Mick McCarthy has admitted that the lack of goals is a concern for his Cardiff City side and suggested other teams had now worked out how to nullify their threats.
The Bluebirds were comprehensively beaten up at Hillsborough in a chastening 5-0 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday, a result which appears to have ended any faint hopes of achieving a play-off spot.
The hugely disappointing result is the culmination of a series of six games now, where, the South Wales derby aside, the Bluebirds have struggled to make their mark at the top end of the pitch.
In Cardiff's last half a dozen fixtures, they have scored only two goals. The Bluebirds' unapologetically direct approach has lacked that accuracy and clinical edge which is so desperately needed to carry it out effectively, resulting in clear-cut chances being so few and far between in recent games.
And McCarthy suggested that he may have to go back to the drawing board because his team, who were once knocking down all that was put in front of them, are now running into brick walls.
"Yeah, of course it's a concern," he said of his side's barren goalscoring streak.
"Maybe teams have now recognised that we are a threat, teams have tried to stop us, they have matched us up and we are not finding it as easy to create chances.
"I'm not going to say it's through fatigue or anything like that."
They looked completely off the pace at Wednesday, following on from their defeat by Nottingham Forest on Good Friday.
Up in Yorkshire, the game plan just did not work. The long balls up to Kieffer Moore were wayward and City had no platform from which to launch any meaningful attacks.
They looked at their most threatening from long throw-ins, but even when the ball fell into dangerous areas no one had the wherewithal to gamble on the flick-on or the second bounce.
The dual playmaker option of Jonny Williams and Leandro Bacuna harmed City's press, too. Kieffer Moore was chasing shadows up front and the two behind him were caught betwixt and between pressing the defenders or dropping deeper.
That had been a hallmark of City's early success and it has been lost with the lack of a second striker.
Harry Wilson's omission also curbed City's attacking endeavour, too, especially given he had looked the brightest of the lot against Forest and impressed again when he was introduced up at Hillsborough.
From front to back it was a wince-inducing day at the office. But, by and large, it has been a very good start to life under McCarthy.
He steered City clear of relegation, which was a looming threat when he took over, and even drove them into play-off contention.
With that early form came praise, of course, but the manager has sent a quiet word of warning to his players to perhaps come down a peg or two after that reality check up at Hillsborough.
"We were doing so well and we were getting toffee, smoke blown up our backsides from everybody," the manager added.
"Maybe we need to get back grounded again and sort the performance our for Blackburn."
