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Cardiff City players hit with 'nowhere near good enough' blast as they head to Stoke City
Newly-appointed Cardiff manager Omer Riza did not hold back in his frustration at his players following a mid-week home defeat to Preston.
Riza - who had been caretaker boss since September and has now been appointed until the end of the season - was described as 'visibly angry' by the Wales press after conceding two second-half goals to lose 2-0 last night and stretch a winless run to six games.
"We trained Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, it was enough to be ready for this game. It was just men against boys today," he said.
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"Not unfortunate, just not good enough. We were lucky to go in at 0-0 at half-time as far as I was concerned. There are a lot of questions to be answered. Players want to play. Players show frustrations when they're not playing and when they do play they've got to do more. We have got to look at a few things as a staff, how were are going to approach the next game, because it's not to get beat. We can't keep going this way, it's not good enough.
"You win a couple and you're back out of problems, you lose a couple and you're back in problems. You look at the table at this time (of the season) and you'll drive yourself crazy. It's about performances and winning games and we did neither today.
"We didn't show quality in possession and were scared to get on the ball. We didn't make enough options for each other when we were on the ball and we were untidy with it and lacked quality, even from our players who are high quality.
"The energy and intensity wasn't good enough. It was flat. Too many people waiting for things to happen rather than making things happen. That comes down to intensity levels. That drive to want to play football.
"That desire, hunger. All the things when we are younger have to apply at senior level and that wasn't there today. It's not like that all the time, it was terrible today and it has to be dealt with quickly. We have to talk, get out on the grass, work, apply those principles again and make sure they are ready to go for the next game.
"You can't think about it for too long because you'll take that into the next game and you have to put it right."
Cardiff are in action at Stoke on Saturday (3pm).
