Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has revealed how he will approach the squad after their surprise defeat to Richards Bay as they missed the chance to move second.
After Stellenbosch stumbled to a 2-0 defeat to Moroka Swallows on Saturday afternoon, some 20km from Orlando, in Dobsonville, the Buccaneers, had their tails up, coming into a clash against relegation-fighting Bay – on a seven-match winning run.
But Sanele Barns snapped that excellent run of results with a first-half strike, when a throw-in somehow found its way into the area for him to slot the ball beyond Sipho Chaine, where Pirates dominated the opening half.
“As usual, we will do a collective analysis of the performance and I’m sure that if I have this feeling after I’ve lost, just a few minutes ago, that my team was playing as good as we could today, at least in the the first half, it’s true in the second half we were a more, not disorganised, but tried something different and didn’t get what we were looking for,” Riveiro said when asked by iDiski Times what he’ll tell the squad.
“So it’s going to be easy to show them they were doing what we were looking for, with things we know we need to improve. There was a situation in our right side that didn’t work they way we were expected today, there’s little things that could have helped us a bit more to get the result.
“Like I said, we have the opportunity to do an objective analysis of the game, and show the players, we still performing the same way than in the previous seven games where we got the results.
“The only difference today, we didn’t score, we didn’t manage to put the ball in the net like in the previous games, but everything else, the concentration, the pace, the desire, the level of aggression – everything was there. That’s why I said, in my opinion, it’s a defeat that won’t affect us at all, there’s not going to space to feel sorry for ourselves.
“We understand the dynamics of the game, and sometimes you have these types of games and if we have to lose, let’s do it in this way.”
Pirates face TS Galaxy and SuperSport United in their final two DStv Premiership games in their race for CAF Champions League football with Stellies.
