WHAT WE LEARNED FROM CARDIFF’S DEFEAT TO NORWICH...
1 – Neil Warnock won’t appreciate it, but Cardiff City proved him right with this defeat.
And the fact they could have done with a little help on deadline day from an extra attacking option was underlined as Cardiff couldn’t find that little bit of quality where it mattered.
While this was far from the Bluebirds’ best display under the veteran manager, they remained in the game throughout against a side who have the talent to be far better off in the Championship table.
But aside from one or two little sparks, it was all rather huff and puff in the final third with hiome fans left with little to do but wonder if they should have had a penalty or two following late, hopeful claims for spotkicks.
Ultimately, there just wasn’t enough to trouble Norwich at the back for long enough to force mistakes and so one goal was enough for the Canaries to end Cardiff’s run of three home wins.
2 – Given that one of Warnock’s initial gripes in his early days as Bluebirds boss was his side’s inability to keep clean sheets, the recent run at home would have comforted him.
In terms of league games, Cardiff had stopped their opponents from scoring for three straight home fixtures and would have made it their best stretch of home clean sheets for eight years had they kept Norwich at bay.
So the nature of the goal – the first conceded at Cardiff City Stadium in the Championship in a little more than five hours – would have disappointed the manager.
Aron Gunnarsson made the calculated foul to stop Jerome’s counter and the freekick was in an area that should have been dealt with.
In the end, the marking was too loose and Jerome too sharp to pass up the opportunity. Being beaten by a goal of quality is one thing, allowing the basics to better you is another.
3 – Matt Connolly has been one of Cardiff’s most consistent performers in recent years but has seemingly struggled to convince Neil Warnock he should be an automatic pick at the back.
Connolly had struggled at the start of this season, his form way off what the Bluebirds had been accustomed to, but the injury to Lee Peltier opened the door for the serial promotion winner.
Connolly took his chance here by keeping a lid on much of the inroads from Norwich’s £7m signing Yanic Wildschut and played some intelligent balls forward as he looked to provide some chance for Zohore to get behind.
3 – It was justified to fear for Jazz Richards’ future at Cardiff.
The former Swan’s start to life as a Bluebird was not a case of hitting the ground running with some so-so performances, and then there was a succession of injuries at a time when Warnock was assessing his squad while clearly becoming frustrated at the time it was taking the Wales man to recover.
Richards, though, is making up for lost time. Jacob Murphy showed no hesitation in trying to attack his flank with pace but Richards matched him with a mixture of pace and physical strength while also displayed some good reading of the game to nullify any threat.
Not as comfortable on the left as the right, but the fact Warnock trusted him to switch sides in light of injuries to Peltier and Joe Bennett is credit to the 25-year-old.
5 – Given that deadline day came and went with no new striker, it might have been a temptation for Kenneth Zohore to take his foot off the gas a little, safe in the knowledge the Bluebirds’ No.9 role is pretty much his.
Frederic Gounongbe is hardly an option and Rickie Lambert’s fitness issues continue to persist, so it would have been easy for the big Dane to start getting a little comfortable.
To his credit, he did nothing of the sort here.
He did not get a huge amount of service, but he continued to put a shift in to try and make the most of what came his way with the same gusto that has given him this opportunity under Warnock.
He showed a good bit of intelligence with some bending runs to try and get behind centre-backs, held up what he could and made a nuisance of himself.
That he didn’t overly threaten underlines he has a great deal to do to show he is capable of the same quality of goalscoring Championship strikers, but you can’t fault his effort.