Vassell eases pressure on Warnock with late, late winner.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Not bothered about losing a player who scored 19 goals in the Championship two years ago?

The last time City had a forward who scored that many goals at this level was a decade ago.

I can kind of understand what you're saying, though. The Reid signing was odd from the start. After all, Warnock was never likely to set up his team to play to Reid's strengths, which makes you wonder why he signed him in the first place.

You could also suggest that he didn't particularly set the team up to play to Zohore's strengths as well. However, the side was perfectly set up to accommodate a nuisance like Paterson in a target man role. Makes me wonder if we actually need strikers or just a battering ram.

[the other bob wilson]

We've never been creative under Warnock, unless people have a different view on what 'Creative' means. When Warnock came in you could see that he was trying to get the team to play a quicker kind of football, a game that consisted of getting the ball out wide as quickly as possible and delivering a ball into the box with a midfield player supporting. That style was under construction during his first season and then ramped up for the first three months of the promotion season that saw us play an aggressive (not dirty)high tempo, high fitness expansive long ball game, there was method to it. I commented at the time that it was like watching an action movie. The plot wasn't great, the script was emotive and basic and deep down it sort of betrayed your senses and like most action movies you sort of disapproved of the main protagonist and his motives although by the end of it you're cheering him on and getting caught up in the emotion and vulgarity. That's how it felt to me.

Something changed after we absolutely smashed Leeds at home. I think that Warnock had surprised himself, but maybe an element of doubt had crept in. There was no way NML was going to keep performing in the way he had, same for Hoilett and Bamba and our free transfer from Walsall (Etheridge) i really think that Warnock doubted the longevity of what we had witnessed up to that point and decided on becomimg more conservative, sitting deeper, giving up possession and relying on pace on the counter in order to get us up.

The debate on Warnocks style will go on for as long as he's at the club. Some people quote 'tippy tappy football' in defence of Warnock but rarely give any opinion on what they've witnessed, even when one of our players doesn't even have the option of passing the ball to a team mate (it happens to murphy constantly) It's an odd defence to make as we've never really been a 'footballing' team, most people who watch the City know that. I reckon that somewhere in the middle of what Warnock likes and a bit of football would suit those who or critical or even that all action fast paced style that we saw initially, nobody is asking for twenty pass passages of play.

I would say that what happened after the Leeds game was that the middle period Kenneth Zohore time at Cardiff came to an end. After that, he picked up an injury and was either unwilling or unable to make the number of runs which were his trademark when he was at his best. Also, there seemed a reluctance from the rest of the team to play to Zohore's strengths. Teams also sat deeper against us, something which can sometimes prove fatal because of the extra room it gives opponents in the middle of the park, but, probably because of that lack of creativity you mention, we couldn't take advantage.

I found myself enjoying watch us play in that first season under Warnock, but somewhere along the line we've become a team where the result is everything with me because, given the way we play, there are no consolations whatsoever to be taken from defeats.

That said, it is those periods where we just cannot retain possession which annoy me more than our overly direct approach. Neil Warnock wants his side to play a certain way, that much is obvious, but, I refuse to believe that he can be happy to see us consistently surrounding possession so easily when, for example, we are defending a lead. Even people who defend Warnock through thick and thin must realise being so poor at retaining possession at times when it best suits us to keep the ball has to make it harder for us to achieve what we all want from our team. Even when we were having a poor spell on Saturday, the fact that things never got as bad on the ball retention front as I've seen it do all too often in the past made me hopeful that Pack and Ralls (who's much under appreciated by many supporters at this level especially) can bring about an improvement on that front.

[dembethewarrior]

I would say that what happened after the Leeds game was that the middle period Kenneth Zohore time at Cardiff came to an end. After that, he picked up an injury and was either unwilling or unable to make the number of runs which were his trademark when he was at his best. Also, there seemed a reluctance from the rest of the team to play to Zohore's strengths. Teams also sat deeper against us, something which can sometimes prove fatal because of the extra room it gives opponents in the middle of the park, but, probably because of that lack of creativity you mention, we couldn't take advantage.

I found myself enjoying watch us play in that first season under Warnock, but somewhere along the line we've become a team where the result is everything with me because, given the way we play, there are no consolations whatsoever to be taken from defeats.

That said, it is those periods where we just cannot retain possession which annoy me more than our overly direct approach. Neil Warnock wants his side to play a certain way, that much is obvious, but, I refuse to believe that he can be happy to see us consistently surrounding possession so easily when, for example, we are defending a lead. Even people who defend Warnock through thick and thin must realise being so poor at retaining possession at times when it best suits us to keep the ball has to make it harder for us to achieve what we all want from our team. Even when we were having a poor spell on Saturday, the fact that things never got as bad on the ball retention front as I've seen it do all too often in the past made me hopeful that Pack and Ralls (who's much under appreciated by many supporters at this level especially) can bring about an improvement on that front.

Agree with all that.

Noticed in the extended highlights as well one incident where (Bennett?) brought the ball forward and Murphy had made a run and it would have been easy to pump it forward (where he is often the only player for what must feel like an age in footballing terms to a lonely player.. but Glatzel dropped in and picked the ball up and on we went.

Was just nice to see.