The only break ill give Mick is hes tried to use the wing back system and hes been unfortunate to lose both LWBs.
Yesterday's 1st half display was terrible.
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The only improvement we've seen under MM is that the players seem to be more interested in playing. The quality of football is practically unchanged. Although we have had moments. But then we looked OK under Harris at times too. All in all, it's more of the same. And right now, I don't expect any improvement next season. We'll see.
The only break ill give Mick is hes tried to use the wing back system and hes been unfortunate to lose both LWBs.
Yesterday's 1st half display was terrible.
You have one view, mine is completely different. I've grown heartily sick of us playing underdog, cowardly football whereby we let the opposition have the ball and then hope to capitalise on any mistake they make. If that doesn't work, then we fall back on the old faithful of set pieces - even when we win, it's often very dull. If we were a club with the resources of a Wycombe, I could understand why we appear to believe that we can only play the one way, but we've had the finances to have built something more easy on the eye.
If I had to guess, I think it will be more of the same next season, but I live in hope that Mick McCarthy will want his team to offer more than a style of football which the best Championship sides are able to cope with quite easily these days - the selection of Pack at centreback is a hopeful sign.
MM is a much better manager than Harris but he has always had the reputation as a pragmatist who is more then happy to play a dour brand of football if it is more likely to bring success. Personally I prefer dour winning football than pretty losing football when it comes to Cardiff. Who remembers Kenny Hibbit? I remember when he managed Walsall they always played some great passing football but we usually beat them. Then he came to us and we played some good passing football and usually lost.
MM will have to do well on the transfer market next season as I don't think he will have any money to spend unless Norwich give us £7 million for Will Vaulks and I can't see it happening.
Xg stats wise I think we've been slightly worse under McCarthy than we were under Harris - but I think that could be down to the fact that we let in sloppy early goals under Harris so often and then had to chase the game - and sides chasing the game often have better stats. We seem to have improved in that area.
I like the switch to 3-4-3 (or variants thereof) More so if we commit to an attacking version of it, playing the ball out from the back and getting the wingbacks into attacking positions.
I like the fact that we are bringing through youth players (in fairness Bagan and Harris were played under the other Harris).
I'm slightly concerned about recruitment - we seemed to be moving towards a good place, buying Ng, Watters and the player from Bournemouth we were linked with under Harris.
Now under McCarthy we've signed Williams (who I don't mind) and linked with a bunch of old warhorses.
I thought the McCarthy philosophy was perfectly summed up by the man himself yesterday when he told the press: "We set up to frustrate them."
It's an early-season home game in the Championship, not an FA Cup tie against top-class Premier League opposition, but already McCarthy is setting up his side to frustrate the opposition as opposed to having a go at them. It's not football, it's anti-football. Little old Cardiff hoping to keep big, bad Bournemouth at bay. Ridiculous.
The excuse seems that people say that we haven't got the players who have the ability to play in any other way. Mick is just utilising the tools that he has at his disposal. Like it would be any different if this was a complete McCarthy squad. The point is that the club has decided to go down the route of direct and physical, to play in hope rather than control, to react rather than implement a style that can break sides down with intelligence, Movement, vision and an element of risk taking. Nobody on hear is asking for free flowing football, not even close to that. I think what most fans want is some creativity and intelligence on the ball and off it, or maybe they don't, who knows.
Mick's style of football is a better fit for the position Warnock left us in than what Harris was trying to force through, before then giving up on it when in danger of being sacked very early into last season.
Each of Warnock, Harris and Mick have had spells where balance between physicality and skill has been good but these spells have been brief and much more time spent on head tennis. We're not going to end up being a pretty side but have opportunity (and I think the desire) to flip that ratio.
It is positive that the first CM we've signed since Vaulks and Pack has been heavily involved in a side beating Fulham and Warnock's Boro this past month. CM and CB is really the engine room that dictates style of play and players (both incoming and outgoing) give us clues about where we're going.
Harris was vocal about wanting to win in a better style when he came in and Mick was vocal about still heading in that direction but easing up on how far we'd go in trade off for greater number of Championship wins. Isn't that what we're seeing play out so far?
Football style wise we have had three managers that have served up some absolute bore fests over the years.
Our last three managers are not too concerned about having the ball more than opposition or playing any entertaining football when we have it.
Our only hope now is that the brains trust at City strike it lucky with their next appointment because they don't seem to put much thought into their managerial appointments.
I would agree that the style isn't important for most as long as the team's winning, but how much of that we'll do this season I'm not sure.
Teams seem to have worked it out. Stop the crosses coming in (we're not great at crossing anyway) and move the ball quickly and you'll beat us.
8th game of the season and we are setting up at home to try and grind out a draw or if lucky score from a set piece!! It was hard enough to watch it in Premier but we are in the Championship now !!
I can't understand this argument. As long as we win the football we play doesn't matter, it isn't important. Do we really win thay many games and have such success with it then?
Why not enjoy something easier on the eye? We're never gonna be world beaters however we play so why accept shit football just because we win a game every now and again playing it? Wouldn't you rather be entertained on your visits to the club?
That's exactly my point. I don't think we are going to win a lot playing shit football because opponents know how to counter it.
So, fans who accept our dire style when we have some success with it will no longer accept it.
We need to do something different - hopefully something more attractive.
Yep. Have to agree with this 100%.
Mick - we wanted to be entertained and enjoy going, not bored to death watching journeymen try to frustrate the opposition.
I thought Guardiola saying he felt ashamed Man City didn't put on a show puts McCarthy's attitude in stark relief. (Note I am comparing their attitudes not their managerial abilities, beliefs, resources etc.)
Undoubtedly a better team than us but we set out to frustrate Bournemouth at home this is supposed to be the championship where all can be beaten.
You could see that from the team and shape and the fact we had next to nothing going forward until the last 10 where for some reason Bournemouth started to panic when really there was no need.
It’s not exactly conducive to keeping Kieffer either. Decent players (that we can afford) are going to want to play elsewhere.
As soon as you see Brown as a right wing back you have to wonder unless we fill the forward areas which we can't and dont. Harris offers little and we have no pace.
Bournemouth have been a top flight team for several seasons
They are clearly a better footballing team than us and many other sides I this division
I mean if people think we can out fox teams like Bournemouth they need a reality check
We are a big physical side and that's the way it is at the moment
It's Bournemouth, who finished sixth last season (behind Barnsley and the Jacks) and who have lost their first-choice goalkeeper and their top scorer during the summer.
They are magnificent though, according to Mick McCarthy:
"Bournemouth are an almost perfect Championship team. They’re athletic and they have good footballers, they’re big and powerful and they can play so it was always going to be a tough one for us. For 55 minutes I was delighted with how we did, we set up to frustrate them. We blinked once, they played through us and we’ve been done."
This is the Bournemouth side who drew 0-0 at Hull in their last away game.