Erol Bulut Insists Mean Cardiff City Can Get Meaner

STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 04: Cardiff City Manager Erol Bulut applauds the travelling fans after the Sky Bet Championship match between Stoke City and Cardiff City at Bet365 Stadium on November 04, 2023 in Stoke on Trent, England. (Photo by Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)

Erol Bulut Insists Mean Cardiff City Can Get Meaner

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By Gareth James

Erol Bulut has praised his Cardiff City players for their progress but urged them to extend their run of clean sheets.

The Bluebirds manager was pleased his team were able to keep their opponents scoreless for a third successive match, although they had to settle for a goalless draw at the weekend at Stoke City.

Cardiff have kept the door shut on Huddersfield, Bristol City and Stoke and have conceded just four goals in their last seven matches.

“I’’m really happy with my players, they’ve made big progress,” said Bulut.

“It’s not easy for many players here when we remember the last two years with what’s happened and how we started pre-season and the first games.

“It’s not easy to change everything in a positive way. Right now we’ve done it but we need to continue in that way and keep believing in our target.

“We knew that it was going to be a tight game because Stoke have had three great wins against great teams.

“In the first half, we weren’t like what I expect from my team. The second half was so much better and in the end I’m happy with a point.

“We have to look forward and it’ll be good for us to keep our run of clean sheets.”

The hosts continued their resurgence following three successive wins, while the Bluebirds dropped out of the top six despite a third outing without defeat.

Cardiff forward Callum Robinson looked to continue his rich vein of form against Stoke and came closest to a decider, but his deflected effort was pushed on to the post.

The Potters’ best opportunities fell to Dwight Gayle, who blazed wide and was then denied by Jak Alnwick, both before the interval.

Bulut added: “We are making big steps in defence. At the start of the season, it was always about individual mistakes and how we needed to be more aggressive.

“Right now, we are doing this well, and I hope we can continue.

“If we put it on percentage in defence then we’re around 50% better than what we had from the start, against the ball.

“Sometimes with defence, everyone thinks that’s about the defenders and midfielders. But that starts from our strikers. If they work well in-front, everything goes well for the team.

“Also that goes opposite. If you want to score, that starts at the goalkeeper. We build-up the game from the back. Everything depends on each other.

“Right now it’s going well. When we see the last three games, we’ve scored six goals and had three clean sheets. So, I think we’re going the right way.”

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Stoke manager Alex Neil said: “A point was probably a fair result but obviously we wanted to win it.

“We played extremely well in the past three games and all our chances today came in the first half.

“We had two or three really good chances to score but unfortunately didn’t take any.

“If we take a chance then it becomes a different game, but then in the second half we played ourselves into trouble when we were trying to play.

“We were wasteful with the ball more than what we’ve been, and that’s the biggest thing I’ll take from the game.”

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