Bulut accuses Cardiff City of hiding as Swans cruise home

Erol Bulut accused his players of “hiding” in midfield as the Swans ran out comfortable derby winners at the dot com Stadium this afternoon and denied the Bluebirds a first ever league double over the Swans – a feat they never even threatened to achieve.

Goals from Liam Cullen and Jamal Lowe proved to be the difference between the two teams at the end but the reality was the gulf in class on the day that saw the Swans dominate from the first to the last minute and secure a fifth derby win in the last six outings.

It is little wonder then that Bulut was more than a little frustrated after the game especially as his side went into the fixture on the back of four straight wins but they had no answer to the Swans today with the Cardiff manager quite clear as to where the game was lost for his side.

“Today, with this pressing Swansea did against us, we wanted to keep the ball in midfield, but we didn’t ask for the ball in midfield. We were hiding too much in the midfield,” said the Cardiff manager.

“If you are hiding then you can’t go out from the pressing. You have to ask for the ball. This was not there in the first-half. That’s why I made changes in the second half, bringing two players on and we managed it a little bit better.

“As a manager you always ask for the best from the players, but you cannot have every game the same. Sometimes it happens like this. It’s disappointing we couldn’t do the double. This would have been great for the team and the club. But you cannot get everything.

“I think the most disappointing thing for me and my players was the first 30 minutes. We knew Swansea would make that pressure but we didn’t manage it well to come out of the press.

“The first 30 minutes, the opponents were making chances and they scored. I think the goal, how they got it, it was a foul on (Perry) Ng, in my opinion, because he was pulling him like he gave the penalty to the opponent (against Ng).

“He made that decision and we were 1-0 down. The second-half was much better from our team. We tried, had a few chances and we pushed the opponents to make mistakes but we couldn’t manage to score. The second goal wasn’t so important, I don’t think.

“We have to see first-half, disappointing, second-half was much better and we can work. We will not put our heads down or make big trouble of this because we lost. When we see the last weeks, how we worked and how we came back from where we were, we will be back again. We still have eight games to play, we have the international break, we will rest well, train well and come back strong again.

“We knew Swansea would come with pressure. But I think, in the first half, our midfielders they were hiding a little bit and not asking for the ball. This was one of the key points we couldn’t get out of the pressure. Then we tried with long balls to KG (Karlan Grant) and Yak (Yakou Meite), but this didn’t work well. In the second half we made changes and it was much better and we created a few chances, but we missed the goal.

“We came here to take three points. Sometimes you have to know how to face the opponents and know how to build up. We didn’t want to press them from the restart (from the goalkeeper), but from 20 metres from the halfway line. But we couldn’t manage it.”