BLUEBIRDS ACES HAVE A TOUCH OF PREM CLASS
“I think he could play in the Premier League.”
If a single throwaway comment summed up a football match, it was this one.
It came from a disgruntled Wolves pundit and was directed at the brilliant Kenneth Zohore, but if Cardiff City continue in this vein for the next few weeks, it could easily be thrown around with a lot more freedom.
The season is still young of course, but it wont be much more time before the pundits, commentators and bookmakers take notice of this Cardiff side. The same side most had tipped for a mediocre mid-table campaign just a few weeks ago.
Those predictions are quickly being re-written.
Such has been the maturity and intelligence on display from Neil Warnock’s side, as it was again at Molineux.
Cardiff have already been forced to overcome some significant hurdles this season.
Because despite making a dream start to this Championship season with three wins from three before this game, the club had to deal with unwanted stories surrounding two of their big stars – Zohore and Lee Tomlin – just before kick-off.
Stories of that nature would normally unsettle a lesser team, but not one under the guidance of Warnock.
Zohore typified the kind of physicality and resilience that the veteran manager always demands in this bruising West Midlands battle. There were hefty challenges flying in from the two sides but Cardiff soon found a way to grind down Nuno Espirito Santo’s side and disrupt the ‘total football’ he wants.
Given the speculation surrounding Zohore and the Premier League interest from Brighton, it was a levelheaded display from the Dane who, like his teammates, is taking it in his stride.
In the first half it was Joe Ralls, Aron Gunnarsson and Loic Damour, Warnock’s warriors, who simultaneously drove the team forward and pegged the hosts back, while Zohore was the battering ram that kept hurt- ing Wolves. Each showed remarkable resilience, particularly Damour – brought in for Tomlin, as Warnock favoured a solid centre – who played a blinder in a hostile atmosphere.
After a while Cardiff reaped their rewards; Ralls sweeping home 10 minutes into a tempestuous second half, following a typical intervention from Gunnarsson and a mazy run from Junior Hoilett. The in-form Canadian twisted Wolves full-back Matt Doherty inside out to square for the on-rushing Ralls, who was on hand to apply a canny finish that rolled into the back post.
Wolves fans railed; first against the officials and then against their own players. Earlier there had been appeals for Damour to be dismissed after claims of an elbow.
But you’d be hard pushed to deny the fact that Cardiff deserved their lead. Nobody could deny Ralls deserved it, after another dynamic display in the middle. Because never mind Zohore and fellow goal scorer Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, the young No 8 is a player revived under Warnock.
Just like Hoilett, Gunnarsson, Sol Bamba and so many others. Join the queue, Joe. The Warnock effect is happening across the pitch. But Wolves weren’t finished. They were in sparking form themselves before this one and had the quality to crack even this toughest of nuts. They had the craft to drift past Ralls and Gunnarsson and manipulate full-backs Lee Peltier and Jazz Richards out of position. They’ve spent close to £50million since January and boasted the talents of Diogo Jota and Leo Bonatini, not to mention the silky playmaking duo Ruben Neves and Romain Saiss.
It was that clash of cultures in midfield that made for such an intriguing contest and for 10 minutes it looked like the golden shirts were finally forcing an advantage. For a moment Cardiff’s midfield was cut open and Bonatini levelled the scores.
It was a 67th minute hammer blow to Cardiff’s chances; following a delightful Jota cross that was cannoned goalwards by Barry Douglas and placed home by Bonatini. The floodgates might then have opened, given those tiring Cardiff legs and the depth of Wolves’ offensive options.
In another season, with another manager, the Bluebirds would surely have conceded again and traipsed home empty handed. It didn’t happen. Warnock didn’t let it.
Zohore had actually spurned a couple of great chances before the Bonatini leveller, finding only John Ruddy at the near post. In another season, he might have been left to rue those.
But they came again, as a team but leaning heavily on Zohore and the pace of Mendez-Laing. Five times in five matches the powerful winger – scooped up on a Bosman deal from League One Rochdale – has scored, each one a beauty in its own right.
On this occasion, after troubling Douglas throughout, the red-hot wide man was finally gifted the acres of space he craved. The sledgehammer finish in the 77th minute triggered pandemonium among the 1,500 travelling Bluebirds – and why not?
They’re watching a team playing with supreme confidence, so feel confident themselves.
Why not when the whole team looks capable of a promotion push? Why not when Warnock is so bullish, so thrilled with his players?
Forget hexes, forget commentators’ curses, this Cardiff side are the real deal and will take some beating. That Wolves pundit was probably referring to Brighton’s interest in Zohore when mentioning the ‘p’ word, but any of these Cardiff players could hold their own in the big league on current form.