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- Joe Bennett Ready For Another High With Cardiff City Once They Click Into Gear
By Jack Cook
Joe Bennett has experienced his fair share of highs and lows since joining Cardiff City four years ago.
The 30-year-old was a key part of the team that won promotion back to the Premier League under Neil Warnock only to come back down again after one campaign.
The left-back has noticed a change of style under Neil Harris though admits the Bluebirds have yet to fully click this season and show their potential.
“We kept the ball relatively well compared to the previous manager, we have changed a bit from that,” said Bennett, who returned to the team after injury at Derby in midweek.
“We are still yet to click. I don’t think we played that well at Derby, we could have played better.
“Man marking, longer balls, we can do that at times because we have got Kieffer (Moore) up there, but it’s a little bit of a transition period.
“I know that is a cliche, where we are trying to play a different style of football.
“I know that takes time, but we have new players in the squad, and you can’t win every game.
“It’s so difficult in the Championship to pick up points, but we will be looking to do that at QPR and get the points on the board.”
Bennett returned to the side that drew with Derby after being out with an injury for a couple of weeks.
“It’s been a bit frustrating the past two or three weeks because I’ve not missed many,” he added.
“I had that first hamstring injury against Nottingham Forest, and I recovered from that, went back into training, felt fine and then started the Blackburn game and knew within five minutes it wasn’t quite right.
“I started training again and felt my quad tighten up in training and was hoping to play against Middlesbrough, but it was a bit too soon.”
Bennett played 50 games for the Bluebirds last season as they got to the Championship play-offs.
And with the break between the two seasons being so close together he could now be paying the price for the number of games he played last season.
He added: “There are a few factors that play into that. The small break that we had, the amount of games I played last season, that’s unheard of, 50 games in a season, and it just caught up with me.”
City travel to QPR on the weekend determined for revenge after the 6-1 thrashing suffered at Loftus Road on New Year’s Day.
“I actually didn’t play that game,” said Bennett. “I remember watching it on TV though and it’s not nice to lose by that amount of goals.
“Different team, different shape, but it will be nice to remember that and get one back over them on the weekend.”
With Bennett and Greg Cunningham out injured it was academy prospect Joel Bagan who played the home games against Bournemouth and Middlesbrough.
The 19-year-old has impressed and now will create healthy competition between the three for the starting position.
“I think you relish it,” said Bennett. “It’s good to have competition in every position. We are lucky to have three good left-backs, you don’t often get that many decent players in that one position.
“Greg is injured at the minute, but Joel has done really well.”
