Dave Jones and his seven dwarfs

By: Martyn | August 20th, 2009

I promised to eat my mangled car should Argyle-City contain more than 2 goals. Hmm. My cop-out is that 106 is Cardiffian rhyming slang for cheese biscuits, so humour me as I accompany this bit of writing with a pack of TUC.

Anyway, I’m struggling to chime in wholeheartedly with the “WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE, SAY WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE” brigade, many of whom I suspect are actually seeing it as some sort of legacy rather than the wry smile the been-there-seen-it crowd accompany bellowing it with. We always start well. We’re like the polar opposite to a Manchester United campaign opening chapter. Call it negative and taking the team’s current lofty position for granted, but maybe the Groundhog Day nature of Cardiff City’s Championship record in recent seasons has left me lusting after a bad start, followed by a rip-roaring finish. Just for a bit of a change. There are only so many fantastic start/looking the part/screwing it up with a whimper ideals we can take! So if it’s not too much to ask, please LLLLLLLL the next 8 or so games, flicker between W, L and D during the winter, then WWWWWWWWWW to set-up a successful play-off final against a Bigger Team (with a donkey like Gavin Rae scoring the winner) to truly cap a memorable season. Ta lads!

The other reason I’m struggling to get carried away by this t’riffic early-season run of form is due to a paucity of the all-important strength in depth at the club. Even against Plymouth Argyle in that resounding victory (against admittedly a tired, moulding side lacking on creativity and personality), Mark Hudson continues to subtly cock-up (not tracking his man, casual backpasses, delegating responsibility), and Tony Capaldi’s sending-off is making it look as though some kind of curse has been placed on our full-backs, forcing them all to disappear. The only area I’d say I’m content with in regards to the quality of our strength in depth is the goalkeeping position. Sure, Dai Marshall flaps more than a revolutionary woman’s movement in the early stages of the last century when it comes to crosses. But he ticks plenty of other boxes, and as does his deputy, Peter Enckelman. Here was the Cardiff City bench on that Tuesday evening down South, and some of the other ones put out by Championship sides.

Cardiff City
20 Enckelman, 06 Gyepes (slow Hungarian CB), 24 Comminges (supposedly a full-back but full-forward would be more appropriate), 28 Wildig, 32 Morris, 23 Blake, 29 Magennis (Blake aside, new-to-squad babies. Lotsa running, little nous. Which Blake is also guilty of, despite being in the first-team squad picture for a few years)

QPR
22 Heaton, 13 Gorkss, 16 Connolly, 04 Mahon, 08 Vine, 09 Helguson, 12 Pellicori

Bristol City
35 Basso, 04 Fontaine, 25 Wilson, 08 Johnson, 17 Sproule, 16 Akinde, 34 Velicka

Reading
21 Hamer, 06 Gunnarsson, 07 Tabb, 15 Harper, 09 Long, 10 Hunt, 12 Mooney

Preston North End
22 Henderson, 21 Trotman, 27 Nolan, 07 Sedgwick, 10 Nicholson, 09 Brown, 29 Elliott

Sheffield United
13 Bennett, 21 Bromby, 02 France, 10 Reid, 28 Quinn, 11 Cotterill, 24 Sharp

Middlesbrough
30 Steele, 02 Hoyte, 03 Taylor, 24 Hines, 20 Arca, 17 Sanli, 28 Franks

West Bromwich Albion
01 Kiely, 05 Barnett, 07 Koren, 14 Thomas, 12 Beattie, 18 Reid, 31 Cox

Newcastle United
26 Krul, 28 Kadar, 08 Guthrie, 20 Geremi, 25 LuaLua, 19 Xisco, 30 Ranger

As you can see, the bulk of our rivals seem to have the perfect blend. Youngsters, oldies, and solid pro’s. Likewise, the majority of the players have been at the club and in first team squads for a while and thus will know how and where their colleagues function, and what their part is in the manager’s conducted symphony. I know the cliché strength in depth can be used as a pundit’s cop-out in order to try and make a team seem stronger than perhaps they really are, and equally, it counts for nowt if you’ve just got a bunch of overpaid mercenaries and too many protagonists to try and place in a concise system. Yet nonetheless, it certainly assists when it comes to bedding players in and there is no risk of throwing people in at the deep end or of them facing the unexpected.

At Home Park, the front-line 6 of Burke-Rae-Ledley-Whittingham/Chopra-Bothroyd were able to carry on with the continuity and understanding established last season and during the summer months. Without doubt, Dave Jones must be praised for adding more defensive solidity down the flanks with the likes of Whittingham now displaying more tactical discipline in tracking back and aiding an overloaded defence. Yet lose two or three of these players to injuries and suspension and not only will we be forced to throw in untested youngsters into a new environment with an in-built system to harness ASAP; would there even be enough players left to fill the bench?

This rant would mean nothing without further context, and I can add that in the form of us being a club with money to spend. We’ve sold and sold and sold for years now, and I read somewhere recently that we’re the biggest money-makers in terms of transfer sales from clubs outside the top-flight. Therefore, my ranting isn’t misguided or failing to take into account the perilous financial nature of penny-wise sub-Premier clubs: we do have a bit to throw about! Well, maybe not throw: we could do that faux-throw trick jolly granddad’s seem to perfect on their gullible grandchildren. I’ll leave y’all to stew on these thoughts while I nip down the doctor’s to ask him for assistance in controlling my now dangerously high salt-intake levels. Ruddy cheese biscuits.

p.s. don’t let the Chopra headlines fool you: yes, his three-goal haul on Tuesday was the work of a great striker in confident form. But in my mind, the win owed as much to the vision, trickery and end-product of Chris Burke as well. Add to that the defensive responsibilities that he acted on with maturity and great care (he was flanked by a debutant full-back, Adam Matthews). Burke is going to be one of the main players at the club and in the league this season.