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I happened to stumble across highlights of those games. The pace of Zohore, Hoilett and Mendez-Laing was frightening. Players not afraid to get forward. I even saw Peltier deliver crosses into the box.
Long ball it wasn't. It's true we got the ball forward quickly, but it wasn't aimless stuff, it was directed towards a forward player with purpose. Loic Damour enjoyed getting forward and looked more than useful.
If we could have kept that up for the season we'd have won the league and threatened in the PL. We destroyed Wolves up there. Somehow we gradually fell into the trap of just hit and hope, but I'd forgotten how good a team that was on its day and deservedly went up automatically. How come it went tits up in the top division? Too defensive? Too much respect shown?
No doubt the football we played was as good as we saw in peak Chopra/Bothroyd era.
I think we got vertigo, being top of the league and started being much more cautious in our approach.
I agree about the Prem. There was nothing to fear in the bottom half of the table and a more positive approach may very well have paid more dividends. Even then if it wasnt for the Chelsea goal debacle and the strange team selection at Fulham we would probably have stayed up.
Zohore is clearly not the player he was three years ago now and I think a fair bit of that is down to his mentality, but I'd also say that whatever kept him out for almost three months in late 2017 had a pronounced physical effect on him and was one of the prime reasons why so much of the 17/18 season became about hanging on to what we had been given in the early stages of the campaign when we played our best football of the season by some distance. Zohore on song was a huge player for us and without that we became a more static team, more reliant on "fighting" balls" up to a target man.
Although the admiration for Neil Warnock soured in many people's minds, mine included, he did a great job that season and I still think he put a squad together in 18/19 that was better than Brighton's throughout the course of that season, but his constant down playing of us as "plucky little Cardiff" worked against us in my opinion because it took us a couple of months for us to really get going. The goalless draws against ten man Newcastle and Huddersfield in our second and third matches were almost hailed as triumphs at the time, when in reality they became very important lost opportunities, before a very testing run of games in September, which I have a feeling we would have taken from November onwards.
The league table discarding our winless opening 8 games shows this. IMG_20200923_074504.jpgOriginally Posted by the other bob wilson
I think your comments about Zohore nail it. On top form he could be frighteningly good.
The 3-0 win over Villa was a superb performance. We absolutely battered them.
First third, just about, of that season was really entertaining and as posters have said it wasn’t hit and hope, it was quick, purposefully direct and physical. I remember it feeling like the city just bullied wolves at the molineux whilst playing the much better football and just blew them away.
From then onwards it all hardened into the stereotyped “warnockball” that didn’t seem to change till he left. It’s a shame that confidence and perhaps sense of freedom on the ball never quite returned.
I’d say that trajectory probably accounts for how play in the PL continued. The season had plenty of frustrations with some missed opportunities and poor refereeing decisions but although there were a fair few batterings we won a decent amount of games in the end. Little in terms of reinforcement and different options either in the close season or in January didn’t help (and the obvious tragedy of course).
His top form was an aberration thought, wasn't it? He hasn't played anything like as well as that in the last 3 years.
We had a very good side and also early on caught a few by suprise. Teams saw the threat we were and adapted.
We were what we were the 2nd best team in the league.
Aberration or not, Zohore was one of the best strikers in the Championship for about a year after he came on to transform the home match with Wolves in late 2016 - he was the main reason our goal scoring record improved so much in the second half of 16/17 and with Mendez-Laing starting so well for us in those five games Eric mentioned, we were the best team in the league the following season until Zohore's injury.
We lost every game over the Christmas period. For all the good football at the start we looked like we would fall apart.
To come back from that showed that side had many attributes and was mentally strong.
Compare that to a Dave Jones side.
Yes that run of games was our peak under Warnock, in terms of the level of football played, we played some excellent stuff.
From then onwards we got gradually more and more Warnocky, at that moment in time, we were just enough Warnocky.
Typically, I didn’t get to my first match if the PL season until the Man City game where we looked like frightened rabbits and the good bit was over!
The Villa and Leeds games especially that season were excellent. I always wonder did we revert to full Warnock ball because teams worked us out or if we just started panicking.
That was one of the best City performances I've ever seen. We attacked quickly and with purpose. Villa were completely overwhelmed.
I also think the players were just inconsistent. NML, Junior and KZ all played a blinder against Villa. They're not the kind of players that are going to that every week.
It was that Chelsea defeat that was so damaging.Winning with about ten to go and then dreadful refereeing cost you. A real shame because the teams just ahead in the table were no better.
A season out Pearcey but thanks for feeling our pain. That said the Chelsea bit was shit but after we beat a freefalling Brighton we gave them hope after Fulham away. Anyone who was there that doesn't think that Warnock had a brain freeze was probably too pissed to notice!
We deserved to be relegated for what happened at Fulham.
If only Morrison's missed header late on at Huddersfield had gone in. Two more points and more confidence amongst the squad. We might just have stayed up.
We didn't go down because of that, though. There were plenty of other self-inflicted moments in the season that we could claim to have been the cause as well.
Losing early on at home to Burnley, who were shocking.....
If we'd had Vokes up front instead of Zohore we'd have stayed up.
That one was a shocker, we win that game 9 times out of 10 with the chances each side created - but we aren't the first side burnley have done that to
For me Zohore was the entire reason why we played so well.
He held the ball up for enough time to allow our wingers to get back up, turned the defender and ran into space stopping from the opponents for pressing and counter attacking and took the pressure off our slow midfield and defence.
If he sorted his head (mentally and physically) out he’d be a regular premier league starter.
Niasse had very similar qualities physically maybe just edging it on pace and strength but thought our Ken was quite a clever player.
But I suppose generally that’s the difference these days. It’s not talent it’s mental.
I agree with that. I think in Zohore's case, he could have been a top half Premier League player when he was on top form. I agree about him being clever as well, I think of the goal he scored at Norwich in the run in.
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