team. Same 4-4-2 tactics yet different results.

Instead of despondently hoofing the ball up field and picking the ball out of the back of our net we are looking, dare I say it, lethal? Well ok, maybe not Barcelona lethal but we can at last threaten to score. Oh and keep a clean sheet. When was the last time Cardiff City looked like that?

Now I could be cynical, and being a Cardiff City Fan I am uniquely qualified to exhibit cynicism. I could point out that Russell could have played anyone but the ineffectual Revel from game one but I won’t be Mister Nitpicky from Abernitpicky. We have drawn three and won one. Not exactly promotion form for sure, but it is the attitude and direction of the team that is getting us excited.

Not only are we not in the middle of the table but we are a few more wins from being top of the table.

Just like the game against Fulham the crowd stayed to the end with a smile on our faces. Remember the dark old days when the stadium would start to empty at half time? When the Clark pie shop might as well have closed its grills before half time? When the full time whistle emptied around an empty graveyard of a ground. Even the police and officials had departed.

The man who has done a deal with ...

 

Clearly the only difference is that Russell Slade has learnt what to coach his players or else has sold his soul to the devil. Hmm which one? Perhaps it has taken him this long to learn about the championship. Maybe he discovered the book ‘Championship for dummies,’ in a used book shop in Barry Island.

Something has changed.

Ok, ok, there is this Paul Trollope guy who certainly is good enough to be appointed as coach to the Wales national squad. Whoa. Before anyone hoists Trollope onto their shoulders, claiming him to be the messiah, please bare this in mind …

A long time ago, when this country had its own indigenous car industry, when Trade Union barons ruled the country, when tele was in black and white, Man city were very successful. They were managed by the avuncular Joe Mercer and coached by the young tyrant Malcom Allison - that is when Allison had his trousers pulled up and wasn’t shagging everyone’s wife. So the fable became known throughout the land that Mercer was just the front guy, the stooge, holding back the mercurial talents of Allison. So one day Joe moved on and Malcom Allison became manager. And yes you’ve guessed it. Manchester City collapsed to the ground faster than an Italian striker when slightly touched on the back. Allison wasted a fortune on youngsters and Man City became a shadow of their former selves.

'Everybody thought I'd be down the road by now but we're in good shape,' declares Russ. A little early for gloating maybe, but if you are still here at Christmas then feel free to gloat. City fans will cheer you on as you do.

 

So the point of the story? Do not pick and choose between them. Russell and Trollop and Young and everyone else are part of a coaching team that is, right now, successful, so don’t spoil it. Let us see where we are by mid-September.

Robert Johnson after he sold his soul

 

Was she the soul dealer?

 

Tiger Bay as Satan moves through looking for his Clarke's pie

 

 

And my conclusion? Yes, Russell Slade sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in the old Tiger Bay, not to the screaming strains of twelve bar Robert Johnson but to a ballad belted out by Dame Shirley Bassey.

 

 

 

Slade goes from ugly 5th former to striking sixth former in the space of two matches

QPR 2 Cardiff 2

For a long time Cardiff City was the guy who gets the girl back to her place, knows all the moves, lots of ball control but doesn’t score.

A man who can score

 

QPR looking as clueless as, well, as clueless as last season’s Cardiff City, score from an unlikely corner and then an illegal goal from a hand ball. A hand ball which only the myopic ref and his blind assistant missed.

But then the officials missed the handball from keeper Robert Green which was well outside the area. Would have been neat free kick and a sending off.

Cardiff were the better team, 62% possession, and at one point in the second half it had been 75%. Good team work too, with swift passing – yes a Russell Slade side playing with slick, quick passing. Rub your eyes and look again.

Lots of smiling Russell's 'cos I have given him a hard time in the past.

 

We just can’t score. Revell and Mason work hard enough, both show promise but we need them to deliver. We need goals from the forwards.

So Slade is suddenly looking better. He is the girl who was butt ugly in the 5^th form but arrives in the sixth with a new haircut and a decent set of tits. From zero to a bit of all right in no time. Maybe he cannot be dismissed so lightly. You couldn’t fault city for effort, determination or getting the ball forward.

You could fault them for not capitalizing on the possession advantage.

 

There again who knows. If Fulham and QPR are in the mix at the end of the season then this will have been a prized pair of points. I fear though that QPR will have to step up four or five gears to be mid table based on what I have seen. Fulham were like a sealed envelope, impossible to know anything about their contents just yet.

Whitts does it for me but then I might be alone in that.

Smiling Russell could last a little longer than many of us thought

 

Connelly troubles me. I admire the guy. I have seen him have some cracking matches in the past but too often in these first two games he has given away the ball more cheaply than bottle of a Cote de Rhone at Lidl.

Not hundred percent sure of Peltier either. If anything he is the solid unsung hero yet he made mistakes here. Not least giving away an unnecessary unforced corner and thus their first goal.

If Malone scores a couple more like that, in circumstances like these, then he will be forgiven buckets of errors. He came close with a similar effort against Fulham, about the same point in the match too. So it isn’t a fluke.

Surely Fabio will get a call back sooner rather than later? And I have always rated Declan John.

But again a cracker of game from the tough, skilful and ball hungry Pilkington. Maybe he tired towards the end but he ticked all the boxes throughout the match.

Noone had a brief chance to remind us that he could be better on the pitch than on the bench.

Ralls gets better, Moore redeemed his error against Fulham with good saves and more bite in the box.

Morrison and Dikgacoi are clearly going to be important to us. Yet at the same time we have cover for the both of them so they can be rested or absorb some yellow cards and injuries.

 

Impossible to say well done Russell until we see more games and know more about the quality of the teams we have played. But it would be churlish not to point out that this is a side unrecognisable from the despairing teams of last season. Not just in skill but in attitude. They want to play and they want to win. Surely that is going to count for something over the coming months.

 

Stop press. City fans stay till the end and left with a smile on their faces

City 1 Fulham 1

The man who might be Cardiff manager at the end of the season?

Firstly the good news: we weren’t bad. So time to break open a cheap half bottle of plonk from Lidl and sigh with relief.

The second bit of good news is that Cardiff fans left with a smile on the face – they also stayed until the final whistle. I cannot think of a match last season where this happened – oh yeh, when we beat Fulham on our first day back in Blue.

This was because we were the right end of a draw, ie they scored first.

This was a Slade team with a different attitude. Far more ‘up for it’. Players wanted the ball and had an inkling of what to do with it when they got it. The inverse of the previous season.

Amazingly when Fulham scored the  City players strode back to the centre circle with chins up and a glare that said, ‘right, now you’ve asked for it.’ Again the inverse of the previous season when a  goal seemed to flatten our spirits even if we were 2 goals up.

This spirit, if maintained through the season , will mean more points.

More good news, Dikgacoi is every bit as good as folk have said. Unflappable, tough and a ball player. Gunnarsson  may have to bring his Icelandic magazine ‘Cool Babes in the Snow’ so he has something to look at on the bench whilst City are playing. But please stay with us Aron, it’s a long rigorous season of injuries, suspensions and form. You will be needed!

Sammy Ameobi promises a great deal: he is big, clearly talented to a degree you would describe as classy, pacey and, at least for a while, looked like he wanted to get involved. Need to see more.

Slade has never impressed me as a manager but I have often pointed out that his 4-4-2 worked well when he had a fit Pilkington opposite Noone. That view remains. I think of Ralls as a midfield ballplayer more than an out and out winger.

Pilkington played like a man who has been out of action with injuries for an eternity and needed to remind us how good he actually is. And he did. He is unplayable on his day, and today was certainly his day. He gave the Fulham fullbacks a torrid time. Pilkington  may be the best asset Solskjaer brought to the club.

A biased ref reckons Pilkington didn't score because he used his hand. Ref must be English.

 Noone scored the sort of goal that would be shown endlessly on tv if scored by a Manchester city or Chelsea player. He dribbled inside, with Fulham players finding it difficult to keep their feet and scored with a bending shot from 25 yards. By next week I will be describing it as having been scored from 35 yards. It was that sort of goal. One about which granddads will bore their grandkids .

Nooney, Nooney, Nooney.

 

It was a life saver, or as they refer to it at Cardiff City Stadium, a Slade saver.

Fulham and City were on a par, a draw would have been fair.

What did Cardiff city miss?

1.       Marshall’s bullying. In a match he is constantly yelling and tugging his defence around. Simon Moore is a little too quiet for my liking. Maybe Morrison or someone else has to pick up on that. As for Moore’s cock up, hmmm. Every keeper makes one or two but maybe 5 million for Marshall feels a little too cheap right now.

2.       Ali Yasmine. I can see that managers might drop a player because of ill considered reasons but to drop Ali was a catastrophic mistake. Whatever he has done wrong, writing poetry about Vincent Tan on the loo walls, shagging the wife of a director or asking for an increase in his salary to take him up to minimum wage, please Cardiff City board allow him to apologise and tell him to get his arse back up in that damned box. Pronto. Like right now. Let him ‘m a k e  S  O  M  E     N   O   I   S  E.’ As for the mortuary attendant who replaced Ali please let us say just say thank you and good night.

3.       The elusive final goal scoring touch. I am a big fan of Mason and he looks hungry to score but what does Ravell offer us right now? He doesn’t look big enough to be a target man and the Championship is not famous for hiring weedy dwarves as centre backs. On the plus side other players took a genuine pop at goal and on a kinder day may have seen us win by 3 or 4.

So this is a step up from the previous season. Obviously no one knows how good/bad/mediocre Fulham are but on the basis of what we saw we will not be relegated and, whisper it quietly, Russell Slade might be the manager of a top six championship side.