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He seemed to be a nice bloke, and in his way open with the media and fans. He was the filling in a Warnock-Covid sandwich though.
But (along with David Livermore) he also appeared to be quite reactive and passive with the squad. No consistency. Did a good job bringing Tomlin into the fold, but not so good with others. Tactically conservative - tried a few things but if they didn't work he fell back on the tried and tested. Talked a good talk on coaching, but little evidence of it in club video clips, where he did a lot of watching from the sidelines.
Compare that to Mick McCarthy who does the straight and honest more convincingly, and without the Warnock ego. Will Vaulks was saying in his post Preston interview that MM didn't do the big 'clipboard manager' speech when he came in but got the squad straight out onto the training pitch, where he and TC are clearly hands-on coaches (skills, tactics and player motivation).
Neil Harris obviously has something to offer, and will probably get better as a manager with more experience, but he hit the buffers with us, and the change has been dramatic. It is one thing to talk about a clean sheet mentality, it is another to do the work with players to make that a reality!
Nice summary, Jon.
I dont think NH had the credit he deserved in getting that team to the play-offs last year, especially where we were when he come in, but cant argue with this year. Its a results business and results just didnt go his way this year. Fair play to Mick, I was expecting Warnock Ball but the change in shape has been a pleasant surprise. Yes we are still direct but I dont think its hoofball. Still too early to be offering him a long term deal - we havent played any of the top sides yet - but it wouldnt be such a backward step I thought it was going to be should he been given another 2 years.
Neil Harris’ time at City had three distinct phases it seems to me. Pre COVID he started well and won his first two home games, but that was a bit of an illusion because, overall, he struggled to win at Cardiff City Stadium whether there were crowds in or not. On the other hand, despite the 6-1 at QPR, away results were mostly satisfactory.
When football started again, we continued to be good away and were better, if still brittle at times, at home. Then this season, despite not doing badly away again, we were just not good enough at home, although, ironically, when we did win, it tended to be by a big margin.
The conclusion to be drawn from all of this seems to be that we had a problem breaking sides down when there was an onus on us to do so and so our strange habit of conceding early and often soft goals did us no good at all. Add in that the stats indicated that we were a less effective team the higher our possession figure went and we didn’t really have enough ways to win games.
There have been suggestions in recent weeks that Harris became too intense and was finding it difficult to delegate - a theory which, maybe, gains some credence from the fact that I cannot remember hearing a word from or read an interview with his assistant David Livermore in all of the time he was here.
As others have remarked, Neil Harris seemed to have a good eye for a player and I’d add he was a little unlucky with injuries in my opinion, but seeing Leandro Bacuna playing at right back for most of the first half of the season only amplified his basic error when it came to that position.
What I struggle to understand is why, having done so well to get us to fifth in 19/20, did he find it so tough to repeat that this time around? Right from the start and that hiding at Northampton, something didn’t seem right and, although I’m not saying Mick McCarthy is trying to rubbish his predecessor, some of his comments about what he found when he first arrived don’t sound too clever at all.
It will be interesting what effect Lee Tomlin will have for us for the remainder of the season, providing of course he can get match fit and avoid injuries.
Replacing Harry Wilson for the last 20 minutes of a game may turn out to be critical if we are having difficulty breaking teams down.