What style can we expect from Cardiff against AFCB?

If you look at Cardiff's last away game at Watford you might expect the Bluebirds to play in a similar way considering that Watford are a fast passing side like AFCB and were playing at home on that day. Russell Slade has seen his team get success with playing a few long balls up to Kenwyne Jones, while the predatory nature of Adam Le Fondre in the box and Frederico Mechada's sharp finishing is something that Tommy Elphick and Steve Cook will have to deal with.

It has been a reasonable start for Slade and while Cardiff are a side that will let the opposition enjoy affair amount of possession they tend to strike really hard on the break and they have plenty of height with Kenwyne Jones in their team. I never felt that Cardiff were a bad team even when they started off slowly in the Championship under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. They showed that even in the first game after Solskjaer's reign was over by getting a draw away at Derby County. Many of their squad have Premier League experience and AFCB will have to try and dominate players like Pilkington, Whittingham and Gunnarsson if they are to control the game.

Cardiff are perhaps not as adventurous as they were early on in the season. They have tightened up and are not conceding as many goals, although Bolton get the better of them at the start of November. It would be handy if Liam Feeney could hand on some tips as he was Cardiff's chief tormentor that day scoring a brace.

I'm sure Cardiff will set out to upset AFCB's passing game with a few testing long balls, but the Cherries's central defenders should be used to that by now. Eddie Howe will be concentrating more on how AFCB can hurt Cardiff and look to get the side's attacking players showing that the kind of skill they had around the box at Wolves is something they can replicate on a regular basis against any of the Championship teams. 

There was a good win yesterday against an Exeter City team for most of the AFCB squad who you would imagine will be used to line up against Liverpool next week. It was good to hear that O'Kane and Stanislas had especially strong games.