I’ll try to put this diplomatically, but I think I’m right in saying that a lot of the readers of this blog are, ahem, of “a certain age”. That being the case, you oldies should be able to recall the former Stoke centre half Dennis Smith who was a typical no holds barred defender of the type that would receive a red card every other game if he was playing today.
There’s an episode of the Big Match Revisited from the mid seventies which features a Stoke game at Burnley I think it might have been where Smith completely loses it with the ref on his way to what a commentator of that era used to call an early bath – even at a time when sending offs were a lot rarer than they are now, it was a pretty familiar experience for Dennis Smith.
All of this is to remind older readers and inform younger ones what type of player he was, but I believe that are two remarkable facts about Smith that have nothing to do with his disciplinary record.
The first is that Dennis Smith suffered a broken leg five times in his career – I’m not certain about this, but I believe it may well have been the same leg each time. Once again, the clue is there that we’re talking about a very physical player here who would never shirk a challenge.
It’s the second remarkable thing about Dennis Smith which is most relevant to this piece though – Smith went into management and was good at it, as evidenced by the fact he took charge of just short of twelve hundred matches. For the huge majority of them,, his teams played an attractive attacking game with skill and flair to the fore – that is the complete antithesis of what he practiced as a player.
Smith’s devotion to his attacking principles made him the most extreme example i can think of of to exemplify a breed of manager which is not unique, but pretty unusual – the former hard man who, in essence, sends his side out to play in a manner that he was incapable of copying. John McGrath, a Southampton stopper centre half during the sixties was another one and, coming closer to home, it was true of Frank Burrows to some extent.
What this rigmarole has to do with Cardiff City is that I was reminded of the Dennis Smith’s of this world while I watched Cardiff City’s insipid, and worrying, 2-0 defeat at Millwall this afternoon.
Steve Morison may not have played in Dennis Smith’s position and, from memory, his disciplinary record was not that bad, but he was a big, physical, aggressive player who was absolutely made for the side we played today – the side he played nearly three hundred league games for.
I’ve always said that Millwall were the Championship team that most resembled what I’ll call the bad old Cardiff City from circa 2012 to 2022 and, as such, Steve Morison would, I presume, know better than most what Millwall are all about and of the challenges that faces any side which visits the New Den.
That is why I’ll admit to being baffled by the fact that his team went there today and performed in a manner which appeared to be custom made to give Millwall a comfortable afternoon.
Morison and his coaching team have received praise this season for the way they are trying to get the team to play. I’ll admit to a degree of surprise that our manager favours the approach he does given the way he used to play, but I’m grateful that he does and I really want him to succeed in making City a competitive Championship side while playing a brand of football that is easy on the eye.
The ”but” in all of this though is that, to return to Dennis Smith again, for all of the desire to play nice football from his sides, there was also the acceptance that you needed that hardness and competitiveness to earn the right to play the good football and my use of the word “worrying” earlier was because a nagging doubt I had which is in danger of becoming a full on one based on what I’ve seen in our three away defeats in particular – we’re beginning to look like a soft touch.
Our defensive record, eight conceded in eight games, still looks good on paper, but you think how we were undone by a big boot down the middle for the penalty at Reading, how we conceded so easily from a free kick at Bristol (and against Luton in midweek) and look at the two goals today and think we’re going to be in trouble here – especially as we have an even bigger problem at the other end of the pitch.
Steve Morison said after the game that Millwall are the best side in the division at set pieces. He might be right there, but the truth is that a very ordinary set piece team (maybe even us!) could have scored Millwall’s first goal today, such was the flimsiness and ineptitude of our defending.
However, if anything, the second goal was worse. I’d use the words parks defending to describe it, but that would be unfair to those who often turn out twice on a weekend because of a pure love of the game.
The first goal came from a corner and was scored by sub Charlie Creswell on sixty three minutes with what I can only describe as a simple, routine header as he brushed off Perry Ng’s challenge. Now, I’m sure this will lead to criticism of our converted full back who lacks the inches you’d expect from a centreback and I can understand that to an extent, but the truth is that our manager has built a squad that is just not equipped to cope with a team like Millwall from set pieces (the bad old Cardiff would have had a field day at our expense!).
I’ll come to the forward we signed on transfer deadline day shortly, but I’ll just say for now that he’s five foot ten and, as someone who has no desire whatsoever to seeing us go back to hoofball, I must admit having a feeling of regret that he’s not three inches taller so he could defend the near post effectively at corners.
The second goal scored on the ninety minute mark was entirely down to Niels Kwounkou I’m afraid. The Everton loanee again showed his attacking prowess today and really should have had an assist to his name, but he was not in the same post code as another Millwall sub, Benik Afobe, who had all the time he wanted to receive a free kick in the right wing channel, cut inside and coolly chip over the advancing Ryan Allsop.
Again, the word “soft” springs to mind and our manager used it himself when he referred to our soft underbelly. I think he meant it in the way that we conceded the goals, but, for me, it could be applied to the whole ninety minutes – especially in the first half where we came second in so many of the fifty/fifty and second ball challenges.
It’s just a surprise that it’s beginning to look like someone with a playing CV like Steve Morison has put together a side that does not relish a fight. The intention of playing a progressive and brave passing style is laudable, but it’s as if all of the characteristics of the bad, old Cardiff City have to be given up as a consequence. It doesn’t have to be like that and isn’t for so many of the other sides in the EFL who play in a similar manner to us.
I do have to say mind that, although I had the feeling that we were teetering on the brink of a thrashing at times, we did have our chances. However, with just our normal two on target efforts in the game (one of them a slightly deflected shot by Kwounkou that home keeper Bartosz Bialkowski shoveled around the post and the other a header by Ng straight at the keeper), you can tell that it was another day when our forwards displayed their limitations.
In saying that, Mark Harris, on as a half time sub for Max Watters, was unlucky when he cut in from the left and shot against the upright just before Millwall’s opener and in his only significant contribution before he was another to be hauled off at the interval, Sheyi Ojo hit the post from close range from a fine Nkounkou cross when he probably should have scored – Jaden Philogene was also inches away with a header after Watters did well to lay back a cross for him and the same player flashed a shot across Millwall’s goal as City gave the impression that, if they could cut out the careless passing, they had it in them to cause the Millwall backline problems.
Ojo was replaced by Callum Robinson who we bought on Thursday from West Brom on a three year contract for £1.5 million – a sum I certainly didn’t think we would be paying for a player in the summer window.
Nevertheless, I think the twenty seven year old Robinson, who has won twenty nine caps for the Republic of Ireland, scoring seven times, is a bit of a bargain at that price – he’s not a prolific scorer, but he has pace, skill, know how and will surely represent an upgrade on what we have up front. For this afternoon though, he became the latest in a long line of strikers to begin the learning process of how thankless a task playing striker for Cardiff City can be at times.
Two other things about today’s game. When he was a Millwall player, Mahlon Romeo was critical of the attitude of some of their fans towards the taking of the knee at games (there were loud boos from the crowd when City players did it this afternoon) and he was booed mercilessly throughout by home fans today who were living down to their club’s reputation. Such provocation would have tested the patience of a saint and Romeo was perhaps lucky to only pick up a yellow card for one of two pretty bad fouls he committed, but this was a case where his reaction could be understood.
The second is to ask why was Rubin Colwill missing from the squad today, especially after Steve Morison had reported no new injury worries at yesterday’s media briefing. I know Colwill didn’t pull up any trees during his substitute appearance against Luton, but surely he wasn’t dropped? One of the lessons of four goals scored in nine competitive games this season is that we need someone like Rubin Colwill playing as full a part as possible, rather than him being the bit part player he was under Steve Morison last season.