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Re: Neil Harris...an appreciation thread
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.
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.
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