RUSSELL: FLEXIBILITY & DISCIPLINE

Club News

12th December

Manager calls for further progress to be made at Bournemouth

Cardiff City Manager Russell Slade spoke to press and media on Friday morning ahead of the Bluebirds’ Saturday afternoon trip to AFC Bournemouth.

City travel to the Goldsands looking for consecutive back-to-back away victories following the three points picked up at Watford a fortnight ago.

And the Manager was in confident spirits ahead of his squad’s journey to the South Coast and the prospect of squaring up against one of his close friends in Eddie Howe.

“I’ve known Eddie for an awfully long time,” he said. “He has Bournemouth well organised and they will be a tough nut to crack.

“On Saturday we will be both do everything we can to win, of course, and he will know how much I want Cardiff to come out on top. We’ve done well against the teams flying high in the league his season, and there’s no reason why we can’t continue that.

“Eddie has a great squad, a terrific group of players and he sets his team up in a flexible 4-4-2 shape, similar to ourselves. It’s a flexible 4-4-2 as I say and a system that you tweak.

“People speak about the 4-4-2 formation a lot, but it’s not what it used to be. A 4-4-2 in the 1970s compared to the 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 shape that sides use now is very, very different, with your wide players rolling in, attacking full-backs, one sitting midfielder and one attacking midfielder, plus another player in what we now call the ‘number 10’ role. It’s a very fluid system and I think Real Madrid have made their way to the latter stages of the Champions League with maximum points using that shape. “Of course, looking specifically towards tomorrow, three clean sheets in four games says we are looking solid. Now the key is to balance between staying solid and still being able to penetrate, create chances and score goals. We’re unbeaten in four games, and now we’d like to get ourselves into the position that Bournemouth are.” The Boss also provided an update on defender Bruno Ecuele Manga, who he says now ready to return to first-team action, saying:“Bruno is just about ready to come back into the fold now. Obviously Sean [Morrison] and Ben [Turner] have done very well in his position since he’s been out, so we have some very welcome competition there. “Bruno has trained the last two days and he travels with the squad. There are question marks on his match fitness, but he is in our twenty-man squad. He is well aware that our defence has done well and that he hasn't had any games for a while, but I’m pleased he is back; he’s a big part of our group. I’m really pleased with defensive platform we have set. It's just about getting balance right. It was important to tighten up. “Otherwise, Pilks [Anthony Pilkington] is out. We have one or two little issues then which aren’t major, but we will assess them on Friday.” <iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/mmcK1BLf9L0?list=UUfBVy8PAMwyNbac6D0Mk8gQ" allowfullscreen="">

RUSSELL: FLEXIBILITY & DISCIPLINE

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