It wasn’t quite everything that could go wrong, did go wrong in south Wales but having held the upper hand in this fixture for the last four contests, Cardiff City struck back with a vengeance.
Sabri Lamouchi’s side denied Bristol City not only two years of bragging rights, but also a 13th league game unbeaten, a place in the top half of the Championship and created an air of chaos and uncertainty in a squad that had previously appeared settled and on a natural upward trajectory.
Nigel Pearson wasn’t there to apportion blame on anyone, as both Sory Kaba and Jaden Philogene’s goals were wholly avoidable but having had it so good for so long, this division as we all know has a tendency to bite back when you least expect it.
And bite it did, chomping down and not really letting go as City were beaten and also bruised, losing Tomas Kalas and Joe Williams, leaving an injury list that has decimated the spine of Pearson’s group.
The Championship is not only violent but also impatient and the Robins don’t have too long to lick their wounds or wallow in defeat as following Sunday’s rest day they’ll be travelling to Yorkshire for a renewal of pleasantries with Mr Neil Warnock.
Here are all the talking points from the loss at Cardiff City Stadium…
Where did it all go wrong?
Pearson’s reaction in the post-match press conference wasn’t one of anger, or overt frustration. There was a sense of disappointment but the way he spoke of the reasons for defeat were made with considered contemplation.
He refused to consider fatigue as a viable excuse (knowing full well that sort of thing doesn't wash with supporters) wished City could have moved the ball quicker, accepted that the Robins could and should have defended both goals better but knew this was, like so many Championship fixtures, one of small margins.
City’s expected goals for the contest was 1.32 (Cardiff's 1.14), a huge chunk of that equation was no doubt taken up by Alex Scott’s header at the far post, which was cleared off the line, and then Anis Mehmeti’s follow-up to which Ryan Allsop’s face prevented it bursting the back of the net.
Had either attempt gone in - which they really should have done - it would have been a very different story and it was a game in which the first goal was going to be hugely influential. With their tails up, and City lacking in structure amid injuries and a succession of substitutions, the Bluebirds’ second then killed the game off, even with all the Allsop red card drama at the end.
That’s not to say Cardiff weren’t deserving of their victory, they had a very clear and organised plan, for the most part defended well and rode out the chances their rivals created but even Lamouchi admitted he was worried at one point.
“The performance was probably a little bit lucky in the first half not to concede a goal," he told Wales Online. "But it was an absolutely serious performance in the first half. In the second half we controlled the game and we deserved to score.”
Unfortunately, we were in familiar territory with City permitted plenty of the ball - 61.1 possession and 513 passes to Cardiff’s 327 - but lacking in the necessary penetration as the fast start Pearson demanded didn’t really materialise, nor did the concept of his quick forwards getting beyond a slower but stoic backline.
Williams’ injury had a bigger impact than probably first thought as Scott in a more withdrawn role reduced his impact in possession, at least until the second half when, as they were chasing the game, he released the positional shackles a bit. While Weimann didn’t possess the requisite punch from midfield, as he took over the more advanced responsibilities from the City No7 from the 25th minute.
Cardiff not only willingly allowed City to have the ball in deeper areas, and neither Connor Wickham or Kaba are strikers who are going to press, but also seemed content with allowing Mark Sykes and Mehmeti receiving passes towards the touchline, backing their defenders to jockey them out of harm’s way and/or their tall centre-backs to head away any crosses, which invariably transpired.
Likewise, any designs the Robins had on winning the ball back high up the field through Sam Bell or Sykes were kind of ruined by the fact that the Cardiff defenders, more often than not, just went direct with their passes, letting the midfield progress the ball up the field rather than getting bogged down in their own half.
It proved a stylistic match-up in which City weren’t able to exercise their strengths or the hosts successfully absorbed what they could muster offensively, before taking the chances that they did create well.
The centre cannot hold
This City ream are now in a state of contradictory flux as having become, in the main, more solid and harder to beat, conceding fewer goals, since switching to a 4-3-3, by having more forwards on the pitch - and greater options off the bench since January - they’re now finding it harder to score.
Since Rob Atkinson’s header against Wigan Athletic - and you can kind of make the case that was sort of a set-piece goal given Mehmeti’s cross came immediately from a short free-kick - City have gone 415 minutes without a goal from open play, which is a sample size that is only increasing in relevance and concern as each match passes.
After Pearson had indicated his selection would be strongly dictated by performances, in a physical sense as much as anything, in training on Friday, the only change he did make was the one that everyone expected with Mehmeti replacing Bell on the left and the 20-year-old moving into the centre.
Bell’s physical output became the stuff of legend during pre-season last summer and his running stats at the High Performance Centre must have put his more senior colleagues to shame because there was an air of surprise to see him start a fourth straight game.
There were tactical reasons allayed to his attributes. City wanted to get quick ball either over the top or through the Cardiff lines and get the defence turning over their shoulder to make recovery runs, rather than have the game play out in front of them. Unfortunately that’s what increasingly happened as the few touches Bell did get (13) were largely to feet, as midfielders looked for pockets as he broke free of a defender.
At one point he signalled to either Zak Vyner or George Tanner (maybe even both) that they needed to arc more balls behind left wing-back Joe Ralls where either he or Sykes could then run onto, cut inside and take on one of the centre-backs 1vs1 but too few of those passes were made.
But that’s also a problem in itself because in this system so much importance is placed on the wide attackers, it leaves the man in the middle a little lost as any service they get either has to be absolutely on the money in terms of a perfectly-weight through-ball - and those routes were almost completely shut off - or an inch-perfect cross given the height discrepancy they’re giving up, particularly when encountering defenders like Mark McGuinness or Cedric Kipre.
Clearly the Robins now have an identity of how they want to attack but it didn’t look right against Cardiff’s big men, albeit with many mitigating factors also feeding into that conclusion.
While the wide areas have a sense of familiarity with regards to who will play there, it’s arguably the most important attacking position on the pitch where the doubt currently lies.
Wells, you would expect, should return against Huddersfield Town and the Bermudian seems the logical man for that role for the bulk of the remaining games, at least until Tommy Conway further complicates selection with Bell best suited for either a left or right-sided berth.
Risk/reward and winter window blues
“It’s always a risk” was Pearson’s response around the injuries to Joe Williams and Tomas Kalas, which are likely to have considerable consequences far beyond the impact they had on the 100th Severnside derby.
The “risk” being the desire to play men in form whose durability has been previously questionable. In Kalas’ case “previous” is doing some heavy lifting because after so much time out in 2023, he played three games in quick succession having not started a Championship fixture for 11 months. And the Czech looked physically untroubled until his knee bore his body weight in an awkward way as he tangled with Wickham and that was his afternoon over.
But, really, could Pearson had considered leaving him out after such a monstrous display against Manchester City, especially for a Cardiff team whose aerial and direct threat is well-established?
The reaction at 11:30am after seeing Andy King, Cam Pring or George Tanner lining up at centre-back and Kalas on the bench would have been interesting to see. Not that it motivates Pearson’s decision in any way, but City needed to play their best defence of which Kalas is very much a part of.
Consensus opinion post-deadline day was that City had a fantastic transfer window. Which they did in terms of refreshing the squad, shedding some unpalatable contracts and keeping their heads above water in a Financial Fair Play sense, plus they added Mehmeti and Cornick to their armoury.
But while those additional x-factors undoubtedly gave City’s attacking potential a more alluring air (at least, in theory they do), the club’s inability to sign a centre-back could now prove to be more of a determining factor in the destiny of their season.
Part of the decision to start Kalas would have been influenced not just by his performance against the Premier League champions but the options below him, namely not a lot. Had there been a specialist centre-back available, maybe Pearson would have given his limbs a rest, but he wasn’t afforded that opportunity.
Having tried and failed to sign Jake O’Brien on loan from Crystal Palace, there weren’t too many affordable or realistic options for a fourth-choice centre-back behind Vyner, Kalas, Rob Atkinson and Kal Naismith.
It’s all well and good saying, “we need a centre-back” but doing that in January, knowing that a) they won’t be immediately considered an immediate starter and b) you don’t want to burden the squad with a big contract for an older player starts to reduce your options in the market. Never mind the fact they were having to act late due to the Antoine Semenyo sale.
As misfortune would now have it, in the space of five weeks City have lost three quarters of their complement in that area of the pitch. Rotten luck, yes, to an extent, but then Naismith and Kalas have had varying degrees of injury issues this season so something happening was likely, it just probably wasn’t conceived that it would be all at once.
Naismith and then Atkinson’s injury has meant that Kalas - as hindsight now tells us - had to be overplayed and, as a result, Pring will almost certainly start against Huddersfield Town on Tuesday with Jay Dasilva coming in at left-back.
It’s not a disastrous set of circumstances as Pring is strong in the air and it does re-establish a right-left dynamic, while their next fixture is home to Blackpool, but City won’t want to be running with that alternative for too long.
Not so handy Andi
Andi Weimann playfully wondered why he was booed as he got off the team bus at the Cardiff City Stadium. The last time the Austrian was in this stadium for City he was firing a brilliant brace in a 2-1 win so it’s doubtful the locals remember him with any great fondness. Something he was, of course, acutely aware of.
But having left that ground a hero last time, on Saturday he departed with growing unease around just where he fits into this team. We don’t want to get too apocalyptic about this because Weimann has enormous credit in the bank and, we know, is an excellent player and professional but it’s hard to see right now exactly what best suits him.
He came on against the Bluebirds for the injured Williams and adopted the No10 role, forcing Scott back, which had an obvious impact on the teenager in terms of his influence, at least in the first half.
Weimann played there for much of last season as he seemingly scored at will but that was often done with two central strikers ahead of him so they could push defenders back or drag them wide, creating space for the 31-year-old to make late runs into the box and get on the end of crosses, knock-downs or second balls.
As stated above, with such a focus on City now attacking at pace in transition and from wider areas, when he’s played there, Weimann doesn’t have Antoine Semenyo or Chris Martin ahead of him to break holes in the wall. He had Bell, a completely different type of striker and he’s previously had Wells.
Consequently he’s not able to constantly play on the front foot, at least not in the central area, because he ends up running into traffic and, more pertinently, is denying those around them service. If you have a central striker needing to run in behind, the advanced midfielders are mostly the supply line or those stationed on the flanks.
But they then need the ball as well, which again falls on the No10 to distribute. But how much of a distributor is Weimann?
He’s also not a line-breaker as a dribbler because he tends to need space ahead of him to use his pace and direct tendencies. Against Cardiff, he was increasingly crowded out and any passes he did make tended to be lateral ones, as we revert back to a problem mentioned previously.
The right-sided forward position looks the best fit for him, for a number of reasons, but Sykes has that locked down, although even the bionic boy from Belfast may find Huddersfield a game too far for his energy levels, so perhaps the Austrian could return for that encounter, as Cornick didn’t do enough to press his claims for that contest.
But you start to wonder if Weimann could further adapt his game once more for City and carve out a brand new position for himself, namely the one discussed. Granted, the Robins won’t be throwing too many aerial balls into the box, but as a flexible No9, able to interchange with the wide forwards and get on the end of low crosses and cutbacks which seem to be the passes of choice from Sykes and Mehmeti, that could be how Weimann rediscovers his mojo.
SIGN UP: For our daily Robins newsletter, bringing you the latest from Ashton Gate
READ NEXT
