Erol pre-Rotherham United | We have learned a lot this season
Erol Bulut spoke to the press ahead of our final game of the season against Rotherham United on Saturday afternoon.
The Millers head into this weekend’s fixture currently sitting at the foot of the Sky Bet Championship table.
In the reverse fixture, City claimed a 2-0 victory, with Kion Etete and Perry Ng on the scoresheet.
“For the last game against Rotherham, still we have half the team are not with us because of injury,” Erol began. “Callum O’Dowda will be with us, it looks like this, but he will not be available from the starting XI.
“We will try to use him, but I don’t want to use players that just came back from injuries to have a problem again. In pre-season, everybody has to be fully fit and be back. We cannot take risks that Cardiff City have injured players.”
The Bluebirds finished last season on 49 points, while this season’s tally is 62 points with one game left to play.
Reflecting on the campaign, Erol continued: “I watched some games from last season to know a bit about the Club. When you come in, you see more details that you have to work on.
“We were quick to make transfers and we could not buy players, only free transfers. The system was clear for us how we wanted to play with the players that we had and we signed.
“Of course, when you see now, 45 games in, we could manage some games much better. You can never be perfect, we are still learning. I’m sure we can be better.”
City head into Saturday’s fixture after back-to-back home games, which saw a dramatic victory over Southampton, before a defeat to Middlesbrough.
“At the end of the season, it is not easy to get the same performances that you had five weeks before,” Erol added. “You can see it for the top clubs, who are trying to get directly promoted, you can see how many points that have been dropped in the last few weeks. That is pressure.
“Sometimes, pressure is good, but when you are too relaxed, it is also not good. For us, Southampton was great, we gave everything. We had less players and many injuries.
“Against Middlesbrough, our injury list was much higher. We did not have enough players. We were with the youngsters, but as I said, that’s not an excuse to lose the game 4-1.
“If we could manage it with the chance that David Turnbull had and the great save from the goalkeeper, maybe the result would be directly the opposite way. It was a small detail, but this is football.”