in 1966 kanevskyi decided to retire. after deciding to coach, kanevskyi was advised to change his patronymic name izarailyovych as it was not "blending with a policy of the cpsu and the soviet state." his coaching career started out in kharkiv. during reorganization of the soviet football competitions in 1970 kanevskyi was able to keep fc metalist kharkiv at the second tier when at first class a 2nd group became class a 1st group and then first league. in 1968 and 1969 his team placed among the top three. kanevskyi said that the club had good support from a factory director and had a contemporary stadium with "a visor." in transit through chernivtsi where he spent about two months, kanevskyi moved to tashkent where he was invited by vyacheslav solovyov to be his assistant. in 1973 fc pakhtakor tashkent gained promotion to the soviet top league and kanevskyi received the honorary title of merited coach of uzbekistan (uzbek ssr). in 1973 valeriy lobanovskyi asked kanevskyi to take over his team, fc dnipro dnipropetrovsk, as he was leaving for fc dynamo kyiv. with dnipro he reached the semifinals of the soviet cup and for four years was a manager in the soviet top league. in 1987 with sc tavriya simferopol, kanevskyi was able to gain promotion to the soviet first league.