Lamouchi left with a headache in defence
CARDIFF City fans yearn for the days of Jamilu Collins bombing beyond Callum O’Dowda on that left flank.
The halcyon days were just six months ago, but to some it feels like a lifetime has past since then. Time drags when your club slip deeper into the mire, which is where the Bluebirds currently find themselves.
The promise of early-season is but a memory now. Collins and O’Dowda’s partnership on the left looked set to take the Championship by storm as they both played their part in City earning seven points from the first four games.
But disaster struck in that fourth game. A seemingly innocuous incident saw left-back Collins hit the deck and writhe in pain before being brought off.
“With all the will in the world, let’s hope it is just that he’s in really bad pain at the minute and it’s not what we suspect it might be,” then-manager Steve Morison said after the full-time whistle at The Hawthorns. “I said to the lads at half-time, ‘If you’re going to put your bodies on the line for anyone, go and do it for him’, because he has been the best left-back in the league so far.”
Morison was right to say that. Collins was the best left-back in the league at that time. His fears were to be realised, though, as in his next press conference, the manager informed the gathered media that the Nigeria international was out for the season.
And, in truth, Cardiff have never sufficiently plugged the gap.
Niels Nkounkou flattered to deceive, Joel Bagan has not been fancied and Jack Simpson, more recently, has been dicey on the left-hand side of defence.
O’Dowda has been more than capable there, but it’s no coincidence that City’s attacking output has suffered as a consequence.
So, what now? Because that position has cost City a number of points this season. How does Lamouchi solve the equation? Well, here’s his take on the situation.
“For the first game, Callum O’Dowda was not available,” he said. “So we started with Jack in at left-back and everybody knows he is not a left-back. But he did not so bad in Luton and we tried to keep the same back four in Hull. Because with the qualities of Callum, they are more offensive than defensive, and we thought he could help us to score or assist and to create more.
“Unfortunately, Jack gets substituted just after the goal – you receive the kick. I said unfortunately, because maybe if he received the same kick five minutes before, you can make the change.
“But they are two different players. I don’t think Callum is a left-back. I don’t think Jack is a left-back. So they are playing there just because we don’t have the left-back at the moment. We need to find the right system, with the right players in that system.”
Fortunately, Cardiff have been buoyed by the return of Mahlon Romeo this weekend – and what a miss he has been.
Romeo has arguably been the most consistent performer of them all across the season and his absence on the right-hand side of defence has come at the detriment of the team. Neither Tom Sang nor Perry Ng have really flourished there.
However, his return could potentially mean a back three of Ng, Cedric Kipre and Mark McGuinness could be deployed, with Romeo and O’Dowda operating as wing-backs. As things stand, that appears to be the best option, particularly against a high-flying and free-scoring Middlesbrough team.
Having wing-backs of such quality, with big strikers like Sory Kaba and Kion Etete either starting or as bench options, means Cardiff’s mantra of putting balls into the box finally has a chance of being successful.
There is also the option of going gung-ho, so to speak, and he could play Romeo on the right, Ng on the left with McGuinness and Kipre making up a back four, with O’Dowda further up the pitch to get those balls into the box.
Either way, it’s a big shift away from the style of football implemented by Morison at the start of the season, but at this moment in time it’s horses for courses and that appears the best way to solve the painful goal drought currently sending City down to League One.
Alternatively, of course, there is the option to bring in a free agent, which would seemingly solve a number of issues. Fans have called for City to look in the free agent market, believing it to be a priority even over signing another striker.
But Lamouchi is reticent to bring in players from the cold who will need time to work up to speed, even if former England left-back Danny Rose and Tyler Blackett, who worked under the Frenchman at Nottingham Forest, are both available.
So, when asked whether he would potentially look at the free agent market to solve the leftback issue, Lamouchi replied; “Yes, but I’m not trying to look around, I need to find the solution. As you know, we play after tomorrow at home, after that, two days after, we travel to Birmingham. So three games in one week, I need to focus on the players in my locker rooms and not outside just to find the solution.”
For the time-being, at least, the answer to the question has to be in-house.