On Tuesday night West Ham welcome Cardiff City to the Olympic Stadium feeling more confident after that great away victory against Newcastle. Before the game I chatted to Paul Evans from Cardiff City Blogsite Mauve and Yellow Army to discuss the upcoming game and the season so far.
First off welcome back to the Premier League: after running close a couple of times in previous years, at which stage last season did you start to believe you were going to get promoted?
Thank you Jeff. First of all I was thinking it was in March when we came back from going 1-0 down at Griffin Park early on, but came back to beat a good Brentford team 3-1, but, truthfully, it wasn’t until the last minute of our final away game of the season when Sean Morrison scored a remarkable goal to clinch a 2-0 win at Hull – we only needed to equal Fulham’s result and the last day to go up automatically and with our final game being at home to a Reading ream with the worst current form in the division, I knew then that we’d be okay.
Having played about a third of the season, how would you judge things to be going so far? What so far have been the highlights?
Much as expected really. We were given a decent start by the fixture computer with matches against Bournemouth, Newcastle and Huddersfield and, when we failed to take advantage of that (we only managed two points), we were always going to struggle in September and October because we were almost exclusively playing top six sides – now we are having more matches against sides who are likely to finish half way or lower, we are beginning to show that we can beat the sides likely to finish around us in home matches. Getting that first win in an open and entertaining match with Fulham was a highlight, but I think I’d go for Friday’s win over Wolves because we had two spikey games against them last season.
Neil Warnock is famously known for getting teams promoted, yet can’t quite manage to keep them up, or is not given a full chance Is this a reflection on him, or the clubs that he has managed? Presumably at the moment you are quite satisfied with his performance?
I think Neil Warnock has never been at a team which could feel at the start of the season that they would finish in the top half of the First Division/Premier League, so it follows that his record at the top level is not going to be good. That said, any argument which says that his approach and playing philosophy is a bit too limited to succeed in the Premier League would not get too much argument from me. I would qualify that last bit mind by saying that we have played some pretty good stuff at times this season (e.g. our first goal in the recent win over Brighton) – we may not qualify as a passing side, but we do play more football than we did during the second half of last season in particular.
What if anything do you think about West Ham’s appointment of Manuel Pelligrini as manager?
It’s a statement of intent which continues your efforts to become an established top half Premier League side I suppose, but I find it disappointing that, almost as a reflex action, so many teams turn to foreign coaches or managers these days. I suppose though that if you’re determined to go down that route, Pelligrini is one of the better ones you could bring in.
Your last visit to the Premier League was rather short-lived, is Cardiff City going to be able to stay up this season? And who are the players that are going to play the biggest role in this task?
In 13/14 we were I believe the seventh transfer highest spenders in the league for all of the good it did us. It was obvious from the comments coming out of the club that it would be different this time around. Broadly speaking, I agree with this approach, but, unless we go about things in a very different way in the January window, the money men at the club are asking an awful lot of our manager, his coaching staff and players because we look on course to spend less than the likes of Huddersfield and Brighton did last season in staying up. It will depend a lot on who comes in during January, but, despite encouraging signs recently, I think it’s just too big a task for Neil Warnock and his team and that we will return to the Championship after one season like we did five years ago.
Which of our joint former players Danny Gabbidon and Craig Bellamy do you have the fondest memories of?
That’s a very tough question! I have so much admiration for Craig Bellamy because he tried to give something back to his home town team when he first came here at a time when he would walk into most Premier League clubs first team. However, having been watching Cardiff games since 1963, I rate Danny Gabbidon as the best defender I’ve seen at the club and that’s an even bigger compliment when you consider that he played in the position where I would say we have definitely had the most strength in depth over the past fifty odd years. Gabbs was great because he was so much more than a head it, kick it defender. We’ve had some with a lot of ability down the years, but I don’t think “classy” is an adjective which normally springs to mind when you think of Cardiff City players – Gabbs was classy though and it’s good that you were able to see that for a season at least before he sustained the injury from which he never completely recovered.
Which of the current West Ham team would like to see pulling on the blue shirt of Cardiff City?
We need a right back and a striker, so, if I was being realistic and practical, Sam Byram and Jordan Hugill are the sort of players at your club who could probably be bought on our budget under different circumstances – if you’re talking money no object, then Arnautovic and Anderson would be very nice and I’ve always liked watching Masuakua play.
Presuming you don’t think you will be relegated, who are your favourites for the drop?
Although they beat us, Burnley were the worst side I’ve seen this season and, based on what I’ve seen of them in other matches (e.g. at Palace on Saturday), I don’t believe they were having an untypical bad day when they played at Cardiff City Stadium – I think they are in real trouble. Southampton have been on something of a downward spiral for two or three years now and I reckon their latest stay in the Premier League may be coming to an end. Drawing with Man United on Saturday seems a decent result on paper, but when you look at how the game mapped out, it’s typical 18/19 Southampton – I don’t see how they can expect to survive unless they rediscover the knack of winning at home. The other place is tough to predict – Fulham will probably throw even more money at it in January (I assume they have an exemption from what I still call FFP regulations!), but I reckon they’ll be down there for the rest of the season now. However, although Huddersfield played really well at Wolves, this weekend’s match came over as the sort of defeat relegation sides suffer, so, with not much confidence at all, they’d be my third tip.
Which teams have most impressed you so far this season? Who do you think will end up in the top three positions?
Funnily enough, Wolves were the team which I was pleasantly surprised by early in the season, but, having not watched a whole game of theirs for a few weeks, I was really shocked by how much they had declined when I saw them against Huddersfield and they weren’t much better against us. As for the top three, Man City beat us 5-0 at our place and could have scored double that if they had needed to – they seem obvious Champions to me. Liverpool are more boring now because they have tightened up, but that’s probably a good thing if you are to be thought of as title challengers and if they keep on getting the sort of luck they did against Everton, they should finish second. Until yesterday’s North London derby I would have said Spurs to finish third, but if Arsenal can keep that level of intensity, then maybe they could sneak it – Chelsea haven’t impressed me too much in recent weeks.
How will Cardiff set out against West Ham on Tuesday? Formation/Team?
When Neil Warnock was asked if more would be seen of the three-centre backs with attacking wing backs: the formation used against Wolves, his reply was “you must be joking”! Although I quite like playing with three central defenders because it means Bruno Manga gets to play in his best position, I think we’ll see a more cautious approach from City tomorrow and a return to a back four. With three games in eight days this week, there is likely to be a lot squad rotation seen with Premier League teams, but my guess is that we’ll line up something like this;-
Etheridge
Manga
Morrison
Bamba
Bennett
Camarasa
Gunnarsson
Ralls
Arter
Hoilett
Paterson
with Josh Murphy possibly on the left instead of Hoilett.
You won your last game, are you confident you can get a positive result this time out? Prediction for the result?
The pundits talk about our poor away record, but don’t seem to make an allowance for the fact that, after beginning with a defeat at Bournemouth and a draw at Huddersfield in August, all of our games have been at clubs currently in the top six since then. That’s why, for now at least, our lack of away goals is a bigger concern for me than the fact we have only taken the one point on our travels. Tomorrow’s match is the first of five we have against teams in the mid/lower table range before we visit Arsenal and so I feel it would be more realistic to form conclusions about our capabilities away from home in about six weeks time. That said, I don’t see us ending our run of consecutive away defeats tomorrow, I’ll go for a 2-1 home win.
Many thanks to Paul for his time and thoughts on the game. I hope and think that we will finally get to win 2 consecutive games for the first time in a couple of years. We really were great on Saturday, and think that result will spur us on to mop up a load of points that are available to us over the coming month. 3 – 0 West Ham. COYI
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