A dejected Sabri Lamouchi lamented his Cardiff City side's poor attitude and performance after a 1-0 defeat by Sunderland - and he believes the Bluebirds' relegation fight could go down to the final game of the season.
Cardiff turned out arguably their worst performance under Lamouchi on Easter Monday and could have no complaints with the defeat.
Since the international break, the Bluebirds have started poorly in all three games - against Swansea City, Blackpool and now Sunderland - and save a three-goal flurry against the Seasiders, a worrying pattern is starting to emerge.
"When you are losing you are always disappointed, but I'm more disappointed about the first half," Lamouchi said after the match. "The second was a little bit better, we faced some situations to come back into the game.
"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 so incensed by his team's start to the match that he made a double substitution after 36 minutes, taking off Sheyi Ojo and arguably their most creative player in Jaden Philogene.
The Bluebirds boss has no regrets over his decision to take the duo off. In fact, he wishes he did 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 off his gloves in anger when he was taken off, but when asked about that, 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 dangling above the relegation zone by a single point, with that rearranged game against Rotherham United still to play, so they have a game in hand over most of their rivals. However, Lamouchi predicts that this could all come down to the final day of the season, when Cardiff travel to champions elect Burnley at Turf Moor.
"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.”
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