It'll happen in spite of what is going on at the club rather than because of it. I think if I'm being totally honest, I'll admit that there is a degree of fickleness behind my current view of Neil Warnock and the football we play because I'm much more willing to be critical of him and it than I once was. However, the line that you weren't complaining when you were promoted in 17/18 does not wash with me because of what has happened in the interim.Originally Posted by Pearcey3
Generally speaking, supporters look to the future optimistically. As gringo alluded to, the summer of 2018 saw manager and money men at Cardiff talking about the Burnley example and there was a definite impression given that our transfer dealings were conducted with one eye on Championship football if we get relegated - loaning Bobby Decordova-Reid out last month to what we thought would be a promotion rival blew that one out of the water.
You saw how bad we were when we played you. That was a season worst performance so far from us, but the worrying thing is that it wasn't so much worse than what we've seen in every other match so far. Friday was a little better because we looked more like a Warnock team in terms of defensive structure and organisation, but, rather than relying on a way of playing to come up with the quality needed to open up defences, we are more dependant on moments of individual brilliance from the three or four "flair" players our manager permits us to field and over last season and this, they have not been doing that often enough.
That could be understood last season because of the jump in standards, but the trend has continued this season - our flair players who are still at the club from two seasons ago are generally not as effective as they were or the replacements brought in are not good and/or consistent enough to maintain previous standards. This is one of the reasons why there is a pretty widespread feeling around that we are becoming ever more Warnock like in our style in terms of attitude and approach to matches.
We go into nearly all of the games we play in "plucky little Cardiff City" mode willing, I sometimes think hoping, to have considerably less than fifty per cent of the ball and looking to capitalise on opposition mistakes - when something happens like Arter's sending off and we are forced to come out and play more, our limitations are clear for all to see,
I've been surprised at the level of criticism there has been of "Warnockball" given that the season has only just started, but I can only think that many people share my feeling that we should be so much better than what we have seen so far. We have advantages over so many of our rivals in this league in that we are getting what I feel are very generous parachute payments, we averaged 31,000 plus last season and have just under twenty thousand season ticket holders this year. We're better off financially than we were in 17/18 with a bigger level of support and yet on the field we're going backwards on the field in terms of entertainment value, level of performance and results with the concern being that those parachute payments will soon run out and there is no way we'll retain the current level of support if we spend this season in our current position playing a brand of football that has absolutely nothign going for it unless we're winning.
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