Missing a trick in selection
By Glen Williams
Sunday 12th July 2020
I know hindsight sees in 20/20, but with each passing game I've expected more changes to have been made to the starting team.
It is, of course, a delicate balance, as Neil Harris has alluded to a number of times. No manager wants to change a winning team, right?
But these are completely unique circumstances. This is a mini-season, with no pre-season, and the stakes are huge.
Premier League football is the aim of every Championship side and it is clear that Cardiff had an advantage from the restart, given the sheer depth of quality and experience within their squad.
Other teams have opted for wholesale changes against Cardiff, and in other games. Will that prove decisive come the season's end? I guess that's to be determined.
But to have the experience of Flint and Sol Bamba sitting on the bench is a huge positive and something which perhaps could be utilised more often to kepe the back four fresh. Bamba, as we all know, has done this promotion chasing many times before.
Harris' changes to the starting XI have been modest thus far, but, having lost two games, that might well just force his hand going into the Derby clash on Tuesday.
We might see Josh Murphy come in for Junior Hoilett, who has looked a little devoid of ideas the last two outings. Robert Glatzel will doubtless be reinstated in place of Callum Paterson. Brad Smith has to be utilised at some point as well and Joe Bennett has played more than any other City player this term.
There just needs to be a freshness injected at some point, I feel, and Harris has said on many occasion how much he trusts his squad and how much talent there is within the group.
He might just have to put his belief in some of them on Tuesday.
Fresh legs are clearly needed to deal with the intensity of high pressure games, which continue to come thick and fast.
Harris has a size of squad Cardiff's play-off rivals can only envy. But how the depth of it is being utilised in these unique circumstances is key.
The team selection, and use of substitutes, is critical against Derby if the Bluebirds are to retain their place in the top six.
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