Football League World
·1 novembre 2024
Football League World
·1 novembre 2024
Cardiff summer signing Alex Robertson has been compared to one of the club's former top midfielders
This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...
Dynamic Cardiff City midfielder Alex Robertson has drawn comparisons to ex-Bluebirds' hero Victor Camarasa for his impressive performances in the Welsh capital since his summer move from Manchester City.
Robertson joined Cardiff from the Citizens in August, as he penned a four-year deal for an initial reported fee of just under £1 million, with the potential to rise to £3 million should all add-ons be met.
The 21-year-old did not make a senior appearance for City after joining them at under-15 level, but shone on loan at Portsmouth in League One last term, as he helped John Mousinho's side to promotion with a goal and four assists in 23 league appearances before his season was cut short in January due to a serious hamstring injury.
He has been one of the Bluebirds' best performers in the early stages of his debut season in the Welsh capital so far, and his playing style and respective impact on his teammates is seemingly similar to another midfielder that won the hearts of Cardiff fans for his stint at the club just a few years ago.
Robertson experienced a slow start to life at Cardiff as he was an unused substitute in the first two games of the season under Erol Bulut, but he soon began to get valuable minutes off the bench, and has since been a consistent starter under Omer Riza since Bulut's departure.
It is no coincidence that all four of the Bluebirds' wins so far this term have come with Robertson as a starter in the middle of the park, and FLW's Cardiff fan pundit, Jack Price, compared him to Spanish midfielder Victor Camarasa, who was a key player for the club in the 2018/19 Premier League season while on loan from Real Betis, when we asked him for a current player at the club who reminds him of a past top player.
“One player at Cardiff who reminds me of a former top player at the club is Alex Robertson. He reminds me of Victor Camarasa," Jack told FLW.
“That is a testament to how good Robertson has been for Cardiff so far.
“There are some stylistic differences between the two, and surprisingly enough I think Robertson is actually a bit more gritty and dogged out of possession and willing to put in the hard yards and break up play.
“He had very good numbers for interceptions against West Brom recently, so he’s willing to do a lot of the off the ball work that, maybe Camarasa wasn’t, to such an extent.
“I think Robertson has got the coolness, composure and the elegance in bringing the ball out from deep, trying to dictate the tempo and breaking the lines with his passing that I haven’t seen from a Cardiff midfielder since Camarasa.
“He (Camarasa) was incredible for us in the Premier League in the 2018/19 season.
“Robertson has that demeanour about him, when he is on the ball, where he just appears two or three steps ahead of everybody else, because he reads the game so well.
“He barely gives the ball away. He can carry it, he can just breeze past players.
“Then he can also play those diagonals across the pitch and break the lines, and carve out chances at will.
“If Robertson turns out to be half as good as him, then we’ve pulled a blinder, really.”
The saying 'never fall in love with a loan player' is widely used in modern football discourse, but Cardiff fans could not help themselves when it came to Victor Camarasa's spell in 2018/19.
The Spaniard had been a regular in La Liga over the previous four seasons for Levante, Alaves and Betis, yet joined the Bluebirds to help them in their first season back in the Premier League, and became a key player throughout the campaign for Neil Warnock despite their eventual relegation.
He was such a standout for Cardiff that claims emerged in the January window that Betis were debating recalling him to their squad, but he remained at the club for the whole season and made 33 appearances in league and cup, with his five goals and four assists not quite enough to keep them in the top-flight.
Camarasa's crowning moment in blue and white was undoubtedly an injury-time winner away at Leicester City in December 2018, as he picked the ball up 25 yards from goal and curled a fantastic strike past Kasper Schmeichel to seal a vital last-ditch victory in the East Midlands.
Robertson has undoubtedly been a star in the Bluebirds' midfield so far, but if he can replicate the impact that Camarasa had on that team of 2018/19, then he will have had one of the best debut seasons of any player in the club's recent history.