By Gareth James
Steve Morison took no prisoners as a player and he has no plans to open up a new jail at Cardiff City.
He may not have been the name on everyone’s lips when the Bluebirds were casting around for a solution to the crisis which engulfed Mick McCarthy, but attitudes among fans are markedly different at present.
Morison was a no-nonsense striker at Millwall, Norwich and Leeds and he is turning into a similar manager at Cardiff.
Thrust into the managerial hot seat when McCarthy was axed in October, he has turned a team threatened with relegation into a side that now sits 14 points above the drop zone after winning four of their last five games.
They get the chance to showcase their new, winning culture on Saturday when they welcome Blackpool to Cardiff City Stadium.
The aim will be a fourth win in a row at home and a three consecutive clean-sheets.
A superb January transfer window, that saw him bring in Premier League quality in wing back Cody Drameh from Leeds, midfielder Tommy Doyle from Man City and striker Jordan Hugill from Norwich, has transformed the team’s fortunes.
🗣️ “Blackpool will be an interesting one. They’ve got their way of playing, and as always we will work on what we’re going to do.”
📺 Watch Steve Morison’s pre-match press conference in full on @CardiffCityTV!#CityAsOne
— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) February 18, 2022
But there is also another vital ingredient – the clarity that Morison’s no-holds-barred appraisal of his players has brought.
On Tuesday night he hauled off striker Max Watters after only 37 minutes of the 2-0 win over Coventry City because he wasn’t happy with his output.
He had done the same thing to 20-year-old Zak Davies at Bournemouth, when he brought him off the bench at the start of the second half and then subbed him half-an-hour later.
When asked why his teenage Welsh international striker Rubin Colwill wasn’t starting more games he replied bluntly “he isn’t good enough at the moment”.
It all may have raised eyebrows, but it has got him results.
“We had a debrief with Max the day after the game and it was brilliant, it went really well. I had my sports performance coach come in on it as well and we spoke how he was feeling about the situation and then we went through everything,” explained Morison.
“In the cold light of day we deal with facts and the facts were that on the night what we had asked of him, and what he produced, wasn’t good enough.
“Once the facts were there for everyone to see there were no grey areas. We ended the conversation in a different place to where we started.”
His explanation on Watters’ performance earlier in the week was as direct and honest as he had been when discussing Davies a few weeks earlier.
Set max Watters free!!! pic.twitter.com/ap5pLM1mze
— Adam Jones 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 (@AdzjoMK) February 15, 2022
On Watters he said: “He just wasn’t good enough. You can’t play up front in any team in the Championship and not have a physical edge to your game.”
On Davies’ substitution at Bournemouth he simply said: “He was more of a hindrance than a help.”
“I’m no different with Zak now that I was with him when I was in charge of the U23s. These kids coming through need to know what the real world is like,” he added.
“There is no better classroom than the real world. I don’t do it to be hard or horrible with them.
“Alignment brings clarity and misalignment brings chaos. We’ve had enough chaos and we all want clarity and to be going in the same direction.
“There is no surprise that there has been an upturn in form among the strikers now there are more of them in the building.”
Helping him to build a winning culture in the Welsh capital, and pitch for the job on a full-time basis, is performance coach and sports psychologist Steve Sallis.
Blackpool will be without nine players at Cardiff tomorrow, but that’s almost the norm. But why are injuries so prevalent at Bloomfield Road?
This week’s column 👇https://t.co/BmZPZiYHy9
— Matt Scrafton (@matt_scrafton) February 18, 2022
“As soon as I came in I said I wanted a performance coach / psychologist to work on the mindset of the players and to work with the staff. I wanted him to have the conversations I can’t have and to get to know people,” added Morison.
“I knew Steve from my time at Millwall. He has definitely helped and he comes in a few times every few weeks and is there to support the players.
“He is there to create a clear mind and a clear way of working at the club. I would like to get to a place one day where you name a squad and a team and you don’t have to go to speak to any individuals because everyone understand that we are trying to pick the best players for that game.
“That takes a while, but it’s what you see with Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool squad and how he keeps everything together.”