Southampton will look to extend their unbeaten run to 11 games this weekend, as they welcome a Cardiff City side looking to get back to winning ways after defeat midweek.
Cardiff are 9th in the table, three points off the play-offs, whilst Southampton are quietly closing ground on the automatic promotion places from fourth position.
Southampton are consistently picking up points under Russell Martin, whereas the Bluebirds are finding it hard to gather momentum; their record in their last five league games being won two, drawn one, lost two.
Cardiff are managed by Erol Bulut who had only managed in his native Turkey prior to taking charge of Cardiff in the summer and has impressed in the first few months at the Welsh club.
We spoke to the Wales Online Cardiff City journalist Glen Williams to get the inside track on what to expect from the club from the Welsh capital.
‘Organised’ Cardiff will be difficult for Southampton to break down
According to Williams, despite sitting just outside the Championship play-off places, Cardiff have been a “bit of a mixed bag this season.” The Cardiff City journalist goes on to say that they are “much improved from last year, but consistency has been a problem”.
They are a relatively solid defensive unit who tend to lose by the odd goal when they do suffer defeat; the 2-0 loss to Middlesborough the only one of their seven losses this season coming by more than one goal. This tallies up with Williams’ view that: “Defensively Cardiff have been really organised, but coming up against a Southampton team who like to pass and rotate will be a challenge for them”.
Southampton have struggled against organised defences recently, only beating Bristol City by one goal on Wednesday and drawing with Huddersfield Town last weekend despite dominating both games.
Williams cites the Bluebirds’ main threat as being from set-pieces but adds that Cardiff “try and play more football than previous years”. If Cardiff look to beat Southampton at their possession game then they will likely struggle, but it will be concerning to Saints fans to hear of their strength from dead ball situations given Southampton’s struggles at defending corners and free-kicks.
Who are Cardiff’s key men?
Whilst conceding that he is not likely to be Southampton’s main concern in regards to attacking threat, Williams has picked out Perry Ng as Cardiff’s best player this season and subsequently labels the right-back as the key man.
The versatile defender, who played left-back in Cardiff’s midweek defeat to West Brom, is a solid defensively but also has three league goals and one assist to his name this season so Southampton will have to keep an eye on him in both a defensive and attacking sense.
Williams adds that “in attack, Josh Bowler has looked a real attacking threat in the absence of Aaron Ramsey”.
The following is how Williams predicts the Bluebirds will line-up for the St Mary’s clash:
(4-2-3-1): Jak Alnwick; Perry Ng, Mark McGuinness, Dimitrios Goutas, Jamila Collins; Joe Ralls, Ryan Wintle; Josh Bowler, Manolis Siopsis, Karlan Ahearne-Grant; Yakou Meïté.