Mon Jul 13, 2020 12:40 pm
Mendez-Laing on fire and the fab front four
The last few weeks have served to highlight just how dangerous a player Nathaniel Mendez-Laing can be.
With the ball at his feet in full flight, he is the one Cardiff City player who gets backsides off seats at the moment, running at defences and getting opposing defenders on the back foot.
At the start of the campaign, City fans hoped he would occupy one of the wings while Josh Murphy would do the same on the other flank. It hasn't quite worked out like that.
Mendez-Laing had an indifferent start to the season, dazzling one week and cumbersome and frustrating the next.
He was plagued with injury troubles, too, which stemmed from a hamstring niggle he picked up against Wigan on the opening day.
When he tore his hamstring just after Christmas it was almost inevitable, such had been his fitness tribulations at the start of the campaign and the full-tilt nature of his natural, attacking game.
But, following a three-month break owing to the coronavirus outbreak, Mendez-Laing was handed an unexpected second chance and has been a big threat for City on that right-hand side.
He has also been key in the high City press, putting pressure on the opposition defenders and forcing mistakes with his pace and imposing figure.