SLADE NUMBER 1 BY CHRISTMAS?
It seems an awfully long way away at the moment. Quite an eventful few weeks since the last international break, including one manager departing, 2 caretaker managers taking over and a prolonged appointment of a new manager. In the middle of that, a series of up and down performances which saw the departure of manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Things are never boring or quiet at Cardiff City!
RESULTS SINCE MY LAST POST:
CARDIFF 2 NORWICH 4
CARDIFF 0 MIDDLESBOROUGH 1
DERBY 2 CARDIFF 2
CARDIFF 0 BOURNEMOUTH 3 (League Cup)
CARDIFF 2 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1
BRIGHTON 1 CARDIFF 1
BLACKPOOL 1 CARDIFF 0
IT STARTED SO WELL
The Norwich game started so well. The first half performance which saw us take a 2-0 lead looked so good. A good goal by Joe Ralls was followed by an excellent team goal finished off by Aron Gunnarsonn. norwich started to put on pressure before half time, but we seemed to be in control of anything that they could throw at us. But after half time, Norwich brought on former Cardiff star Cameron Jerome and the whole game just unfolded from there.
John Brayford in action against Norwich
We never looked like holding on from the moment Norwich scored after 51 minutes, and a capitulation to a 4-2 defeat was extremely disappointing after showing so much promise.
So 3 days later we had the chance to recover from the big defeat at home against Middlesborough. This was dire - as bad a performance as I have seen at the Cardiff City Stadium for a few years. Middlesborough took an easy lead after only 90 seconds, and we never ever looked like returning from that position. It wasn’t really lack of effort from the players - it was the totally disorganised way they went about things, as if nobody really knew what to do.
Goodbye Ole!
I thought following that performance that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was under pressure, and in danger of losing his job. I thought he may have gotten another couple of games to prove himself, but it wasn’t to be and by Thursday morning he was gone.
His replacement as manager has come as a bit of a shock to some fans, as they were hoping for a big name like Tony Pulis to take over. However, Mr Tan has taken some advice from various sources and gone for the former Orient manager Russell Slade.
On the face of it, this is a bit of a gamble as he has never managed at this higher level, never mind big name players on big salaries. But he does have a reputation of going in to clubs and making the existing players play better.
Russell Slade - paint him green and he’d look like Shrek!
That could certainly be a useful skill at Cardiff at the moment. I still think we have a squad capable of promotion, as long as we can get the players to play together as a team.
A SLIGHT IMPROVEMENT AND ONE OR TWO GLITCHES.
An away game at high-flying Derby followed, with Caretaker Managers Scott Young and Danny Gabbidon in charge. Despite struggling for much of the first half, Cardiff were 2-0 up half way through the second half, but eventually were pulled back to 2-2. Not as poor as the 2 previous league games, some signs of ability and team spirit were trying to shine through.
A 0-3 home defeat to Bournemouth in the League Cup on the following Tuesday was yet again very disappointing. There were 9 changes from the Saturday game and it just didn’t work out, but ultimately I’d rather get the Cup games out of the way so that we can concentrate on the League.
Despite not having an official manager, we made a loan signing of the problem child known as Ravel Morrison on a 3 month deal.
Ravel Morrison makes his Cardiff debut as a sub against Sheffield Wednesday
Ravel is undoubtedly a talented player, but his off field activities have always been his downfall. He has a court case due in January where he could be in serious trouble, hence the 3 month loan. But he has undoubted talent which often shows in brilliant flashes during the game - lets hope we can get him playing well for us. I understand that if he avoids a custodial sentence in January we may be able to get him on a season long loan deal - lets hope he grows up a bit.
Finally, a bit of ability and performance was shown against Sheffield Wednesday. First goals for the club were scored by Sean Morrison and Andrew Pilkington against a Sheffield Wednesday team who had had a good start to the season.
Sean Morrison rises for his first Cardiff goal.
This match was followed by a 1-1 draw away at Brighton, with Kenwynne Jones jumping for a swift equaliser after Brighton took the lead in the 22nd minute. Another game which brought a valuable away point despite having a small percentage of possession.
3 days later on a Friday night, and live on SKY TV, was the away game at struggling Blackpool, who were the last Football League team looking for their first win of the season. This game was opposite to the previous ones, where we had nearly 70% of possession only to lose the game 1-0. Many fans over-reacted to this defeat, in my opinion, as on another night we would have won quite comfortably. But this game marked the final one of the caretaker management team of Young and Gabbidon, with new boss Russell Slade watching in an “advisory” role in the stands. He certainly realises the hard work in front of him!
THE INTERNATIONAL BREAK
This has probably come at the right time for the new manager to stamp his mark on the squad, and work out who he wants to keep. The squad of 31 is far too big to keep everyone fit and interested. Rumour has it that the 20 members of the squad left at home have been undertaking double training sessions with RS this week, in an effort to improve their general fitness levels. Lets hope he is able to get the players to buy into his philosophy.
Many fans were underwhelmed by the appointment of Slade, the same fans who were excited by the appointment of Solskjaer only 9 months ago. My personal feeling is that he deserves a chance, and is probably no more of a gamble than some of the managers who are out of work at present. He certainly seems to have a work ethic and has a record, albeit at lower levels of football, of improving teams by making the existing players play better. Lets wish him luck and hope that Slade can get us to number 1!
