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Thoughts?
Bluebirds boss Erol Bulut, whose side are now winless in their last five home games, called for patience as his new players gel in the team.
“We need patience, all of us,” he said. “We’ve got new players, four or five new players.
“We try to get them adapted to the team quickly. I thought Nat was quite good, Wilson came in, but they have to know their team-mates much better and their movements.
“This will come over the next few games. We have many games in the next few weeks and we have to show it.
“We have to continue to show them what they need to do. I hope the next few games will be much better.”
Defeat in the Welsh capital leaves Cardiff seven points adrift of the Championship’s top six.
Victory – their first on the road in six matches – moved Preston to within two points of the play-off spots
Ryan Lowe lauded Emil Riis after the striker scored his first goal in more than 15 months to help Preston win 2-0 at Cardiff in the Sky Bet Championship.
The Danish forward fired beyond Jak Alnwick in the 30th minute to put the Lilywhites ahead against the run of play at Cardiff City Stadium – with Ben Whiteman notching Preston’s second five minutes before the break.
It was Riis’ first goal since returning from a year-long lay-off due to a knee injury, with his last strike coming against Middlesbrough in October 2022.
And boss Lowe said Preston are doing everything in their power to mould Riis into the “perfect” centre-forward.
“We’ve all been waiting for Emil to come back,” said Lowe. “He looked strong physically, I’m pleased with his goal, for him and his team-mates, they’re all pleased for him.
“The build-up to it was fantastic and the way he took it, so I’m really pleased for him. It’s huge to have him back.
“At some point he’s going to have to have a break. We’re just trying to mould him into a perfect striker. But we do need to be careful with him.
“We can’t just slog him all the way through, we’ll manage his days and his loads.
“I’m just pleased for him getting on the scoresheet today after having that long period of time out, as a striker it’s pleasing.”
The Bluebirds controlled the opening 30 minutes but were restricted to efforts from distance, with Kion Etete and Karlan Grant both testing goalkeeper Freddie Woodman.
But Preston looked far more comfortable after taking the lead, with Cardiff’s new-look squad unable to overly concern Woodman.
Aaron Ramsey returned from a five-month absence owing to a knee injury while Nat Phillips, Famara Diedhiou, Josh Wilson-Esbrand and David Turnbull all made their home debuts for Cardiff.
https://nation.cymru/sport/cardiff-c...at-to-preston/
He brought in new players so he can blame them for losing. Clever
Bulut is a con man. wish he"d feckoff.
Who knows what players he wanted, or how much they would have cost. He's paid to get the best out of the players he has at his disposal. For the first 3 months he did that and more. Since then we've been shite, apart from pinching a few away wins against the run of play.
Can he only manage players he wants?
another defeat and back comes the clickbait comic
Slow passionless sideways turgid predictable shite For months and then he always has an excuse.
His set up play at home is surrender football I'm not really sure what Rubin Colwill has to do to gain his trust.
I for 1 have had enough of his shit excuse for football.
But for a few lucky away wins in the last 3 months we would be right in the shite.
The football at home has been shit. There's no escaping that and no one will argue against it.
You can't just label our wins lucky though, that's just silly, in my opinion of course.
We aren't right in the shit because we are an average championship squad at best, playing below average at home, and above average away.
On paper we are always a lower mid table team. I suspect that is pretty much where we will finish.
It’s got feck all to do with the new players. He picked one and had to play one out of necessity.
It’s all to do with skill, attitude, application & tactics, coupled with picking the right team in the first place. Negativity in, negativity out.
I was at Preston Sheff Weds and Watford believe me all lucky results.
Preston 1 nil down to 10 men for a large period of the game then scoring 2 in injury time.
Sheff Weds 2 off target shots all game and winning 2-1.
Watford 1 nil up then surrender tactics for the last 30 minutes sat on our own 18 yard box a better side would have scored.
They were all lucky wins in my book that have papered over the cracks of a pretty negative manager with no plan b.
His only saving grace seems to me to be we can't keep chopping and changing managers every season.
The malaise of the club goes higher up the club than Mr excuse.
I agree with the points about negativity and narrow wins papering over the cracks, but can't agree it is down to luck. We have been lucky at times and unlucky at times. We have done a few smash and grabs, and lost games where we dominated but lacked any cutting edge. Most teams in the middle of the table will have similar stories.
Bulut regularly refers to three or four home games we lost that he felt we should have won (or at least drawn). He is right about those games - but I don't put the results down to the other side being lucky. We weren't good enough to get the points despite dominating in the match stats.
You suggest we wouldn't have been so 'lucky' at Watford if they had been a better side. If they had been a better side we probably wouldn't have won, but I struggle to see where luck fits in. We scored a very good goal and then (disappointingly) sat back and protected that lead but did it very well. I would have liked to see us be more positive, but at Watford the team defended well.
It was, though, another instance of negativity and 'safety first' (which often produces anything but safety).
Which games are these? These are our home league defeats:
QPR (1-2) - deserved defeat, we could have pinched a point late on but we were terrible until we went 2-0 down.
Norwich (2-3) - deserved defeat, Norwich created lots.
West Brom (0-1) - deserved defeat, 1 shot on target.
Birmingham (0-1) - deserved defeat, we were dreadful.
Leicester (0-2) - deserved defeat, but no shame in losing to Leicester.
Leeds (0-3) - deserved defeat, but no shame in losing to Leeds.
Preston (0-2) - deserved defeat.
I could equally add that we were perhaps fortunate to get our two home draws (against Watford and Plymouth) and were fortunate to have beaten Sheff Wed (last gasp penalty) and Millwall (keeper drops one into his net).
Bulut talks about the top three in your list if I remember correctly.
As I said in my post we weren't good enough to get the win (or draw) - but we were in a position in each of those games where we should have held onto a scoreboard advantage (the Norwich game), used our possession and chances after they scored to take points (West Brom - the opposite of our win at Watford) or turned possession and momentum into points (the QPR game).
Luck sometimes plays a part, but it doesn't always have to a narrative of us being lucky to win but deserving our loses.
I am not happy with the team or with Bulut - but let's talk about ability, intelligence, decisions, selection and other factors - not luck.