Most impressive opposition players at Ninian Park this season XI.

By: Martyn | April 18th, 2009

It’s that time of the season where everyone gets obsessed with choosing a player or team of the season. I’m always a tad wary of indulging myself in such things, especially so-called *teams of the season*. Admittedly, I paddle occasionally, but often only to counter the arguments of those who insist that Roger Johnson is/has been our best player this year (by making a case for Jay Bothroyd). How do fans of one club judge such things?! Sure, they just pick 1 or 2 of their team’s own players (depending on how good/bad the season has gone), and look at the scoring charts and choose any two from the top five for the striker positions: but how do you justify picking anyone else?! It’s impossible to have seen even half the full 90 minute games played by each side in the division this season, let alone all of ‘em! Hell, most fans won’t even have seen half their team’s games! Generally you imagine, Joe Bloggs-Pundit just bases everything he knows on players in his team’s division by virtue of them linked with big-money moves in the BBC Gossip Column or from the musings of Ian Darke and Don Goodman’s commentary on Sky Sports at Saturday teatimes. Thus, I offer to you a compromise: The players who have been the most impressive in their games at Ninian Park this season! This is NOT my Championship team of the year (cup competitions are not excluded, for a start); just the 16 best players in set positions to have really caught the eye when playing against the Bluebirds in the 2008/09 season. Set up as a 4-5-1-ish formation in homage (?) to the sameness that permeates every away-playing side in this division, get ready for the tried and the tested, the inexperienced newcomers, and the reborn!

The Garkos Gorgons (fans of 1990’s kids TV, rejoice!!)

Grant
Mancienne DeMerit Anita Gibbs
Carsley
Campbell-Ryce Pattison Scannell
Bannan
Brown

Subs: Gueret, Svensson, Nasri, Gomez, Lupoli

GK – Lee Grant, Sheffield Wednesday
An inclusion not worthy of Owls of derision, this net-tender is ridiculously underrated. Even more ludicrous is the fact that Sheffield Wednesday secured him on a free transfer! The man with two forenames was three years off a testimonial at Derby County prior to moving oop North, but was never really given the chance or confidence to make the Pride Park keeper jersey his own. Since offering his services to protect a somewhat porous backline in Sheffield however, Grant has excelled and his performance at Ninian Park encapsulated this. Everything Grant does (and it seemingly is everything) radiates confidence and calmness, be it making seemingly impossible saves or collecting crosses that some goalkeepers would dare not venture for. The young defence in front of him can only benefit from having such a trustworthy custodian behind them. Still just 27 years old, international recognition is not out of the question for the man from Hemel Hempstead. Sheffield Wednesday may have lost 2-0 at Ninian Park back in December, but it was Grant’s saves that lessened the deficit. Worryingly enough, we play at Hillsborough in round 46 so Grant may yet just ruin any remaining hopes we have by then of automatic promotion.

RB – Michael Mancienne, Wolverhampton Wanderers (on loan from Chelsea)
True, the man recently called up to the full England squad may not have played against us at Ninian Park in the RB position (he was phenomenal at CB that day in a 2-1 victory for the away side), but for reasons of stability in this team that I’m concocting Mancienne is good enough to slot in there. Athletic, deceptively strong given his skinny frame, and a great reader of the game, Mancienne is very much a modern defender comfortable both on and off the ball. The way he nullified the Bluebirds attack in the Welsh capital was simply imperious given that we’ve trodden on all before us this season. A bright future in the game beckons for the youngster now in contention for Pensioner first team duties.

CB – Jay DeMerit, Watford
Chants of “USA, USA, USA” echo around Canton, Hadfield Road and Ninian Park before, during and after every Cardiff City game for stars and stripes striker Eddie J. However, there’s been another American at our soon to be closed ground worthy of the nation-adulation in 2008/09 in the shape of muscular Watford centre-back Jay DeMerit. His side were cruelly robbed of a deserved point due to young Ross Jenkins gifting us a 90-plus minute penalty kick, but DeMerit had excelled and led by example to a Hornets side built on inexperience and a new manager’s tactics. He uses his strength to great effect and was never caught out of position in this match-up. Captain for the evening, the man Watford plucked from obscurity made our strikers work for their pay-cheques that mid-March evening.

CB – Vurnon Anita, Ajax
Yes, I know the 0-0 friendly draw with the Marco van Basten-coached Amsterdam side wasn’t a Championship fixture, yet it happened to be the last ever friendly game we played at the ground and one that was fiercely fought with quality in abundance. Therefore it is a game worthy of inclusion when scouring my mind for who has impressed most when watching my team and that week’s opposition this English football calendar year. Scouring the internet for information on young Anita, as I did with even more enthusiasm just hours after watching his tremendous performance against us at the start of August, all the information I can find on the player states that he is a midfielder or winger. Yet in the aforementioned Ninian Park pre-season friendly (sorry, the Vans Direct Cup or whatever the sponsors said we had to call it), Anita definitely played centre-back and this was by no means a mistake on my behalf: Anita is so small that my eyes kept returning to him throughout. Surely, questioned both my father and I during the opening stages of the game, van Basten is asking for trouble by positioning someone so small in the centre-back position?! How wrong we were. Despite his young age, Anita can read the game better than most senior pro’s who have been in the game and its top divisions for years. Thus, he compensates for his lack of stature by always being in the right position and alert to the danger before it can manifest itself fully. The result: a flawless showing, and City failing to ripple Stekelenburg’s net! So folks, Vurnon Anita, REMEMBER THE NAME!

LB – Kieran Gibbs, Arsenal
In the news recently for a lenient ref not giving him a deserved red card against Wigan Athletic, but there are far more endearing reasons as to why this young Englishman should be making the headlines. Thrown into an FA Cup tie at a ferocious Ninian Park with a host of other youngsters Gibbs could easily have bottled it, bt fair play to the lad, he acquitted himself brilliantly. He contained the far more experienced and trouble-causing Chris Burke to great effect that January afternoon and Fabianski’s clean-sheet was certainly recorded partly thanks to this blossoming talent.

DM – Lee Carsley, Birmingham City
On an afternoon that indicated we as a team still had a long way to go, the 2-1 defeat inflicted on us showcased the sheer class and cutting edge of a Brum side which included the former Everton baldie. You all know who he is and what he does, so I’ll pinch the words I used in my match report at the time to highlight why he was so good that particular game: “Irish international Lee Carsley was everywhere, sweeping up, tackling, hounding, dictating the tempo, launching their attacks and stopping ours.” Fine wines, better, age, etc

RM – Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Barnsley
With full disrespect to Barnsley, the Jamaican international is too good for them. Perhaps sometimes he plays in that manner hence why remains with the perennial relegation battlers. I dunno. It is his sheer desire to get on the ball that makes the former Southend man stand out more than anything else. On a March evening where the Bluebirds scored more than 2 goals in a game for the first time, Campbell-Ryce did his best to thwart us. Unfortunately, his Tykes team-mates were more determined to get sent off or cause trouble. At the start of the second half, it was Campbell-Ryce’s invention and play-making abilities that threatened to turn this game on its head. His link-up play with Michael Misfud was superb and the free-role he had meant that we were struggling to contain him. If the Tykes go down, a summer move is a certainty: if that isn’t the case regardless of whether they sink or swim.

CM – Matty Pattison, Norwich City
He might well be partial to drink-driving and trouser-forgetting, but Pattison also found time to put in a cracking performance on a sunny August afternoon in Wales. The Canaries man tormented our midfielders and defenders with his boundless energy which took him all over the field and saw him operate superbly as both a defender and attacker. He even won his side a penalty and hit the post in a game his side scrambled a 2-2 draw from. Who knows, if he keeps his focus and stays away from the demon drink the former Newcastle United man might just penetrate Joel Santana’s radar in time for his country’s hosting of the next World Cup.

LM – Sean Scannell, Crystal Palace
“Sean Scannell in particular impressed me [during Cardiff City's 2-1 win over the Eagles]. For someone so young, he shrugged off experienced players such as Darren Purse with ease on numerous occasions, had no self-doubt issues when it came to running with the ball, scored a goal and proved as difficult to pick-up as a rich, stubborn hooker. That silly little bumfluff goatee beard aside, Scannell looks set for a glory-soaked future.” So said I of the man from ROI (well, Croydon, but let’s not go down the generally farcical qualifying for an international team route).

CM/AMC – Barry Bannan, Derby County (on loan from Aston Villa)
Hands down the best player I’ve seen at Ninian Park this season. Scotland are truly lucky to be the nation of his birth. I observed in my match report after our recent 4-1 victory against Derby County that Bannan was ‘simply fantastic. There was seemingly nothing that the little on-loan Aston Villa man couldn’t do. He has infinite energy and stamina, doesn’t seem to lose any tackles, dictates the tempo, wins headers despite his diminutive stature, plays it simple when needs be, has perfect positioning and movement (the centre-backs couldn’t keep up with his non-stop movement and he found positions that drew the defence out and kept the midfield deep – akin to what James McFadden did for Birmingham City at Ninian Park earlier this season), is always looking for the ball, has a mean strike on him, and is clearly comfortable playing in the hole (trequartista role) or further back/advanced. As Andy Gray might say in that harsh Scots accent of his, “Teek a boo, son”!’ Don’t want to take my word for it? Villains will back me up.

FW – Chris Brown, Preston North End
You don’t have to cower, Rihanna: same names, very different blokes! The Lilywhites may have played the most repugnant long-ball stuff possible when they sauntered down to the Welsh capital ripe for being overcome two-nothing, but the much-maligned striker shone like a diamond in amongst the rubble. The striker position was by far the hardest choice to make for me in picking this side. To be perfectly honest, no one player has particularly shone; but then given the fact that most teams play on the counter-attack, the majority of forwards who come to strut their stuff down at Ninian Park are rarely given much freedom or the chance to play to their capabilities. I chose Brown because his abilities seemed suited to the counter-attacking style, especially if he has more creative and energetic midfield players behind him. That December day at Ninian Park, the former Norwich City, Sunderland, Doncaster Rovers and Hull City Durham-born man displayed a vast array of tricks, is quick of feet and mind, and has great touch and control of the ball. One problem though: if he comes round your house, just make sure you lock away any paintball guns you may have lying bout…

Bench boys
GK – Willy Gueret, MK Dons – He might be a former Swansea City player, he plays for unfashionable MK Dons, and it was *only* an early round Carling Cup tie that Cardiff City won. But the Frenchman made two outstanding saves that kept his team in the game and Gueret looked solid throughout despite the jeering.

CB – Michael Svensson, Southampton
A player who truly has seen it all with the Saints – from a slender FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal, through to the impending relegation they face from the Championship this season. What we City fans witnessed though with regards to the Saints was the performance of an accomplished, aerially-dominating and clever centre-back long, long ago on the first day of the season.

MF – Samir Nasri, Arsenal
Of the pasty Mediterranean snared from Marseille’s performance in the 0-0 draw with Arsenal, I noted that he was, ‘Tricky, quicky and quirky in attack, strong and resolute in tracking back.’

CM – Jordi Gomez, Swansea City (on loan from Espanyol)
Urrrrgh, a Jack. But credit where credit’s due, the set-piece standards maintained consistently by the diving Spaniard during the South Wales derby were frighteningly good. Free-kicks and corners were whipped in at the perfect speed with sniper-like accuracy, so he could be this team’s Beckham.

FW – Arturo Lupoli, Norwich City (on loan from ACF Fiorentina: now on loan at Sheffield United)
The impact sub. Came on late in the game to score 2 goals for the Canaries and snatch a share of the points. The two brilliant finishes epitomized what turned out to be a very useful appearance from the Ninian Park bench full of clever running, sharp instincts and neat link-up play.

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Back to a real football team – the word real perhaps not being so apt right now – and humiliation was cruelly dealt to Cardiff City by Preston North End this afternoon. A 6-0 defeat. Yes, 6-0. Proper description and analysis evades me right now, but use the words ‘defending’ and ‘crap’ to form the main body of any sentence describing our showing. It was such a bad afternoon that even McCormack missed a penalty. Yes, we won ANOTHER penalty! We might yet break the 30 spot-kicks awarded in a season barrier… One thing was certain from the off mind: by failing to put Chopra in the starting XI, and unable to find a space on the bench for even one of Parry, Burke or Quincy (he’s been overlooked for so long now, maybe we oughta be getting suspicious. I more than insinuate foul play…), Dai Jones has settled for solely a play-off place. In many respects this is fair enough. There would be nowt worse than busting dozens of lungs only to fall at the final automatic promotion hurdle, thus entering the play-off’s gutted and drained. I’m off to watch us away at Charlton Athletic on Tuesday, so hopefully I’ll find myself in a better mood worthy of coherent expression upon returning.