+ Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
Overall I think we probably have more points than we deserve. The away performances are so bad it's hard to see where we can pick up enough points now most of the easier home games have been done. It's almost like we get told away let them have it for the first 30 minutes and then try to work your way into it and try and get to 0_0 at half time.
We give the ball away so quickly it's just relentless and almost inevitable the team will score.
In our last three games we've looked the worst team in the Premier League by a distance, but for most of the first half of the season we had something about us which meant that we weren't. Given that we have the weakest squad on paper and we never play what I would call impressive, technical football, it's hard to define what it was that ensured that we went into the New Year fairly confident we could survive, but my best attempt to describe it would be that our team spirit and general doggedness was carrying us through.
However, even when we were doing better than we are now, we were only truly competitive and close to getting something out of the game in one of our encounters with the "top six" (Arsenal) and I'm afraid our performances against Huddersfield and Newcastle were akin to watching us play one of those elite teams - we may have got a point against the former, but it was only a combination of Huddersfield's inadequacies and their bad luck which meant we didn't lose.
I don't like Neil Warnock's brand of football and never will do, but I do enjoy what it brings us at times. However, for that sort of game to be successful, I've always thought it has to be played well, especially at Premier League level. When "the Warnock way" is played poorly though, it has nothing whatsoever to commend it and is easy for teams at this level to cope with because there is nothing else we can fall back on. I know keeping possession of the ball is not a high priority with us, but any team needs some basic ability in that department and in our last two matches we've not shown anywhere near the necessary skill level in that department - I've just watched the first minute of the Newcastle match again and it's so revealing how often we give the ball back to our opponents with a poor pass or a mishit clearance during that time.
Yet teams that get promoted from the Championship often spend £50-100 million on new players - do they sell all of those when or if they are relegated? Is their net position on players worse than when they got promoted. Your logic is a little flawed don’t you think?