Cardiff’s midfield has been their Achilles heel in recent years. It’s an area of the team where they have far too often been either outnumbered, overrun or overpowered. Not quite proficient enough to get any sort of passing game going, there have been times where they’ve been bypassed all together, with players cricking their neck as they watch long balls launched over them.
Hopefully that will now be a thing of the past, thanks to Steve Morison’s midfield spring clean.
It has evidently been an area of primary concern, with Ebou Adams, Andy Rinomhota and Romaine Sawyers all brought in to replace the recently-departed Will Vaulks, Marlon Pack and Leandro Bacuna.
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They join Joe Ralls, who has agreed new terms and may prove to be the signing of the summer, Ryan Wintle, Eli King and hopefully Tom Sang. The first thing that strikes you about that bunch is that they span a variety of ages. King, 19, is the youngest and Sawyers, 30, is the oldest, but the rest are everything in between and offer a great balance of youth and experience.
Morison spoke last season about having lots of younger players and lots of older players, but very little in between. Wintle, Rinomhota and Adams are all aged between 25-26 and will help address that concern.
It is also a far more dynamic group. The three new arrivals are all box-to-box by nature, so should ensure that Cardiff have more drive in the centre of the park. In the recent past, they’ve had a tendency to look rather leggy and one-paced, but that should no longer be a problem.
Pack was cultured and covered a lot of ground, but was often a yard off the pace, while Bacuna tended to scurry around, but without affecting proceedings. Both were banished from the first team for the second half of last season, while Vaulks thrived and can consider himself unlucky not to earn a new deal. He always offered lots of heart, but arguably little in the way of sophistication and the players brought in should prove an upgrade in that regard.
Adams was terribly unlucky to injure his shoulder within minutes of his Cardiff debut and hopefully that will not keep him sidelined for too long. Sang has been the main beneficiary of Adams’ absence, having not made Cardiff’s training trip to Scotland, he has featured in the last couple of games and impressed Morison.
“Tom wasn’t involved at the start of pre-season, but has come in and I thought he has been excellent,” Morison confirmed after the win against Newport County on Saturday. “Maybe he might start believing he’s a central midfielder,” he added, in reference to a disagreement the pair had regarding Sang’s best position. Hopefully Sang remains in the mix because has the potential to make a mark, given the chance.
It will also be interesting to see who the favoured trio will be in the heart of the Cardiff midfield. Wintle, Ralls, Sawyers and Rinomhota will presumably all be expecting to start, but one will have to miss out every game. Morison has mentioned that, as five substitutions will be allowed in the Championship next season, he wants to increase his options from the bench, so such strong competition will certainly help in that regard.
Ralls, Sawyers and Rinomhota all had injury-affected seasons last year, so will be keen to play more this term, but the cover is there if required. Sawyers missed a chunk of the season with a muscle tear in his thigh, while Rinomhota had both knee and ankle issues. Ralls played 2255 minutes in the league last season, when he usually averages in excess of 3000 and a lot less than his career high total of 3719 in 2015/16. He will be looking to feature more in a season where he will likely be captain.
Cardiff even have wingers, too! Morison’s hands were tied last year in terms of wide options, but the arrival of Callum O’Dowda and Ollie Tanner, plus the returns of both Gavin Whyte and Sheyi Ojo offers options on both flanks. There is now the versatility to play with full backs, wing backs or wingers, which expands his options exponentially. The days of a back five made up of centre backs appear to be mercifully long gone.
The squad remains a work in progress though and is still rather light at the top end of the team.
Strikers will now surely be the priority, but that is the hardest position to recruit for at the best of time and all the more difficult with no spending money. Cardiff could certainly do with some of the proceeds from the sale of Kieffer Moore to adequately replace him.
The final pieces of the puzzle are required in order to complete the picture, otherwise the squad will feel unfinished and there is a danger that the hard work to this point may be undermined. Rubin Colwill and Aden Flint were Cardiff’s joint-top scorers with six last season, some way off the 20 Kieffer Moore hit the year before. More goals are needed this season, throughout the squad, if Cardiff are to finish higher up the table.
The platform is there for any incoming strikers though. In the past, they have had fend for themselves, but there will be able support from midfield going forward. I was apprehensive about the radical rebuild that awaited this summer, but Morison was always confident regarding the challenge he faced and credit where credit is due, he has pulled it off. The nervousness has been replaced by excitement and intrigue, but confidence will only arrive with the strikers that Cardiff so desperately need.
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