TIME TO TURN TO GRUJIC?

WE LOOK AT HOW WARNOCK CAN BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO PROMOTION BID... INCLUDING A RECALL FOR GRUJIC:

CARDIFF City will have to regroup following defeat at Derby County.

Cameron Jerome, so often a scorer against the Bluebirds, scored two crucial goals and one from Matej Vydra meant it’s now just two wins in six for Neil Warnock’s side.

They’d looked in control after Callum Paterson’s volley made it 1-0 at half-time.

Although their promotion fate is still in their hands, with two games to go, there’s plenty of talking points to emerge from the Derby defeat...

Individual errors at the worst time

Warnock put a brave face on it during his post-match press conference, but he didn’t need telling that individual mistakes cost Cardiff big time. Privately, he will have been incensed at some of the Bluebirds’ defending in the second half, which was out of character.

“They’re Sunday League goals. A real mixture of errors. It’s not like us,” said the Cardiff boss. And he was right. Aron Gunnarsson and Neil Etheridge got themselves in a terrible tangle for the first goal, failing to clear the ball in the build-up to Jerome’s instinctive strike. The keeper palmed it up, Gunnarsson skewed a clearance and then Jerome was able to out-muscle Sean Morrison – not for the first time on the night.

Morrison’s Jekyll and Hyde display will be a cause for concern in itself. The Bluebirds skipper has been Mr Consistent this season, yet his composure eluded him when it mattered most.

The same goes for Sol Bamba. The Ivorian looked a little shaky in a 45-minute cameo against Nottingham Forest on Saturday night, clearly still feeling the effects of a groin injury sustained at Norwich.

At Pride Park it was the same. Nothing seemed to go right for Bamba as Derby’s fluid frontline, which looked threatening in the first half, reaped its rewards in the second.

Eyebrow-raising selections

Jamie Ward and Gary Madine were both surprising names on the Cardiff team-sheet. The latter, in particular, seems to be struggling to come to terms with his own role in this promotion push.

Did the Bluebirds really pay £5million for someone to spur Kenneth Zohore on?

It’s a claim Warnock has repeatedly refuted and his selection of the former Bolton forward for a game of this magnitude again suggested the manager has the utmost faith in Madine.

But once again the ends didn’t justify the means for the January acquisition, despite his best efforts, winning headers and working as hard as anyone in a productive, if profligate, first-half display.

Ward was similar, hard-working if fairly ineffectual, in the final third.

And yet it’s difficult to criticise either player because Cardiff’s demise came after both had departed (to strong ovations from the visiting faithful).

Yanic Wildschut came on for Ward and endured a horrific cameo. The Dutchman might well be marginalised for the remaining two games of the season after that but Madine, much maligned as he may be, could yet have a role to play.

Calls for Grujic to return

Despite a promising first-half display, Gunnarsson looked dazed after the break at Pride Park and, although he scored what proved the winner against Nottingham Forest, few can claim it’s been vintage Ice Man since his return from injury.

Debate now rages among the Cardiff fanbase about whether Gunnarsson should actually be dropped for the game at Hull this weekend, with Marko Grujic the obvious choice to come back.

Grujic can feel hard done by. He was dropped for the Wolves game and Cardiff lost, omitted at Derby and they lost again.

In fact, the on-loan Liverpool man has only tasted defeat once in the league in Bluebirds colours, winning eight and drawing three. Without him, Cardiff have lost two in five.

Making such a seismic switch and leaving out a player like Gunnarsson would be a big call for Warnock to make, even if the form book suggests it may pay dividends.

By the same token, you wouldn’t bet against Gunnarsson responding with two big displays in the promotion cauldron.

How to regroup and the promotion picture

Warnock insisted he wouldn’t watch Fulham taking on Sunderland tomorrow night, a game in which the Cottagers can move back into second place and ramp up the pressure on Cardiff.

In fact, the veteran boss gave Sunderland absolutely no chance of winning at Craven Cottage, joking that he’d watch some Netflix instead.

What’s clear is that he will concentrate on reviving Cardiff’s dented confidence.

The Bluebirds can still secure automatic promotion with two wins in their final two games and positivity should still flow throughout the squad.

They have the characters – and the manager – to succeed in their aims and bounce back from their Pride Park agony.