' How are Cardiff City going to stay up ? '

Personally I believe we need 6 wins and 3 draws to stay up.

It can be done
Which 6 games can we win?




Sport Football Football News Cardiff City FC
By Chris Wathan

Cardiff City stats: The facts and figures that show Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must get more goals out of Bluebirds for survival
Thursday 16th Jan 2014.


Cardiff are currently on course to fall short of the points required for survival, while their goals record makes grim reading

Share on print Share on email
Cardiff have stumbled in front of goal this season
Cardiff City's defeat to West Ham last weekend was a day of firsts.

Unfortunately for the Bluebirds, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first Premier League game in charge ended with the side occupying one of the relegation places for the first time this season.

At first glance, it is not a statistic that should provide too much alarm given the congested nature at the bottom end of the table and the fact – as Solksjaer said – a few wins could soon see it all turn around.

Yet closer inspection suggests Solskjaer’s first priority has to be rapid improvement given how, right now, recent history weighs heavily against Cardiff staying in the top-flight after last season’s celebrated promotion.

Because the first rule of success in football is scoring goals – and Cardiff are woefully short. In fact, any claims of the Bluebirds not being in the midst of a scrap for survival are damned by the stark goalscoring statistic that must be the first thing addressed by former frontman Solskjaer.

Having drawn a blank against the Hammers despite a second-half push, Cardiff have managed just 15 goals in the 21 games played so far this season. The 2-0 reverse was the 11th time they have failed to find the net this season, a feat only matched by a Crystal Palace side equally as inept in front of goal.

It makes their average goals per game a paltry 0.71, something that comes in stark contrast to the goals being thrown in by weekend opponents Manchester City who are racking up close to three a match.

More worrying is the fact that if Solskjaer does not improve this trend – one that would see Cardiff manage a total of 27 for the campaign – then his side look doomed given only twice in the last ten years has a team registered a worse tally; Derby with 20 in 2007/08 and Sunderland with 26 two years earlier. Both teams finished rock bottom.



Although Solskjaer has been tasked with making Cardiff are less cautious outfit than the one Malky Mackay was forced to leave behind, it would be wrong to say that the Bluebirds’ lack of goals at one end has made them tough to beat at the other.

However, the average of 1.61 goals against a game is better than three others in the division while it has not been completely uncommon for teams to ship more than the 62 goals such a statistic suggests over a season and survive. Indeed, 11 sides have done as much over the last ten seasons including Aston Villa and Newcastle last year.

Nevertheless, it is the lack of goals that is currently crippling Cardiff and why Solskjaer is do desperate for flair and creativity in this January transfer window to give Cardiff the fighting chance that they need.

Ultimately, for all the steady progress of the first-half of the season, there obviously needs to be improvement given the side are currently on course for 33 points. History does suggest a boost in most sides after the New Year turnaround and, over the past decade, half of the teams that were 18th at this same stage as Cardiff are now did end up pulling away from trouble.

Furthermore, while 40 points is cited as the mythical marker for survival, the average to better the relegated sides over the last ten campaigns is actually 36, with 37 enough in the past two terms.




The same time range is littered with examples of both teams who make a surge away from the bottom three after the same 21-game marker Cardiff find themselves at now, as well as those who have been dragged down having looked relatively safe.

But it would be very wrong to say that Cardiff can be completely calm and confident or dismissive of such data that says more than half of the teams relegated – 57% – in the last ten seasons were already in the relegation zone at this point and more than half of teams eventually relegated – 53% – had more points than Cardiff at this same stage.

What looking back over seasons for comparisons, however, does not show is the amount of traffic currently jostling to make a breakaway from the bottom places in the Premier League.

Nor can it take into account just what kind of impact ex-striker Solskjaer has in his players, old and new, as he looks to make a positive difference to the key areas that have hit Cardiff’s hopes of staying clear from trouble so far.

With 21 games gone, the key to the door marked safety can still be in the Bluebirds’ hands.

The games we can win are the ones where we score more goals than the opposition

I wish OGS had more time to turn around the lack of creativity and goal scoring threat coupled with a weak defensive record created under MM

I think February's games will decide the future status of the club.

I wish OGS had more time to turn around the lack of creativity and goal scoring threat coupled with a weak defensive record created under MM

Over the years Ive seen clubs stay up in worse positions than us at this stage.

Ole came in win with a bang, we beat Newcastle and everyone was on a high and then faced a terrible West Ham side on the worse run in the Prem at the time, they had a player sent off,they lost one of their best players during the match through injury, we were at home and it was there for us, 3pts,that to me should of been a win for us. We were not in the bottom 3 and those 3pts would of been massive.

All is not lost, we can still do it, we will be playing most of the bottom 10, Ole is very enthusiastic and we must fully get behind him no matter what.

The games we can win are the ones where we score more goals than the opposition

Thats the spirit

I think February's games will decide the future status of the club.

We can do it

The games we can win are the ones where we score more goals than the opposition

Thats the spirit

What will be will be, great if we stay up but if we are relegated I will still be there watching them next season

The BLUES are staying up

I think 5 wins and 4 draws would be enough, but to win games we have to start taking our chances and get the ball into the box quicker.We had more chances than west ham or sunderland but only got a point from 2 games we targeted as wins.On that form we are down so we need to convert chances...maybe a new striker to take the pressure of cambell.Its going to be tight, but if we do it the feeling will be as good as getting promoted.

I wish OGS had more time to turn around the lack of creativity and goal scoring threat coupled with a weak defensive record created under MM

Over the years Ive seen clubs stay up in worse positions than us at this stage.

Ole came in win with a bang, we beat Newcastle and everyone was on a high and then faced a terrible West Ham side on the worse run in the Prem at the time, they had a player sent off,they lost one of their best players during the match through injury, we were at home and it was there for us, 3pts,that to me should of been a win for us. We were not in the bottom 3 and those 3pts would of been massive.

All is not lost, we can still do it, we will be playing most of the bottom 10, Ole is very enthusiastic and we must fully get behind him no matter what.

Annis, our last three home games (Southampton, Sunderland and West Ham) should have brought us at least five points instead of one, if so we would be mid table as we speak, February (and up to and including the Fulham game) is in my opinion the defining month for the club, anything less than elleven points and we are down.

Lost home to West Ham

No chance of staying up

by getting more points than 3 other teams

Although in your worst position since being promoted, I happen think your chances of staying up are actually pretty good.

I firmly believe you will get Zaha on loan and think he will be a great outlet for you and take a lot of pressure off your defence. His pace will scare defences and although i dont rate him as a high quality winger, he has enough about his game to do the job you need him to do.

Get these two "write off" fixtures out of the way and then you need to put your foot to the metal and get maybe 19-20 points off the remaining 15 games and I think you will be ok. 5 wins, 5 draws and 5 defeats and you will have a fighting chance.

i just cant see us scoring the way we are setting the team up....

We have only won 4 games all see thus far, just can't see us winning a further 6, hope we can but I think it's time to look at rebuilding for the championship next season and having a decent promotion attempt

6 wins is a big ask as weve only won 4 so far.We can do for sure,a couple of good players with premere league experience signing in January.
Its going to be tough but with everybody pulling in the same direction and confidence flowing through the players who knows.
Bluebirds Bluebirds Bluebirds

I really and truly believe we can do it even if we don't sign anymore players...I think with a little jig of players and a decent win it will give us massive confidence.. If we go down I hope its not without a fight an then we regroup and start again no matter where we play I will always be a cardiff city fan BLUEBIRDS!!!!!

We will stay up!! Get ready for the squeeky bum time tho! Loving the positivity on this thread"C'MON CITY!!

The games we can win are the ones where we score more goals than the opposition

Thats the spirit

What will be will be, great if we stay up but if we are relegated I will still be there watching them next season

Agreed

I think we are going down. its too late to turn it around in my opinion.

My reasons?

With the fixtures weve got we have been left in a position where we have to win pretty much all of our home games except Liverpool and Chelsea, hopefully we can sneak a draw against these two. its not that simple just to sya "well they are the lower half teams" because football doesnt work like that.

We probably wont win all our home games against the lower opposition, we may sneak a win or an unexpected point on one of our more difficult away games but I just feel we have put all our eggs in the wrong basket by not picking up more away points up to Xmas.

I dont think our run of fixtures have helped ie Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Man United, Swansea, Spurs, Everton away all one after the other. We were very unlucky on that score.

With that in mind Malky should have targetted the away games against the likes of Villa, Norwich, Stoke and Palace to pick up more than the 2 points that we actually did. Especially the games against Villa and Stoke, who were both awful against on the day but we barely had a go at them chossing instead to play for a nil nil.

This isnt the championship where you can pretty much win the majority of your home games so any away poijt is a good un, youve got to get 15 away points out of the 40 required to stay up away from home.

its a marathon not a sprint as they say but I think that given the journey Malky has not mapped it out well to start with, and OGS faces one hell of a task to get us over the finishing line.

We desperately need a striker but that won't guarantee goals.The team has to start believing in its self,that's ogs job and hopefully he can insert a winning mentality.
It's going to be tough,hopefully there's three worse teams than us come the end of the season.

TABLE AFTER JANUARY LAST YEAR


POS LP CLUB P W D L GF GA GD PTS
1 (1) Manchester United 24 19 2 3 59 31 28 59
2 (2) Manchester City 24 15 7 2 45 19 26 52
3 (3) Chelsea 24 13 7 4 49 24 25 46
4 (4) Tottenham Hotspur 24 12 6 6 41 29 12 42
5 (5) Everton 24 10 11 3 37 27 10 41
6 (6) Arsenal 24 10 8 6 48 29 19 38
7 (7) Liverpool 24 9 8 7 42 30 12 35
8 (8) Swansea City 24 8 10 6 34 27 7 34
9 (9) West Brom 24 10 4 10 34 34 0 34
10 (10) Stoke City 24 6 12 6 24 29 -5 30
11 (11) Sunderland 24 7 8 9 27 31 -4 29
12 (14) Fulham 24 7 7 10 36 41 -5 28
13 (12) West Ham 24 7 6 11 27 36 -9 27
14 (13) Norwich City 24 6 9 9 25 40 -15 27
15 (15) Newcastle 24 6 6 12 30 42 -12 24
16 (16) Southampton 24 5 8 11 31 42 -11 23
17 (19) Reading 24 4 8 12 30 45 -15 20
18 (17) Wigan Athletic 24 5 5 14 27 45 -18 20
19 (18) Aston Villa 24 4 8 12 20 46 -26 20
20 (20) Queens Park 24 2 10 12 18 37 -19 16

TABLE AFTER JANUARY LAST YEAR

W D L GF GA GD PTS
1 (1) Manchester United 24 19 2 3 59 31 28 59
2 (2) Manchester City 24 15 7 2 45 19 26 52
3 (3) Chelsea 24 13 7 4 49 24 25 46
4 (4) Tottenham Hotspur 24 12 6 6 41 29 12 42
5 (5) Everton 24 10 11 3 37 27 10 41
6 (6) Arsenal 24 10 8 6 48 29 19 38
7 (7) Liverpool 24 9 8 7 42 30 12 35
8 (8) Swansea City 24 8 10 6 34 27 7 34
9 (9) West Brom 24 10 4 10 34 34 0 34
10 (10) Stoke City 24 6 12 6 24 29 -5 30
11 (11) Sunderland 24 7 8 9 27 31 -4 29
12 (14) Fulham 24 7 7 10 36 41 -5 28
13 (12) West Ham 24 7 6 11 27 36 -9 27
14 (13) Norwich City 24 6 9 9 25 40 -15 27
15 (15) Newcastle 24 6 6 12 30 42 -12 24
16 (16) Southampton 24 5 8 11 31 42 -11 23
17 (19) Reading 24 4 8 12 30 45 -15 20
18 (17) Wigan Athletic 24 5 5 14 27 45 -18 20
19 (18) Aston Villa 24 4 8 12 20 46 -26 20
20 (20) Queens Park 24 2 10 12 18 37 -19 16

We need to have a very good February and accumulate at least 8 points to have any chance.

OGS, IMO should over the next 2 games, which are pretty much right written off continue to try different formations to find the best balance in the team.

In addition, the players need to step up to the plate and take some responsibility, they seem to be lacking a winning mentality. Hopefully though Bellers back in the team will give them the kick up the arse that some need!

I just hope we don't go down without a fight.....strap yourselves in

I think we are going down. its too late to turn it around in my opinion.

My reasons?

With the fixtures weve got we have been left in a position where we have to win pretty much all of our home games except Liverpool and Chelsea, hopefully we can sneak a draw against these two. its not that simple just to sya "well they are the lower half teams" because football doesnt work like that.

We probably wont win all our home games against the lower opposition, we may sneak a win or an unexpected point on one of our more difficult away games but I just feel we have put all our eggs in the wrong basket by not picking up more away points up to Xmas.

I dont think our run of fixtures have helped ie Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Man United, Swansea, Spurs, Everton away all one after the other. We were very unlucky on that score.

With that in mind Malky should have targetted the away games against the likes of Villa, Norwich, Stoke and Palace to pick up more than the 2 points that we actually did. Especially the games against Villa and Stoke, who were both awful against on the day but we barely had a go at them chossing instead to play for a nil nil.

This isnt the championship where you can pretty much win the majority of your home games so any away poijt is a good un, youve got to get 15 away points out of the 40 required to stay up away from home.

its a marathon not a sprint as they say but I think that given the journey Malky has not mapped it out well to start with, and OGS faces one hell of a task to get us over the finishing line.

This ^^^

I wish OGS had more time to turn around the lack of creativity and goal scoring threat coupled with a weak defensive record created under MM

Over the years Ive seen clubs stay up in worse positions than us at this stage.

Ole came in win with a bang, we beat Newcastle and everyone was on a high and then faced a terrible West Ham side on the worse run in the Prem at the time, they had a player sent off,they lost one of their best players during the match through injury, we were at home and it was there for us, 3pts,that to me should of been a win for us. We were not in the bottom 3 and those 3pts would of been massive.

All is not lost, we can still do it, we will be playing most of the bottom 10, Ole is very enthusiastic and we must fully get behind him no matter what.

Annis, our last three home games (Southampton, Sunderland and West Ham) should have brought us at least five points instead of one, if so we would be mid table as we speak, February (and up to and including the Fulham game) is in my opinion the defining month for the club, anything less than elleven points and we are down.

I agree we should of drawn with Southampton, beaten Sunderland and West Ham, then February would of been where we would of picked up more points, now February will define our season.

The games we can win are the ones where we score more goals than the opposition

Thats the spirit

What will be will be, great if we stay up but if we are relegated I will still be there watching them next season

Agreed

I'll be there as well, even if we were relegated 3yrs running I will be there

Although in your worst position since being promoted, I happen think your chances of staying up are actually pretty good.

I firmly believe you will get Zaha on loan and think he will be a great outlet for you and take a lot of pressure off your defence. His pace will scare defences and although i dont rate him as a high quality winger, he has enough about his game to do the job you need him to do.

Get these two "write off" fixtures out of the way and then you need to put your foot to the metal and get maybe 19-20 points off the remaining 15 games and I think you will be ok. 5 wins, 5 draws and 5 defeats and you will have a fighting chance.

Cheers Roathie for being so positive for us

by getting more points than 3 other teams

spurs lost 0 3 to them..so its us spurs and who for the drop