OLE BELIEVES HE HAS THE 'PERFECT REPLACEMENT'

Cardiff City boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hails Tom Adeyemi as 'perfect replacement' for Jordon Mutch as he prepares to ring Coventry changes

Walesonline

Monday August 11th 2014

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes Tom Adeyemi is the “perfect replacement” for Jordon Mutch in Cardiff City’s midfield.

The Bluebirds bought Mutch from Birmingham City for £2m two years ago, sold him on to Premier League Queens Park Rangers for £6m, and then returned to St Andrews for Adeyemi.

The young, energetic midfield player made his City debut as a second-half substitute during the 1-1 draw at Blackburn Rovers and Solskjaer said: “Tom broke up more play than anybody when he went on. He has physical presence, energy, drive and a great smile on his face. He was the perfect man to send on at Ewood Park – and he’s a perfect replacement for Jordon.

“Tom wins second balls, he’s a box-to-box player who drives forward and he was great on his debut.”

Norwich-born Adeyemi, 22, made 35 Championship appearances for Birmingham last season and moved on after Cardiff made four separate offers and he put in a formal transfer request.

“I spent a long time chasing Tom because I knew Jordon Mutch would probably be going,” said Solskjaer.

“He had a clause in his contract and I couldn’t get him to sign a new one. He wanted to play Premier League football this season. He is a quality player and is going to be a real asset for Cardiff City.”

The arrival of Adeyemi means Cardiff have already replaced Mutch and their priority is to sign a centre-back.

Adeyemi may make his full City debut against Coventry City at Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium in the Capital One League Cup on Wednesday.

Goalkeeper Simon Moore, Kevin Theophile, Kim Bo-Kyung, Magnus Eikrem, Guido Burgstaller and Javi Guerra will also be in the starting line-up against the League One Sky Blues.

“Dikgacoi and Macheda are unlikely to be ready for the Coventry match,” said Solskjaer. “It would be great to get them out there, but they are looking towards Saturday’s home match against Huddersfield.

“Guerra is ready to play against Coventry, while Theophile, too, will be in the team. He lost two weeks of pre-season training, but has been back with us working hard for the last two weeks and is getting there.

“I’m planning to give a few more playing minutes under their belts, but I almost certainly won’t be asking Hudson to play again this quickly. He missed a lot of last season through injury and gave the team everything he had at Blackburn. We’ll see how he is, but my instinct is to rest him from this one.”

Theophile and Matt Connolly are likely to team up at centre-half against Coventry, while the absence of Hudson and goalkeeper David Marshall, also rested, means Solskjaer will have to decide on a cup captain.

Didn't think he looked like a direct mutch replacement. Mutch looks much better on the ball, he isn't a great tackler and if he isnt in the mood he wont track back. adeyemi on the other hand looks better than mutch breaking up play imposing himself physically all that stuff. He replaced daehli gave us more physical presence but on the other hand we totally lost posession when daehli went off as adeyemi gave the ball away.
Adeyemi looks like he will be apt at the job Gunnar has been doing. Gunnar being slow when we play him with whitts who is slow too central midfield is not moving quickly enough and we get beaten on pace as well as strenght.
Adeyemi Looks like the pacey, physically emposing player we been lacking in central midfield hopefully he can provide protection for the more creative players.

He's a beast, his passing was a bit off but we just need to be a bit patient with the lad. He will come good.

We were a lot more physical when he came on, i liked how we started giving it back to them after some terrible tackles went in on Whitts.

He's a beast, his passing was a bit off but we just need to be a bit patient with the lad. He will come good.

We were a lot more physical when he came on, i liked how we started giving it back to them after some terrible tackles went in on Whitts.

Yeah I am excited about him. But just from looking at him on Saturday and from what the brummie supporters say he is not as good on the ball as mutch so I don't think we should be expecting a direct replacement. I doubt ole said that either. Adeyemi seems to bring some qualities that we are lacking, players like whitts,kim and daehli are very creative but not strong they need a good dcm next to them for protection, which we been lacking.Hopefully adeyèmi can create more balance in our midfield.

If anything he looks more of Medel replacement but impossible to judge really after only half a game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A56N4t3d9Ek&list=PLnELVx4uAwSTluqFGmtipuc37ecmbTDyb

Nice drive from Adeyemi. Brace for Macheda. A sign of things to come?