After a short stay in the Premier League last season, albeit it via a lot of questionable refereeing decisions, Cardiff once again find themselves back in the Championship, a situation which manager Neil Warnock may relish on the inside. 

Despite many fans and pundits tipping them for an immediate return to England's top flight, the Bluebirds have yet to set the Championship alight, with the Welsh capital side so far having registered two wins, two draws and two defeats, yielding a return of just eight points from a possible 18 up for grabs.

The negatives of Cardiff's tactics are there for all to see, with one of the Bluebirds' main defensive weaknesses being exposed by Fulham last week, as they were continually attacked down the flanks by Ivan Cavaleiro and Anthony Knockaert in the one-one draw.

In addition to this, the Welsh capital club are also poor when it comes to defending against opposition who like to counter attack at speed, with an obvious example of this being shown in the three-nil loss away at Reading when, much to the Bluebirds' relief, George Puscas missed a one-on-one opportunity after being released on the counter-attack late in the game.

These weaknesses are greatly exposed by Cardiff's lack of ability to keep possession of the ball for long periods of games, a problem which is mainly caused by Warnock's preferred tactic of playing long balls up to striker Robert Glatzel.

This weakness is also backed up by statistics from WhoScored.com, that show that Cardiff have only averaged 42.2% possession per game, putting them among the worst in the Championship for keeping the ball.

Glatzel is a player who has so far failed to make much of an impact in South Wales since his transfer this summer from German Bundesliga Two side Heidenheim, which could mainly be put down to a lack of adequate service from his teammates but also his lack of ability when holding up the ball is a big contributor to his lack of form.

In addition to this point, Cardiff's weaknesses can be further put down to the fact that they have a poor passing accuracy percentage of just 62.9%, which puts them in the bottom two, just ahead of Millwall as one of the league's worst passing sides.

Lastly, it is clear that Cardiff may struggle to get promoted this season as they lack a proven, consistent goalscorer within their squad, a point that is backed up by the distinct lack of shots being converted to goals this season, with the Welsh side averaging around 15 shots per goal.

Which is a stat that they need and have to greatly improve in order to be competing at the right end of the table this season, with the Bluebirds only averaging just over a goal a game at the time of writing.