Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has dismissed talk that his side have a goal scoring crisis, saying it feels like the team is being overanalysed this season.
Riveiro’s Pirates failed to fire as they were held to a 0-0 by second-from-bottom side Richards Bay at King Zwelithini Stadium on Saturday.
The draw ended Riveiro’s side’s winning streak of two matches, having defeated Sekhukhune United and Kaizer Chiefs in the Soweto Derby before the international break.
The performance on Saturday did not inspire much confidence in the team that was expected to challenge a pristine Mamelodi Sundowns for the title of the season.
But Pirates have struggled for consistency in the league and currently only linger in ninth place with 16 points from 11 matches – which is eight behind Sundowns, who have not played a league match since beating Stellenbosch late in September.
But the Tshwane giants have since been dislodged at the top by Cape Town City, who, unlike Pirates in KwaZulu-Natal, beat Golden Arrows in Hammersdale on Sunday.
But Sundowns still have five games in hand over City, and three over Pirates, yet Riveiro insists they are doing better than what people think of them despite results not coming and them not challenging for the top spot at the moment.
“They did a fantastic job to be proud of the level of professionalism, the way they approached the FIFA break, the way we trained in the week,” said Riveiro, who appeared a bit grumpy on Saturday.
“In the end… you guys like to analyze the results; you don’t like to analyze the games. We draw, and we have problems to score. We scored three, so we are in a good moment. We concede three goals, we are not defending well, it’s so simplistic.
“We are doing great things, but the ball hits the post. The ball touches the keeper, he doesn’t know how but the ball touches him, touches the post and now we say and you say we are in crisis. The performance was more than 0-0.”
Pirates have only scored 11 goals in those 11 league matches, and Riveiro was informed that his side appeared to be struggling to see the net bulges.
When asked what is the issue to see Pirates struggling to get goals to win matches.
“How many shots on target we had on Saturday, in 90 minutes?” he asked, before keeping quiet to wait for another question to be asked at the press conference.
