Can you defend the boo boys?

 BOO! Cardiff City have been roundly castigated for wasting time at the end of their goalless draw at home to Arsenal in the FA Cup at the weekend.

Apparently, the Championship side were supposed to go all-out for the winner against the Londoners, rather than aim for a money-spinning replay at the Emirates.

Even Cardiff’s own fans didn’t appear to enjoy their team’s tactics much, given the chorus of jeers that accompanied midfielder Joe Ledley doing the old hide-the-ball dance near the corner flag.

Strange thing though, booing your own team.

The great advantage of being a fan inside the ground is that you have (or at least, believe you have) some sort of influence on events on the pitch through the use of your vocal chords — so why use that power to have a pop at the blokes on your side?

Especially when they are merely trying to earn the club a few extra quid.

At least it wasn’t a personal thing in Cardiff’s case. Because that’s the strangest kind of booing, that completely defies logic.

Imagine it in your own place of work: having a boss who stands on your shoulder jeering you, questioning your parentage and accusing you of being a ‘reject’ from a rival company.

Would it make you work any harder?

I doubt that many ‘employee of the month’ certificates have gone the way of people subjected to this sort of abuse.

Likewise, the left-back at your club of choice may well be overweight, underskilled and blessed with the tactical nous of a garden snail — but it won’t help his game, or your team’s efforts, to remind him of his inadequacies. Gee him up a bit, it could work wonders.

But enough about Andreas Dossena.

His manager, Rafa Benitez, would not sink as low as Cardiff in digging in for a stalemate, of course.

The Liverpool boss — who sensibly played with just one striker (if Dirk Kuyt counts) against world football powerhouses Stoke City recently — attacked neighbours Everton for their defensive mentality in the most recent 1-1 Anfield draw.

“I never tried to play that way when I was manager of Valencia,” said Benitez, echoing the ‘small club’ jibe of a couple of years ago. “Only when I was at Extremadura.” Sounds painful.

Still, if Everton possessed a £20million striker of Robbie Keane’s calibre, they would have been less defensive.

Maybe, too, if Liverpool had spent their Champions League cash a little more wisely in recent years, they would have a couple more game-breaking players capable of unlocking massed defences.