“ NEIL HARRIS IS FUMING “

'Outfought, outrun and outcompeted' – Neil Harris' scathing Cardiff City assessment as he confirms new signing is imminent

The Bluebirds were dumped out of the competition at the first time of asking in a 3-0 drubbing at Sixfields Stadium



Saturday 5th September 2020


A seething Neil Harris delivered a scathing assessment of Cardiff City's performance in the 3-0 Carabao Cup defeat by Northampton Town.

The Bluebirds were blown away by their League One opposition, starting poorly before putting in a woeful second-half display at Sixfields Stadium.



NEIL HARRIS:


"I don't think the system was an issue, I think personal duels was an issue," Harris said after the match.

"Outfought, outrun, outbattled, outcompeted. It doesn't matter what system you play, if you lose your duels in a football match, you're going to lose nine games out of 10."

Harris claimed his team went about the game like a pre-season friendly, while the Cobblers treated it like a cup final and, ultimately, it was that desire to win and be better than their opposite number which earned them a spot in the second round of the Carabao Cup.

It is the manner in which City simply surrendered which particularly irked the City manager, who could not hide his disappointment.

"I learned a lot about some of my players today," he added. "The majority of that is not for the good."

Asked if some players had played themselves out of contention for next week, Harris replied: "Well, quite possibly.

"But I don't make knee-jerk reactions and I don't come and belittle my players. It was a poor performance and there is food for thought for next week.

"Some of them haven't done themselves any favours today, of course they haven't, with a poor performance. But you don't judge players over one 90 minutes in the cup before the Championship season starts, you judge them over the course of the nine months I've been in charge and some of them are a lot better players than they showed today."

While the result in Northampton was not what City fans expected, particularly given the terrific end of the season for the Welsh club and a very good pre-season, there is a glimmer of hope heading into next week's Championship opener against Sheffield Wednesday.

Kieffer Moore, Callum Paterson and Will Vaulks will be back from their international jaunt, while Joe Ralls and Lee Tomlin might work their way into the reckoning following injuries.

Crucially, though, there could be another new signing in the building before then.

Harris has confirmed he is in talks to sign an attacking player and revealed after the game that he expects his third signing of the summer to be through the door by Monday.

"I expect somebody in the building Monday, just to freshen the group up again," Harris said.

"Today, we were light in the squad, for reasons like international call-ups, great credit to the players, and other boys missing through various reasons.

"It'll be great to get the group back together next week. The young lads have done really well - I thought Tom Sang was excellent when he came on - but some of those are not quite ready to be in the group.

"We will bring more seniors back in the group and the standard of training rises again and the standard within the group and they are the standards I'll be expecting next week against Sheffield Wednesday."

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Tbf Annis, his honesty was questioned not long ago,cannot get more honest than that tbf,better than the usual "we played well,and stupid defending has cost us" or "the ref gave us nothing all afternoon" excuses of Mr Warnock, a refreshing bit of honest berating of his players,let's see how they react against Wednesday.

I didn't watch the game so I can't comment on individual performances. But what I can say is when I saw we were 3-0 down after about an hour, against a team of less quality than ourselves, there must have been a lack of effort and commitment by the players on the pitch.........something that no City fan will tolerate.

If we are out skilled, as we were in the PL, I have no problem.......but if we are out fought and lacked desire, I have a big problem with that!

I think NH understands the mentality of our fanbase and quite rightly didn't pull any punches on his assessment of our poor performance. We all pay hard earned money to follow our team and the only silver lining is that none of us were allowed to make the effort to go and watch what appears to be a shambolic effort (or lack of!) by our team!

Onwards and upwards, it's the only way.

I'm a bit worried by the "I don't think the system was an issue" comment by Harris. Whilst I agree with his assessment that the players lost their personal battles, I can't agree that the system wasn't also an issue.

3-0 vs. Northampton and 6-1 vs. QPR would indicate that we don't have the players for the 3-4-3 system and it has to be ditched before the real business of the Championship gets under way next Saturday.

I'm a bit worried by the "I don't think the system was an issue" comment by Harris. Whilst I agree with his assessment that the players lost their personal battles, I can't agree that the system wasn't also an issue.

3-0 vs. Northampton and 6-1 vs. QPR would indicate that we don't have the players for the 3-4-3 system and it has to be ditched before the real business of the Championship gets under way next Saturday.

blaming the system for such a poor performance against lowly opposition is wrong... not saying it helped but we were playing against 11 none of who would make our bench..and everyone that watched thought it half arsed from start to finish..

I'm a bit worried by the "I don't think the system was an issue" comment by Harris. Whilst I agree with his assessment that the players lost their personal battles, I can't agree that the system wasn't also an issue.

3-0 vs. Northampton and 6-1 vs. QPR would indicate that we don't have the players for the 3-4-3 system and it has to be ditched before the real business of the Championship gets under way next Saturday.

blaming the system for such a poor performance against lowly opposition is wrong... not saying it helped but we were playing against 11 none of who would make our bench..and everyone that watched thought it half arsed from start to finish..

I thought he was furthering his point(harris) that the desire and effort were piss poor,so chose not to blame the system played,as that would have been an easy cop out for the team,it was like a training match,or so the players of ours seemed to think!!

Love Sol but he should be nowhere near the squad, was involved in every goal they scored from what ive seen on highlights. System prob didn't help him being left of a 3 prob targeted him.
1st the lad breezes past him crosses the ball easily
2nd playing the boy onside deeper than other 2
3rd lad holds the ball up cuts inside lays it off, so easy no pressure on him from sol just to easy. Pack should of done better too. With the build up to this.

Hopefully just a bad day at the office and reality check for harris on a back up system is needed and 3 at the back isn't the answer

I'm a bit worried by the "I don't think the system was an issue" comment by Harris. Whilst I agree with his assessment that the players lost their personal battles, I can't agree that the system wasn't also an issue.

3-0 vs. Northampton and 6-1 vs. QPR would indicate that we don't have the players for the 3-4-3 system and it has to be ditched before the real business of the Championship gets under way next Saturday.

blaming the system for such a poor performance against lowly opposition is wrong... not saying it helped but we were playing against 11 none of who would make our bench..and everyone that watched thought it half arsed from start to finish..

I thought he was furthering his point(harris) that the desire and effort were piss poor,so chose not to blame the system played,as that would have been an easy cop out for the team,it was like a training match,or so the players of ours seemed to think!!

i dont see blaming a system as an easy cop out at all... fans have tried to excuse it on that, but come on... it was poor opposition and our players should be more than capable of adapting to different formations even mid game against much better teams and in fact have done...... id be very concerned and disappointed had he tried to pass it off as such.

poor day at the office in the no fans { even before corona } cup. onwards and upwards...or the other way around