I think I’m right in saying that when City Chairman Mehmet Dalman was asked at the press conference introducing Erol Bulut as our new manager about three months ago, why him, what made you go for someone who I’m sure 95 per cent of supporters and reporters had never heard of before, his reply was along the lines of he knows how to win games.
Well, after Cardiff threw away their third two goal lead in seven competitive games today in losing 3-2 at Ipswich, my flippant, and somewhat harsh, response is that he clearly knows how to lose them as well.
As I say, that’s a bit harsh, but it does seem this evening that Bulut honeymoon period is coming to an end if some of things I’m reading on social media tonight is a true representation of supporter opinion.
For myself, it is, as it usually is, about shades of grey. On Tuesday as we were putting together our best Cup performance in ages with a shadow team and a no centrebacks, I found myself half wondering if we’d appointed a tactical genius as our manager!
Having had a few days to think about it, it seems pretty obvious that Bulut would not have picked a defensive formation like that in a league game – because it was in the Cup, the game represented something of a free hit for City and their manager.
Nevertheless, the gamble, if it could be called that, turned out to be a spectacular success and I don’t think any other City manager of recent years would have come up with anything remotely similar. This shouldn’t be forgotten in any analysis of how our manager is doing as we reach the end of his first month of competitive football in charge.
Similarly, those concentrating solely on what went wrong in the last half an hour today, cannot just ignore how well we did for two thirds of the game and act as if it had nothing to do with the manager. I write occasionally about how I have derived very little enjoyment in watching City play in recent years, but, having now watched the whole ninety minutes of the Birmingham game, I must say that it was the most enjoyable City game I’ve watched for at least two seasons.
The match today was an enjoyable watch as well for that first hour. It was a classic away performance backed up by attractive and effective counter attacking play, the first goal was a beauty of a type recent City sides would never have scored (a long period of possession ended by a clinical cross and then finish) and, although there was an element of luck to the second one, the finish was a quietly classy one.
So, for me, there is certainly a case for the defence to be had here. I think Erol Bulut has something that could mark him out as a good City manager, but he’ll know that losing two goal leads in around forty per cent of your competitive games is something that he has to stop or he’ll be out of a job quite sharpish (especially with this owner).
There is a recurring issue here then, but, until today, it seemed to me that people were, almost entirely, supportive of our manager, they recognised that it will take time to turn things around here and I believe they were prepared to give him that time – surely they still are as well..
Today though, if we look at things completely from a manager’s perspective and not concentrate on the players (I’ll come to them later), I think it’s fair to say that what was a very good day at the office for Erol Bulut turned into something of a nightmare pretty quickly.
There were questionable decisions made before the game and during the first hour. For example, leaving out Jak Alnwick was a surprise and I can understand why some are saying on the messageboards that it sent out all the wrong signals.
I think it’s fair to say that it was generally accepted that Alex Rúnarsson would become City’s first choice keeper eventually, but Alnwick has been in excellent form so far. Today’s decision made it look like he had no chance whatsoever of keeping his place though, Bulut’s mind was made up. Surely, it would have been better to stick with Alnwick until he gave the manager a reason to leave him out – does anybody seriously think that Alnwick had done that in the first five games of the campaign?
Next, we come to Ollie Tanner. To be honest, I was surprised to see him in the starting line up today, but even more surprised to see him withdrawn for Ike Ugbo at half time. Bulut confirmed that there was no injury to Tanner after the game and went further in expressing his dissatisfaction at the young winger’s display – although he wouldn’t go into detail about what he was unhappy about.
Now, I say on here from time to time that a manager/coach has a deeper knowledge of the game than us supporters – if you like, they look at matches and players from a three dimensional perspective, whereas we have a two dimensional view of things. However, there’s that saying about if it looks like a duck , walks like a duck etc isn’t there and I think most would look at his forty five minutes of play today and conclude Tanner did pretty well – if there were strengths and weaknesses to what he did, then they were ones that apply to most of his performances and yet Bulut was only to willing to pick him from the start..
Okay, we spent most of the first fifteen minutes or so defending and Tanner wasn’t in the game much then, but once we began to get forward a bit, he caused the left side of the OIpswich defence problems and seconds before half time he produced a lovely cross that Yakou Meite really should have scored from instead of head wastefully over.
Of course, Bulut could say just look at the score to anyone who questioned his decision making – or he could do until the hour mark when it all started to go wrong for him at least!
Bulut’s response to Ipswich reducing the arrears to 2-, was to withdraw Meite and Joe Ralls and bring on yesterday’s loan signing Jonathan Panzo and Ryan Wintle, so it was a striker and midfielder off and a defender and midfielder on.
Until they scored, Ipswich had been aggressive in their pressing and got plenty of crosses in, but I must admit I was expecting a bit more quality from them, However, they are a side who have become used to winning over the past year and they reacted to this tactical step back by City’s manager in the manner I feared they would – they sensed a weakness and went for our jugular. So, now you had a team with a winning mentality with half an hour to turn around a one goal deficit against a side that has become used to losing over the past two years – was it really such a shock that they were able to do this once City’s manager had blinked?
Another plus point for Bulut is that he’s given Joe Ralls the freedom to express himself a bit more and we’re seeing signs of our captain looking more like the player he was five or six years ago. His goal today was an example of calm and skilful finishing all done with his right foot, but it seems to be an unwritten law these days that Ralls has to come off around the hour mark – I’d have liked to have seen this new, more creative Ralls stay on during the period when Ipswich were having to leave more gaps at the back as they chased an equaliser.
Bulut switched to three at the back and then back to a four, but to no avail and, having said that he regarded Rubin Colwill as a number ten, not someone to be stuck out wide, he brought the in form youngster on in the dying stages with us 3-2 down and stuck him out wide.
The manager was not wholly responsible for today’s capitulation by any means, but, to put it mildly, there were some dubious decisions made by him and, for me, it didn’t look good how he tried to pin the blame on the players after the game.
That said, if the manager has to be questioned regarding those three two goals leads lost, then so too must the players. City have been easy on the eye at times in their last two games in particular, but there’s a thin line between that and being, to use the word Jason Perry came up with today on Rob Phillips’ phone in, “nice”.
City look a nice team to play against at times this season and I would have thought that’s something professional footballers hate to hear or read about themselves. The defending for all three goals was soft today – whereas we carved Ipswich open beautifully for the first goal scored neatly by Aaron Ramsey, our opponents had help each time with their goals.
Nathan Broadhead was given too much time to get a twenty yard shot away which entered the middle of the net thereby asking a question about the goalkeeper. The second had an element of luck to it but City we’re suckered in by a weakly hit near post corner where questions could be asked about Panzo’s defending and, once again, the goalkeeping. Again, there was a bit of luck to the winner as the ball rebounded into the net off Freddie Ladapo, but City were slow to recognise the danger as they conceded their thirteenth goal in seven games.
Just as at Leicester, City could feel a little hard done by, but sympathy becomes harder to find when the same faults are repeated – defensively in particular, there’s little sign yet that City are learning from their errors.
City also scored two at under 18 and 21 levels over the past thirty six hours as well. The under 18s are still winless after a 4-2 loss to Swansea in what believe was a League Cup game with goals coming from Dan Ola and a Will Spiers penalty.
Spiers was an impressive substitute in yesterday’s game with Barnsley at Cardiff City Stadium as a team with six under 18 qualified players and a first year scholar recorded their first win of the season.
Barnsley had the better of things in the first half and City we’re grateful to Jake Dennis for some fine saves which kept the game goalless,In the first half only for a slick counter attack featuring Cody Twose and Morgan Wigley to set Cian Ashford free three minutes after the break and, fresh from his twenty minutes against Birmingham on Tuesday, he shot across the goalkeeper and into the net.
Barnsley we’re soon back on level terms as City failed to deal with a near post corner, but, by the time Freddie Cook headed in Ashford’s corner five minutes from time City had done enough to be deserved winners in a contest which improved the longer it went on.
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