Orlando pirates coach thinks talks of changing formation are irrelevant

Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro believes discussions of changing their structure are irrelevant as they have a versatile tactical strategy.

After Friday night’s DStv Premiership match at Orlando Stadium, which ended in a 1-1 draw between Pirates and AmaZulu, they have now gone four games in a row without a victory

As a result, they are now three points behind Mamelodi Sundowns, the league’s top team and defending champion, who have two games in hand over the Buccaneers.

Despite his disappointments, the Spaniard has maintained his composure by asserting that their recent successes or failures have nothing to do with the formation they have used that particular day.

“I hope you noticed that the formations are flexible. We do modifications in every game, sometimes looking for something in our offensive phase,” he said. “The team played with a back four last game against Richards Bay.

“We defended in a 4-3-3, as I’m sure you observed as well. Set-ups are something that typically we examine at the start of the game in the papers that we receive from the opponent and you receive from us and our opponents, but then the ball is in [motion].

“You have to comprehend the game of football to realize how abstract and challenging it is.

But the component that occasionally costs us points or the points we fail to score, isn’t directly related to whether to play with three, two, or no defenders at the back.

The former head coach of Inter Turku believes that their luck has deserted them at critical points in the game. He uses the loss of goalkeeper Richard Ofori at one such point, which caused the game’s momentum to shift somewhat in Usuthu’s favor.

“With football, there are some reasons we can explain and improve upon, and there are other reasons we can’t even describe — after all, it’s a game where you occasionally need a little bit of luck.

“There are times when the game can turn in your favour. I believe that tonight, for instance, we were fortunate to equalize shortly before halftime and begin the second half with a new situation.

There are many situations and scenarios in the games that are not only about football, but we’re not going to waste our time trying to explain those situations. We just need to move on. We were unfortunate to substitute our keeper and stop the momentum and stop the rhythm.

The Soweto giants will now travel to KwaZulu Natal to play Golden Arrows on Tuesday in league play before coming back to Gauteng to play Mamelodi Sundowns in the second leg of the MTN8 semi-final, with the score still at 0-0 from the first match earlier this month.

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