Neil Warnock has revealed he has held frank talks with his players after heavy home defeats to Watford and Everton and told them to "look in the mirror".
Cardiff have dropped into the Premier League relegation zone with 10 games left to play after losing 5-1 to Watford and 3-0 to Everton.
"I had a chat with them all and put my point of view forward about the remainder of the season," manager Warnock said ahead of Cardiff's trip to Wolves on Saturday.
"After that they had a meeting of their own and I was quite pleased about that.
"When you do make mistakes you don't tend to look in the mirror. You tend to look around. All I've asked is for them to look in the mirror."
Cardiff's relegation rivals Fulham this week sacked Claudio Ranieri after only 106 days in charge.
Veteran boss Ranieri, a title winner at Leicester in 2016, won only three of his 17 games after succeeding Slavisa Jokanovic in November.
Former England midfielder and Fulham captain Scott Parker has been put in caretaker charge at Craven Cottage.
"My wife says 'why don't you get the sack like that?'" Warnock said.
"It'd be different for me if the fans were chanting 'you don't know what you're doing', like when Ranieri made the substitutes (in the 2-0 defeat at Southampton on Wednesday).
"That wouldn't have lasted long with me, as soon as that happens that's me done.
"You used to say you wanted to build for the future, but now you just build for next month."
Six of Cardiff's remaining games are away from home, including trips to the two Manchester clubs.
The Bluebirds also have home matches against Chelsea and Liverpool, and
Warnock said it would be "a miracle" if Cardiff survive in the wake of the Emiliano Sala tragedy.
The club's record £15million signing was killed when a plane taking him from Nantes to Cardiff crashed in the English Channel on January 21.
A press officer intervened when Warnock was asked about football agent Willie McKay's claim that Cardiff had virtually "abandoned" the Argentinian striker in a hotel to sort his travel arrangements to and from Nantes on that fateful weekend.
The press officer said Warnock would not comment on those claims, but the manager did suggest Sala's death had made Cardiff's attempt to stay in the top flight even more difficult.
"It would be a miracle (to stay up), I have said that all along," Warnock said.
"But even more so having had to go through what we have had to go through in the last few months.
"It has just been unreal really, but you just have to get on with it.
"I think the club has been fantastic, the supporters have never wavered and we have to concentrate on that."
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