He is reflecting on his recent coaching role with Cesena in Italy where he assisted former England international Ashley Cole. But Riza’s experiences are already vast and varied. Over the course of an evening, the former Cardiff City boss opens up about many of them.
The highs and lows of managing in the Championship, how he once received a global ban from football, and even a recent broken ankle in a charity game. "Silly tackle!" As a player, he started out at Arsenal, his connection to Cole dating back to when they were just boys. But his league debut came in the Netherlands on loan at Den Haag and he later spent five years in Turkey, including playing European football for Trabzonspor.
As a coach, he has worked with England's age-group sides and managed Cardiff City in the Championship. Cesena was a chance to get back on the grass. "I had that hunger to get going again." Now, after that adventure, he is eager to return to the Football League.
"Italy was a good opportunity, working with Ashely who I have known for so long, and getting to experience a different style of football. The target at Cesena was to change the approach, change the mentality, and that is what we did in a short space of time." Riza explains: "Italy can be quite defensively minded, low blocks and counter-attacks. They are quite happy not to have the ball.
Our mentality was to try to have the ball, to control the game, to provoke the opposition to open up spaces further up the pitch. "The players were used to a 5-3-2 and defending their box so to go press high and step on to the opposition to stop them playing and win it right up the pitch to cause them problems, that was a big change, not just for the players but for the fans as well." Cole decided to call time on the Cesena project in the summer when it became clear that the club's ambitions did not match his own. "I honestly believe we would have done really well this year if we had been allowed to bring in the players we wanted," says Riza.
But he is backing his old pal to succeed somewhere else. "He has worked hard at his coaching, he is diligent and he has his head screwed on." Assisting him in the next role is an option. "We have spoken about it." But Riza's real aim is to be a head coach again.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
