Saturday, January 01, 2011

Something badly, badly wrong at City

Something is badly wrong at Cardiff City. At the end of October they were rising high, topping the table.

Since then, it's all gone horribly, horribly wrong. We're being beaten and held by very average teams, the manager looks clueless in terms of selection, tactics and his legendary lack of a "Plan B"

Since they beat Norwich at home on 30th October, their results have read as follows:

Lost 1-0 at home to Swansea
Drew 1-1 away at Reading
Won 4-2 away at Scunthorpe (if the game had gone on longer, Scunny would have equalised)
Lost 2-0 at home to Forest
Lost 2-1 away to QPR
Drew 1-1 at home with Preston
Lost 1-0 away at Boro
Won 2-0 at home to Coventry
Lost 4-1 away at Watford
Lost 3-0 away at Bristol City

That's 8 points from a possible 30. Despite that, they've stayed in the top three most of that time, but today's result sees them fall to 5th.

The January transfer window is open, but you have to wonder if manager Dave Jones is going to be around long enough to make use of it. City are showing relegation form with no hint of being able to turn it around.

We've got the one striker capable of scoring goals this year out, and looking increasingly discontent with his lot as the Premiership sides start lining him up (and he's out of contract this summer), we've got a defence leakier than a leaky sieve, a midfield that looks increasingly incapable of passing the ball at all - oh what joy it was when they only passed it sideways and backwards - do you remember those heady days? The remaining strikers, Bellamy included all "work hard" but mostly it's bluster.

The Malaysians who are running the club must surely be asking questions about whether City have got what it takes to get to the Premiership. At the moment, the answer is a clear and resounding "No".

City are rumoured to be bringing in striker "big" John Parkin from Preston. James Vaughan from Everton has also been mentioned in despatches. As my previous post mentioned, and the last two matches have sorely shown, it's defenders we need, although someone to score goals would be an asset. Oh and someone in midfield. Defender Andy O'Brien is staying at Leeds after seemingly almost being snared by Jones.

These players are paid an arm and a leg to kick a bag of wind about and they're not performing. Nor is the back room team. They need to sort it out and quick - Leeds are here on Tuesday.

It's not good enough. We're being beaten by distinctly averages sides with no top name players, and largely quiet managers who are tucking us up though willing team work, good research and a desire to win that's not evident in the City camp.

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