NEW BOY GRUJIC MAKES HIS POINT
SATURDAY evening yielded a frustrating draw for Cardiff City at Hillsborough.
There were some key talking points to emerge, particularly the solid performances of new boys Yanic Wildschut and Marko Grujic, as well as the off-colour showing from centre-back Sol Bamba.
However, there were several other points of discussion, some of which you may have missed.
SHOULD ZOHORE’S ‘GOAL’ HAVE STOOD?
THE Dane had the ball in the net on 12 minutes, curling home a brilliant effort into the top corner of the net after appearing to break free of his man 25 yards from goal. However, referee Roger East then called play back for an apparent foul on defender Jordan Thorniley, much to the forward’s frustration.
Replays pointed to the slightest of pushes from Zohore, although boss Neil Warnock wasn’t as convinced.
He said after the game: “It was never a foul on Zohore in a million years.
“It was shoulder to shoulder, I don’t know what they see, in the olden days they’d never thought about it being a foul. I think he felt sorry for the defender because he was that strong he brushed him off.”
On the plus side, the quality of Zohore’s finish suggests he still has something about him in front of goal.
THE RETURN, AT LAST, OF KADEEM HARRIS
A POSITIVE from the trip to South Yorkshire that cannot be underestimated.
The winger’s appearance from the bench during the last 10 minutes at Hillsborough was his first of the season and, having been a key man for the Bluebirds last term, Warnock will surely be delighted to have him back in the fold.
The return of the 24-year-old, combined with the acquisition of Yanic Wildschut, means Warnock now has plenty of wide options at his disposal, with Junior Hoilett, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Callum Paterson also vying for consideration.
A nice problem to have.
A CASE FOR THE DEFENCE
DESPITE riding their luck at times, Cardiff’s defence managed their 12th clean sheet of the season on Saturday evening, edging them closer to a goal set by Warnock before the season.
He explained: “We set our stall out to get 15. To have 12, I’m really pleased with that.
“We’ve got to get a bit better at finishing, but that will come with Yanic and Marko coming on and probably another striker coming in, it augurs well for the second half of the season.”
To put it into perspective, Cardiff have already overtaken their tally of 11 clean sheets from last season.
It also surpasses the number of clean sheets they had at this stage of the 2012-13 season (also 11), and we all know what happened that year.
Such figures show Cardiff really are moving in the right direction in terms of their promotion chase.
BAMBA AND MANGA FALL OUT
HAVING said all that, it wasn’t the best of games for the centre-backs, with Sol Bamba and Bruno Manga enduring a tricky evening at a bitterly cold Hillsborough.
Lucas Joao and Adam Reach both caused plenty of problems for Cardiff’s back three.
The former got the better of Bamba on several occasions, and it very nearly proved costly for the Bluebirds, as the Portuguese forward turned away from the challenge to slip in Jordan Rhodes, whose venomous strike was subsequently palmed away well by Etheridge.
Both centre-backs then furiously remonstrated with each other, labelling the other as the guilty party.
It was a moment that summed up the uncharacteristic lack of coehsion between the two players - a theme that unfortunately continued throughout the evening.
ZOHORE NEEDS A REAL PARTNER UP FRONT
THE Dane is showing signs of getting back to his best after recent injury troubles, but he is in desperate need of a goal.
Saturday’s blank stretched the striker’s barren run to six games in all competitions, and, unfortunately, there are signs that he may well be falling into some unwelcome old habits.
A colossus in the air, the lack of support in the final third of the field saw Zohore once again pulled too wide to really become any sort of a goal threat, even finding himself being the one whipping crosses into team-mates.
To put it simply, Zohore has to be the one on the end of crosses, not the one making them. Cardiff need to find a man capable of playing off him in order to offer him the freedom to focus on putting the ball in the net.