Cardiff host Newcastle live on Sky Sports on Saturday
Wednesday 15 August 2018 08:33, UK
Every Premier League side presents their opposition with difficulties to deal with - but Cardiff will be a unique challenge for their rivals this season.
Neil Warnock's team clinched automatic promotion to the top flight with a distinctly direct approach in the Sky Bet Championship and the signs are they have no intention of straying from that formula in the Premier League.
Almost 27 per cent of Cardiff's passes in their 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth on the opening weekend were classified as 'long passes' by Opta, the highest figure in the division.
Almost inevitably, that led to them recording the lowest passing accuracy and fewest successful passes in the league by a significant margin.
That follows on from the trend of last season. Cardiff sent a league-high 26 per cent of their passes long, while their passing accuracy (59 per cent) and average total of successful passes (166) ranked as the lowest recorded in the Championship since Opta began collecting that data in the second tier five years ago.
To put those numbers into the context of the Premier League, Cardiff, on average, completed 495 passes fewer per game than Manchester City in 2017/18.
Cardiff are happy to play those long passes as it allows them to get the ball forwards and into dangerous areas as quickly as possible, though.
"What do you want as a fan," asked Warnock last season when quizzed on his style. "Do you want to see shots on target or do you want us to pass the ball across the pitch on the halfway line?"
Do you want to see shots on target or do you want us to pass the ball across the pitch on the halfway line?
A good example of this in action is Cardiff's 'direct speed' stats. This is an Opta metric which measures how quickly a team moves the ball up the pitch in metres per second when they're in possession.
Cardiff's direct speed and percentage of long passes last season far exceeds even the most direct teams seen in the Premier League last season.
There is, of course, more than one way to win a football match, and Cardiff's approach under Warnock has proven successful so far.
But will it work in the Premier League?
They may have struggled against Bournemouth but, historically, it appears Cardiff's tactics may just pay off in the long run.
During the past 10 seasons, no side averaging under 65 per cent passing accuracy and under 200 successful passes per game have been relegated from the Premier League.
In fact, they've not even finished in the bottom six.
Cardiff's stats bear resemblance to those of Stoke City when they first came into the Premier League under Tony Pulis and caused so many problems for opposition teams with their long passes, aerial threat and physical approach.
The Welsh side may not have got off to a winning start, but there's evidence to suggest their opponents - including Saturday's visitors, Newcastle - will be in for a real test.
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