Warnock reveals how he lost sleep over Cardiff formation.
Byline: DOMINIC BOOTH Football Writer [email protected]
NEIL Warnock laughed when it was suggested Cardiff City could repeat the formation that had seen them beat Wolves 2-1 on Friday night.
The Bluebirds boss sprang a huge surprise when fielding a 3-5-2 system that saw Victor Camarasa and goal hero Junior Hoilett playing at wingback, though it proved successful, with the hosts stifling Wolves for long periods.
Hoilett struck a screamer for the winner when cutting inside from the left, after Aron Gunnarsson's effort had cancelled out Matt Doherty's opener.
Warnock, however, revealed it was only down to necessity that Cardiff changed their system.
"Are you joking? I couldn't sleep last night! Junior Hoilett and Victor Camarasa wing-backs? My God!" he joked when asked if Cardiff could play the system again, before revealing why the change happened.
"We lost Greg Cunningham and Jazz Richards, who played wing-back last year for us.
"Joe Bennett didn't train at all this week until yesterday (Thursday). I didn't really want to risk them all being out with hamstrings.
"Junior has always done a good job against Doherty.
"Victor, I wasn't too sure about Victor but, hey ho, we hadn't got much more really.
"And I thought Harry (Arter) and Joe (Ralls) could upset the applecart in there (midfield) and we got better up front as the game went on."
Warnock and his staff were proven right, as Cardiff matched Wolves' wing-back system and largely dominated the contest, deserving to snatch victory.
He added that he wanted to entertain the Bluebirds fans - as well as revealing the piece of advice Vincent Tan had given him regarding Hoilett.
The Canadian opened his account for the season with a 77th-minute wonder strike.
"We spoke before the game and I'm not a miracle man, but we decided, myself, Kevin and Ronnie that with a couple of full-backs injured, let's have a go tonight," Warnock added.
"We only played three defenders.
We said 'let's have a go', we had Junior and Victor wing-backs, but we wanted to have a go at them in midfield, close them down, get the crowd going and make it exciting. And I thought we did that.
"Junior, he always used to cut inside. Vincent will be delighted. I spoke to Vincent before the game and said 'I'm playing Junior left wingback and he's going to come in and shoot from there all the time' because we don't shoot enough."
CAPTION(S):
Victor Camarasa played in an unfamiliar wing-back role
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Title Annotation: | Sport |
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Publication: | South Wales Echo (Cardiff, Wales) |
Date: | Dec 3, 2018 |
Words: | 417 |
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