Riza post-Blackburn Rovers | We have to be sharper
Omer Riza spoke to the press following our defeat to Blackburn Rovers.
“This is football, it’s full of ups and downs,” Omer began. “For me, the first half was unacceptable, and I told the boys that in no uncertain terms at half-time. You can’t start games slowly and you can’t start games thinking you’re going to have loads of time on the ball and think everything is going to be easy.
“We play a certain a way and the opposition will start to learn how you play and cause you problems. We lacked intensity, we lacked urgency, and we lacked an identity a bit in that first period.
“We spoke about it prior to the game in terms of what we needed to do, and we probably didn’t quite stick to the gameplan at times."
The Bluebirds were improved in the second period, with David Turnbull getting on the scoresheet.
Omer continued: “In the second half, I thought the reaction was better. We tried to pressurise them a little more and have the ball more. The other part of that obviously is, when we have the ball and when we delivered into the box, was it with quality? Were our set-pieces quality? And the answer to that is not really.
“We got back into the game with the penalty and then you’re pushing for that second goal, and the crowd are all up for it. But we get hit with a sucker punch again through the things we haven’t done well.
“It's disappointing overall and if there’s a few things I can take out of the game, it’s the fact that the second half was better.”
Omer finished by outlining what the international break will look like for his side.
“We will be in during the international break, and we will be training,” he added. “We have a midweek game on the Wednesday, a behind-closed-doors friendly match for the boys that need minutes. You could see today that some of the boys have come in recently from injury and they’re still lacking a little bit of intensity.
“We will prepare for that and then potentially have a couple of days off, in order to be ready for the following week.”