Cardiff manager Erol Bulut said his team needed to work harder without the ball as he was again left bemoaning his side’s inability to hold onto two-goal leads following their 3-2 loss at Portman Road.

The Bluebirds were also 2-0 up at Leeds on the opening day before being pegged back to 2-2, then Colchester United pulled off the same trick in the Carabao Cup, although the Welshmen did ultimately win that match on penalties.

“In the end, these kind of games when you’re leading 2-0, you have to not give it away,” Bulut said.

“You have to handle it, to take the three points but we couldn’t manage it in the second half, to keep the result the same or score even one more because we had the chances, even in the first half we had the chances, second half we had the chances.

“But in the end we give away two goals, unlucky goals because the ball fell in front of the opponent and the third one someone shoots the ball against the opponent and we conceded the goal like that.

“OK, in the end, you can say we played good, we made this, we made this, but I lost three points today.”

Bulut felt too few of his players gave everything over the course of the 90 minutes: “You cannot expect that only a few players are good the whole game and we will win games.

“A team is existing from 11 players not only from three or four players, and I said this to my team. Everybody has to be involved.

“In the second half some of my players were not involved really in the game. To keep the result, we had to keep the ball. When we have pressure, we have to keep the ball. If you cannot keep it, you get pressure.”

Bulut, who subbed winger Ollie Tanner at half-time as he was unhappy with his display, added: “There were positives today, if you see the first half and the first goal, how we managed it. We train for that.

“We know we have a lot of positive things in our game but football is not only with the ball, without the ball you have to work much, much more to not allow the opponent chances and we have to be more aggressive.

“It’s not enough what we have right now. It’s not enough from a few players, I need it from the whole team.

“Some players are really good with the ball, we have many in our team. But it’s not enough to be only good with the ball. Without the ball we have to be as well and you have to help your teammates.”

Photo: TWTD

foreverthebeat added 22:14 - Sep 2 Actually thought Cardiff were a good side perhaps we are as good as we all hope and maybe Bulet has to high hope's for Cardiff and he won't be there to long on this form
4

Cadiar added 22:58 - Sep 2 Maybe that was the difference in the end. All our players worked & worked.
2

Europablue added 23:31 - Sep 2 It's kind of scary how good Cardiff were. They are kind of seen as a team you should get a result against, but they played well and it was a real struggle. As KM said, it's a huge step up and even though the results have been very good, each game has been a battle for the points and it seems like that will continue to be the same again.
8

FrankMarshall added 23:46 - Sep 2 Actually thought Cardiff played really well as a unit and fir the first 55 minutes were very much the dominant team. Hladky was the key player for us. Some great saves there or it could have been a wipe out. Our goal gave us belief and turned the tide for us. But defensively we weren't great and Cardiff made the most of that.
5

hyperbrit added 02:20 - Sep 3 we cannot succeed in the Championship with a League 1 defense.Hladky is keeping us in it but it must be sorted soon.
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itfcserbia added 06:07 - Sep 3 It'd be a travesty If this Cardiff team ended up in relegation struggle.
2

Naylorsrightboot added 09:45 - Sep 3 Hypercritical: You are 100% correct, why you get down voted for an honest opinion l do not know. Our defense is definitely our weak link and won't keep riding it's luck forever. Why it wasn't addressed over the summer window l have no idea.
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bigolconnor added 10:05 - Sep 3 Not going to win games substituting your best player at half time. He’s going to lose the dressing room very quickly like that then he won’t even have 3 or 4 players giving it their all.
0

BeattiesBackPocket added 14:22 - Sep 3 Bemoaning a lucky goal from freddie when their second goal was lucky as hell! Evens for me. Great comeback
3

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