Cardiff City’s victory over Norwich City on the opening day of the season exceeded all expectations. No one envisaged this new-look team would better one of the pre-season favourites for the title, and manage the feat with so much swagger. It was a great occasion, but probably gave a false impression of where Cardiff currently are in the grand scheme of things.
This is the time of the season when you should get carried away after all, but recent performances were probably more along the lines of what people were initially expecting. That Norwich performance set the bar high, though. That is what we now know they are capable of and what they need to try and emulate on a regular basis.
The mitigating factors at play get repeated ad nauseum, but patience is always in short supply so they bear repeating. There was a massive turnover of players and they will need time to meld. Admittedly, Burnley and Hull also had comparable degrees of upheaval and both are in the top half of the table, but they spent in excess of £20m and £10m respectively, while also reporting a profit. In contrast, Cardiff spent somewhere in the region of £2m and generated no money from sales.
You only have to look at Nottingham Forest in the Premier League for proof that throwing monstrous amounts of money at your problems does not necessarily fix them. Not initially, anyway, as, like Cardiff, they currently find themselves among the relegation places, while Norwich have since ascended to the top two in the Championship. Only time will tell if Forest were right to gamble their long-term future on their short-term gain.
Steve Morison now finds himself in a position that is likely the envy of many of his peers. Despite only occupying his post for 10 months, he has pretty much managed to turn over the entire squad and fashion it to his liking. This is what he wanted and he recently admitted: “I can go to sleep at night knowing there’s no excuses now.” He will succeed or fail on his own terms and not every manager is afforded that luxury.
Morison has certainly given himself every chance to oversee a marked improvement in Cardiff’s fortunes this season. The squad now has strength in depth and a better mix of ages, thanks to the sterling work of him and his staff. I was surprised that more players didn’t depart towards the end of the window, though, as some very good players are now set to miss out on the matchday squad on a regular basis.
While things are not quite clicking at times, there are now players at the club who have the ability to improve Cardiff’s fortunes, at both ends of the pitch. It has been inspiring to see Cardiff build from the back and pass so calmly out of defence, as their previous flirtations with this have tended to end in disaster. They may not be creating enough chances at present, but they have enough creative players to put that right and the arrival of Callum Robinson should also improve their conversion rate.
Robinson was a relatively expensive arrival and represents a significant upgrade on the strikers Cardiff already had. You wonder whether such a large outlay was due to his sudden availability, or a reaction to recent performances, but he represents a marquee signing and I have no doubt he will prove a success.
Whether or not a bigger, more physical striker in the mould of Jordan Hugill might have been a better bet is a valid point of discussion. Cardiff’s struggles in front of goal have been partly due to a wastefulness, but also a result of a disconnect between midfield and attack. Someone to hold up play with their back to goal is sometimes required, even for the most attractive of sides.
I know Cardiff are evolving away from their days of relying on a big target man, but you need options in your squad and some games may require a battering ram. As a big, physical striker in his own playing days, it was a surprise to see Morison not target a player of that ilk and it feels like the only type of player that this squad currently lacks.
Cardiff’s evolution has been at the expense of their former big, physical reputation and no game will highlight that more than Millwall away. Cardiff have not always had success at The Den, but they’ve always been formidable enough to at least match them. On Saturday, they never quite appeared as tall or tough enough for the challenge. They won’t be the only ones and fortunately there are not too many games of that nature at this level anymore.
Few will miss those days and Cardiff are now far better to watch, but reconfiguring the DNA of the side is a huge undertaking. I just hope that, despite their claims, supporters have the stomach for the transition and that enough good results are racked up in the interim to keep them onside.
Some supporters tend to favour an attitude where they proclaim: ‘I’m willing to give it 12 games,’ or some other random number before passing judgement on a new season or project. I tend to go with my gut feeling. I admit, it certainly feels like Cardiff are five games without a win, after two defeats on the bounce, which you can stretch back to four wins in 17 since getting mauled by Swansea, but I remain quietly confident that a corner will soon be turned, despite a tough upcoming run of fixtures.
Hull City, Middlesbrough, Huddersfield Town, Burnley and Blackburn Rovers all await in the coming weeks, but that Norwich game proved Cardiff can go toe to toe with anyone in this division on their day. The next few months look set to define Morison’s tenure and as he recently said himself: “Between now and November, it will be really good to see where we can get this squad to. If it works, it’s great. If it doesn’t, at least it was done in a way we wanted it to be.”
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