McPhail Ban Blessing In Disguise For Cardiff City?

Cardiff City manager Dave Jones will be forced into a midfield re-shuffle for Saturday’s game against Birmingham City after Stephen McPhail picks up an automatic 1 match ban for his sending off against Swansea City.


However, many Bluebirds fans will not be too unhappy and I see this as a positive change with Dave Jones prepared to go to any lengths to avoid dropping McPhail. We all know he can be an excellent player, and cause real problems for teams but in truth, he is too easy to shut down and we are too often over-run in midfield.


On Saturday, Joe Ledley will almost certainly move infield to a central position, and can provide more impetus in the engine room. That will allow either Mark Kennedy, Paul Parry or Peter Whittingham to take the left midfield position. Parry, Whittingham or Comminges will play on the right depending on whether Kennedy or Comminges is selected at left-back.


One other option for Jones is to include Darcy Blake in his favoured position of central midfield, but Jones has never picked him there before and is almost certain to go with Ledley.



A Ledley / Rae partnership could work well for Cardiff, we will miss Ledley on the wing but too often he is starved of possession so he may relish the chance to play infield while we have a plethora of options to fill the left midfield berth.