RIZA: MANAGER SITUATION A PRESSURE COOKER READY TO EXPLODE

OMER RIZA:



"We wouldn't have scored until the cows came home. We created a lot of chances, a lot of opportunities, we tried to apply pressure, just lacked that last bit to break them down and score. We had a few opportunities to score. Against the run of play, he swivels and scores. I think he mis-hits it and scores. We are 1-0 down, which is probably harsh, but then we are chasing the game. It's a game we need to win. It didn't help because now we need to score two goals.

Half time we make adjustments and the belief is there to go on and win the game but it didn't come. The second goal comes from a run against play and the game is finished 2-0. They come away from the game with three points and we come away highly frustrated.

Disappointed, but we had 70% possession, created 25, 26 chances. Just wasn't good enough in those final moments.

They put their bodies on the line, blocked, cleared. Were our balls decisive enough? Did we deliver the ball into good enough areas? We have come off our quality in possession. We have come off our quality in possession, our boys who make a difference in those areas, they are a little bit lacking in those areas, final pass being nicked, whether they should drive at someone or take a touch. That's something we can take back and work on. The quality side, the players just need to step up in terms of focus or delivery in terms of what they need to do.

Everyone is talking about the audition at the end of the day. You have got to make your mind up on the audition.

Everyone thinks I've got to win every game. I'm not going to come away from that. That's how I'm feeling. It's stressful. But it's part and parcel of being a manager and take responsibility and I've done that. I won't shirk that responsibility. I've worked really hard to get to this point in my career. It's a brilliant challenge and it shows that I am ready.

I am just trying to steer it into a direction that makes all of us happy, going home, the fans, the players, the club, the staff, I'm managing all of that at the moment, because it was a right mess.

Now we are in a position where now the boys are trying, fighting, working hard. They didn't give up today, they worked the whole 95 minutes. I'm not going to sit here and hammer the players. We beat ourselves. We will fix that. It's not like we've been dominated today.

The players are disappointed. They sat in the dressing room and they were quiet. They were angry at each other. Sometimes it just doesn't happen. This game was not a game we've lost because we weren't good enough. We didn't do things the way we needed to, to score the goals.

I want to protect the boys and the staff, because it's a tough position that we are in. And it's a lot of pressure. It's like a big pressure cooker ready to explode. We have to remain focused and take this into the next game.

It's down to the board now to make a decision moving forwards. I'm continuing with the job, working hard. You lot are probably bored but I'm not going to give you any different answers.

I'm not going to change. I'm going to make sure the team is in a good place, working hard, playing good football and winning games.

There might be a hang-up in the respect of instability, uncertainty. I've spoken to the players and told them whether it's me or someone else, you are here to do your job, perform and enjoy. I honestly don't think the performance was that bad. We didn't score. We worked the ball to certain areas, created enough opportunities, put the ball in areas to cause problems, we just lacked on that final point.

We created enough opportunities to create problems. It's not like we were poor. We lost this game because we weren't able to hurt the opposition the way we needed to.

There are definitely things we need to work on. Lack of quality in certain moments of the game. But we didn't lose because the opposition were better than us. We lost because we didn't hurt the opposition the way we needed to. These are the things the boys have to work on and take into the next game. We dominated that game today, those final moments were telling. We are definitely not going to give up, we will keep working and getting better."

He just said we are frustrated because we couldn’t break them down. Bloody drivel. Get the ball wide quickly and drive into them at pace instead of trying playing through the lines. And SHOOT. And - bring on Reindorff- a young enthusiastic player who might just terrorise them and get the crowd going instead of bringing on Meite.

He's wrong on a number of counts.

It is a game we lost because we weren't good enough.

Possession and chances mean nothing if you don't score a goal.

The performance was pathetic.

He's right to say that it was a "right mess".

Unfortunately it still is.

Time to sort out these set-pieces out - endless amount of corners and free kicks tonight and no end results .
Look at last season we were one of the best in all leagues - What's gone wrong this season ???

After listening to Riza after match press conference I get the impression he doesn’t know what he’s doing he even admitted he don’t know what else to do saying the players need to step up and take the game by scruff of neck type of thing last season we pace in this side we don’t have pace now it’s very slow build up most of the time get over half way and we end up passing it back in our own half to our centre half’s who usually get closed down and we end up rushing usually we lose the ball which puts us under pressure having 60/70 per cent procession doesn’t win you football matches not when most of it is actually in your own half he has to be replaced asap this isn’t working