Now is the Time For Cardiff City to Graduate at Oxford
Cardiff City have not won away from home since April, and there could be no better moment to break that streak than on Boxing Day.
The Bluebirds will play against Oxford United, with whom they are presently tied on 18 points, separated by only one goal, in Cardiff’s favour, and both in the relegation zone.
If Cardiff loses, they might find themselves back at the bottom of the Championship, as Plymouth Argyle, the third club in the bottom three, also has 18 points.
Those with long memories may recall that Cardiff were at the bottom of the table when Omer Riza took over following Erol Bulut’s dismissal.
Riza took them from the bottom of the table and out of the relegation zone, but they have since gone on a winless eight-match stretch, causing them to fall back into the drop zone.
Cardiff’s troubles can be attributed to their inability to win away from home. They’ve secured six draws, five of them under Riza, but that first away win has eluded them.
“Most of the time, we have performed well away from home and just haven’t been able to get the results,” according to Riza.
“In many ways, our away performances have outperformed those at home. Do we play differently away from home? I do not think we do.
“There are no messages from the coaching staff to sit back and defend after we score, since that is not something I would want to do.
“Are we over-defending because players are terrified to lose the ball? Players may experience that type of pressure away from home, I imagine.
“The bottom line is that not winning away from home is a problem and it’s a problem we are very keen to fix.”
Cardiff’s two most recent Championship away games, against Coventry City and Stoke, were both 2-2 draws.
Cardiff led until the last minutes of both games, but were pegged back when the host team scored a late equaliser.
Oxford started the season well, with four wins in their first seven games, but they have only one league victory since mid-September and will face Cardiff after a 4-0 hammering by Leeds United.
With Plymouth next up for Oxford after Cardiff, the festive season will likely determine whether or not they make a speedy return to League One.
Former Cardiff striker Mark Harris was a talisman at the start of the season, scoring four goals in five games, but the Wales international hasn’t scored since the last day of August.
It all adds up to a nerve-racking Boxing Day contest between two clubs who haven’t won in 15 games combined.
Riza is currently under the same kind of pressure that Bulut was at the start of the season, and despite having only accepted to become permanent manager a few weeks ago, his job appears shaky.
Few clubs would consider going through a season with three different managers, but Cardiff, like Watford, has done so before, and it is not impossible that they will do so again.
Riza is attempting to remain cool and insists that relegation was always a possibility.
The trick for him and the club is to not stay there too long.
“There was always a danger that could happen anyway; it wasn’t that the team moved out of the
“It’s a difficult league, and we’ve faced a difficult stretch of games, so we haven’t scored as many points as we could or could have.
“In some games, we could have gained another six points by now. If we had six more points, we may be in a different position, but there’s no use in talking about woulda, coulda, shoulda; it is what it is, and we are where we are.
“We need to fight to get out of it and everyone just needs to keep believing.”
Cardiff are 6/4 favourites to win, with Oxford a distant 9/5. The draw is priced at 11/5.
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