Fri Jun 07, 2024 4:18 am
Interesting comments from Paul Abbandonato
By TLG aka David Sugarman
In his walesonline article a couple of days ago (which I’ve only got around to reading properly this afternoon), Erol Bulut’s cheerleader-in-chief Paul Abbandonato wrote the following:
“The concerns from Vincent Tan were understandable. Frankly, some of the football produced from November onwards last season was amongst the most defensive, turgid and lacklustre many Cardiff fans have seen.
“Tan and Dalman have chosen to stick by him and it is up to Bulut to release the handbrake, stop playing so defensively, and give Cardiff fans the more adventurous, exciting football they want to see.
“When the Bluebirds are playing at home against bottom-half sides in the new season, there is absolutely no need to keep picking two holding midfield players and in effect have seven defence-minded players in the side, plus wingers who spend half the game backtracking to help out.
“When they meet one of the more fancied teams at Cardiff City Stadium, there must be no repeat of the 11 men behind the ball, tickle-our-tummies approach which we saw against the likes of Leeds and Leicester in the Welsh capital.
“The fans would much rather witness again what happened in the last half hour versus a Southampton side which went up. Go for the jugular, have a pop, throw men forward, play in the final third, rather than defend, defend, defend.
“That Rubin Colwill-inspired 30 minutes only happened because Cardiff were a goal down and, hampered by injuries, Bulut was forced to throw on the young guns. The teens and early twenty-somethings re-energised everybody, including their own more experienced team-mates, with their no-fear approach. Cardiff won 2-1. That’s what it needs to be like moving forward, particularly at home. End this negative cycle of defensive football and defeat.
“Of course, Bulut will want a defensive foundation around which everything is built, but it doesn’t need to be anywhere near as negative as we’ve witnessed in recent times.”
As far as I’m concerned, all of those observations are valid. However, they do make me wonder why Abbandonato was seemingly so desperate to see Bulut retained as the City manager considering he readily acknowledges the football during the last six months of the 2023/24 campaign was turgid, negative, defensive and lacklustre.
Fri Jun 07, 2024 4:58 am
And if Bulut does that and it goes all wrong there will be carnege around the place.
For me the question should be asked if Bulut deserves the chance. He managed to get us a safe final position without the support but at the expense of boring football. So going on that the answer must be yes providing he gets the proper support in the end.
If he does and it goes all wrong well God save our place.