Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro admits the mental challenge of helping his squad remain consistent has been one of his biggest tasks since his arrival.
Following the highs of eliminating the 2021/22 treble champions out of the MTN8 in emphatic fashion with a 3-0 win, Pirates produced an uninspiring display in the Soweto Derby as they lost 1-0 to Kaizer Chiefs.
Suggestions of overconfidence and complacency were immediately brought up, with the Buccaneers heading into the first derby with fans since the Covid-19 pandemic with the clear favouirtes tag.
Riveiro dismissed the notion they didn’t take the game as seriously as they possibly could citing that the nature of the derby means form is out the window.
“I don’t think we came into the game feeling like favourites, actually we have a narrative that the derby is a special game, blah, blah, blah, if it’s special, it’s special, so it doesn’t matter what happened the week before, it doesn’t matter and you have the proof today,” Riveiro said.
“History is full of these types of games when you feel one team is in a better moment and the other one is coming and taking the result, the reasons behind it? I don’t know, honestly, I don’t know,
“But we didn’t face the game thinking we were favourites or nothing, we’re a humble team coming from a process where we’re trying to be more competitive week after week.”
Currently, in fifth place, nine points off league leaders Mamelodi Sundowns as the DStv Premiership goes into a break – the Spaniard remained hopeful that things will eventually click into gear as the 2022/23 season progresses.
“That’s the difficult part when you’re in a club like Pirates, where you have to perform every game, with no excuses to make, that’s the difficult part of being consistent,” he continued.
“We’re coming from your point of view and then fans, a very good performance against [Sundowns] in our previous game and the expectations were high thinking we have to be at that level every week.
“When we manage to do that we’ll be a very competitive team and we’re going to make it, but this time, for different reasons that I know already, that I won’t open for you, we couldn’t [win], that’s it.”
Pirates will now prepare to face AmaZulu in the MTN8 final at a capacity Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday afternoon at 18h00.
