I’ve not really talked much about our interim manager Omer Riza on here so far. My initial reaction when I heard he was taking over was that he should be in charge for a very brief period and a high priority should be placed on getting someone in permanently as soon as possible.
Since then, we’ve had the game at Hull where we showed a lot more in terms of attacking intent, but it wasn’t matched by clinical execution in terms of the final ball and finishing, while defensively we were maybe poorer than we’d been in Erol Bulut’s last days.
The big step up on Tuesday in the win over Millwall was in our defending, while in midfield Alex Robertson started to look like the player City fans were hoping he’d be. Put that with the same attacking improvement and signs that the Colwill/Tanner axis was becoming more influential (that has seemed bleeding obvious for months to many, but Bulut couldn’t or, more likely, didn’t want to acknowledge it) and I was starting to think that getting the new manager may not have to be done as quickly as I first thought it did.
Then you come to today’s derby game at Bristol City and after an hour or so’s play I was thinking “why not give the job to Riza on a permanent basis!”. At that time, we were 1-0 up after coming out after the break and boldly taking the game to the wurzels with Colwill and Tanner leading the charge. The home side were struggling to cope, their supporters were on their backs and we really would have been out of sight if Bristol’s chief tormentors had not shown that lack of finishing capability which I fear is going to keep us in the relegation mire all season.
We were bossing the game like we’ve not bossed a game all season and then Riza made a couple of substitutions that stood the match on its head, gave the wurzels hope where they’d had none, got the crowd going and made the last quarter of the game a white knuckle ride for City fans to the extent that the final outcome, a 1-1 draw, was probably a fair one, but only because the wurzels were able to grab the initiative that our manager had handed them.
The game was sixty six minutes old when Riza brought on Jesper Daland and Callum O’Dowda for Anwar El Ghazi and Callum Robinson and straight away I asked myself “what on earth is he doing there?”. I should emphasise that’s what I thought at the time, I’m not acting with hindsight. A look at City messageboards tells you that I was far from alone in questioning the substitutions when they happened and match summariser Jobi McAnuff was doing the same on Sky’s coverage within a couple of minutes.
Bristol were level within seven minutes of the changes and we spent the next ten minutes or so really under the cosh before emerging from the onslaught to offer some hope that we could get a fourth straight win in the fixture, but it then became a very fraught last minute or so as Dimi Goutas went off with a concussion injury which allowed us to make a sixth substitution as YKou Meite came on to join the defence as we clung on to our point.
Daland’s introduction made it pretty obvious we were switching to three centre backs and it turned out that the full backs did not become wing backs, they stayed as they were and, although O’Dowda was deployed as a winger, his presence in the left back position for the equaliser only confused matters – Joel Bagan had been as cooly efficient at left back as he was against Millwall and I’m sure he would have made a better job of dealing with the situation than O’Dowda did – he had two, possibly three, chances to clear the ball and failed to do so.
So, Riza had removed two forwards for a centre back and a defensively minded winger, who was going to take Robinson’s place as attack leader when there was no obvious candidate to do so?
The answer was the one I feared, Rubin Colwill! What is it with Cardiff managers that makes them want to move Colwill into positions other than the one he’s most suited to! I’ve said before on here that I tend to take a the pros know best attitude, but the way a series of City managers have been so reluctant to use Colwill as a number ten in a team that was crying out for a natural in that position is mind boggling.
What we learned today is that Rubin is not a centre forward (as if we needed that pointed out to us in the first place). He was running the show as a number ten, but centre forward is a specialist position and you put that with the fact that he looked out on his feet in the last twenty minutes or so after putting so much in today and playing two full games in the week before that and it was no surprise that the ball kept on coming back at us and you, again, have to question Riza’s judgment.
A few things need to be said at this point. First, we came out really positively after half time and took the game to Bristol, I can’t just lay into Omer Riza about his substitutions and not acknowledge that this is not something City teams have been in the habit of doing in recent seasons. Second, I can moan about him switching Colwill from the number ten role, but at least Riza is playing him there from the start in games, no other City manager in Rubin’s career has done that as far as I’m aware. Third, today’s team included Bagan, Robertson, Colwill and Tanner who are all playing well under Riza – even though I think today’s bench would have benefited from the inclusion of Cian Ashford and Michael Reindorf, our interim manager is trusting in youth more than Bulut ever did and he’s getting performances out of them.
So, as I tried to make clear earlier, I don’t think it’s an entirely straightforward matter when it comes to Riza’s job prospects, but he did himself no favours with those substitutions today which went against much of what he’s done so far.
In ninety nine cases out of a hundred, you’d think the needs of the team and the wishes of the manager would be the same, but Riza has made it clear how much he wants the manager’s job and I wonder if his desperation to get the job made him act in a way which seems to be out of character because those changes were of a type you make with five minutes to go, not twenty five.
I should say as well that it was an enjoyable game and that’s something I’ve not been able to say too often in the last season and a bit. The wurzels started the stronger with Sinclair Armstrong causing Goutas problems with one of the resultant shots flying over and the other forcing Jak Alnwick into a diving save. Goutas had said Armstrong was the forward who caused him most problems in his early days with us and it looked like he would struggle again, but the Greek defender eventually came out on top in his dual with the giant forward as Armstrong was substituted as the wurzels struggled to cope with our early second half dominance.
City showed encouraging signs that they could cause Bristol real problems for a while, but the stat that there were only four (two to each side) on target efforts out of a combined total of thirty one goal goal attempts by both teams tells you much as to why we got to half time goalless – Bristol were good at passing the ball forward and Ralls and Robertson were unable to shut down the progress of the Bristol passers as they were with Millwall.
However, the home team were unable to maintain their passing accuracy the closer they got to our goal and Alnwick was not tested again, whereas, for City, they came the closest to a goal as El Ghazi really should have found the target from six yards as opposed to scuffing his shot against the outside of the post – the commentator said that offside had been given, but the replay of the incident clearly showed El Ghazi was onside.
Tanner forced a corner within seconds of the restart to signal a real shift in momentum in the game as, with help from Robinson, Colwill and Tanner caused mayhem with their almost telepathic understanding. Tanner had me thinking of his goal against Swansea in similar heavy rain as today as he cut in to shoot with his left foot only to see the shot deflected just wide, but he would not be denied, as Colwill robbed Anis Mehmeti out on the right, passed inside to Tanner who cut inside one man, then sent him and another wurzel the wrong way as he jinked on to his so called weaker right foot to fire hard and high into the net from eighteen yards – it was a superb goal that bettered that famous one against the jacks.
Within a minute or two, Robinson and Colwill combined to set up an easier chance for the winger, but his shot blazed wide from eight yards suggested that his head was still in the clouds following his goal. Tanner then returned the favour for Colwill as he showed his speed to reach a ball that I thought he had run out of play to pull back a cross which Rubin made a mess of as he didn’t seem to be able to sort his feet out – his lack of goals is the disappointing aspect of his game at present because he is a better finisher than he’s been showing recently.
There were other chances, but if a 1-0 scoreline ever feels comfortable, this was such an occasion until those substitutions. With City now sitting back, Bristol were able to get a series of crosses in which saw too many red shirts getting their heads to the ball.
The goal came at the end of a series of four or five crosses which started with sub Fally Muyala heading against the post, City dealt with the other crosses pretty well, but when O’Dowda took too long to clear, Joe Williams won the ball and crossed superbly for Luke McNally to climb above Perry Ng and power his header in.
The goal only increased the number of crosses coming in and the closest Bristol came to winning it was when Scott Twine’s close range header was blocked by Callum Chambers who I thought put in a better showing today.
Play then begun to swing from end to end more, but the draw was probably right in the end and there can be no doubt that City are playing better now.
I’ll finish by mentioning Bobby bloody Madley, the ref who I have thought hates teams from south Wales, except that today I felt that he favoured us quite a lot, he was certainly getting the wurzels fans upset – so now I say, when can he ref us again!
Apologies for not giving the under 21s the full credit they deserve for their 2-0 win over table topping Charlton yesterday afternoon at Leckwith. It was a high standard game between two good sides for this level which City just about edged. As in Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Ipswich, City played their better football in the first half as Trey George and Michael Reindorf hit the crossbar.
Charlton came into things more after the break, but it was City who broke the deadlock with around fifteen minutes left when sub Mannie Barton scored from twenty yards with his first involvement in the match and it was another sub, Tanatswa Nyakhuwa, who settled things when he neatly turned home a Reindorf cross.
Reindorf and Cian Ashford, who played the full ninety minutes both could have added further late goals, but that would be harsh on Charlton and my one grouse about the whole thing was the one I mentioned earlier about why the two of them were not subs for the first team?