Sky Sports pundit Jobi McAnuff has admitted that he believes that Mick McCarthy could be in big trouble in terms of his future at Cardiff City if the club are beaten by their arch-rivals Swansea City this weekend.

The Bluebirds initially made a relatively encouraging start to the 2021/22 campaign as they picked up three victories in their opening six league games.

However, Cardiff's performances in the Championship in recent weeks have left a lot to be desired.

After suffering back-to-back defeats to Coventry City and AFC Bournemouth, the Bluebirds produced an awful performance against Blackburn Rovers last month as they conceded five goals at Ewood Park.

Cardiff were then outclassed by West Bromwich Albion who sealed a 4-0 victory in this particular showdown.

Having suffered yet another defeat in their meeting with Reading before the international break, the pressure is now starting to build on McCarthy.

Making reference to the Cardiff boss, McAnuff has suggested that the 62-year-old's future at Cardiff could be in doubt if the club fail to deliver the goods at the Swansea.com Stadium on Sunday.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky Sports EFL Podcast about McCarthy, McAnuff said: "I think a bad performance and a bad result [against Swansea], you are going to have to be thinking that he is in big, big, trouble.

"I think the nature of the game anyway, it doesn't need much bigging up, it's a massive, massive occasion.

 

 

"I think certainly from Cardiff's point of view they certainly didn't envisage seeing themselves in this position at this stage of the season given the optimism after Mick McCarthy first came in last year.

"I certainly had them as a team who were maybe one of the outsiders for the promotion tilt this year so I have been really surprised to see where they are and I think it's a game they certainly can't afford to lose and I think if they don't win it he could be in big, big trouble."

The Verdict

It is hard to disagree with McAnuff's comments as it is abundantly clear that McCarthy needs to guide his side to a positive result against Swansea in order to ease the pressure that has started to build in recent weeks.

Whether Cardiff will be able to deliver the goods on Sunday remains to be seen as they are seemingly devoid of any confidence.

However, when you consider that Swansea have only won one home game this season in the Championship, the Bluebirds could cause their opponents some issues if they perform at their very best.

Providing that Cardiff beat the Jacks this weekend, they may be able to use the momentum gained from this result to move up the Championship standings.