Jose Riveiro: Don't trash Orlando Pirates to praise Mamelodi Sundowns

The gap at the top of the Betway Premiership is currently up to 18 points, albeit The Buccaneers have four games in hand over leaders Sundowns.

With their highly-anticipated home fixture against The Brazilians coming up on Sunday, Riveiro made his feelings known over the criticism his side has faced amidst what has proven to be a chaotic season in as far as match postponements go.

"You don't need to speak bad about Pirates to speak well about Mamelodi Sundowns. I think it's a mistake that you are making all the time and it's not fair. We are competing so well, maybe other teams are not doing the same than us and that's why the league couldn't be more equal but it’s not because of Pirates," Riveiro said.

The Spanish tactician further acknowledged the pedigree of the Tshwane giants, given their points accumulation thus far, but argues that Pirates' own progress and record-setting is also worth celebrating.

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"They have a lot of points for a reason. If they continue collecting points at the same level, I think they're going over 80 points this season, so you don't need to ask if they're good or not, it's obvious they are good in terms of points,” the coach added.

“They are performing in a level that I think is new for everyone in terms of points. If we are breaking club records this season, it means that we're also performing so good."

Riveiro also refused to get sucked into comparisons with their title rivals, insisting they are solely focussed on running their own race, whether it's enough to be crowned champions or not.

"We know the numbers, we know where we are, we know how we're performing, we know why we couldn't get three points in our last game and we're trying to run our race not looking to anybody else.

“We just want to be ourselves and if being ourselves is enough in the end of the season to be the champion, we will celebrate it and if it's not, it's because somebody else is doing better than you and it doesn't mean that we're not doing well."