With a mammoth two-and-a-half weeks until Cardiff City's next game and the finish line just over the horizon, it provides an opportunity to reflect on the season as a whole, and what a weird season it has been!
For the third consecutive year, Cardiff started the season with high hopes, having made a strong finish to the preceding campaign, but for the third year in a row, things felt very wrong almost immediately. Neil Warnock, Neil Harris and Mick McCarthy were all relieved of their duties midway through the season after collapses in both form and confidence.
McCarthy, who immediately steadied the ship when he arrived, identified a formation that optimised the options at hand and with a mixture of calm and experience, propelled Cardiff up the table and earned a new deal. Those strengths soon became weaknesses, as his favoured shape became more of a straightjacket and culminated in fielding five centre-backs, which felt akin to a letter of resignation.
