This post is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which includes personal thoughts from our FLW Fan Pundits discussing the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Cardiff City will have advanced thoughts of establishing themselves in the 2024/25 Championship play-off equation, but such ambitions will hinge upon how they handle their goalscoring difficulties during the off-season.
In Erol Bulut’s first campaign, last term’s 12th place performance shows consistent, upward improvement after the team struggled to survive in the second division the previous two seasons. The Turkish manager is still aware that Cardiff must improve if they hope to move up the league standings the next season, and he will surely be fighting to find a solution for the team’s recurring goalkeeping issues.
The underlying statistics are more concerning than the 2023–24 league table on its face. Cardiff scored just 25 goals from open play, and detractors will point out that the team’s overall xG return of 44.3, which is the third-lowest in the division and significantly lower than the 53 goals that were scored, is uncannily suggestive of overperformance.
They also haven’t fully recovered from the loss of Kieffer Moore to Bournemouth over two years ago; the towering Welsh forward is not only rumored to be back on their transfer shortlist this summer, but he is also the first player to reach 20 goals in a league season since the legendary Peter Whittingham in 2009–10.
