Omer Riza insists 'we have to remain positive' as Cardiff City in relegation zone
Omer Riza said he doesn't feel the pressure mounting on him and insisted he had to remain upbeat, despite Cardiff City's eight-match winless run seeing them fall into the bottom three.
The Bluebirds' final game before Christmas saw them take on league leaders Sheffield United, who came away with a comfortable 2-0 victory thanks to a double from ex-Cardiff striker Kieffer Moore.
Cardiff's woeful form has seen them win just one game in their last 10 outings and concerns are heightening as we hurtle towards the mid-point of the season and a very important upcoming transfer window. But, when asked if he felt the pressure mounting on him, Riza replied: “No, not really.
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"We are doing everything we were doing before. As long as the processes are right and we’re doing things the right way, the only thing we can remain is positive. There’s three scenarios in the game. We’ve lost today. We move on and try and pick points up at the next game. Sometimes you’ve got to manage things differently depending on the players you’ve got and we are limited in that respect.
“We have to remain positive. We get disappointed, of course we do, but we have to show the players we’re doing things right. We had to deal with them as well. We just couldn’t keep the ball out of the net and when you go 1-0 down you’re always chasing and it becomes difficult.
"We pick ourselves up for the Oxford game and try and get something out of it." Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.
On the game itself, he said: "It was a tough game. We prepared well and put out a team we thought would cause a problem. We contained them, to go in 0-0 at half-time to get a draw or win out of the game - but a moment of moment of real class from Moore with the goal puts us on the back foot. The second goal comes from us trying to get something out of the game. Disappointing but the better team won.
"We know the quality of the player and the boys contained him for periods of the game. In general we worked hard and the boys showed good intensity levels. We come away with a defeat and have to pick ourselves up. There are some positives to take into the Oxford game.
"We have come through two games, not picked up as many points as we would have liked, but we knew it would be a tough block of games.
"We are always going to look at the table. There's nothing we can do about it other than try to win games. We will take that into the Oxford game. We are low on numbers and have a lot of injuries. We will try and do the best we can with it. Hopefully we can try to get some players back."
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Next up is Oxford United on Boxing Day, with City's already threadbare squad suffering another blow when Chris Willock, who was Cardiff's best player in the first half, being forced off shortly after the break.
On the injury, Riza said: "He has hurt his hip-flexor. He tried to get out second half and he just couldn't run. That has to be assessed. You already know the list of players who are injured and not available. We have to move forward with what we've got and the boys have to be ready.
"Callum (O'Dowda) missed out, he picked up an injury at Stoke. Rallsy (Joe Ralls) has hurt his glute, tweaked something, so we have to assess that one. We will see whether they will be back for the Oxford game - probably not."
