The warning signs have been there since Cardiff City's return from the international break.
The Bluebirds started woefully against Swansea City and paid the price with two goals. They showed heart in that much to get back into it, before their soft belly was exposed again with a 99th-minute Ben Cabango winner.
The same can be said for Cardiff's opening 20 minutes or so against Blackpool. Fortunately for Cardiff that time, the Seasiders did not possess the requisite quality to make them pay. And, unlike any other game this season, everything that hit a Cardiff foot over the next 15 minutes flew into the back of Blackpool's net.
And Sabri Lamouchi's side made it difficult for themselves after the break, sitting deep and allowing Blackpool to dominate and control the second half of the match. Again, the dearth in quality on Blackpool's part meant the visitors conceded only once up at Bloomfield Road.
But Lamouchi was right to vent his disappointment at the performance, despite it being a big result against a relegation rival, after the win against the Tangerines.
With Lamouchi brutally honest in his assessment post-Blackpool, despite the win, there was hope, then, that Cardiff would heed his advice and hit the ground running against Sunderland. But they did anything but that.
It was more akin to the Swansea performance, except there was nothing even remotely akin to the fight and heart they showed in the second half against their south Wales rivals earlier this month. It was one, big, passive mess.
It is fair to say that, in 12 games, that is the worst Cardiff have performed since Lamouchi took charge. And that includes heavier losses to Middlesbrough, Norwich City and Preston North End.
Lamouchi was right to point to Joe Ralls passion and commitment in the final 30 minutes of the match on Easter Monday, if the other 15 players the manager used against Sunderland showed that level of desire they might have been all right.
Suddenly, players are looking shaky. The likes of Ryan Allsop, Ryan Wintle, Andy Rinomhota, Sheyi Ojo and Romaine Sawyers, all of whom have had patches of good form this season, have come off the boil of late.
There is a growingly onerous burden placed on their biggest goalscoring threat, Sory Kaba, and their most creative talent, Jaden Philogene, to get this City team out of trouble. Save a man-of-the-match display from Connor Wickham against Blackpool, it's difficult to see where else Cardiff's goal threat is coming from.
Cardiff have now won only one of their last five games. In Lamouchi's 12 games in charge, he has won four, drawn one and lost seven. And the run of fixtures don't get any easier, with four of Cardiff's six games away from home and their next two fixtures against promotion chasing Sheffield United and play-offs chasing Watford - both away from home.
Whether this poor run is representative of Lamouchi's management capabilities as a whole is difficult to ascertain. He was brought into a club in crisis, who were under a transfer embargo, and has to work with players another manager brought into the club. Is it a promotion-winning squad? Far from it. Is it a squad that should be relegated from the Championship? Again, a hard no.
This was intended to a be a building-blocks season. A time to reset, change the style of football and implement the foundations for a much-needed change of direction for the club. But once again, for the second season running, it's slipped into survival-mode football. It's ugly, gritty and jam-packed with long balls into big striker targets like Kaba, Wickham and Kion Etete.
This was never the vision set out at the beginning of the campaign, but alas, two managers later, here we are.
Having Jamilu Collins, Callum O'Dowda and Joe Ralls, the three senior left-back options, not fit enough to start the match against Sunderland threw the whole team out of kilter. Joel Bagan, for whatever reason, doesn't even seem to be in the picture.
Despite a poor performance on the whole against Blackpool, changing a side which won 3-1 would have been bold and would likely have prompted some raised eyebrows. So, to keep as much continuity as possible, Sheyi Ojo for Ralls was the only change to the team that won at Bloomfield Road.
But it felt like a team who had no clue how to stop Sunderland playing through them. Away from home, Tony Mowbray's side waltzed through the middle of the park and found joy down their left-hand side at will. Lamouchi changed the system to shore things up, bringing on defence-minded players in Jack Simpson and Andy Rinomhota, for Jaden Philogene and Ojo, but it then simply exacerbated the lack of creativity and quality with the ball that the remaining players on the pitch had.
Collins, Ebou Adams, Rubin Colwill and Callum Robinson were expected to play big parts this season. They all have qualities to affect the top end of the pitch - perhaps Adams a little less so - but when this squad was assembled, it was thought those four would play a big chunk of games this term.
They have been big losses, but Lamouchi cannot change what has happened. There are now six games which will decide the club's future as they perch precariously outside the bottom three by a solitary point - thanks only to Reading's six-point deduction.
Lamouchi came with a positive reputation following his exploits in France, internationally with the Ivory Coast and with Nottingham Forest - and he is the most 'manager-like' manager, as opposed to a coach, the club have had for some time - but the jury still appears to be out among supporters.
After the game on Easter Monday, his typically honest assessment spilt over into anger and frustration for the first time and the Frenchman was visibly irked and disheartened by what he had seen against Sunderland - as were the 21,000 Cardiff fans inside the stadium.
The bottom line is - those players did not seem to be playing as though they were fighting for their lives on Monday and that is what will worry fans most. It was alarming and it has come at exactly the wrong time, too.
How many points will they need come May 8? Six? Seven? Where are they coming from? Can Lamouchi eke the best out of this group of players? Three managers have tried and it's proved to be hard work so far.
Because, as Lamouchi said after the Sunderland defeat: "This club and these fans deserve to be in the Championship next season."
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