Born in
Mequinenza,
Province of Zaragoza,
Aragon, Oliva started coaching at an early age, his beginnings being in amateur football. In 2005 he arrived at
Deportivo Alavés, being initially an assistant. In early 2006, Oliva was appointed at the first team following the sacking of
Chuchi Cos, being in charge for five games – three wins, one draw and only one loss, against
FC Barcelona – before being dismissed himself by eccentric club chairman
Dmitry Piterman. Alavés would finally
suffer relegation from
La Liga. Returned to the third level with
CE L'Hospitalet, Oliva led the
Catalans to
the fourth position in the
regular season and the subsequent
promotion playoffs, which ended without success. After a few months in
Greece with
Aris Thessaloniki FC, he returned to his country and its division three, being one of three managers for
Villarreal CF B as the
Valencian side
finished in midtable. Oliva returned to the top flight in
2008–09, acting as assistant for
Manolo Zambrano's successor
Lucas Alcaraz as
Recreativo de Huelva finally ranked in the 20th and last position. In late January 2010 he was fired by
UD Salamanca, but the
Castile and León club finally managed to
stay afloat in the
second tier. On 6 December 2010, Oliva joined
Gimnàstic de Tarragona of the second division, replacing the dismissed
Luis César Sampedro as the team ranked in last position. He managed to finally lead them
out of the relegation zone, notably with a 3–1 home win against eventual champions
Real Betis on 15 May 2011. After 11 matches without one win in
2011–12, Oliva was relieved of his duties at
Nàstic. Subsequently, he had a series of spells as assistant manager under
Quique Sánchez Flores. On 18 June 2018, Oliva was appointed at Cypriot club
AC Omonia. On 22 October, after three consecutive league defeats, he was sacked. On 5 February 2019, Oliva joined
Lleida Esportiu. He left by mutual consent in June, after failing in his objective of reaching
the play-offs. On 10 September 2019, Oliva was named in Sánchez Flores's staff at
Watford. ==Managerial statistics==