Three City amigos proving to be unsung stars in a compelling push for the top six
GOALSCORERS grab the headlines – just ask Danny Ward after his crucial Cardiff City winner against Bristol City.
It was always thus in football. But as any manager knows, it takes various components to make a successful team. The piano players, and those carrying the piano, Welsh football legend John Toshack once dubbed it.
So while the Bluebirds’ play-off charge, and their hopes for the Premier League dream, is seeing the likes of Ward, Lee Tomlin, Robert Glatzel and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing thrust into the limelight, Neil Harris knows there are other players in his side who are a manager’s delight.
Three of them are Curtis Nelson, Leandro Bacuna and Sean Morrison. Unsung, the first two certainly, but key drivers behind the Bluebirds’ stunning run of form which has seen them soar into the top six.
These are the men who, by doing their job so efficiently and indeed brilliantly, are providing the foundation for the Bluebirds’ springboard towards the play-offs.
Curtis Nelson
According to the records, Nelson cost around £4million less than Aden Flint when Nell Warnock made a double defensive swoop during the summer.
His was an unsung capture, a free transfer after more than 300 matches in the lower divisions for Plymouth Argyle and Oxford United.
But Warnock was excited about Nelson, felt he was a defender with leadership qualities who, with the right guidance, could go to the top and play in the Premier League.
It certainly didn’t look that way early on. Nelson’s debut came with an early substitute’s appearance at right back in a 3-0 horror show at Reading. That, coupled with a 1-0 loss at Swansea and the 6-1 thrashing by Queens’ Park Rangers was one of Cardiff’s most abject performances of the season.
To be blunt, for many Nelson looked a player out of his depth at this level, let alone the Premier League.
How he has proved the cynics wrong, and Neil Warnock right.
Nelson’s form, since forging a new partnership with skipper Sean Morrison at the turn of the year, has been outstanding. Eight out of 10 most weeks, a manager’s Mr Reliable and clearly one of the key reasons behind the Bluebirds’ sudden march into the top six. If Flint was the high profile signing that went wrong, Nelson is the low profile capture who has proved outstanding value for money and whose form means he is bound to be monitored by other clubs eyeing a quality centre-back.
Not that he is heading anywhere any time soon, mind. Other than potentially into the Premier League with Cardiff.
After the thrashing by QPR, the easiest thing in the world for Harris would have been to drop Nelson to accommodate the return of a fit again Sean Morrison.
Instead, he made the bold call to axe
Flint and the Bluebirds have looked a far more resolute defensive outfit with Morrison and Nelson as their new centre-back pairing.
Nelson has been one of the main reasons why only one goal has been conceded in the last five matches, the very foundation upon which the playoff charge has been mounted.
You hesitate to make a comparison with Danny Gabbidon, a genuine Bluebirds great, and Nelson certainly isn’t anywhere near as good on the ball as Gabbs was.
But like Gabbidon he is quick and just has this knack of being in the right place at the right time to block, put in a last ditch tackle, get his foot in, or head the ball away.
We used to say in the Cardiff City Press box, ‘Who cleared that away?’ Gabbidon was invariably the answer.
It’s uncanny, but the same thing appears to be happening with Nelson, who time and time again gets the Bluebirds out of danger in unsung fashion. He is almost like James Chester with Wales at the Euros, the totally dependable defender who largely goes unnoticed next to a bigger-name centre-back partner, but whose value to the team is immense.
Lee Tomlin has to be Bluebirds’ Player of the Season, for obvious reasons.
But Nelson is perhaps the man who will run him closest – no bad effort for your first season at this level.
Sean Morrison
The skipper had a troubled first half of the campaign, his partnership with Flint clearly not working and then spending an enforced spell on the sidelines.
But we always knew Sean Morrison was better than that, particularly given he did well in the closing months of the Bluebirds’ Premier League campaign.
Morrison is back as king of either penalty box at Championship level, aggressively winning headers and tackles, leading by example, driving on his team-mates.
It’s surprising someone as experienced as Warnock felt the MorrisonFlint partnership would work because teams quickly realised Cardiff were too ponderous the back and took full advantage. If your centre-backs are looking dodgy, you have no chance whatever the level of football.
With Marlon Pack, another highprofile Warnock summer signing, also
in the side Cardiff sat far too deep, conceded territory, lacked shape and balance and pretty much always found themselves under the cosh. Their moments of release came from setpieces.
To be fair to Harris, he spotted this. Morrison and Nelson were given their head as the centre-back pairing, with a new-look midfield containing Leandro Bacuna, Will Vaulks and Joe Ralls offering far more energy, legs and athleticism in front of them.
Morrison has almost rediscovered his aggression, coming out of the line to win the ball in the knowledge that speedster Nelson has got his back and is covering behind him.
The two men complement one another and are developing an understanding that is getting better with time. The blend is the key and with Sol Bamba there as back-up, Cardiff have few problems defensively these days.
Danny Ward grabbed the headlines with his match-winning goal at Bristol City, but just imagine the satisfaction Morrison and Nelson would have taken from a third clean sheet out of four since lockdown.
Many pundits, including yours truly, wanted to see a Sol Bamba-Bruno Manga pairing for the Bluebirds. But it can be no coincidence that every Cardiff manager – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Russell Slade, Paul Trollope, Warnock and Harris – made Morrison their man. In this type of form he has got to be amongst the best three or four defenders in the Championship, another fundamental figure in the Premier
League push.
Leandro Bacuna
Where do we start with this one?
Like Nelson, Bacuna is another of Warnock’s unsung signings even though he actually cost £3m from Reading.
A bit like Greg Halford in the promotion year, he was initially viewed as a versatile player who would fill in here or there, come in for the odd substitute’s appearance, be part of the squad but not necessarily a first choice. Since Harris arrived, Bacuna has taken his game to a whole new level and established himself as a Bluebirds midfield kingpin.
He looked like Cardiff’s version of N’Golo Kante against Bristol City - winning the ball, distributing it intelligently, breaking up play, linking the front men and defence.
Like Kante he appears comfortable in and out of possession and, crucially, brings genuine pace to Cardiff’s previously sluggish midfield. At one stage Bacuna raced back from nowhere to dispossess Bristol City’s left winger at Ashton Gate. The man’s got real zip. Indeed, he has been so good there is an argument for saying Bacuna has been Bluebirds man of the match in every game he has played since the return.
Under Warnock’s more limited approach, Bacuna appeared little more than a holding midfield man who could fill in at right-back if necessary.
Under Harris he has kind of been liberated. He still stops the opposition, but keeps the ball much better, even shows clever feints and tricks we didn’t realise he possessed and has been given more of a licence to surge forward.
Bacuna has the pace to do that and his runs help open up the opposition, making the Bluebirds look far more dangerous.
Bacuna has 38 Bluebirds matches under his belt already this season and, next to Will Vaulks and Joe Ralls, has helped provide far more dynamism and athleticism into Cardiff’s midfield.
Eventually one of them will need to make way for Lee Tomlin, the assumption probably being that it would be Bacuna.
Yet the way he is playing, Bacuna will be the first pick midfielder, probably with Vaulks as his partner.
It would mean Ralls having to miss out, but that’s some position for Harris and his Bluebirds to be in.
He looked like Cardiff’s version of N’Golo Kante against Bristol City
Paul Abbandonato on the current form of Cardiff City’s Leandro Bacuna