The football under McCarthy

[The Hooded Claw]

Re: The football under McCarthy

It’s not exactly conducive to keeping Kieffer either. Decent players (that we can afford) are going to want to play elsewhere.

[2b2bdoo]

Re: The football under McCarthy

As soon as you see Brown as a right wing back you have to wonder unless we fill the forward areas which we can't and dont. Harris offers little and we have no pace.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: The football under McCarthy

Bournemouth have been a top flight team for several seasons

They are clearly a better footballing team than us and many other sides I this division

I mean if people think we can out fox teams like Bournemouth they need a reality check

We are a big physical side and that's the way it is at the moment

[Llandaff Blue]

Re: The football under McCarthy

Bournemouth have been a top flight team for several seasons

They are clearly a better footballing team than us and many other sides I this division

I mean if people think we can out fox teams like Bournemouth they need a reality check

We are a big physical side and that's the way it is at the moment

It's Bournemouth not Man City. We can afford to show a little bit of intent.

I'm not bothered if we lose as long as we try and take the game to the opposition, there isn't a single side in this division we should be scared of.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The football under McCarthy

It's Bournemouth not Man City.

It's Bournemouth, who finished sixth last season (behind Barnsley and the Jacks) and who have lost their first-choice goalkeeper and their top scorer during the summer.

They are magnificent though, according to Mick McCarthy:

"Bournemouth are an almost perfect Championship team. They’re athletic and they have good footballers, they’re big and powerful and they can play so it was always going to be a tough one for us. For 55 minutes I was delighted with how we did, we set up to frustrate them. We blinked once, they played through us and we’ve been done."

This is the Bournemouth side who drew 0-0 at Hull in their last away game.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: The football under McCarthy

Obviously no reality at all here this evening

[dembethewarrior]

Re: The football under McCarthy

It's Bournemouth, who finished sixth last season (behind Barnsley and the Jacks) and who have lost their first-choice goalkeeper and their top scorer during the summer.

They are magnificent though, according to Mick McCarthy:

"Bournemouth are an almost perfect Championship team. They’re athletic and they have good footballers, they’re big and powerful and they can play so it was always going to be a tough one for us. For 55 minutes I was delighted with how we did, we set up to frustrate them. We blinked once, they played through us and we’ve been done."

This is the Bournemouth side who drew 0-0 at Hull in their last away game.

Apparently we need to get real for thinking like this.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: The football under McCarthy

There is an album out there

It's called ......

Who do we think we are ?

[Llandaff Blue]

Re: The football under McCarthy

It's Bournemouth, who finished sixth last season (behind Barnsley and the Jacks) and who have lost their first-choice goalkeeper and their top scorer during the summer.

They are magnificent though, according to Mick McCarthy:

"Bournemouth are an almost perfect Championship team. They’re athletic and they have good footballers, they’re big and powerful and they can play so it was always going to be a tough one for us. For 55 minutes I was delighted with how we did, we set up to frustrate them. We blinked once, they played through us and we’ve been done."

This is the Bournemouth side who drew 0-0 at Hull in their last away game.

It's Warnock esque. Very deflating reading such defeatist comments from the manager, sums up the apathy around the club this season

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: The football under McCarthy

There is an album out there

It's called ......

Who do we think we are ?

So who do you think Cardiff City are?

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: The football under McCarthy

So who do you think Cardiff City are?

A championship football team , battling for a play off place . It could be far worse .

Do you think we are a big club with entitlement to a top 8 premiership finish ?

Ask fans of forest , Wednesday and Derby who they think they are

[Llandaff Blue]

Re: The football under McCarthy

A championship football team , battling for a play off place . It could be far worse .

Do you think we are a big club with entitlement to a top 8 premiership finish ?

Ask fans of forest , Wednesday and Derby who they think they are

��

[Bluebirdman Of Alcathays]

Re: The football under McCarthy

It's Bournemouth, who finished sixth last season (behind Barnsley and the Jacks) and who have lost their first-choice goalkeeper and their top scorer during the summer.

They are magnificent though, according to Mick McCarthy:

"Bournemouth are an almost perfect Championship team. They’re athletic and they have good footballers, they’re big and powerful and they can play so it was always going to be a tough one for us. For 55 minutes I was delighted with how we did, we set up to frustrate them. We blinked once, they played through us and we’ve been done."

This is the Bournemouth side who drew 0-0 at Hull in their last away game.

He didn't say they were magnificent, he said they were an almost perfect Championship team, which isn't the same thing. "They're big and powerful and they can play" - well, we're big and powerful too but there the similarity ends. Perhaps Mick recognises this and reading between the lines would like a Bournemouth-like team. Whether he could build one or would be given the funds to do so is another question but at the moment they're a fair distance ahead of us.

I didn't watch Hull v Bournemouth so don't how the former set up but maybe their tactics were to frustrate them or maybe Bournemouth had an off day.

[NYCBlue]

Re: The football under McCarthy

Bournemouth have been a top flight team for several seasons

They are clearly a better footballing team than us and many other sides I this division

I mean if people think we can out fox teams like Bournemouth they need a reality check

We are a big physical side and that's the way it is at the moment

Did you watch the game?

[StraightOuttaCanton]

Re: The football under McCarthy

There's no doubt that City's results improved significantly in the 22 games after Mick McCarthy took control in January. His impressive record from the first eleven matches he was in charge reads as follows:

Won 7, Drew 4, Lost 0, Scored 23, Conceded 7, Points 25

Things levelled out considerably after that incredible start and the record in McCarthy's last 11 games was as follows:

Won 3, Drew 5, Lost 3, Scored 13, Conceded 14, Points 14

But what about the football itself? Was it more entertaining and better to watch under McCarthy than it had been under Harris, as some contributors have suggested? Was the style pretty much the same? Or was the football even more basic? Obviously, the answers to those questions are entirely subjective, but personally I don't believe the style of City's play became any more attractive under McCarthy. If anything, I thought it became even more attritional than it was under Harris.

Of course, Big Mick was only working with the hand he'd been dealt. Next season will be the real test as regards how his team plays. Nevertheless, I thought I'd take a look at the stats from the match reports on the BBC football site from 2020/21 and see if they provide any clues about what we can expect in 2021/22 from Mick McCarthy's Cardiff City.

In the first 24 Championship games while Neil Harris was manager, City averaged a shade under 48% possession. The side averaged 11.7 shots per game, of which an average of 4 were on target.

In the 22 Championship games overseen by Mick McCarthy, City averaged a fraction over 41% possession. The team averaged 11.3 shots per game, of which an average of 4.5 were on target.

In 24 games under Harris, City's possession stats were 50% or higher on 13 occasions. In McCarthy's 22 games, the figure was just 5.

Under Harris, City's possession stats were 35% or less on 3 occasions in 24 games. Under McCarthy, that figure was 8 in 22 games.

So, City tended to have significantly more of the ball under Harris than they did under McCarthy and the tallies for both shots at goal and shots on target were broadly similar. The team converted marginally more chances under McCarthy (an average of 1.6 goals per game compared to 1.2 goals per game under Harris), but the biggest difference was in the defensive figures - an average of 1.5 goals conceded per game under Harris, but just 0.9 goals per game conceded under McCarthy.

These stats can be interpreted in a number of ways, but my view (based not only on the stats but what I've witnessed while watching the team on TV this season) is this: I don't think the football became any better to watch after Harris was sacked and on occasions it was a good deal worse. However, as a rule, the side was much better organised under McCarthy and the defending was consistently better.

Transfer windows are always interesting to a degree, but this year's will be even more so as Big Mick shuffles his pack. I like McCarthy as an individual and I'm hopeful he'll bring in a few players who will make his team better to watch, but based on the evidence so far, those hopes aren't particularly high.

Quite frankly, at this point who really gives a shit about any of this. The template is pretty much set. I’ll watch when we’re free to air over here but I’m not paying a penny to watch… it’s total junk