Midfield Headache For Cardiff City

Cardiff City boss Dave Jones is the victim of his own successes after bringing in Arsenal starley Aaron Ramsey on loan. The Gunners prospect needs gametime, and has the quality to be a huge success in the Championship - but his inclusion would necessitate a re-shuffle and cause an established player to be dropped.

It seems almost certain that Craig Bellamy will start, and play on the left. Additionally, the dominant presence of Seyi Olofinjana looks an obvious choice to partenr a more creative player in the centre. With Steve McPhail injured, this role has been filled to good effect by Peter Whittingham with the former Aston Villa wideman adapting to this new role - his sublime through balls fed Chopra for the winner against Leeds and the opener against Watford for Bellamy.

However, that position is the natural place for Aaron Ramsey to slot in in his 2nd debut for City. He is creative, industrious and a class act so with Olofinjana offering protection behind, Ramsey would be given license to roam and act as playmaker. Chopra, Bellamy and co. would be delighted, but then again all three have profitted from Whittingham's vision and creativity too.

Whittingham could potentially feature on the right wing. Bellamy offers pace and skill on the left wo Whittingham could be allowed to cut infield and continue his creative contribution from wide. However, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas impressed on his debut in that role and will also be looking to retain his place. JET is pacy, powerful and a real handful - he surely deserves another start? Then of course there's diminutive winger Chris Burke, a handful for any left-ack with his pace and trickery. He hasn't been 100% of late but can tear teams apart at will when given good service.

Personally, I feel Ramsey will start on the bench. he hasn't had all that much gametime and clearly has the ability to change the game coming on. It's worth remembereing that Dave Jones used his primarily out wide in his previous spell but as a central midfield substitute he could replace Whittingham in the middle, or Bellamy/JET out wide with Whitts switching position. Further, he could easily replace Chopra with Bellamy moving into the attack and Whitts out wide. The options are endless and it will be a tough task for Jones to manage his midfield maestros accordingly...

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