Bluebirds must up their game or miss out – Blake
CARDIFF City legend Nathan Blake believes the Bluebirds may miss out on the Championship play-offs unless they can embrace a more exciting brand of football.
Cardiff resume their challenge next weekend against league leaders Leeds United but former Wales star Blake is concerned that Neil Harris’ style of play has not moved on sufficiently from that of his predecessor Neil Warnock.
Blake points out that Harris’ former club Millwall are now playing a far more attractive style of football under Gary Rowett than they were under Harris.
And he argues that Cardiff need to recapture the kind of showing that saw them defeat Manchester United at Old Trafford at the end of last season to have any chance of making inroads into the top six.
“When it really comes down to it, the brand of football Cardiff play is behind the times. It is not conducive to winning titles in this day and age,” said Blake.
“Just look through the Premier League, from Liverpool and Manchester City through to the likes of Wolves, they are all trying to play fast, free-flowing football. Keep possession, pass it on the floor, movement, triangles.
“Cardiff simply have to upscale on the pitch. That is the biggest letdown for me.
“But it is this more direct style they have adopted, where they fail to keep possession, which I fear is going to cost them a play-off spot when the Championship resumes.
“Cardiff have to get to a standard of football which is going to give them more opportunity.
“If you have the ball for longer periods and more regularly, it stands to reason that you are going to create more chances, get forward and score.
“In turn, it means less pressure upon the defence, because the opposition haven’t got the ball for the majority of the match, so fewer goals conceded. I’m fearing Cardiff will miss out, unless they alter things significantly, which the players are more than capable of doing,
“Look, we knew we couldn’t go from Neil Warnock to Pep Guardiola in one smooth swoop, so Neil Harris was appointed as the man to oversee that transition, or so we hope.
“But I look at his old Millwall team and the football they play is much better these days under Gary Rowett.
“What I find incredibly frustrating is that performance at Old Trafford against Manchester United at the end of last season, a beautiful display of football and a 2-0 win for the
Bluebirds.
“It was almost a wind-up. It really sticks in the throat for me, because it shows our team can actually put in a performance like that. Why hasn’t that been the blueprint moving forward?
“If we worked on that performance from day one at the start of this season, Cardiff, for me, would have been far more successful.
“I don’t know Neil Harris and this is by no means an attack on him. But I use what I see with my own eyes to inform my opinion.
“I look at Millwall, under Rowett, and the jump in football and their style of play is far better and more in line with the modern way. And it’s largely the same Millwall team Harris had for four years prior to that.
“The more physical, direct approach this season has been good enough only for mid-table, the league standings don’t lie.
So, will Cardiff adopt a more progressive style moving into these final nine matches? Because that’s what all the teams above them have done, so they must see the pattern emerging.
I hope the work has been done on that aspect during this mini pre-season.”