BLUEBIRDS
COULD DAN BE THE MAN FOR CARDIFF IN PREM?
IT may read as a defeat on paper, but Cardiff City’s performance against Arsenal will have given fans so many reasons to feel optimistic.
Victor Camarasa and Danny Ward’s goals ensured the Bluebirds got off the mark in terms of finding the net in the top flight, but there was lots more to feel enthused about.
These are the talking points from the 3-2 loss as Cardiff go into the international break...
A new league, a new system
IN their first three Premier League games, Cardiff pursued a policy of continuity: the 4-3-3 that had served them well in the Championship was restored but three blanks in front of goal ensued.
Neil Warnock has his critics as a manager but following the Huddersfield stalemate the veteran was pragmatic, not dogmatic as he admitted in the wake of this clash. He had to change things.
“We’ve tried it with one up front in the Championship but at this level the players are too good and we’d never see the ball or create anything so we tried the system out in midweek,” he said.
The result was an asymmetrical 4-4-2 with Ward and Bobby Reid, both brought into the side, playing as hard-working strikers and Camarasa working his socks off as a right midfielder. Warnock’s hand had been forced to an extent with Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Josh Murphy both injured, but this was one in the eye for the Yorkshireman’s many detractors.
Not just the formation, but the approach. Ward and Reid pressed Arsenal’s back line, with Unai Emery’s determination to play out from goalkeeper Petr Cech which meant the Bluebirds always had a sniff in the final third.
Warnock didn’t get the result he wanted, but his tactical changes were justified.
Ward and Reid give Zohore problems
MUCH of the debate after Cardiff’s successive 0-0 draws surrounded striker Kenneth Zohore.
The narrative was pretty plain; Zohore might be struggling for goals but he’s Warnock’s best option for the lone centre forward’s role.
And yet both the change in system and the impact of Ward and Reid has turned all that on its head.
Ward looked up for the physical challenge posed by Arsenal’s Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi, while Reid was unrelenting in his movement and link-up play between the lines.
The more diminutive pair demanded a different game-plan, with fewer long balls and more nuance in the Bluebirds attack play.
Have Cardiff unearthed a strike duo to give themselves a more potent goal threat? Ward and Reid have certainly given Zohore food for thought: the Dane is no longer a guaranteed starter if Warnock chooses to play this way.
Class wins the day
ANOTHER message that Warnock was keen to send in his post-match press conference was simply that a higher quality of player paid dividends for the visitors.
Ultimately, that determined the outcome of a frenetic contest.
It was evident in almost everything Alexandre Lacazette did in the second half. The Frenchman oozed class, as did Mesut Ozil and PierreEmerick Aubameyang. But then the Gunners paid a combined £145million for the trio. That’s what money can buy.
“We’d have won the game with them (in our side),” Warnock surmised about the Gunners’ forwards, while also airing a frustration or two about his team’s finishing, which was a little inconsistent on the day.
Cardiff wont pay £50million for a player any time soon, but if they play with the kind of verve and vigour they showed against Arsenal, they will pick up plenty of points this season. Bennett and Etheridge look right at home
CONCERNS may well linger on about Cardiff’s centre-backs, Sean Morrison and Sol Bamba, who were really at fault for Arsenal’s three goals between them.
There might also be more discussion about Bruno Manga’s role and whether he can be Cardiff ’s right back in the Premier League for a prolonged period.
But the other two members of the Bluebirds’ back five have looked every inch at home in the top flight.
Neil Etheridge may just feel he might have stopped Lacazette’s fierce winner; Joe Bennett might feel he could have limited the France international a little more on the day.
But to chastise either of them for their Premier League displays so far would be extremely harsh.
Etheridge has made 17 saves in four games, picking up two clean sheets. Bennett provided a sharp cross to create for Camarasa’s goal and marauded brilliant up and down the left flank.
In their performances, and so much more in the Arsenal game, there were huge positives for Cardiff City.