Cardiff’s building Front men are finally a promising rapport
Before the season got underway, the prospect of Kieffer Moore and James Collins starting up front together was a hugely appealing one from a Cardiff City standpoint.
Moore, off the back of a 20-goal season, was the unrivalled talisman up top in this Bluebirds side, indeed Sean Morrison branded him the best striker in the league at the beginning of the campaign.
Mick McCarthy had brought in Collins on a free and it looked to be a more than decent signing, given the Republic of Ireland striker had posted double figures in terms of goals for the last five seasons on the bounce.
Collins scored four times in pre-season and, in the absence of Moore following the Euros and Covid struggles, looked to be the man Cardiff would lean on for early goals in this campaign.
It seemed almost unthinkable that we would have to wait for his 17th game in a Bluebirds shirt before he found the back of the net, but that was the case up at Preston North End on Saturday during a man-of-the-man cameo from the bench.
Moore himself struggled at the start of the season, but following this noticeable shift to a more attacking style of football, he now has three goals in three games for his club and four in four if you include his strike for Wales against Belgium.
He finally looks to be back in top form and Cardiff’s changed mindset and tactics will only be more conducive to allowing him to score goals. Indeed, he has said so himself.
“You can time runs better. You’ve got time on the ball. You can’t, as we were doing, just turn possession over,” Moore said of the football under the new management.
“I feel like we really impose ourselves on teams now and making our own luck.
“It’s been a much-improved system and it’s been for the better.
“I think this change of management has helped me. It’s got more players around me, I’ve had more chances on goal since that [change]. I’m not saying that’s the reason, but the more chances I get the more likely it is I can repeat last year.”
That, of course, is music to Cardiff fans’ ears. If they can get Moore and Collins singing off the same hymn sheet then that could cause some real concerns for opposition defenders.
McCarthy’s pre-season prediction about Moore and Collins was they would be “a right handful together”. For whatever reason, that hasn’t happened just yet.
Injuries, illness, lack of form and poor football have all played their part, but now, more than ever, feels like the perfect time to unleash them from the off against Hull City.
Moore is the obvious target man, while Collins, as he showed up at Preston, will run himself into the ground as he looks to pull defenders left and right and create room for others. They do have the ingredients to be that potent front two McCarthy had hoped to see.
Importantly, while Cardiff’s football has undoubtedly shifted to cause more of a threat on the ground, their last four goals have all come from headers - meaning 13 of City’s 19 Championship goals this season have come from headers - and Moore and Collins are the two best heading strikers the Bluebirds have in their ranks.
Morison decided to play two up front against Preston and it seems logical to do that again against Hull, especially considering Wednesday’s visi
tors have an injury crisis among their defenders.
Moore missed out up at Deepdale following his taxing outing against Belgium with Wales last week, but Morison said he hoped to have him fit and available for Hull.
It’s a big game on Wednesday night, make no mistake about that, Hull are another team battling it out near the bottom and Cardiff will see this as a winnable fixture. They need their forwards firing and Moore and Collins together, in form and confident, could be just the ticket.
The pace of Isaak Davies, Mark Harris or even Chanka Zimba can be options off the bench, but it’s time to see if Cardiff’s two senior strikers, with bags of goals in the tank, can strike up that partnership all Cardiff fans have been dying to see flourish this season.
At a crucial juncture in the campaign, seeing those two thrive off each other could provide the timeliest of catalysts to get the Bluebirds out of this precarious position in which they find themselves.
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WORLD Rugby have published the final rankings of 2021 following the completion of the Autumn Nations Series.
Wales have moved up one place to eighth after Saturday’s dramatic 29-28 victory over Australia and the previous week’s win over Fiji.
Wales leapfrogged Argentina after the South American side’s comprehensive 53-7 defeat to Ireland in Dublin yesterday.
Elsewhere, France and Australia have switched places. France have moved up to fifth following their impressive 40-25 victory over the All Blacks, while Australia have dropped to sixth following their defeat in Cardiff.
Despite their 27-26 defeat against England at Twickenham on Saturday, world champions South Africa remain top, with New Zealand unable to capitalise following two defeats to Ireland and France in their last two outings.
England remain in third spot following their victory over the Springboks, while Ireland’s unbeaten Autumn campaign sees them finish the year in fourth. Both sides look poised for a strong 2022.
Scotland finish the year in seventh after their Autumn series saw them come away with three victories and just one defeat.
Japan will finish the year occupying the final spot in the top 10 despite defeats to Scotland and Ireland in recent weeks.