When the Spanish tactician was unveiled by Orlando Pirates a cloud pregnant with rain of doubt hovered across the country. The common forecast being of course, questions of Jose’ Riveiro’s football identity. The urge to know the mystery possessed by this man was so huge it even reached levels of some labelling him a ‘plumber’.
Retrospectively, him being christened ‘a plumber’ was more prophetic than anything’. I mean plumbers do fix leaks, right? And for them to fix the leak they would have to be thorough in their approach. The one common leak Riviero would have noticed upon inspection is that the Sea Robbers had drawn almost half of their league fixtures last season, conceding on average a goal a game and that would be a deterrent for any team carrying ambitions to win the championship. In their opening 10 league games the trend was as a clear as daylight – They had drawn 5, and of those only failed to score in 2.
These facts compelled him to streamline his energy in converting the draws into wins. Nothing is as discouraging as scoring a goal(s) in a match and still not grind a victory. Therefore the primary objective was to fix those leaking pipes and tighten the defence. There’s a valid reason why 1-0 victories are called “championship scores”.
An appraisal of this current Pirates setup will probably have some of their supporters frustrated from the fact that they aren’t converting clear goal scoring chances, however the Bucs faithful need to seek comfort in that they will not easily concede which would mean they aren’t going to lose games easily. Rest assured, amabakabaka have a mentor that has spotted their biggest challenge and is now remedying the cause. There’s still a lot of work to be done, nonetheless credit needs to be given to whoever brought in Riveiro at the black and white camp.
By Lekoko
Leave a Reply