Cardiff City boss Sabri Lamouchi took no prisoners with his post-match comments taking aim at the Bluebirds poor performance and poor attitude following their 1-0 defeat to Sunderland. The Black Cats were the better team throughout the game as the hosts turned in arguably their worst performance under Lamouchi.
A second-half strike from Dennis Cirkin wrapped up all three points for Tony Mowbray's side who are just four points off the play-off places with five games to go.
"When you are losing you are always disappointed, but I'm more disappointed about the first half," Lamouchi told WalesOnline post match. "The second was a little bit better, we faced some situations to come back into the game.
READ MORE: Dennis Cirkin scores on his return as Sunderland's win at Cardiff keeps play-off hopes alive
"We can't concede a goal in the second half like that. We cannot start the game in this way. Bad attitude and bad performance in the first half.
"We made some changes and probably we can make some more changes. And, if I'm fair, we didn't deserve more than that.
"We have probably lost the rhythm. We finish [games] better than we start, that is the problem. Against Swansea, you cannot start worse than this game. And you cannot concede a goal in this way today, with two lines in the wall, to make a stupid goal and concede in this way.
"We were probably a little bit better in the second half, better enough to create three chances to score - we didn't score. We believed until the end, but we missed the last pass, to score and to come back into the game."
Lamouchi was left infuriated by his team's start to the match that he made a double substitution after 36 minutes, taking off Sheyi Ojo and Jaden Philogene. The Bluebirds boss said had no regrets over the decision and felt he could have made it earlier.
"It wasn't too early, I probably should have done it earlier," he said of the double change. "I don't regret the changes, because I didn't want to wait until they scored a goal.
"I tried to change the mind of my team and it was the wrong mentality. I must do something before the break, because we were so deep, we were so... I don't want to say the word, but not so good."
Philogene threw his gloves to the floor in anger, but when asked about the incident, Lamouchi said: "He needs to understand why I'm angry. It's my responsibility to try something, because to stay in this shape, probably something will happen.
"I want to send a message to the team and the players. Move on, try and do something - I tried to something after 35 minutes, I tried to do something during the break, I tried to do something 10 or 15 minutes into the second half. But it was not enough.
"To be honest with you, when you ask about bad starts against Swansea, Blackpool, here, right, but the small details, we are not there. The small details is you against you and in this moment they are against you. We need to be more angry, have more character.
"I am happy my captain can stay on the bench because he felt a problem in his adductor, he showed the right character in the last half an hour. But he can't play from minute one - he was supposed to start, unfortunately he had some physical problems - so I asked him to stay on the bench and it was probably the best decision, because when he came on, something changed. I try for my side, we try on the pitch, but it was not enough."
The defeat leaves the Bluebirds teetering just above the relegation zone by a single point, but they have a rearranged game with fellow strugglers Rotherham United still to play. However, Lamouchi predicts believes the battle against relegation may go right down to the wire.
"You need consistency in the Championship," Lamouchi added. "If you aren’t consistent you are where you are. We know we will fight until the end and that it will be tough, really tough. I knew that from the beginning.
"The table was exactly the same two months ago. Unfortunately we didn’t change our position in the table. We missed a lot of opportunities and we missed consistency, character and personality. We need that if we want to stay in the Championship. We need to think about that and be absolutely honest with ourselves. This club and these fans deserve to be in the Championship next season.
“I said to my players, I came here for two reasons, for the club and the quality in the squad as the quality is enough to stay in the Championship. But I said as well, probably we will need to fight until the last game so we must be ready for that. In one moment I was thinking we were doing well, but we miss consistency.
“If you aren’t consistent in the Championship, you deserve to be where you are and you will be there for a lot of reasons. It is not time to discuss this, it is time to be positive, honest and try to give your best. We didn’t give our best in the first half today.”
READ NEXT:
- Tony Mowbray sets Sunderland a short-term play-off goal as they take on Cardiff City
- Lynden Gooch on the individual errors that cost Sunderland against Hull City
- Tony Mowbray puts Pierre Ekwah's costly late error against Hull City down to 'naivety'
- Tony Mowbray praises 'great' Jack Clarke, after the youngster responds to half-time rocket
- Dan Ballard set to miss the remainder of Sunderland's season in 'huge blow', confirms Tony Mowbray
