"Stupid" - Erol Bulut hits out at Cardiff City criticism | OneFootball

Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut has responded to criticism of his team after their poor start to the season in the Championship.

Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut has hit out at the criticism his side have received this season amid speculation over his future.

Bulut guided Cardiff to a respectable 12th-placed finish in the Championship last term, and he would have been hoping to kick on this season after signing a new two-year contract in June.

It was a busy summer for the Bluebirds with nine new signings arriving, including high-profile additions such as Calum Chambers, Chris Willock and Anwar El Ghazi, but it has been a tough start to the campaign.

Cardiff currently sit bottom of the table after just picking up just one point from their first five league games of the season, and they have scored just one goal and conceded 11 during that time.

After the 1-0 defeat to Derby County at Pride Park on Saturday, journalist John Percy claimed that the Bluebirds board were considering Bulut's future at the club, and further reports this week suggested that the 49-year-old was on the verge of being sacked.

However, Bulut looks set to be given more time at the Cardiff City Stadium, and he will remain in charge for the visit of Leeds United on Saturday.

Erol Bulut reacts to Cardiff City criticism

Speaking prior to the game against Leeds, Bulut passionately took aim at Cardiff's critics, particularly those on social media, and he insisted that his side have been unlucky this season.

"For us all the games are big games," Bulut told Wales Online.

"We have to start from many weeks before. It’s normal that I have pressure, when you don’t have the results we are expecting - what the board and the fans are expecting, but I can live with this.

"It’s the first time in my career I’ve had a start like this. I am also living this at the moment. We have to be realistic. The opponents against us, how they created, what they created and what we created, they were not better than us, maybe Burnley we can put away. But all the other games we had chances to win a game or lead the game.

"But football is like this, when you don’t score and opponents score, you can’t change the results.

"It’s normal you get pressure. What I don’t like also, if media or social media are writing about something to criticise me or my work, this I don’t like. Because it’s not true.

"You have to be honest. When everything goes well, everything is fine, when you have a few losses, no one is next to you. This is not something new. At least now I can see who is really next to us and who is not next to us. This is the point. Now I see real fans and real people who are next to us.

"When we are winning, everyone is next to us. When we are losing as a team, then who is next to us? When I see stupid things on social media about my players or myself, I don’t need that. If you are with us or with Cardiff City, you have to be with us until we die. Not only when we are winning, I don’t need that.

"I am including everybody. I don’t care who takes it personally. It doesn’t matter who. I take everybody in. Fans, media, we have to be together, but we are not. You attack me after five games, one point, 11 goals conceded, fine. If everything goes bad, you try and make it bad, why didn’t you write them last season about these bad things? OK, you were writing a few bad things, that is normal.

"Then it was the style of play, how we play, now this is how we play, so now it’s the results? What is it? A few people were writing about something. I don’t want to talk about, I know who’s talking. But it’s not the moment to speak about that. We have to speak about results. We have to fight to get back. We have a team where we don’t have to be in this position now after the first five games. We have been a bit unlucky. The opponents have been more lucky than us.

"We didn’t score, we didn’t make the result. This is normal and then I get pressure. I accept that. But in Turkey we say that if you attack under the belt it’s not good, you need to stay on the level. But I can live with this. This is not my first team. I have trained a few teams, including Fenerbahce, then you can understand the pressure. It’s just the way (it’s written) I don’t like."

Bulut said he has a strong relationship with the Bluebirds' board, and he urged supporters to stick together during a difficult period.

"With them I don’t have a problem," Bulut said, referring to the Cardiff hierachy.

"I have my guys around me. Fans and fan pages deliver things. I have to see what messages come. I’m not on social media every day, but I want to say that when we are together we have to be together. Not only to show we are together. This club doesn’t need this.

"About details we can speak. Now we have to speak about being together, fighting together, getting results.

"I thank the fans, they support me a lot. The real Cardiff City fans, they support us. Every game. They travel with us and give everything for the club. It’s not like we don’t want [to win].

"We showed in pre-season and in games that we can do it - but we didn’t have the luck. You can say, is it luck? We have to do more. But opponents against us we didn’t allow them much. The few chances they create, they score, that’s the difference. That’s why we didn’t win games. A few games we could win - Sunderland, Middlesbrough, even the Derby game we had a chance to score. We conceded a chance from nothing. We also had some chances, four chances if I remember. They have one, they score.

"No one has to make everything bad. When someone has to pay for something, I have to pay, I have no problem with that. But I take the responsibility for everything."

Erol Bulut must turn Cardiff City fortunes around quickly

It was a defiant response from Bulut to Cardiff's critics in his pre-match press conference, but he will need to see the same fight from his players on the pitch against Leeds on Saturday.

There is no doubt it has been a dismal start to the season for the Bluebirds, and Bulut is understandably coming under pressure, particularly as he was backed during the summer transfer window.

Cardiff lost six of their final nine games of last season, and that poor form has continued into the new campaign, so Bulut must turn results around quickly if he is to keep his job.

Some Bluebirds supporters would question Bulut's claim that his side have been unlucky this season, and their performance level will need to improve significantly if they are to pick up a result from what will be a tough game against the Whites this weekend.