3 players that'll surely be happy with Cardiff City's Erol Bulut sacking | OneFootball

Cardiff City's decision to sack Erol Bulut may benefit a selection of players at the club

Cardiff City are now heading into yet another transitional period of upheaval after deciding to part ways with Erol Bulut on Sunday morning.

The Turkish manager had guided Cardiff to a respectable 12th-placed finish in his first campaign in charge, although he was faced with the call of duty of installing additional attacking impetus and strategy to a side which had statistically overperformed and scored just 25 goals from open play.

Cardiff's summer transfer activity was fundamentally, and largely indicative of positive change, with the big-name arrivals of Callum Chambers, Chris Willock and Anwar El Ghazi seemingly promising to incorporate some star-quality to Bulut's side.

Those signings were accompanied by the younger, and more strategic acquisitions of Jesper Daland, Will Fish and Alex Robertson, culminating in helping create a squad which supporters felt was capable of contending for a potential place in the Championship's top-six.

Such ambitions, of course, could not feel further away following Cardiff's first six matches of the campaign. Five of those have resulted in defeat, with Saturday afternoon's depleted 2-0 home loss to promotion hopefuls Leeds United representing the nadir of Bulut's ill-fated start to the season.

The nature of those defeats was perhaps an even greater source of concern and frustration among supporters, who had grown impatient with the one-footed, slow-paced and overwhelmingly pragmatic style deployed by Bulut for much of his tenure.

Only this season, however, had it been truly unmasked by the Championship, and the Turk's defensive-mindedness began to lose credit at a quickening pace as Cardiff were more and more open, and increasingly less organised, at the back, failing to compensate for their lack of attacking output.

Following the defeat by Leeds, Bulut was relieved of his duties just three months into the two-year contract which had been eventually presented by Cardiff's hierarchy after significant uncertainty surrounding his future earlier in the summer.

Cardiff supporters have been crying out for stability and continuity amid a high managerial turnover in recent years and Bulut's seeming representation of that evidently went in his favour, as he was the only manager since Neil Warnock in 2018/19 to see out a full season in the Welsh capital.

Fans tend to be divided at the best of times but, by and large, they all appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to assessing the club's decision to sack Bulut. Away from the Cardiff City Stadium faithful, though, and there is also a selection of players who may well reap the rewards from Bulut's dismissal in the Bluebirds dugout...

Rubin Colwill

A particular concern among supporters pertained to Bulut's stance on Rubin Colwill, who started just 16 league matches across two seasons during his spell in charge.

Bulut displayed little aversion to illuminating Colwill's flaws when quizzed on why the precocious playmaker was not starting, although the same rarely applied during assessments of other players in the squad who had objectively been performing at a lower level - and handed more opportunities, too.

Colwill did not feature in the starting eleven for any of Cardiff's four matches before the September international break, a decision which was all the more questionable in light of their glaring and perennial attacking deficiencies.

Dominant in possession yet painfully devoid of ideas, directness and speed, Cardiff have struggled to make their authority on the ball count in matches. Leeds and Swansea City aside, teams have deliberately deployed a low block against Cardiff.

They know there is little value in pressing, as Cardiff can keep the ball well. But they also know that Cardiff struggle to break teams down, move the ball with intent and breach defensive lines, thus conserving energy to hit them on the counter-attack - where the opposition invariably have an advantage due to the number of bodies the Bluebirds tend to commit forward, albeit to little effect.

Forward freedom, then, has come at a real premium for a side that has been designed to keep the handbrake on. Yet, virtually whenever you watch Cardiff - which may not be the best use of time this season, it must be said - it is patently clear that Colwill is the only player both confident and gifted enough to drop into pockets of space to receive possession, evade and deceive opponents and, at full throttle, take liberties with his close control and ability when driving forward at defenders.

The strongest determinant of Colwill's quality is the sheer nonchalance to his game and the manner in which he makes many of his actions appear effortless. Make no mistake about it, that in itself is the sign of a top, top player.

Colwill is exactly that and Bulut's reluctance to hand the license to a supremely talented and creative homegrown talent when he was setting his side up to be overly pragmatic rightly lost many supporters. Substituting Colwill during a Carabao Cup match against Southampton, where he had scored a wondergoal from no less than 30 yards out and dictated Cardiff's attacking rhythm throughout, only to leave him on the bench at home to Middlesbrough for a 33-year-old Aaron Ramsey, was indefensible.

It will be hoped that a more progressive-minded manager can tap into the riches and optimise Colwill's undeniable talent, unique footballing profile and elevate his ceiling to help Cardiff gain the highest possible transfer fee when that time comes.

He can make all the difference for the Bluebirds this term, and it is a real shame that he has rarely been handed the fair run of games to show that.

Callum Robinson

Meanwhile, Callum Robinson may also be hoping to receive a new lease of life following the sacking of Bulut, whom he seldom saw eye-to-eye with.

Robinson headed into the previous season at an automatic disadvantage amid his recovery from a long-term injury, which initially made him unavailable for selection in Bulut's opening matches as City boss. However, the two had more than one public dispute last term, with the Turk citing disciplinary issues as a reason for Robinson's continued omission.

Granted, the Republic of Ireland international was recovering from injury and suffered an extensive illness issue last term, but he started just nine matches and was often overlooked when available.

Robinson regained the buy-in of supporters after declaring the new campaign to be one of redemption after such bitterly-disappointing fortunes last time out, but despite seemingly ironing out previous differences with Bulut amid a six-goal haul in pre-season, he was left on the bench for three of the opening four league matches before succumbing to injury across the September break.

Once again, Bulut's aversion to handing Robinson a regular starting berth was often without tangible credit - at least in the view of supporters, that is. Capable of playing anywhere across the frontline, the versatile forward is closing in on 50 Championship goals and has a fair number of assists on his stat-line, too. Put simply, he is the most proven second-tier level attacker at the club.

Nonetheless, Robinson has registered Cardiff's only league goal of the campaign, delivering a well-hit strike to salvage a late point during last month's South Wales Derby draw at Swansea City after a direct piece of combination play down the right-hand flank from Colwill and Ollie Tanner.

Instead, Bulut elected to start summer signing Wilfred Kanga up top for five of his six games of the season. The Hertha Berlin loanee, however, is yet to score or assist and has offered little in his all-round game to justify a continued starting spot.

Even rising academy star Michael Reindorf may have deemed Bulut's preference towards Kanga as a disservice and Cardiff fans will hope that both he and Robinson will be trusted much more and receive the opportunities their quality warrants under the new manager, whoever that turns out to be.

Alex Robertson

Last but not least, the arrival of Robertson on a permanent deal from Manchester City this summer was perhaps the pick of the bunch for supporters.

Still just 21 years of age, the Australia international headed to Wales off the back of an impressive season helping Portsmouth to lift the League One title. He was right up there among the finest and classiest operators in the third-tier before suffering a season-ending injury in January, although he was back at optimal fitness by the time he joined Cardiff.

However, there is a school of thought that Robertson was not technically Bulut's signing. Positive and progressive in his passing, Robertson is capable of breaking lines, carrying the ball up the pitch and handing extra thrust to a midfield which has often lacked exactly that.

Those attributes, though, do not align with what Bulut likes in the midfielders deployed in his double-pivot, which, rightly or wrongly, is why Manolis Siopis and Joe Ralls were often preferred to Robertson.

The ex-Man City academy star evidently possesses serious talent and exerts a fresh sense of class, composure and progression on the ball, but his only two starts under Bulut saw him hauled off on the hour mark on both occasions.

Robertson is the exact profile which can help Cardiff's possession problems in the middle of the park and they should reap all the rewards from that if he gains the trust of Bulut's replacement. That, however, probably should not be too much of a worry at all.