Nineteen days ago, Mick McCarthy managed to unite Cardiff City and West Brom fans by getting them to sing you’re getting sacked in the morning at him. I was shocked to hear City fans doing that because there hadn’t really been any signs of fan dissatisfaction at home matches before that night.
However, there was something different about that game and I strongly believe that nearly all of those City fans who sang for our manager to be sacked had no intention of doing so until they heard that we were going to play with five centrebacks that night – this was a truly ridiculous selection and unfair in particular on Mark McGuiness who, as far as I know, had never played in the position in his professional career.
West Brom went top of the league on Friday night with their 1-0 win over Birmingham, so they’re clearly a good side and when we reverted to a back four (still featuring four centrebacks mind) for the match with Reading and played much better in unluckily losing 1-0, it was assumed that the five centrebacks garbage had, rightly, been consigned to the rubbish bin.
Not a bit of it though, it turns out that the truth is probably that we would have lined up with McCuiness, Morrison, Flint, Nelson and Brown across the back if the second named had not been ruled out by injury.
It’s one thing to line up so negatively against a team that may end the season as Champions, but another completely to do so when you’re playing a team in nineteenth position like we were tioday.
Let’s be clear as well, this was not five at the back with two of the centrehalves trying their best to play like wing backs, this was a rigid five at the back, with a bank of four in a line in front of them leaving a completely isolated Keiffer Moore to plough a lone furrow up front which was never better illustrated than when he made a well timed run to get into a one on one position down the left. It would have been a promising position if there had been some support offered to Moore, but there wasn’t and, hardly surprisingly, it all fizzled out with Moore left with no alternative but to try a shot with his weaker foot which caused home keeper Ben Hamer no problems at all.
Mention of Hamer reminds me that I’ve not mentioned our opponents by name yet, it was Swansea City, the team that are our biggest rivals for the large majority of City fans.
So, Mick McCarthy picked a team and system that reeked of fear for the game which means so much to Cardiff City fans, he handed the initiative completely to Swansea just like he did nearly three weeks ago against West Brom where we conceded a goal within four minutes and went on to lose 4-0. This time, we lost by one less, but, even to someone like me who does not view a match with Swansea in the same way that most do, this hurts much more because of who it was and also because of the craven cowardice behind our approach against a team that had scored twice in five home league matches before today!
What makes these selections all the more baffling is that there in the middle every time is the Morrison, Flint and Nelson triumvirate who are hailed as a strong combination by those who don’t watch us play every week, but shot full of holes and mistakes waiting to happen to anyone who does.
Actually, that’s a bit unfair on Flint, who, as he has been all season, was the best of the three today, but that needs to be put in context, he hasn’t been that good. However, with Morrison perhaps suffering from barely having a pre season and Nelson looking so much less secure than he has done in the past, Flint is the best of a bad bunch currently and yet that trio appear to be the first names on Mick McCarthy’s team sheet despite our lamentable defensive record this season..
After the match, our manager seized on the fact that we were able to get up the pitch a bit in the opening minutes as a crumb of comfort (actually, he said we started the game “great” – we didn’t), All that did really was prove that Ryan Giles, for all of his crossing ability, is no great shakes as a finisher as Moore, with some players in blue around him for once, received a pass from the otherwise anonymous Leandro Bacuna (I’m sure I’ve written that a few times already this season!) and played in Giles with a perfectly weighted ball which showed what he could offer us if we used him properly. The Wolves loanee was clean through with only Hamer to beat, but his shot when it came did no more than force the keeper into a pretty routine save.
City, with their nine outfield players behind the ball policy, kept Swansea at arm’s length for almost half an hour, but as soon as the home side upped their attacking intensity, we fell apart and conceded yet another shocking goal.
Before I get on to that, a word of appreciation for the goal scorer Jamie Paterson whose shot from twenty two yards hit both posts before crossing the line. Paterson also played two lovely passes for his assists with the other goals and was signed on a Bosman free transfer from Bristol City. Now, if you were unfamiliar with Paterson, I can imagine you wondering why we didn’t try to sign him, but once you saw him, you’d realise straight away that he’s about four inches (at least!) too short for us to be remotely interested in him under this manager, Board of Directors and owner and then when you saw him play you’d realise that he’s too much of a footballer to interest us.
I was going to say that we’re only interested in signing giants and athletes, but, thinking about it again, the lack of pace in the squad and the shortage of team stamina shown today means the reference to athletes can be scrubbed.
Anyway, back to the defending for the first goal, it started with a poor kick from Alex Smithies, who I’m afraid has become a lot more error prone in the last year, which landed about ten yards from the half way line. The keeper redeemed himself somewhat though with a good save from the resultant shot and the danger looked to have been averted, but we were so slovenly at getting defenders out of the penalty area. Incredibly, Marlon Pack stopped to have a few words with one of his team mates which didn’t help matters, but with Bacuna just a disinterested spectator it would appear, Pack was then left having to deal with two Swansea players in a central position just outside the box. As soon as Pack moved towards one of them, a simple pass put the other one, Paterson, into an area where there was no City player within five yards of him – as I mentioned, credit to the scorer, but we made it so much easier for him than it should have been.
Swansea then took charge after that as we appeared to stick to our 5-4-1 aberration for the rest of the half. The interval brought no change in personnel, but a, for a while at least, Bacuna and Giles did actually get to within ten yards of Moore and we forced one or two corners, with Giles dropping one of them on to the unmarked Nelson’s head, but, showing the lack of technique that has you wondering if it is a prerequisite for a Cardiff player, he nodded over from about five yards out.
Substitutions were delayed and delayed until after we went 2-0 down and, even then it appeared that James Collins came on only because Bacuna was injured. The other two changes were pointless, but said everything about the complete mess our manager has got himself into – Rubin Colwill for Ciaron Brown in the eighty first minute with the score 3-0 and Will Vaulks for Joe Ralls three minutes later.
I could describe the dodgy defending for the second and third goals, but what’s the point – it’s just going over ground that’s been covered already plenty of times before. Suffice it to say that we’ve looked like a relegation side in three of our last four matches and playing five centre backs in what looked like a 9-0-1 at times is not going to get us out of trouble.
At the moment, it looks like the manager has nothing else to offer and so he should go and the men who appointed him while overseeing our descent into unsuccessful, prehistoric football should be ashamed of themselves as well – the likes of Tan, Dalman and Choo are the real architects of the current situation whereby the dreadful football, that was just about tolerated when we were getting results, has now reached a situation where it offers absolutely nothing to persuade many City fans, myself included, that attending games is a worthwhile exercise.
The people charged with running the club have proved over a period of years that they aren’t up to the job and need help – help that they arrogantly dismiss by repeating their faith in a transfer committee system which is, self evidently, deeply flawed.
https://mauveandyellowarmy.net/