Jose Riveiro identifies Orlando Pirates immaturity as cause for inconsistency

This is how Pirates coach Jose Riveiro responded when asked why they cannot string together a noteworthy unbeaten streak, which is the cornerstone of most title-challenging teams, along with convincing home records.

These are qualities the Buccaneers have lacked this season and, speaking after the 1-1 draw with bottom-of-the-log Cape Town Spurs at Orlando Stadium last night, Riveiro listed their shortcomings.

"It's not frustrating. It can happen. If you look right now, we're also playing quite a lot of young players, some of them even making their first steps into the league and playing for Pirates," said Riveiro.

"I haven't checked today, but last time playing in Polokwane, our average age in the starting 11 was 25.5, which is quite low – it's one of the lowest. Today again, we had more or less the same starting 11.

"We have a lot of players getting that experience, learning and understanding how to behave in different scenarios you're facing in the game, in order to get that consistency."

One of Pirates’ biggest challenges this season has been failing to kill off matches when they are in control and have taken an early lead – as was the case with last night’s 12th-minute goal from Relebohile Mofokeng. 

Dominant reigning champions and current log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns put teams to the sword once they are in control, and Riveiro says this is something his side urgently need to address.

"We need to be much more mature. In the last four games, in three of them, we managed to take the lead but not getting the total points," he added.

"[Against] Stellenbosch FC, SuperSport [United] and today [against Cape Town Spurs], so it's something that needs to change if we want to have that consistency.

"We're doing things well in the beginning of games, we manage to get the lead, we're doing a good job – all of us and them, analysing and trying to find the solutions to go ahead.

"But then there are certain moments in the games, like I've said many times, there's always two, three, or four games inside the game; it's never the same game during the 90 minutes, and you need to beat your opponent in all of those games and periods.

"There's a period that we need to do much better in, and for me it's the moment we get the lead."

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