Preview: Cardiff City vs. Burnley - prediction, team news, lineups

Burnley travel to face Cardiff City on Saturday afternoon looking to extend their unbeaten streak in the Championship to eight matches.

At a time when the Clarets sit in fourth position in the standings, Cardiff are in 18th spot and managerless after the surprise sacking of Steve Morison.

Match preview

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Having recorded draws in half of their 10 Championship fixtures this season, Burnley head coach Vincent Kompany cannot be overly content with his team's progress.

Nevertheless, the Clarets are still in fourth with just one defeat to their name, away at Watford, so there needs to be a level of perspective when assessing their start to life back in the second tier.

Although they have sometimes faced criticism for their work in the final third, Burnley have netted in all but one of their Championship games, with five of their 17 goals coming from Jay Rodriguez.

The veteran's strikes and one assist have all come in separate games, the forward emerging as a key man in attack at a time when a wide array of new faces have arrived at Turf Moor.

Kompany will now hope that Burnley can kick on over the coming weeks, but the trip to South Wales represents one of four away fixtures in their upcoming six matches.

From Cardiff's perspective, this is their first game without Morison at the helm, the manager having been removed from the dugout without the club's hierarchy bringing in a replacement ahead of this contest.

The decision was widely criticised by the fanbase on the back of Morison keeping the Bluebirds in the second tier last season and beginning this campaign with 11 points from 10 games.

Mark Hudson, who is a contender for the full-time position, is in temporary charge for this match, with a win being enough to catapult the club towards the mid-table spots.

Cardiff are playing their first home fixture since August 30, while five of their last seven outings have come away from familiar territory.

Team News

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Hudson may move away from the back three which has been used by Cardiff, instead looking to play with a more attack-minded side in his first game.

That could see defender Jack Simpson drop out of the side to accommodate the return of either Romaine Sawyers, Rubin Colwill or Sheyi Ojo.

Callum Robinson will expect to retain his spot down the middle of the attack ahead of Mark Harris.

Johann Berg Gudmundsson provided the assist for Burnley's winner against Bristol City, potentially putting himself in line for a recall.

Barring any injury issues, the remainder of the side should stay the same, although Charlie Taylor is pushing for a return after injury.

Cardiff City possible starting lineup:

Allsop; Romeo, Ng, Kipre, Nkounkou; Rinomhota, Sawyers, Wintle; Philogene-Bidace, Robinson, O'Dowda

Burnley possible starting lineup:

Muric; Roberts, Harwood-Bellis, Beyer, Maatsen; Cullen, Cork; Gudmundsson, Brownhill, Tella; Rodriguez

We say: Cardiff City 0-2 Burnley

Under temporary guidance, it is unclear how the Cardiff squad will react to the exit of their manager. However, Burnley's added quality and extra strength-in-depth should shine through at some stage, leading us to predict a professional performance and victory from Kompany's men.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.