KEN CAN BE MY MARKO
NEIL WARNOCK believes his out-ofsorts striker Ken Zohore could be as effective for Cardiff as Marko Arnautovic is for West Ham.
The Bluebirds boss says he has not given up on his Danish target man (below), even though he has only given him three starts this season.
Warnock went to France to watch Nantes striker Emiliano Sala this week, but claims that if Zohore gets back to his best he won’t need to bring in a new striker in January.
“When I look at West Ham’s Marko Arnautovic, six months ago he was idle, never bothered and probably got a manager the sack here or there,” said Warnock.
“Then the penny dropped, he started working his socks off and now he is one of the best strikers in the country.
“That is what you’ve got to do, it has to come from within. When you have the qualities Ken has, you’ve got to have the desire to make the most of them.
“If he is firing, I don’t think we’d have to buy anyone up front in January. We are looking because he isn’t firing at the moment.
“The priority at the moment is to give Ken a couple of weeks of pre-season training and get him ready for selection for the Man United game.
“If we could get him firing on all cylinders that would eliminate a lot of our problems.”
Cardiff host relegation rivals Southampton today and will be hoping to build on their recent 2-1 home wins over Wolves and Brighton. JOSH MURPHY has become used to Cardiff being written off this season.
Certainties to go down, the worst team in the Premier League and lacking the quality needed to stay up.
Cardiff are already proving a few of the pundits wrong as they are not in the relegation zone. Murphy, 23, said: “The one thing we can guarantee is that we’ll keep fighting through everything. In the last few weeks, even the pundits who were writing us off have seen that Cardiff are up for it.
“We fully believe we will stay up. We are not expected to do well, so it takes the pressure off. Even if we lose we know there’s going to be another game to put things right.
“We are not expected to go into games and play Barcelona’s style of football, maybe not even the football associated with the Premier League, but we know if we stick to our game plan then we can ruffle feathers and give most teams a good run for their money.
“We’ll go into games fearless and we know what we can do when we’re playing well, so it’s about keeping that level of consistency and togetherness.”
Murphy, an £11million summer signing, has already scored three goals, looks every inch a Premier League player and has adapted
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He is eloquent and thoughtful but fits into the dressing room, which is Cardiff ’s greatest strength, and provides the spirit and defiance which Neil Warnock has brought to the club.
No one gave them a chance of going up, let alone staying up and yet they make every game a battle which will be vital as they face fellow strugglers Southampton today. “This is a massive month for us. We’re on a good run, we’ve had some wins in our last few games, we need to keep building on that.
“There’s a lot of personalities in the dressing room, there’s a lot of people who play for Cardiff who will say how good the spirit is with the different characters.
“You’ve got Sol Bamba, Pato (Callum Paterson), Mozza (Sean Morrison), he’s the captain but he’s a different character to Sol and Patto and they have got their own qualities and that’s why we get on so well as a unit.
“People can write us off but, on a personal level, it doesn’t faze me. I want to play my football and if I’m at it then everything else will take care of itself.”
Murphy has already played twin brother, Newcastle winger Jacob – and the goalless draw probably did its best to maintain family harmony. But perhaps a less likely
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Murphy and Warnock, who turned 70 last weekend and is renowned for being a tough no-nonsense manager. But he was also a winger in a much-travelled playing career through the lower divisions.
As soon as Murphy met Warnock last summer, there was a bond established. He added: “There’s two sides of Neil Warnock.
“The one you see on the touchline and the one behind-thescenes. It’s good to see both, but he was a winger so he can sympathise and see the pros and cons that go with being a winger. He is always there to support me.
“We’ve found the correct balance for us as a team.
“We are nullifying the mistakes from the games when we were losing by four or five and now if we’re going to lose it’ll be just by the odd goal and we’ll stay in the game.
“Playing for England will always be one of my biggest dreams. There’s no better chance than now under Gareth Southgate because he’s bringing young players through quite early.
“If you can be in a good run of form then there’s no reason why you can’t get that England call-up.
“If I’m doing well at Cardiff then people will take notice.”