WILL HARRIS PLAY SAFE... OR ROLL THE DICE?
IN all likelihood, Cardiff City will be without Lee Tomlin this weekend.
The Bluebirds star was the first name on the team sheet last term, a season in which he was instrumental in catapulting City up the table and into the play-offs.
He won Player of the Season via a fan vote and even penned a two-year contract extension back in January, so it’s fair to say the club and its fans are huge admirers of the supremely-talented playmaker.
But that just makes his absence felt all the more strongly.
He hobbled off in the dying minutes of that victory at Craven Cottage back at the end of July, visibly distraught that, despite scoring himself, he couldn’t help the Bluebirds get to Wembley.
The attacker has not played a single minute in pre-season, although it is understood he is back out on the training pitch, which means Neil Harris has had to try to find a fix to start the campaign without him.
Tomlin’s position is unique, of course, as Cardiff have no other natural playmaker to slot into that area should he be unavailable. It is an area Cardiff are still scouting for in the transfer market.
So, how does Harris solve the Tomlin problem? We take a look at four options he will be considering ahead of the opening weekend...
The risky option
Many Cardiff fans will likely agree that the least productive of all the options is a 5-2-3 formation, adding an extra centre back in Tomlin’s absence.
Harris adopted it for the New Year’s Day horror show against QPR, following a decent second-half outing at Sheffield Wednesday in that formation a few days before, in his defence.
But he quickly, and correctly, threw that in the bin after the 6-1 hammering at Loftus Road.
Having been without a number of key midfield and forward players for the Carabao Cup clash against
Northampton Town, though, Harris had to find some way of packing the side with experience, so opted for the formation again. It didn’t work.
Marlon Pack and Leandro Bacuna were swarmed in midfield and the areas vacated by wing backs Jordi Osei-Tutu and Joe Bennett were exposed by the Cobblers’ long balls into the corner, forcing Sol Bamba and Sean Morrison to turn and face their own goal - which neither of them want to do.
As such, City had no go-forward, no solid base from which to mount their usually devastating counter-attacks and it culminated in a resounding 3-0 defeat at Sixfields.
Harris said after the match that the reason they lost the game was not the formation, and he is perhaps right because most City players did lose their individual battles all over the pitch, but it would be astonishing if he named the same one again with the cavalry back this weekend.
Nevertheless, it is an option.
The most likely option
The most likely course of events is that Harris will name a 4-3-3 for the encounter with the Owls.
If I was to take a stab at the starting XI, it would probably be something like this: Smithies; Osei-Tutu, Morrison, Nelson, Bennett; Bacuna, Pack, Vaulks; Hoilett, Moore, Murphy.
That side looks balanced, it has the right blend in midfield of organisation, defensive steel and legs, while still giving the wingers licence to attack.
It’s the option Harris plumped for without Tomlin last season, with Joe Ralls often playing the more advanced role in the midfield three.
But with Ralls not having any pre-season minutes under his belt this season, Harris, who is a huge admirer of the City fan favourite, will likely be reticent to throw him in from the off.
That is why it is important Cardiff have the other three, established midfielders ready to step up to the plate in Pack, Bacuna and Vaulks.
Harris is a stickler for shape, too, and demands hard work and defensive organisation. That midfield three is the most likely option to offer that consistently throughout the course of 90 minutes, one would think.
The one all fans want to see
While it might appear incredibly unlikely, especially for the first game of the season, there is no doubting all fans want to see a Mike Bassett-esque 4-4-2.
When Kieffer Moore arrived from Wigan last month, supporters were teeming with excitement over the prospect of the Wales striker leading the line.
Others, though, wondered what that meant for Robert Glatzel, Cardiff’s £5.5m signing from Heidenheim a year ago.
What odds, then, of a Glatzel-Moore strike partnership, up front together, Chopra-Bothroyd style, spearheading an attacking 4-4-2 formation?
Now that certainly appears to be an exciting prospect for City fans.
Will it happen? Well, Harris is no stranger to a 4-4-2, he opted for it a multitude of times while in charge of Millwall, and even used Moore and youngster Mark Harris in a two up top together in some pre-season matches.
In fact, Moore’s link-up play with young striker Harris culminated in the former’s first goal for the club, a stunning one-two and finish against Newport County.
Will it leave Cardiff a little exposed in midfield, especially for the first game of the season? Quite possibly. And that’s the only question mark, really.
That really would get bums off seats, though.
The wildcard
It might be, perhaps, the least likely option, but it has been noted just how well young Tom Sang has played during pre-season and indeed in the defeat at Northampton Town.
Harris really likes Sang and for good reason, he has been impressive in the small clips of games we have been privy to during pre-season.
Crucially, he is comfortable playing across the three positions behind the striker – either wing and No.10 – and was used in the playmaker slot against Northampton.
The ignorance of youth, in the most positive way, has also been beneficial to the manner in which the 20-yearold has played.
He is unafraid to fire off a shot from range or try a Hollywood-style cross from nowhere.
The former Manchester United youngster is desperate to prove himself and has earned his fair share of admirers within the Cardiff City coaching team, of that there is no doubt.
Crucially, too, it would allow Harris to select a 4-2-3-1, the formation which brought him so much success last term, with Sang sitting behind the lone striker.
Unlikely, perhaps, but certainly not one to rule out entirely.