Match Preview: Cardiff City

CRAVEN COTTAGE | 19:45 KO | 20TH OCT 2021

Image: Fulham FC

We’ve barely had time to blink and it’s back to the Cottage again, this time to take on a beleaguered Cardiff City under the lights…

Riding on a wave of positivity after a dismantling of our local rivals, there really is no excuse for not turning the screw on a team who have lost their last 6 and come into the game on the back of a 3-0 humbling by their Welsh rivals on Sunday afternoon.

But then I’m sure we’ve all been supporting Fulham long enough to realise things are never that simple! However, it’s hard to see a way that the Bluebirds could turn their shocking run of form against our side, especially when they’ve conceded 15 goals in those 6 defeats (and only scored 2)…Mitro must be licking his lips at the prospect of facing this defence!

In terms of how Silva will approach this game, I think we’ll again only see changes based on fitness…we’ve had an extra 24 hours recovery time and why would you make drastic changes to a team that played so well in their last game? Given the fact that Cav limped off early on and Bryan may still be recovering from wrapping himself around the goal frame, we may see BDR and Robinson step in, but unless Marco deems it necessary to rest some players, I think we’ll see much of the same as the QPR game.

Obviously, having Tom Cairney back in the squad was a great boost, for both the squad and the fans, but I think we’re still a way away from seeing him starting a game. It’d be great to see him get some game time, but I’m slightly surprised he hasn’t been given some workouts in the U23 side given how long he’s been out. Obviously, Silva sees a place for him in the team as we have too much depth in the squad (especially in the midfield) to be wasting a space on the bench purely for morale purposes. Where that is at the moment is yet to be confirmed, but let’s just hope that this is the end of TC’s injury nightmare.

SCORE PREDICTION: Fulham 4-0 Cardiff City

PREFERRED LINE-UP: 4-2-3-1

H2H LEAGUE RECORD (OVERALL)

  • PLAYED – 62
  • FULHAM WINS – 25
  • DRAWS – 13
  • CARDIFF WINS – 24
  • GOALS SCORED – 98
  • GOALS CONCEDED – 93

H2H LEAGUE RECORD (HOME)

  • PLAYED – 31
  • FULHAM WINS – 15
  • DRAWS – 6
  • CARDIFF WINS – 10
  • GOALS SCORED – 57
  • GOALS CONCEDED – 48

LAST 5 GAMES

  • FULHAM 1-2 CARDIFF CITY (PLAYOFFS)
  • CARDIFF CITY 0-2 FULHAM (PLAYOFFS)
  • FULHAM 2-0 CARDIFF CITY
  • CARDIFF CITY 1-1 FULHAM
  • FULHAM 1-0 CARDIFF CITY

BIGGEST WINS AT CRAVEN COTTAGE

  • FULHAM 1-5 CARDIFF CITY (1968/69)
  • FULHAM 4-0 CARDIFF CITY (1931/32, 1948/49, 1974/75)

PLAYERS IN COMMON 

Harry Arter, Bobby Brown, Richard Carpenter, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Jeff Eckhardt, Neil Etheridge, Kerim Frei, Julian Gray, Mark Grew, Heidar Helguson, Mark Hudson, Junichi Inamoto, Eddie Johnson, Mark Kelly, Peter Kitchen, Joe Lewis, Scott Malone, Ross McCormack, Brian McDermott, Chris Pike, Bobby Reid, Jazz Richards, Kieran Richardson, David Roberts, Wayne Routledge, Phil Stant, Mark Walton, Alan Warboys, Tony Warner, Paul Went.

LEAGUE POSITION: 20TH

LEAGUE FORM: LLLLL

AWAY FORM: LLLLD

LAST RESULT: SWANSEA CITY 3-0 CARDIFF CITY

GOALS SCORED: 12 (17TH)

GOALS CONCEDED: 22 (2ND)

AVERAGE POSSESSION: 46% (17TH)

DISCIPLINE: 23 YELLOWS 0 RED (10TH)

TOP SCORER: ADEN FLINT (4)

MOST ASSISTS: RYAN GILES (5)