Make up your minds?

[thehumblegringo]

Are we a long ball team or not?

All season I have read people on here and on social media put up a vehement defence when other managers, journalists and forums have labelled us a long ball team. Today however we're about to sign Gary Madine and some of those same people are saying that Madine suits the way Warnock plays and he'll win lots of ball in the air as we like to put lots of aerial balls and long throw ins into the box!


Face it lads and lasses we are a long ball team and week by week at the moment we become more of a long ball team. We may as well play without a midfield at the moment

[bluethrough]

Rugby is a long ball gamel

[Cleve van Leef]

I would say direct, not long ball.

[The Bob Banker Spanker]

I would say direct, not long ball.

Just about to post that.
Direct means getting the ball forward quickly by any means possible, I’d say similar to the way we played under Jones in his last couple of years here.

[dml1954]

Just because Madine is good in the air doesn't mean that balls have to be humped up the middle to him. How about getting balls to the byline and crossing - nothing better if executed properly by wingers or over lapping full backs. Do it quickly and it is very difficult to stop. Madine also works hard and is good at holding the ball up. Theres nothing wrong with the occasional long ball to flick on to other people either. None of this makes us a 'long ball' team.

[jamieccfc]

I know injuries haven't helped but we've completely lost our way, earlier in the season I thought we was playing some great football direct but quick and powerful balls down the channels but now it's turned in to how high can you kick it, it certainly doesn't help when he's obviously picking Patterson to lump the ball to him

[J R Hartley]

The football is no different to Slades. Kick and rush. Warnock is just more likeable.

[J R Hartley]

I know injuries haven't helped but we've completely lost our way, earlier in the season I thought we was playing some great football direct but quick and powerful balls down the channels but now it's turned in to how high can you kick it, it certainly doesn't help when he's obviously picking Patterson to lump the ball to him

Patterson in an attacking midfield role is just laughable if you want to argue that we are not long ball

[jamieccfc]

Patterson in an attacking midfield role is just laughable if you want to argue that we are not long ball

If we're chasing a game then by all means chuck him up there but he should be playing in defence no other position imo

[J R Hartley]

If we're chasing a game then by all means chuck him up there but he should be playing in defence no other position imo

But because he scored 2 against the most awful team in this division whilst playing in that position, even though both were from set pieces and nothing really to do with the position, then hes the best attacking midfielder since sliced bread

[J R Hartley]

Just because Madine is good in the air doesn't mean that balls have to be humped up the middle to him. How about getting balls to the byline and crossing - nothing better if executed properly by wingers or over lapping full backs. Do it quickly and it is very difficult to stop. Madine also works hard and is good at holding the ball up. Theres nothing wrong with the occasional long ball to flick on to other people either. None of this makes us a 'long ball' team.

Overlapping full backs

[jamieccfc]

But because he scored 2 against the most awful team in this division whilst playing in that position, even though both were from set pieces and nothing really to do with the position, then hes the best attacking midfielder since sliced bread

I often wonder if I'm watching the same games as some on here

[J R Hartley]

I often wonder if I'm watching the same games as some on here

We play with overlapping full backs apparently.

[Croesy Blue]

I thought we started the season playing decent football, we got the ball forward quickly but weren’t overly relient on long balls. We were more using pacey wingers and full backs.

But for quite a while now we’ve been playing nothing but long ball football and some of the matches have been terrible to watch.

[J R Hartley]

I thought we started the season playing decent football, we got the ball forward quickly but weren’t overly relient on long balls. We were more using pacey wingers and full backs.

But for quite a while now we’ve been playing nothing but long ball football and some of the matches have been terrible to watch.

Fair assesment. I would also like to add we were pressing the opposition much higher up the pitch in the beginning of the season.

[Badly Ironed Shirt]

The football is no different to Slades. Kick and rush. Warnock is just more likeable.

Been saying it for a while - Slade's face doesn't fit. There isn't much difference in his tactics and Warnocks - except Warnock has more than one formation in his head. If Slade was more "passionate" he'd be more liked. Jones should emerge from most "top Cardiff manager" polls on top, but he was "dour" so gets less credit.

[J R Hartley]

Been saying it for a while - Slade's face doesn't fit. There isn't much difference in his tactics and Warnocks - except Warnock has more than one formation in his head. If Slade was more "passionate" he'd be more liked. Jones should emerge from most "top Cardiff manager" polls on top, but he was "dour" so gets less credit.

Slades fat face doesnt fit anywhere. Usless ****. We finished 8th in spite of him, not because of him. Anyway, thats for another thread.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Fair assesment. I would also like to add we were pressing the opposition much higher up the pitch in the beginning of the season.

I agree with this and Croesy's points. We were unfairly labelled at the start of the season but once NML and Hoilett's form has dropped, so has any idea that we're a footballing side.

[the other bob wilson]

Just about to post that.
Direct means getting the ball forward quickly by any means possible, I’d say similar to the way we played under Jones in his last couple of years here.

We were direct and effective for about the first three months of the season and maybe that's why we are still only around halfway in the tables you see for long passes. Even then though, there were times when we looked clueless with the ball at our feet and its a thin line between the desire to play passes forward as quickly as possible and the worst type of long ball game where the ball is just hoofed into certain areas of the pitch irrespective of whether there is a team mate anywhere near it.

Earlier in the season, these horror spells where we looked incapable of even playing the most simple of passes would last about fifteen minutes and then disappear, but it lasted for ninety minutes against Preston and I'm afraid the sort of exciting and effective direct football that we were getting as a matter of course in the autumn has become something of a blink and you miss it occurrence now.

With us seeming to be adopting a policy of not signing anyone who is under six foot tall, we are in danger of turning into the worst kind of Pulis team - we were an effective and exciting team playing a brand of football that opposing teams just couldn't cope with in the first few games of the season, now we are in danger of becoming a one dimensional outfit playing dull football which is easy to defend against and I'm afraid the potential signing of Madine looks like a move which will take us further down that road.