Cardiff hopes and fears

[AdiSalisbury]

Two killers tonight - firstly the defence looked like it had never played together before tonight, largely because the defence hadn't played together before tonight. And secondly Cardiff played a very high press, and we didn't. And it wasn't just "a press", it was like a horde of Viking invaders had heard the command "CHARGE!" as soon as we got the ball in defence. Our response when they got the ball in defence was to sit off them and give them the freedom of the pitch. This is a pet argument of mine - for years we have had a go at pressing the opposition, and lo and behold it actually works. Then we stop doing it, and it stops working. Funny that....

When I saw the team sheet it took me an age to work out exactly what system he had in his head and finally decided it was to be 1-4-5-1 or 1-5-4-1. It was the 1-4-5-1 variety. I hadn't seen anything of MM's Caerdydd to know how that would work. In short, it didn't.

It seems Rooney chucked the game away as soon as he wrote out his team sheet to save his players for an infinitely more winnable game on Saturday, and hopefully we will end up with a comfortable victory. More likely if we are lucky we will scrape a dour 1 - 0 win. But what Wayne has done is take us from comfortably moving away from the relegation zone to being one loss away from being back in it, and with a much worse goal difference. All of a sudden we are in the high pressure position of having to win against Coventry - a pretty stupid move by all accounts.

There are some good things to be taken from tonight's efforts, nay half-hearted wanderings. Firstly, although Cardiff managed to crock two of our players within the first 10 minutes or so, this wasn't McCarthy football at all. Yes, Cardiff were stronger than us, but there wasn't any thug football, despite having Morrison in their team. Instead it was they who were playing the football. And secondly Watson looks like a real prospect, although I am sure that a few quiet words will drum that out of him before too long.

Sadly the knives are out for both Jozwikk and Sibley. Both of them put in a real shift tonight, doing a lot of good defensive work. And both of them have two or three defenders on them as soon as they are within reach of the ball. Gregory on his own up front had a tough job, but he often doesn't show for the ball, and isn't a CKR or Martin type of target man, even though that is what would bring the best out of both Joz and Sibs. So when either gets the ball, they virtually always have to beat at least two men before they can think of playing someone else into the game. But when nobody is showing for the ball, where can either of these guys go? Early in the first half Joz got the ball as a result of some slick play (yes, we could look threatening when we decided to play football) and worked his way out to the right wing, turned back on himself 2 or 3 times because there was no-one in support, and despite holding the ball for ages, nobody actually bothered to turn up, and he was tackled out of it. What more could he have done? A final worry is that every time in the past when we have rested a load of players ready for an upcoming fixture, they haven't actually showed up, instead putting in a dreadfully lethargic performance making the cost of resting them a complete waste of time and money, and usually points as well.

Having spoken to Captain Hindsight, it might have been better, taking the starting XI, to have gone 1-4-4-2. Wis, Edmundson, Mengi and Clarke at the back. Joz, Shinnie, Baningime, Buchanan in MF. Sibs and Gregory up top. Send them out with orders to press and harry and all the shortcomings we had, perfectly described by Dave, would have been Caerdydd's shortcomings. We were back to playing Cocuball, slow, slow, slower, slower, slow. All because there was either nobody ahead to pass to or, due to lack of movement, the man in possession had no choice other than sideways or backwards which saw the back 4 seeing much of the ball halfway inside our half. I just looked at the BBC site, it says we had 73% possession. 69% of that was in our own half.

The, way too late, personnel changes allied to a change in formation, saw us start to play the way we should have from the off. We put them under pressure and would have deserved a consolation goal, had we got it.

The stats, they had 27% of the ball. The startling thing is that they managed 14 shots, ELEVEN of which were on target. We managed 7 and 1.

Sibley. I rate the lad, however, in the 18s, the 23s and when he broke into the first team, he played ACM, aka #10, and that is where he excells. He isn't, IMO, a left midfielder or winger. He's wasted out wide.

Bird had a good cameo when he came on playing a lot of forward passes because there were unmarked players there to pass to. Recently, there haven't been.

In short, I blame Rooney and not the players, for the debacle. He got the selection wrong. He got the formation wrong. That can happen, however, when it does you don't sit back and hope for 69 minutes before doing something about it. There should have been action taken inside the first half. Change formation or, if that isn't possible, change personnel. He did neither. Tied up like a kipper by the more experienced Mick McCarthy. Let's hope Wayne has learnt this lesson.

Excellent summary, and the additional comments from Stenson noted by Andy of the negative movement. It's like they were sent out to contain, hold the ball as much as possible, no risk. Unfortunately, we're not Man City and can't outplay teams that way.

I can't be too angry at Wayne, this is typical of what might be expected of an inexperienced manager. My worry is that it has dented the spirit and that Saturday is now much harder in terms of confidence and pressure. Anything less than a win will now not be acceptable, and it's an unnecessary added pressure. Throwing 3 points to Cardiff could turn into 6-9 in the next couple of games, completely unnecessary considering our recent upturn in results. Wayne (or anyone in similar circumstances) doesn't have the luxury of learning the trade, he needs to perform now. I was hoping that Mac would be there to ensure things like this don't happen, but who knows what happened behind closed doors.

3 points Saturday and Wayne is back to a tactical genius

[MadAmster]

Don’t often disagree with MA but as regards Sibley and Jozwiak, I think the former has been a major disappointment this season and the latter has shown absolutely nothing since his countryman got injured. Personally I wouldn’t start either of them but let’s hope WR gets it right on Saturday

Joz hasn't been brilliant of late, agreed. Sibs has only had 10 minute cameos prior to last night. However, my post referred to last night's game and last night's game only and I stick by what I wrote with regard to last night's game. Both did good defensive work but never had a chance going forward due to a combination of the setup and what Cardiff allowed us to do. One thing I wouldn't do is play Sibs out of position again.

[swaledale]

All in all a poor day at the office and the buck stops with Rooney. It was a mark of naivety to make 6 changes for this game and whilst it may reflect the poor resources he has at his disposal, for me it showed up his tactical and managerial inexperience.

Oh well lets hope we can pick up points at the weekend, but what a long dreary season this is.

[Andy_Faber]

Hang on...let’s not start a witch-hunt here. Rooney may well have been at fault and last night was an embarrassment but, overall, the guy has done well. The wheels came off at Rotherham and again last night but, generally, bad performances have been followed by good results and if that happens again on Saturday all will be well again.
Won’t be easy because, from what (little) I’ve seen, Coventry aren’t a bad side...quite big and powerful too, but we live in hope.

Don’t often disagree with MA but as regards Sibley and Jozwiak, I think the former has been a major disappointment this season and the latter has shown absolutely nothing since his countryman got injured. Personally I wouldn’t start either of them but let’s hope WR gets it right on Saturday

Agreed on Sibley and Jozwiak, the latter is frustrating because he doesn’t know when his skill reaches its limit and he needs to offload, and the former purely IMO just isn’t very good