BLUEBIRDS NEWS & VIEWS
Could Liverpool youngster be the loan star to fire Cardiff to safety? PLUS How boss Warnock can cure his team’s travel sickness:
CARDIFF City’s away record in the Premier League this season now reads: played six, won none, one point.
And even that solitary point came against 10-men.
So after a weekend that saw relegation rivals Huddersfield claim an excellent 2-0 away win at Wolves – and with potentially winnable away games at West Ham, Watford, Crystal Palace and Leicester around the corner – how can Cardiff solve their troubles on the road?
Their 1-0 defeat at Everton exposed a few issues that Neil Warnock must address immediately...
More flair required
You could see the logic in Warnock’s team selection at Goodison Park. Cardiff came to be compact, which is why Warnock picked four central midfielders, three of them defensiveminded in Aron Gunnarsson, Joe Ralls and Harry Arter and the fourth, Victor Camarasa, shoe-horned into a wide role.
But in truth, it was an imbalanced side with very little width or flair.
Their only real attacking impetus for the first 67 minutes of the match came from Kadeem Harris, a player who has only recently come back into Warnock’s thinking.
So therefore the Bluebirds were limited in how much progress they could make when the Toffees’ attacks broke down and the counter-attack was on.
Seeing Josh Murphy and Bobby Decordova-Reid on the bench at Everton was disappointing; not solely because the pair cost more than £20million in the summer, but also because they possessed the pace and flair to worry Marco Silva’s side.
Harris did well in the first half, but couldn’t really connect with the isolated Callum Paterson up front.
As a result, Cardiff had just seven shots and only one on target. They also failed to complete a single dribble in the game, according to WhoScored. Even in tough away fixtures such as this one, you feel Warnock could accommodate some more of his forward players, particularly Murphy who has been a shining light on the left wing this season.
That he wasn’t brought on until after Gylfi Sigurdsson had made it 1-0 was frustrating for the visiting fans.
Paterson needs a partner
Playing a traditional 4-4-2 would surely be folly for Cardiff in these Premier League away games, but Warnock must find a way of getting players closer to Paterson.
The Scot has done better than most would have expected in his time as the Bluebirds’ main centre forward, scoring three goals in six games.
It is telling that in the three games Paterson has found the net – against Fulham, Liverpool and Brighton – he’s had a genuine No.10 playing off him.
Against Fulham it worked brilliantly with Reid in the pocket, latching onto the knockdowns and picking up the
scraps, using his agility and close control to consolidate good positions.
Warnock may feel he cannot play Reid, an out-and-out No.10, on the road as it leaves Cardiff’s two central midfielders exposed behind him.
But he could ask Camarasa to play an advanced midfield role, which worked well in the win over Brighton. The Spaniard has the guile to play between the lines and get close to Paterson, as well as the work rate to help out his midfield.
Paterson has proven to be a tremendous outlet with his physicality but he just needs a little help.
Change the style (a little)
It was hardly a surprise that Cardiff saw less than 30 per cent of the ball at Goodison Park.
They’re never going to dominate possession in the backyard of a team like Everton, whose central midfield duo of Andre Gomes and Idrissa Gueye were supreme.
But playing just 115 accurate passes in the match is not enough and indicated a primarily long-ball gameplan, which played into the hands of Yerry Mina and Michael Keane in the Everton defence.
We’ve seen this before. Premier League defenders will cope much better with the aerial onslaught than their Championship counterparts. See the Burnley game for more details.
Again, Cardiff’s better performances this season have occurred when there’s been another dimension to their attacks. They have the players to mix it up, using Paterson as a target man while also deploying the skill possessed by Murphy, Reid and Camarasa.
The lack of joy from set pieces continues to frustrate but in a sense it’s part of the same problem. Top flight defences are coping, so Cardiff must adapt.
Playing Murphy, giving Camarasa a central role, helping out Paterson -these are all potential solutions to the same problem.
Overlapping full backs and the return of Joe Bennett may help too.
Cardiff’s limitations are being exposed away from home and if they’re to survive, they need to pick up more points on the road.