Opposition At A Glance

Cardiff Manager

The Bluebirds are back in the top league since they went down as 20th in the 2013/14 season. After some years in the Championship midtable, they return with a second place finish, just behind league-walking Wolves. To Newcastle fans, they might be known for developing legends like Sammy Ameobi and Haris Vuckic, as both had loan spells there in the past.

Their manager is Neil Warnock, a proper Championship manager. He set the tactics quite well for them in the Championship, and it was a slight surprise he brought them back up, with this he broke the record of promotion in the football leagues, Cardiff being his eighth. He usually lines his teams up in a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-4-1-1, depending on how one would interpret the lineups.

Current Squad

Cardiff’s squad is by no doubts the cheapest one in the league, with this season’s additions being just Championship players like Josh Murphy, Bobby Reid, Greg Cunningham and Alex Smithies. On paper, this team is a very average Championship squad, but Warnock introduced a great togetherness and team spirit into the squad to make the players have a great fight in the Championship, and it might even work out to have them fight to stay in the Premier League.

Cardiff’s transfers

From their new players, I expect almost all to start at some point during this season. Their most expensive signing has been Josh Murphy, who most football fans see as the better twin. He adds pace on their left side, and I think Warnock sees him as a backup to Hoilett. Or start him over Mendez-Laing, who Murphy replaced after 60 minutes in their last game.

Without a doubt, their newly signed star is Bobby Reid, who joined them from Bristol for about £10m. He plays AM behind the striker in a 4-2-3-1 or alongside Paterson in the 4-1-4-1, an offensive tactic I doubt we will often see in the premier league. We might see one of their loaned centre-midfielders more often, as they brought in Harry Arter from Bournemouth and Víctor Vamarasa from Real Betis. At least for the first, I’d say they were brought in to set up more defensively. They also signed a new left-back in Greg Cunningham from Preston and a keeper from QPR, namely Alex Smithies.