the russell slade take on things and v middlesborough

thanks tda for the w-o-l source

Under-fire Cardiff City manager Russell Slade has come out fighting and urged fans to show patience as he guides the club slowly back towards the Premier League

Russell Slade insists he can turn it around at Cardiff CityRussell Slade insists he can turn it around at Cardiff City
Cardiff City boss Russell Slade has urged patience from supporters as he guides the club through a ‘transitional period’.

The Bluebirds are on the brink of seeing their hopes of bouncing back to the Premier League vanish completely, if they haven’t already, as they lie 13th in the table, ten points off the top six places.

Things for Slade and his men are not about to get any easier either with their defeat at Norwich on the weekend followed by a trip to fourth-placed Middlesbrough tonight with Derby, currently third in the table, the visitors to the Welsh capital next following a break for FA Cup action.

Slade has been in place officially since October 6 and, despite a promising start at home at least, the performances of his side coupled with their failure to pick up points has led to a chorus of criticism from some sections of supporters.

But Slade now insists he needs time to impose his philosophy and way of working on the side.

He inherited a big squad from predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer which Slade has already described as ‘thrown together’ and, after years of big spending under owner Vincent Tan, Slade said his biggest job at the club right now was to rationalise finances and bring the size of his Cardiff squad under some sort of control.

“People are entitled to their opinions about the job I’m doing at the club,” said Slade.

“But when I came we were 17th and clearly there were problems here. Whether they were to do with the squad’s fitness levels or, more importantly, perhaps off the pitch matters.

“We can’t sustain the budget we were on long term, there was is no way for that to continue. Things now have to be done sensibly and things run properly. We’ve had two players brought in so far and there will be more coming, but we’ve had seven or eight going out and that had to be done.

“There were good players here for sure, but we had to address the size of that squad and try to instil a philosophy that would improve things going forward.

“We are doing that right now. Look, it does not matter who is in charge here, the club is in a transitional period, structurally it is in a transitional period and we will emerge better for it.”

Investment
Slade’s comments will raise questions about Tan’s on-going financial commitment to the club following the billionaire businessman’s recent decision to reverse his re-branding of home shirts from red to a return to the traditional blue, but both Tan himself and Slade insist things on that front remain unchanged.

On the pitch Slade was left bewildered by the performance of his defence at Norwich, but also pleased by the spirit shown in the second-half as the Bluebirds fought back with two goals.

One came from new signing Alex Revell, on his first start, and a first league goal for youngster Kadeem Harris who is pushing for a start at Boro after his manager threatened changes to personnel following events at Carrow Road.

Cardiff also missed a penalty against the Canaries and, despite the ultimate defeat, Slade insisted there had been positives for him to take from the encounter.

“Defensively, things were not where we wanted them to be at Norwich in the first-half,” said Slade.

“But what I was pleased with were our physical statistics. Once again they were excellent.

“We covered more ground than in any other match so far. It shows how hard we are working.

“For two of the Norwich goals for example we had nine and then ten men behind the ball.

“People were there, we were not short of numbers.

“There’s four Norwich players there and we have to look at why people were not marking, we have to look at dealing with the second and third phases of the ball.

“But I’m pleased with the work-rate of the players at least.

“Things are moving in the right direction.”
The work-rate from the Bluebirds and just about everything else is going to have to be first rate at the Riverside as they face a Boro outfit beaten just twice in its last 21 Championship outings.

Indeed Aitor Karanka’s men are unbeaten at home since way back in August.

Slade admits it is going to be a tough test for his side and knows that form on the road, where Cardiff have won just once all season, does need to improve.

But he points out that of late he and his men have had to pit their wits against some of the most in-form sides the Championship has to offer this season.

Results business
“Away from home we need some positive results there’s no doubt about that,” added Slade.

“It’s been a testing time and with Boro and Derby coming up that means we will have faced six of the top seven in a very short space of time.

“But we will keep going, we travel to Boro looking for the win as always, but we know how tough it is going to be.

“They are a very good side with a group of players there who have been together for a very long time.”