Here are your Cardiff City headlines for Monday, August 15.
Mackie: Sawyers has impressed
Former QPR and Nottingham Forest wide man Jamie Mackie has heaped praise on Cardiff City's summer recruitment and has been impressed by Romaine Sawyers so far.
It was Callum O'Dowda and Jaden Philogene who combined for City's goal against Birmingham City, but there is no doubt that Sawyers has looked bright in the opening three Championship games, scoring in that first outing against Norwich City, of course.
And, speaking on ITV's EFL highlights show, Mackie said: "It's a case of decent recruitment from Steve Morison. I think that he has had the opportunity [to overhaul the squad] this year.
"One of the new signings, O'Dowda, squaring it to the loanee Philogene from Villa [for the goal]. Morison has had the whole pre-season to get his thoughts across and really work. I've been impressed with Romaine Sawyers as well, a good signing for the Championship."
Morison: Credit to the recruitment team
Steve Morison heaped praise on his recruitment team and believes the quality of their scouting and recruitment is the reason they have started the season with two league wins out of three.
Some thought it might have been difficult to get this completely new squad to play in such a way so quickly. But the partnerships look as though they have been there for some time already. The midfield trio all complement each other well, Perry Ng and Cedric Kipre are looking strong at centre-back, while the wing-backs and their wingers ahead of them have all been pleasing aspects of City's early-season performances.
While it might be a surprise for some that it has all clicked so early, Morison is not shocked in the slightest.
"No [I'm not surprised], because of the work that has gone in behind the scenes," he added. "The recruitment team. Kev Beadell [head of recruitment], Paddy [Patrick Deboys, lead recruitment analyst], Jenks [Matthew Jenkins, first team data analyst], to find out what they are all like as characters.
"We've all made phone calls, myself, Huds [Mark Hudson], finding out who the people are, whether they are good eggs, bad eggs. We've brought in really good human beings who happen to be good footballers as well."
Koumas' son tearing it up at Liverpool
Jason Koumas' son is already making a name for himself at his dad's boyhood team, Liverpool.
Having made an impressive rise through the youth ranks, the 16-year-old netted four goals in the club's opening under-18s clash against Middlesbrough on Saturday, with three of his strikes coming before half-time as part of a blistering display.
The young Reds ran out 6-2 winners, and there's clearly a fair amount of excitement around Lewis, or 'Louie' as he's know by his peers.
“He’s a good footballer. He’s very good at running without the ball, he is very good at running forwards. His movement and timing is excellent – and he likes to finish,” said U18s boss Marc Bridge-Wilkinson.
“He’s played in wide positions, as a midfielder, he’s even played at full-back for different age groups and he has played as a No 9 as well, but I don’t think he has ever played there consistently. I’ve told him well done. He obviously deserves a lot of credit. It was a fantastic performance.
“To score four goals at this level is something that doesn’t happen too often, so he deserves a lot of credit. His performance was really, really good but there are still big strides we can take. We can still help him improve further.”
Loan round-up
Let's finish off with a little loan round-up, shall we?
To kick things off, Chanka Zimba was on the losing side as Newport County fell to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Bradford City. James Rowberry's side are now three league games without a win this term, but did overcome Luton Town in the Carabao Cup. The 20-year-old is yet to start a game, but came off the bench for 29 minutes at the weekend.
Dillon Phillips was included in a matchday squad for the first time on the weekend, too. He was named among the replacements at KV Oostende. They lost 3-1 against Gent in the Jupiler Pro League.
Kieron Evans was another player who started on the bench last weekend. He came on for Torquay United against Halifax Town in the 71st minute - and was shown a yellow card seven minutes later. Torquay won the game 1-0 thanks to Brett McGavin's goal.
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