Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro says they have to accept that Mamelodi Sundowns were far better than any DStv Premiership club this season.
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While Riveiro’s Pirates are third on the league standings with 34 points, Sundowns are sitting comfortably at the top with 59 points, and a massive 25 points gap separates the Brazilians and the Buccaneers.
Inconsistency has been Bucs major problem in the league and Riveiro admits that Rulani Mokwena’s troops have been excellent this season.
“Obviously we are so far in terms of the points we would have liked to collect. We have to accept that they (Downs) are doing an excellent job. I think they have 19 victories in the league, which is an excellent record. Sometimes it happens that someone is just winning and winning, that’s one of the reasons why we are far (from Sundowns),” said Riveiro earlier this week.
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While Sundowns continue to keep on winning and Bucs stumble here and there, Riveiro says he knows why his charges have been unable to keep their winning momentum.
“We do our own analysis and it’s not my role to analyse why they (Sundowns) are getting those results. I can say that I know why we are far behind, obviously. Imagine if I said I don’t know? I do know but I am not goingto tell you,” he added.
“There are multiple reasons (why they were not consistent). There were periods where we couldn’t manage to get the average of points per month or per week that Pirates are supposed to get. We had a first part of the season, where we were without discussions the better team in the MTN8 but we couldn’t maintain the same performance in the league.”
Pirates might have been inconsistent, but they have got results where it mattered most, especially since they won the MTN8 and they are currently challenging for the Nedbank Cup.
Bucs will host SuperSport United at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday.