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Sunderland face Cardiff City at the Stadium of Light on Saturday in the Championship
Cardiff City have been handed a “massive” injury boost ahead of this weekend’s game against Sunderland with Aaron Ramsey set to be available.
Sunderland face Cardiff City at the Stadium of Light in the Championship on Saturday, with both clubs needing to win to satisfy their goals at opposite ends of the table.
The Welsh club are dighting relegation to League One under Omar Riza and are just five points off the relegation zone with a significant amount of football still left to play. On the other hand, the Black Cats need a victory to keep in touching distance of the automatic promotion spots, with Sheffield United now eight points clear.
Ahead of the game, The Echo caught up with Cardiff City insider Dafydd Pritchard, who covers the Bluebirds regularly for BBC Sport Wales. During his appearance on The Roar Podcast, Pritchard revealed that former Juventus and Arsenal man Ramsey was coming back up to speed following an injury which has limited the international to just seven appearances this season.
“Aaron Ramsey is back from injury, and he's shown glimpses of his quality since he's come back. so you might expect to see him alongside Mannsverk,” Pritchard told The Echo. “Then, in attack, it's tended to be quite a fluid front three with three wide forwards. Callum Robinson has been playing down the middle quite a lot. Cian Ashford is a young academy product, 20 years old, nippy wide forward who has been decent recently. And then, whoever's fit out of Will Alves, who they've signed on loan from Leicester, on the left or El Ghazi or Chris Willock.
“But what we've had recently is Yousef Salech has come in and offered something slightly different, so a more physical outlet up front. Given his goal-scoring form recently, I'd expect maybe Salech to start up front. If Callum Robinson is fit, you'd expect to see him maybe play off him and then maybe Cian Ashford on the other wing.
“Riza's trying to look for that combination of pace and goals which has been so lacking in that team recently but I'd say that's the difference trying to attack a bit more a bit more pace few more goals in the team and probably a change of shape as well but watch them play with a back four and sit back now I've said all that.”
Aaron Ramsey’s Cardiff City return could be “massive” ahead of Sunderland game
Asked how big Ramsey’s return to fitness could be for Cardiff City, Pritchard said: “I think it could be massive. I think even when he joined, most fans taking emotion out of it and the golden boy coming back to his boyhood club, they knew that with his injury record, he wasn't going to play 30, 40 games a season, but I don't think they're expecting him to be absent as much as he has.
“He's barely played this season at all. I don't think he's even to double figures yet, certainly if not for starts. Riza has said that he's not at a point now in his career, perhaps ever again, where he can play Saturday, Tuesday and repeat it. So they're trying to wrap him up in cottonwool the best as they can. So he'll mainly play Saturday to Saturday and usually will only last an hour to 70 minutes if they can help it.
“But what you do find is that he's just got these moments of quality that he can still call on. So I did the game against Bristol City a few weeks ago, and it was just when he was coming back, and it looked like Bristol City were going to hold on for a 1-0 win, even though Cardiff had had arguably more of the game. Ramsey comes on, Bristol City are sat deep. But he's that one player who can unlock the defence with a through ball and eventually leads to the equaliser.
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“So he will be important, I think. They're not reliant on him because they know that he's fit so rarely. But when he is available, I think he's a potential difference-maker. And sometimes you have to, you know, kind of pinch yourself. You've got a fighting relegation in the Championship, and you're bringing on Aaron Ramsey for little 20-minute cameos. So, yeah, perhaps he could be the difference. And yeah, I think the squad in general, there's enough quality there to steer clear. But it's just such a dogfight at the moment down there.”
Related topics:Bristol CityFitnessCardiff CityChampionshipCardiffLeicester
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