Love this video of Siopis. He’s quite a character. https://x.com/cardiffcityfc/status/1723046762305257899?s=46&t=oXByeGVV5E_1XRdZA3VFlA
Well Bulut blew it for me today. I really thought he had got over the defending a lead calamities early season - Leeds Leicester & Ipswich - by not sitting deep as City did v Swansea & Bristol but today OMG it was so transparent Norwich had Romeo on toast yet as time went on City just kicked it long to Meite (who was as bad as Ugbo) and back it came. 3 times we had decent moves in the 2nd half but Grant messed a great opening & Romeo then Colwill didn’t look up (as the U-21 winger did v Bristol) and passed to a defender. It was only when we were 2-3 that there was some urgency. This against a team with a poor defensive record. Bulut can blame the ref for some howlers and bad luck for an OG but he must have sent the team out on 2nd half to be negative which was all so apparent. How many more self inflicted points are we going to throw away this season?
You need people like that in a squad. Picks you up when you're down. Pushes you on when the going gets tough. A big impact on the pitch, and I'm sure his influence is felt off it.
We just let in 3 goals with soppy on the pitch, midfielders are supposed to stop attacks and pass the ball forward none of which is within his capability. Anyway we have to get used to Bully boy making the worst sub decisions ever, taking off Robinson who was on fire and Bowler another goalscorer and leaving Meitie on who is starting to look like another Watters with his lack of goals. It is bad, however the team has played well and we have won good games and in contention for the play offs and a lot of teams are worse off. Usually my opinion is who ever plays should give 100% as it is down to them but some of Bulits decisions on subs and tactics leave me baffled.
Okay, unless the alternative is the absolutely useless Ubgo. At least Meite puts himself about and gives defenders a hard time. Unlike Ubgo.
Meite doesn’t convince. He didn’t get into one goal scoring position on Saturday and quite why he started instead of Etete is puzzling as was leaving him on for so long. He’s missed more sitters this season than he’s scored.
Need to remember he's still pretty rusty after not playing much last season and wasn't signed as an out and out striker. He offers more in a physical sense than the others but Etete may prove to be a better finisher. Ultimately we lost a game to a team that would have been highly fancied at the start of the season that have been underperforming. The substitutions made were like for like and should have helped but didn't on this occasion. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see Meite dropped for Etete for the next game with Meite possibly pushed back to the wing in place of Grant, though Erol likes Grant's work rate. Had we hung on and won, or even drawn the Norwich game we probably wouldn't be having the conversation though....
Don’t disagree with most of that Brizzle, but the lack of a decent striker is costing us big time. We’re 16 games in and our top scorer in the league is on 3 (Ng, Ramsey & Ugbo). Yes I know it’s a team game and the goals can get shared around with nobody getting a hatful but we plainly need a marksman. We’ve lost by a single goal or drawn too many times when a decent striker would have made that vital difference. It will be interesting to see if Bulut addresses this in January.
Grant has played a lot of minutes out of necessity. If O'Dowda was fit, I'm not saying he would start in front of Grant, but he'd have certainly shared the work load. Maite might get some minutes out wide if we had an out and out 9. Etete was getting there until he got injured. A couple back from injury and a starting 9. Or one to share the job with Etete and we'll hopefully play to the strengths of the likes of Meite in their more natural positions. There's a bit of make do and mend at the moment. We're doing OK, possibly better than expected, but with an astute addition or two, I'd hope to see us kick on. Most of the pieces are there.
Bulut's decisions are once again being questioned and that's fair for a forum. To me, Robbo, Bowler and Ralls were doing a great job and should have stayed on but what do we really know about their stats? The coaches have all the info in real time sent back the dugout and their stats could have been plummeting to predetermined limits. If Colwill had come on and scored again like against Bristol, it would have been seen as a masterstroke, Tanner didn't spark at all, and Wintle lacks any dynamism behind them. In essence it just didn't work this time. As it was, the substitutions slowed the game down and gave Norwich the confidence to press. I don't like to see managers publicly criticise their players - smacks of Morison's blasts at Zak Davies and Watters, but in hindsight Bulut did what he thought was right but it went wrong. Was that his fault? Maybe in a way but many share his frustrations which are borne out of the lack of game changing options that the club needs to address in January.
OS, I suspect possibly Bulut publicly names players he criticises for several reasons: making the fan base aware of what he expects from particular players and diverting blame from himself for his decisions. I’m not too sure the latter is correct (well I hope it’s not the case) but as for the former it does help us fans know what he’s asking certain players to do and we can then judge them for ourselves. On Saturday eg it was noticeable Tanner was not at the races (like he was when he came on versus swansea) in particular failing to track back to assist Romeo. It’ll be interesting to see how he performs next time.
Thought I'd bump this rather than start a new one. Not a huge amount of time to the end of the season and the start of planning for the next. Just about guaranteed to be in this division, either way, so time to decide who leads us forward. Haa Bulut done enough to warrant another season? He started well, had a serious mid-season blip and is currently on a roll. I'm not seeing anything that has fundamentally changed in the last month to indicate he is responsible for the upturn. Is he on a lucky streak, or was our poor run bad luck? His blaming of players and not himself during our poor run didn't sit well with me. There wasn't analysis of our failings as a club, just as players. I've not been able to discern a real pattern of play, a game plan. I'm starting to think Bulut may be a 1 trick pony. Time for a change? AGAIN. But who? With a couple months to the end of the season, some preparation is needed. give Bulut a new contract, or show him the door. Decision time. No procrastination. My glass was half full for much of the season, but is now half empty I'm sorry to say.
It’s a constantly asked question ATM. I’d leave it until after the last game. If pushed and unless there’s a poor run-in, I’d expect him to be offered a new deal which probably would be justified taking everything into account.
I'm still undecided. He's had some tough luck with injuries but equally made some mistakes. I can remember DJ having a hot and cold first season. I certainly would want to be careful about starting the revolving door again given the board's history of recruitment and retention. A new face would almost certainly have to fight the board and that never ends well. At least Erol has a certain amount of sway and has a bit of backing. I suppose at the end of the day, we're in a better position than last season and have the big transfer window ahead of us. Anyway don't want to talk about binning him just before our visit down west. Blooooooobirds.
I think he should be given a one year deal because dont forget there is not going to be a lot of money for players next transfer and i believe he knows of a few little diamonds for next season,Ok hes made a few mistakes along the way but who dosent make mistakes.
Personally I'm all for keeping him at the helm for next season. We WILL improve upon our points tally for last year and probably the year before that, so progress has been made. We've won three of four derby matches this year, and may yet complete a clean sweep this weekend. We have managed to ship out some deadwood from the squad (though some of them are only on loan so will need to be revisited in the summer) and in fairness to Bulut, most of his signings have played some part in our improvement, even if in some cases not quite as much as hoped for. Ok, we had a MASSIVE slump in form over winter, but we've also been without a couple of our best players for the majority of the season too. We all know what a fit Rambo brings and even with his limited game time since coming back we can see what O'Dowda brings to the party. We're now on our best run of form since the season began, have just produced what was arguably one of, if not the best performance of the season and incredibly do have a very outside bet of a shot at a playoff spot once more. We will nearly certainly fall short of that but if we finish top 10 and Bulut has chance to continue reshaping the squad over the summer then I believe we will be ok again next season too. He's already said he wants to blood some of the youngsters when the time is right and is finally getting a bit more out of the likes of Colwill and has Davies to come back in next season. If that's not steady, sustainable building and improvement then what is? Granted it's not a great leap forward but this time around maybe we do need to accept smaller, gradual, incremental change?
