I don't see what Bulut is hoping to achieve by being so negative. This piece in WalesOnline today makes perfect sense.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...N5_o2cTIl_PF1Q
When I first heard Cardiff City wanted to bring in Erol Bulut as their new manager, like the majority of Bluebirds fans I found the news to be hugely exciting.
After years of Russell Slade, Neil Harris, Mick McCarthy and Steve Morison, finally the Bluebirds were appointing a progressive young manager with pedigree who looked as if he was really going places in the game.
Bulut had done well in Turkey. You don’t get the chance to manage Fenerbahce, a giant club bossed by World Cup and European Championship winners, unless you have something meaningful about you.
What I considered to be Cardiff’s best summer transfer window - Ramsey, Goutas, Siopis, Grant, Bowler, Panzo - merely heightened the fresh enthusiasm surrounding Wales’ capital city club.
This was a team really going places, we felt, further underlined by some excellent early season performances, including against the better teams in the division, as Cardiff under Bulut played front foot, positive, even swashbuckling at times football.
Even amid late early-season setbacks versus Leeds United, Leicester City and Ipswich Town, Cardiff were displaying enough intent and panache to offer real hope for the rest of the 2023-24 campaign.
Good results duly arrived. After smashing Huddersfield in style 4-0 away, and a couple of welcome derby wins over Swansea City and Bristol City, by the end of October Bulut’s Bluebirds sat towards the top of the table and fans loved their new manager. With January strengthening to come, things could only get better.
So we thought.
Suddenly, complete and utter implosion. And, like so many Cardiff fans, I still can’t work it out.
Cardiff have lost 11 of the subsequent 18 matches and, even more alarming, has been the consistently woeful level of performances. It’s been truly dire - slow, ponderous, negative, uncreative back-foot football. From being a side playing at such a high tempo, Bulut’s Bluebirds have morphed into one who for months have mainly only looked capable of scoring from set pieces and seem as if they’re showing way too much respect for the opposition.
I’ve heard and read an awful lot of criticism of Cardiff’s front men in recent times, but the way Cardiff play Harry Kane would struggle to score in this team. A prime Cristiano Ronaldo might even have a problem.
Invariably, in wake of the 4-1 hammering at Norwich which so easily could have been eight or nine, fans say they have had enough. After that one, the clamour for Bulut to go has begun. The football is as bad as anything we saw under McCarthy, Harris or Slade, say the critics.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to argue against. It’s been that bad.
But… and there has to be a BIG BUT here. Whereas I had little belief in Slade, Harris and one or two others, a large part of me feels Bulut simply has to be a much, much better manager than he has shown since November and that he can still take this club onwards and upwards.
As such I still fervently want to see him turn this around. In order for that to happen, though, first Bulut needs to accept the recent approach to games is wrong and that a complete reset is required.
For me, the negative set-up since November is letting down the many people who have supported Bulut’s appointment from day one. That includes chairman Mehmet Dalman, who went out on a limb to bring him here, and Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan, who wants more offence-minded football.
I hear criticism of Bulut not being backed by the Cardiff board, yet I saw a league table the other day which states the Bluebirds have the sixth highest wage bill in the Championship. In these days of austerity, does that really represent not being backed by the hierarchy?
Cardiff undoubtedly have the personnel in this squad to be far more adventurous in outlook?
Thus, instead of setting up so negatively, with two defensive midfielders at home, and often with 10 men sitting deep behind the ball, how about a more positive line-up and approach from the off?
How about setting free Karlan Grant, Josh Bowler and Yakou Meite, asking them to play a good 20 yards higher up the pitch so they can run at defenders one on one instead of seeing two or three men covering?
No-one is asking for a return of Warnockball, but how about stopping this slow-slow, pass the ball around at the back, into midfield, then ponderously back again to the defence or goalkeeper style, and replacing it with a much quicker tempo to Cardiff's game?
Wouldn’t it be better to start playing with greater urgency again, for the midfielders pass forward, not back?
The front players have no chance at the moment because by the time the ball reaches them, opposition defences have been permitted to re-set and have everyone back in position themselves. Cardiff have talent in those front positions, but in my opinion good players are being made to look ordinary by a) tracking back defensively too much and b) not getting anything remotely resembling a speedy enough service.
Is it really too much to ask Grant, Bowler or Callum Robinson to have licence to run beyond the front man and stretch defences in the way Rob Earnshaw, Michael Chopra and Craig Bellamy so splendidly used to do. Cardiff fans want fast, creative, dynamic football in that final third of the pitch, but it stems from getting the ball to the front men with much greater tempo.
The one shining light amid the dire recent displays has been the re-emergence of Rubin Colwill, an enormous young talent who many feel the team should be built around. He was running the show in the 1-0 win away to Watford before Bulut, for whatever reason, chose to substitute him. Cardiff immediately fell apart and were somewhat fortunate to hold onto their hard-earned lead. It’s not the first time this has happened with Colwill.
Inexplicably, for the next game at home to Preston, Bulut left him out. I found that decision the most perplexing of the lot. I had no issue with David Turnbull being picked, he’s an exciting January capture from Celtic, but why at home to Preston were two defensive midfielders required at the expense of a creative talent like Colwill in such prime form?
The one glimmer of hope versus Norwich early on came through Colwill and Grant linking beautifully down the right and troubling the Canaries. Grant was switched over to the left, Cardiff went into defensive mode again and the threat immediately disappeared.
Why, some are again asking?
I repeat, I still fervently hope Bulut turns this around and justifies the belief so many have had in him from day one. That includes yours truly, I openly admit.
But it’s down to him to sort this. Starting with Blackburn at home on Tuesday night.
He has more than enough options in his squad to make this Cardiff team a much greater force. The sum of the parts need to start matching up.
Maybe a more adventurous midfield diamond is the way to go - Manou Siopis at the base, Colwill at the tip, with Turnbull and Aaron Ramsey (when fit) or young Joey Colwill in the middle. Siopis looked a wonderful player when he first arrived, I’m convinced he can return to those levels with forward-looking players around him who have the vision to shift the ball on more quickly. At the moment, he’s become symptomatic of the problems.
Grant is a huge talent, but he needs to be released much further up the pitch and thus start scoring and creating a lot more.
There is also an argument for putting wonderful servant Joe Ralls at left-back for a while, use his experience to help tighten up that area next to new man Nat Phillips and enable Greek international Dimitrios Goutas rediscover the form which made him look one of the best defenders in the division.
Cardiff’s side lack pace, compared to other teams, but they are also made to look even slower by the ponderous nature of the football and from having to come forward from deep way too often.
I maintain these problems are fixable and I want Bulut to be the man to fix them. Cardiff strengthened in January, they have Ramsey, Callum O’Dowda and Callum Robinson on the brink of returning. There are numerous options for Bulut to tinker with, but the new default setting needs to be one of adventure, rather than caution.
As appeared to be the case during an exciting start to the season under him.
Bulut isn‘t going to listen to someone like me, but maybe the time has come for Tan and Dalman to have a word and demand the change of approach so many fans are coveting. I’ve always felt because of the depth in the squad post-January, Cardiff would get better as the season wore on. Perversely, it’s been getting progressively worse
Norwich City needs to be a watershed moment. Tuesday night, against Blackburn, is the perfect time to start turning it around once more. Let’s start seeing the Cardiff we so enjoyed watching in August, September and October again.
Is that really too much to ask?
