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Omer Riza laments 'unacceptable' Cardiff City performance as he faces uneasy wait over news
Omer Riza described Cardiff City's first-half performance in the defeat by Blackburn Rovers as "unacceptable" and admits that the international break has offered those above him to bring in a different permanent manager.
Cardiff looked lacklustre in the first half against Rovers and went a goal behind, before Andi Weimann netted his second just after the break. David Turnbull got his side back in it but the visitors hit the Bluebirds with a "sucker punch", according to Riza, when Lewis Baker made sure of the three points for Rovers late on.
And while Riza was pleased with the fightback from his players, he has told them that the first-half display fell way below standards.
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"The first half was unacceptable," he said. "I told the boys that in no uncertain terms. You can't start games slowly, thinking you're going to have loads of time on the ball and that it would be easy, just thinking it's going to be easy and that the opposition are not going to come after you. We lacked intensity, urgency and an idea in the first half.
"When we spoke about prior to the game in terms of what we needed to do, we didn't stick to the game plan. We were our own worst enemy first half.
"Second half I thought the reaction was better. We tried to pressurise them a little bit more and have the ball a lot more. The other part of that, when we had the ball and we delivered into the box, was it with quality? Were our set pieces quality? Not really.
"We got back in the game with the penalty and it's 2-1, you're pushing for that second goal, the crowd are up, but we get hit with the sucker punch again because of the things we haven't done well, not recover, track runners or stop the opposition from scoring. Disappointing overall, but the second half was better."
There was a clamour for interim boss Riza to be handed the job on a more permanent basis after their magnificent comeback win against Norwich City a week ago.
But a week which saw them lose two games in four days, first at Luton Town and then at home to Blackburn, has seen some of the momentum sucked out of the air.
It's been more than a week now since Riza held what he described as "positive" talks with the club's hierarchy, but the radio silence from above since those discussions were held has left supporters scratching their heads and in the dark. Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.
And it appears Riza, who has overseen four wins and two draws in nine games, is just as in the dark as everyone else. And the interim manager admitted that this international break now affords the club an opportunity to look elsewhere to hire a permanent boss if they don't want go down the Riza route.
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"Regarding what it looks like, I don't know," Riza said candidly. "Every international break is a chance to bring in another manager. We have always said that when you are winning it's more difficult, when you are losing it's easier (to change).
"It depends what the club wants to do moving forward, only they can answer it.
"What I'm worried about is not winning games. The pressure is there if you don't win games and then the opportunity is there for anything to happen. I'm not going to say whether I want the job, you already know the answer to that.
"I think we are on the right track, we are not going to win every game and I've said that as well. But we can't lose like that, especially first half. Second half was better.
"They are going to make a decision eventually, you just have to wait."
