{"id":33138,"date":"2019-02-22T13:19:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T13:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=33138"},"modified":"2019-02-22T13:19:56","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T13:19:56","slug":"cardiff-city-vs-watford-preview-victor-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/22\/cardiff-city-vs-watford-preview-victor-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff City vs Watford Preview: Victor returns?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-33282\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/cardiff-1024x633.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"593\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-33282\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/cardiff-1024x633.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"593\" \/><\/noscript><br \/>\nCardiff City have retained their on-field focus in light of the Emiliano Sala tragedy by winning their last two games \u2013 which included a last-grasp winner at Southampton two weeks ago.<br \/>\nKenneth Zahore\u2019s last minute smash and grab against Saints could prove to be a pivotal moment in the Bluebirds\u2019 aspirations to stay in the Premier League.<br \/>\nThe game saw Cardiff have only 33% of possession and complete just 267 passes in the game, amounting to just three shots on goal.<br \/>\nBut ball retention has never been Warnock\u2019s trademark\u2013 his football is more akin to the likes of Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce than anything you would see being played in Manchester\u2019s blue half on a Saturday afternoon.<br \/>\nYet the ability to grind out results \u2013 something that Neil Warnock is all too familiar with \u2013 is the key to pushing on for survival and reaching that golden 40-point mark.<br \/>\nWarnock\u2019s teams from Sheffield United to QPR have always played the percentages and kept an organised shape when off the ball.<br \/>\nLast-season Cardiff had the joint-best defensive record alongside the Wolves &#8211; both conceded just 39 goals all season.<br \/>\nWhilst defensive frailties have crept in this season the Bluebirds\u2019 have been rigid in their last two outings and have shown a collective team spirit to fight to the very last minute.<br \/>\nCity will have Victor Camarasa back this Friday and he is arguably Cardiff\u2019s most creative player.<br \/>\nThe Spaniard is a mobile player, a metronome in the middle of the park who can keep a team ticking over with short, incisive passes.<br \/>\nThe on-loan Real Betis man adds an extra dimension to the Bluebirds midfield \u2013 also being able to play just behind the front man in the pocket. His movement pulls defences around &#8211; as was seen in City\u2019s 4-2 victory against Fulham earlier in the season.<br \/>\nWarnock will have to decide whether to stick with his 3-5-2 from Southampton or change formation to accommodate Camarasa.<br \/>\nBobby Reid and Oumar Niasse played well upfront last time out \u2013 but Camarasa adds another dimension to the team, meaning either could drop out to facilitate Camarasa&#8217;s return.<br \/>\nAlternatively, Harry Arter could drop out for the Spaniard and Warnock could retain the same shape of the side without too much tinkering.<br \/>\nThe last two games have seen Warnock concede possession to teams who have been struggling this term \u2013 but on Friday, Cardiff entertain a strong Watford side who sit eighth in the table.<br \/>\nWatford have been impressive this year and will go into the game expecting to take all three points \u2013 especially if they are allowed as much time on the ball as Bournemouth and Southampton were.<br \/>\nBut Cardiff will be looking at the next two fixtures as winnable games. Watford sit in eighth but they are arguably overachieving. Everton have struggled of late, losing their last three.<br \/>\nWhatever Warnock decides to do, he will be heading into the game confident that his side can take all three points and create some distance between them and the relegation zone.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardiff City have retained their on-field focus in light of the Emiliano Sala tragedy by winning their last two games \u2013 which included a last-grasp winner at Southampton two weeks ago. Kenneth Zahore\u2019s last minute smash and grab against Saints could prove to be a pivotal moment in the Bluebirds\u2019 aspirations to stay in the Premier League. The game saw Cardiff have only 33% of possession and complete just 267 passes in the game, amounting to just three shots on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":33282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,4,113],"tags":[142,186,95,781],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-33138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-sport","category-uncategorised","tag-cardiff-city","tag-cardiff-city-fc","tag-football","tag-premier-league"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cardiff City vs Watford Preview: Victor returns? - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/22\/cardiff-city-vs-watford-preview-victor-returns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff City vs Watford Preview: Victor returns? - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cardiff City have retained their on-field focus in light of the Emiliano Sala tragedy by winning their last two games \u2013 which included a last-grasp winner at Southampton two weeks ago. Kenneth Zahore\u2019s last minute smash and grab against Saints could prove to be a pivotal moment in the Bluebirds\u2019 aspirations to stay in the Premier League. The game saw Cardiff have only 33% of possession and complete just 267 passes in the game, amounting to just three shots on [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/22\/cardiff-city-vs-watford-preview-victor-returns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-22T13:19:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/cardiff.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"633\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thomas Willetts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thomas Willetts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/22\/cardiff-city-vs-watford-preview-victor-returns\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/22\/cardiff-city-vs-watford-preview-victor-returns\/\",\"name\":\"Cardiff City vs Watford Preview: Victor returns? 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