Last season, on the 9th April, Cardiff won at Reading to mathematically secure their Championship safety. It was a few days after a home trouncing by Swansea, which had shredded already frayed nerves and a load was lifted from everybody’s shoulders. Cardiff would certainly take that sort of breathing space again this season.
From that point on, Steve Morison had his sights firmly set on the following season. He tinkered with his selections and professed that his focus was now on a substantial summer rebuild. This approach was understandable, but also served as proof that you can never take your eye off the ball. Especially in the slightly manic Championship.
Cardiff lost four of their next six, sacrificing any momentum and, little did Morison realise at the time, set him up for a fall. Only 10 games later, he was gone.
Such is the cyclical nature of Cardiff’s plight, that both Morison and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were both sacked on 18th September, eight years apart, for broadly comparable reasons.
Both had ended a season badly and seen that tacked on to a patchy start to the following campaign. Neither was afforded the opportunity to fashion a newly built squad into a cohesive whole, at a club that has demonstrated very little long-term faith in rookie managers.
Solskjaer has occupied my thoughts again recently, due to Sabri Lamouchi’s slightly scattergun approach to team selection. The recurring joke during Solskjaer’s time in charge was that he used a tombola to pick his team because there was very little rhyme or reason to his seemingly random picks.
Lamouchi has a long way to go before plumping those depths, but he has already tried various combinations and systems, with varying degrees of success. On Saturday at Norwich, he appeared to play a midfield four, which looked like two sets of two, with Joe Ralls and Jaden Philogene behind a central striker. It worked like a dream for 15 minutes, and less so after that.
There has also been 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 5-3-2 and a revolving cast of characters, over the course of six games. This is all perfectly understandable, as Lamouchi is learning on the job. He was dropped in and by his own admission, it took him a couple of weeks to get a handle of his squad. He also appears to tailor his side to his opponents, which is a rather radical concept for Cardiff, but there is always a danger of looking too cute.
With time running out and coming off the back of successive wins, it did feel like Lamouchi was disrupting a winning side. Maybe his hand was forced by Callum Robinson’s untimely injury, or maybe he would have done it anyway. When you get it right, you look like a tactical mastermind, but when you get it wrong, as Solskjaer can attest, people start to think that you’re making it up as you go along.
This is all unsurprising at a club as wracked by indecision as Cardiff, but what it has conspired to create is a sense of a never-ending pre-season.
It feels like Cardiff have yet to get going since securing safety 11 months ago. There have been moments and the odd good performance here and there, but very little continuity in personnel or results. Morison was experimenting back in April last year and now Lamouchi is doing the same, with Cardiff in much the same perilous position.
I like what I see and hear from Lamouchi. He feels managerial, which seems like a strange thing to say about a manager, but its not always a given. Morison felt like the bad cop assistant that had been promoted above his station and Mark Hudson, despite captaining almost every side he’s ever played for, seemed to lack leadership as a manager.
Lamouchi has an authority and gravitas that the other two lacked. Whether that is due to a decorated playing career or the courage of his convictions, he radiates a confidence in his own abilities that you believe and trust. Pairing him with the warm, cuddly Sol Bamba was also a masterstroke because it will buy him both time and goodwill.
The problem is that Cardiff’s games are still so gentle and still have an inconsequential feel, despite the ruinous fate that hangs over them. Like pre-season friendlies, where teams have differing levels of fitness, Cardiff feel like they’re endlessly finding their feet, in search of the right intensity and blend. Opponents are ready to roll, while Cardiff never feel more than a work in progress.
Time is running out though and all that matters now is numbers on the board. With Bristol City coming to town tomorrow, what better place to start. It’s time for the dress rehearsals to finally end and for Cardiff to step forward with performances to wow the critics.