Cardiff City selection dilemma: Who fills in for ineligible star centre-back against West Brom? | OneFootball

For a second time already this season, Cardiff face a selection headache ahead of Wednesday night’s trip to West Brom.

This time it’s not a suspension which has caused availability problems for the Bluebirds as with Perry Ng following his suspension for the loss at Reading, but an ineligible player.

Cedric Kipré joaned on loan from West Brom in the summer and has looked to be a key man so far, playing 270 minutes in 3 games and conceding only twice in that time.

However, the centre-back will be ineligible both for this game and for the return fixture in March 2023 due to rules prohibiting loanees playing against their parent club.

Cardiff aren’t short of options to fill in for Kipré on Wednesday evening, but each potential solution comes with its own problems.

Curtis Nelson seems the most likely to fill in and has played the most minutes of Cardiff’s rotational defenders, with Steve Morison confirming that the former Oxford United man is in contention for a start at The Hawthorns.

However, Nelson has been subject to many high-profile errors already this season, conceding a costly penalty to Shane Long against Reading and repeating the trick several three days later, fouling Colby Bishop in the box against Portsmouth during an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Portsmouth in the EFL Cup.

With Steve Morison’s depth at centre-back looking relatively healthy, many Bluebirds fans are hoping that, if Nelson is to come in against West Brom, it’ll be his final chance to prove that he can avoid these recurrent mistakes leading to goals.

Another option is 20-year-old Oliver Denham, a former Manchester United youth academy prospect who made his first start for the Bluebirds in a narrow loss to Liverpool during last season’s FA Cup. Denham has received several call-ups to the senior Welsh national team set-up but is yet to make an appearance, and indeed he only featured five times in Cardiff’s league campaign last year.

Denham is an exciting prospect who profiles as a ball-playing defender, and could become pivotal to Steve Morison’s plans if he impresses during the cameos he has given. Wednesday night’s clash against West Brom could be one such opportunity, but Morison will surely have in the back of his mind that Cardiff will end up considerably lacking height in central defence if he opts for a defensive pairing of Ng and Denham.

Both defenders stand at just 5 foot 9, marginally shorter than West Brom forward Karlan Grant.

There are benefits to playing smaller centre backs owing to their agility and speed, and indeed they could provide an effective antidote to Grant’s electric pace, but one may fear for Cardiff from set-piece situations with the lacking height, especially given opposing manager Steve Bruce’s tactical nous in this area.

Both options provide strengths and weaknesses, and Morison could well spring a surprise and opt for out-of-favour defender Mark McGuinness who stands at 6 foot 4 and possesses solid passing skills by virtue of his time at Arsenal’s youth academy.

Regardless of the ultimate decision, Cardiff fans will universally be hoping that whoever steps in can take advantage of their opportunity, especially since so many fringe members of the squad failed to do just that in the league cup against Portsmouth.