CAULK COMEBACK ADDS SOME SPICE
STEVEN Caulker may have endured a stop-start campaign last season but Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is expecting big things from the QPR centre-back against his former club today.
The 24-year-old defender spent much of the last campaign on-loan, first at Southampton, then at Liverpool.
However he only played 12 games in all competitions, with his last coming at the end of January.
That meant that last Sunday’s win over Leeds was something of a shock to the system, and Hasselbaink explained that he had rested the former Spurs man during the midweek EFL Cup win over Swindon in order to keep him fresh to take on the Bluebirds.
Hasselbaink explained: “I needed to give Caulker some rest because he hasn’t played a lot of matches and then all of a sudden he has had a really tough pre-season and played lots of matches.
“So the midweek game was the chance to get him off his feet and into the gym and do some strength work so that he would be ready rejoin the group and so he would be for Sunday.”
Rangers made a strong start to their Championship campaign with a 3-0 win over Leeds, and defensively they were rock solid with their combination of Caulker and Nedum Onuoha in the centre of defence.
Caulker will now return to Cardiff City Stadium, where he played for a season back in 201314, and Matt Connolly, who played alongside him at that time, admits he has been impressed by QPR.
He said: “I watched their game against Leeds and thought they looked very strong, really good defensively.
“They’ve got Steven Caulker, who we all know, and who is a very good player. I’m sure he’ll want to get back to the top level and he’ll be looking for a strong season. It will be a really tough game. We’re strong at home though, we have been for a few years now and we’ll be looking off the mark with a win.
“We played them last year and I thought we did alright. It was 0-0 and a bit of a stalemate but we’ll have to be on the ball so we can keep as many clean sheets as possible whoever we play.”
Cardiff kicked off their own Championship campaign with a stalemate away at Birmingham but were stunned on Thursday in EFL Cup defeat to League One Bristol Rovers.
That means new manager Paul Trollope is immediately under pressure heading into his home debut, but having lost to his former team, Rovers, he is urging his team to stick together ahead of the visit of QPR.
He said: “We’re always learning and always evolving and we’ll reflect on it because we have to improve at both ends of the pitch.
“We’re going to need to show a strong group mentality. It was a huge disappointment against Bristol Rovers. Hopefully we can dust ourselves down and produce the performance we need. “We know where we need to improve and work on the training pitch. We’ve got time to do that but we’ve got three league games in a short space of time. “We’ve got to stay strong because we’re going to be open to criticism, rightly so. We need to be strong, show a strong group mentality and bounce back.”
One man who is unlikely to start is new Cardiff signing and Wales midfielder Emyr Huws, who completed his move from Wigan on Friday and is eager to get involved as quickly as possible.
He said: “I’ll see what the fitness staff and manager say and we’ll get a plan going and go from there.”