By Gareth James
Erol Bulut has admitted a total of three goals all season from his main Cardiff City strikers “should be a little more than that.”
The Bluebirds manager knows the goal return his team are currently supplying looks more like that of a relegation team, rather than one seeking the promotion play-offs.
Cardiff travel to Norwich City on Saturday on the back of four defeats in their last five Championship matches, during which they have scored just two goals.
Kion Etete has scored two goals in 24 appearances, Yakou Meite has managed just one in 27, while new signing Famara Diedhiou has yet to score after three games.
That gives a combined total of just three goals from the three front men this season and goes some way to explaining why Cardiff are currently 14th in the table with just 36 goals scored from 31 games this season.
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Coventry City – the lowest placed of the clubs in the play-off positions – have struck 50.
With heavy understatement Bulut said of the three-goal strikers’ total, “It should be a little bit more, for sure.
“About Famara, we cannot say much, because he has only two or three games with us,” he added.
“But when we see in general, our goals and how we have scored them, normally you are expecting more goals from attacking players, and assists.
“Our defenders have more goals than our offensive players! We create a lot and we miss a lot. This is the problem. We have chances but we are missing a lot.
“This is up to the player. The decision in front of the goal is up to the player. Every player individually has to make the decision, to pass, to shoot on the goal, where to shoot – right, left, centre, up, down – we train finishing, every week.”
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Bulut’s team are eight points adrift of the play-off places with 15 matches remaining.
They are likely to need a total of around 70 points to get close to the top six, meaning they would require 30 points from those 15 games.
That’s a tall order for a goal-shy side and the Turkish manager – who is out of contract in the summer – seems more focused on the fact that his team should soon be safe from the threat of relegation with a couple more wins.
“We have 15 games to play and I want my players to be fully concentrated and to think only about these 15 games,” added Bulut.
“This is not my character to say to my players that we are safe and now, everything is done.
“This is not me. I would lie to myself. I want also for my players not to be like this, to give everything until the end, for the fans, because they are supporting us everywhere.
“We have to give them something back. Even if we lose points, at least we have to fight until the end to try and make everything possible to get points back.”
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Wales captain Aaron Ramsey is in contention to make his first start since September at Norwich after injury, while striker Meite will miss the trip to Carrow Road because of a calf problem.
Cardiff lost 3-2 at home to Norwich in November, since when the Canaries have only lost four games out of 16 to lift them to their current spot of seventh in the table.
Norwich manager David Wagner said: “I think we’re on a completely different run to back then [the 3-2 win in November].
“It’s obvious, from the points and the performances. Hopefully we can push the squad for Saturday. It’s been a heavy week, but we’re confident.
“We know they’re not on the best run at the moment, but I think they’re unlucky. It’s a super competitive team, nobody thinks this will be easy. They have very good individuals.”
We Just Can’t Score Goals, Admits Cardiff City Boss Erol Bulut