Tag: Cardiff City

Reviewing Cardiff City’s Season

Cardiff City finished the Championship season with a 1-1 home draw with relegated Rotherham United, meaning they finished the campaign in 8th place.

The Bluebirds finished on 68 points, nine points behind the play-off places. Despite missing out on a top six finish, there are several positives to be taken away from a long Championship season.

The most obvious positive from the 2020/21 season is City’s top scorer and player of the season, Kieffer Moore. The Welshman finished the season with 20 league goals and is the first person to reach this landmark since Peter Whittingham 11 years ago.

The striker arrived at the start of the season for just £2million and has been a revelation in his first season for the club.

The other new faces at the club, Perry Ng, Dillon Phillips, along with Liverpool loanees, Harry Wilson and Sheyi Ojo, also had an impressive season with the Blues.

Wilson will go back to Liverpool with 7 goals and 11 assists. Most notably a hat-trick just last week against Birmingham.

Towards the end of January, Cardiff found themselves on a run of six consecutive defeats, meaning they were sat in 15th place, a mere three points away from the relegation zone.

From this point, the board decided to sack manager, Neil Harris. Harris helped City finish in a play-off place in the previous campaign but his results in the first half of this season meant he would not continue with the club.

Soon after, former Wolves and Republic of Ireland boss, Mick McCarthy was named first team coach until the end of the season.

It took 12 games for McCarthy to experience his first loss as Cardiff manager. Which included an impressive six game win streak. It was he, who got fans believing a play-off place was still possible.

In December Cardiff lost 2-0 to South Wales rivals, Swansea before getting their revenge in March when they held on to get a well-fought 1-0 victory at the Liberty Stadium.

Cardiff players celebrating Aden Flint’s winning goal against Swansea.

City’s biggest defeat this season came late on in the season against, now relegated, Sheffield Wednesday in a 5-0 defeat away.

It was publicly announced in January that Bluebirds defender and fan-favourite, Sol Bamba, has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and was already undergoing treatment.

Bamba made a late appearance in City’s final game of the season against Rotherham.

After the game, manager Mick McCarthy said: “It is always our intention to finish as high as we possibly can”.

“I’m a bit miffed, I thought we could have had more points with some of them draws, but then you could probably look across games and see we got a win when we shouldn’t have done,” McCarthy added.

McCarthy is expected to have a big player haul this summer with six players out of contract. He has also said we will find out soon who will be staying and who will be going.

Can McCarthy get Cardiff a play-off place next season?

Why it is Finally Time for Glatzel to Shine for the Bluebirds

The news broke this week that Cardiff City’s top scorer, Kieffer Moore, would miss at least the next five games for his side. With the striker out, it must now be time for next-in-line, Robert Glatzel, to fill in for the Welshman as City’s main source of goals.

The German forward, Glatzel, was signed under Neil Warnock at the start of the 2019/20 campaign for a fee of around £5.5 million. He has since gone on to net 10 goals in the Championship in that time including the opening goal against Birmingham on Wednesday evening.

Cardiff sealed a late victory against Birmingham, with Sean Morrison netting in the 89th minute making it 3-2 to the home side. Glatzel opened the scoring on the night after filling in for the injured Kieffer Moore.

Despite getting the first goal of the match, the striker also saw his penalty saved by former teammate, Neil Etheridge. His goal, however, was his third in the league this season.

Given the forward’s counterpart, Moore, has been the Bluebirds main source of goals so far this season, the majority of his appearances have come off of the bench.

Despite most of his City goals coming with his feet, the 6-foot 4 striker is known for being good in the air. His positioning during his last few appearances has lacked but there is now a chance to turn his wrongs into rights.

Playing, Liverpool-loanee, Harry Wilson, in the number ten position could be the key to unlocking his goal scoring potential but Wilson has spent most of his time at the club playing on the right of a front three. However, during the victory against Birmingham on Wednesday, he was given his chance in the attacking midfield role, which allowed him to contribute with a goal and two assists.

After the news of Moore’s injury, fans were obviously disappointed, but many have since pointed out that this could be exactly what Glatzel needs to get some much needed starts and hopefully add to his goal tally for the upcoming games.

Cardiff’s next fixtures include a trip to title toppers Norwich, a home match against sixth-placed Brentford and finish 2020 with a trip to strugglers Wycombe. Can Glatzel finish the year off with a bang?

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