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Wales Online
Sport
Paul Abbandonato

The beautiful dilemma Cardiff City's brilliant youngsters Rubin Colwill and Isaak Davies are presenting to Steve Morison

There is a whole new air - on the field at least - to Cardiff City right at this moment in time.

The Bluebirds hierarchy may be fighting three high-profile court cases which will have a direct bearing on the club's immediate future. You can read about that here.

But back-to-back wins under Steve Morison have created a different vibe, particularly as his team is playing a more exciting brand of football and is littered with so many young players who offer genuine hope for the future.

The star turns, of course, are goal aces Rubin Colwill and Isaak Davies, whose brilliance turned the tide against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road and saw the Bluebirds stun the promotion chasers.

Those two Academy starlets are aged 19 and 20 respectively. They ARE Cardiff's future and in time will play significant roles for Wales, too.

But of the team that finished the game Joel Bagan is 20, Mark McGuinness 21, Codey Drameh 20, Ryan Wintle 24 and Perry Ng 25.

Okay, Drameh is on loan from Leeds, although Morison will be hoping to get him back next season. But those younger players, backed by a few experienced heads, have completed changed the mindset amongst fans as they look forward beyond this season.

Expect Morison to make shrewd new signings this summer - and there are other gifted teens coming through the Academy.

It is a potentially thrilling blend for Cardiff fans, with some observers even reckoning the Bluebirds can push for the top six next season.

Steady on, would be my advice, as 2022-23 is more likely to be another year in transition as Cardiff continue to plot the way forward.

But what everyone can agree upon is that this is light years away from the route one, static, one-paced, boring dross being served up earlier in the season.

Mick McCarthy picked a team against West Brom that included James Collins, Leo Bacuna, Marlon Pack and five centre-halves in Ciaron Brown, Curtis Nelson, Sean Morrison, Aden Flint and Mark McGuinness, who was unfairly expected to go up and down the line as right wing-back.

How on earth can a line-up like that be expected to win a football match?

Cardiff didn't, they lost 4-0 at home.

Still, adopting the default position of an ostrich, staggeringly McCarthy chose the same approach two games on at Swansea.

Cardiff lost 3-0.

There is only one thing worse in football than a losing team and that's an ageing team that is losing.

On the other hand, there is little better than watching a winning team inspired by home-grown youngsters.

Cardiff City's Isaak Davies (right) celebrates scoring (PA Wire)

Step forward Colwill, Davies and Co.

Cardiff's fans were justifiably angered by the rubbish they were paying to watch only a few months back and demanded change - in personnel, style of play and demographic of the team.

Because he has implemented that, Morison is earning a lot of latitude among them.

He's made a lot of tough calls, been ruthless at times, and most of them have paid off.

However, one of the biggest dilemmas of the lot is suddenly facing the manager. How does he fit the brilliance of Colwill and Davies into his starting XI without affecting the balance of his side?

These are two youngsters who directly influence the outcome of football matches with their goals, assists, flair, creativity and ability to beat defenders.

But by playing five at the back, with three in midfield, at the moment there is only room for one of them next to Jordan Hugill, or whoever is centre-forward, in Morison's team.

The trouble is they each need to be in there because they offer entirely differing strengths which hugely benefit the team. When they are together, as in the last 34 minutes on Saturday, they look dynamic.

Just look at the way they tore apart QPR, or that magic goal they carved out between themselves against quadruple chasing Liverpool in the FA Cup.

Morison urged caution on Colwill hype after his most recent wonder show, but the excitement over him is totally understandable in light of the one-dimensional football everyone was witnessing earlier in the campaign when Cardiff could barely string three passes together.

Literally.

To be fair to McCarthy, it was he who elevated Colwill into the side.

Suddenly Cardiff fans are watching a player who has vision, can dribble past players, is seamless in his passing, prepared to shoot from distance and who scores goals.

Oh, as we saw on Saturday, he takes a pretty mean free kick, too. Even the great Peter Whittingham couldn't have struck that one better.

At 19, Colwill is the Bluebirds' top scorer this season. He's a matchwinner. Full stop. Sometimes players like him need to be afforded a little more latitude than others.

But when Colwill starts up front next to the main striker, as happened at QPR and against Fulham, the blend isn't right because Cardiff also need the pace and direct running of Davies, or Mark Harris, to offer an outlet.

When Davies was sent on against QPR, Colwill looked masterful orchestrating things from a slightly deeper role. The others were giving him the ball, hoping he would drag Cardiff back into the game.

Credit Morison for keeping him on and altering approach.

Colwill relished putting Davies into pockets of space, and racing towards the box to be available for return passes and potential goal opportunities. The passes didn't always come, but the threat was there.

It wasn't earlier on.

The excitement about Cowill and Davies is understandable, but particularly so against the backdrop of what went on previously.

But...

Morison isn't going to want to leave Tommy Doyle out of his team - and he's hoping to persuade the young Man City ace to return next season, too.

Could Doyle play slightly deeper next to Ryan Wintle? If so, that would mean Morison leaving out the tenaciousness of Joe Ralls, his skipper.

Is the solution perhaps changing to four at the back, which would enable Colwill, Doyle and Davies to fit in?

That's a mouthwatering mix for Cardiff fans, but Morison understandably will be loathe to alter the very foundation of Perry Ng, Aden Flint and Mark McGuinness upon which his team.

It means at the moment the status quo will probably remain, with Colwill and Davies mix and matching as part of their learning curve.

Fair enough. But, with Doyle, they are Cardiff's most gifted players.

At what point does the manager bite the bullet by picking his 'ballers' together and putting his team on the front foot from the start of games, given their matchwinning abilities are a key part to Cardiff moving onto the next level?

It's a lovely dilemma for the manager to have.

How he solves it, I'm not quite sure at the moment. But solve it he'll eventually need to.

For many fans, these young guns are fast proving they are just too good to leave out.

How would you fit Rubin Colwill and Isaak Davies into the Cardiff team? Have your own say in our comments section below

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