Cardiff City’s Ledley Suffers Dip In Form

Cardiff City have been on a run of decent results recently, abruptly ended by a 2-1 home defeat to table-topping Wolves on the weekend. Although results have been impressive, leading Dave Jones to be nominated for the manager of the month award, performances have not been great.


It is evident that our points have mostly come from a solid defence and the goalscoring exploits or Bothroyd and particularly McCormack up-front. For me, it is the midfield that is failing most within our team and the partnership of McPhail and Rae is unable to dictate games and win the midfield battles.


Another problem is the noticable drop in Joe Ledley’s form and confidence. He looks a shadow of the player who scored that memorable goal at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final before giving England right-back Glen Johnson a torrid time in the final. Ledley seems unwilling to take on his man, and is nowhere near the potent threat he became last year where he ended the season as joint top scorer.


Ledley admitted to hit head being ‘in a spin’ when Premiership new boys offered £6m for him pre-season – that offer was rejected and Ledley remained with his hometown club. He also picked up an untimely injury seeing him miss the two recent Wales International games.


Whatever the reason for Ledley’s decline, a rest may be in order but we have few options. Whittingham and Parry are good widemen but Parry may be needed up-front for a while and could you play Comminges in a promotion-chasing team with Ledley on the bench?!?


The fans, manager and player himself desperately want Joe to start enjoying his football again – he seems as frustrated as anybody at the moment but that wont help. A simple tap-in or piece of luck could help him no end but perhaps his mind is now elsewhere with Bolton, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur thought to be lining up £7.5m bids in January. I don’t believe that, but for the first time in my life – I admit it may be time to cash in on Ledley.