Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro admits having many games in hand has affected his team’s fight for the title race as they are playing without knowing exactly where they are.
Pirates are 16 points behind leaders Mamelosi Sundowns, but with four games in hand, which if they win, they will be just four points adrift of the PSL champions.
However, that is not guaranteed given their work load will increase when the games in hand are scheduled while their squad is getting decimated by injuries with fatigue also set to kick in.
That is frustrating for Riveiro as he has to manage what he tells his players every matchday to motivate them given the table might suggest that the title race is already done when they still have more matches to play than their main rivals.
What is frustrating the Pirates coach?
“It’s difficult to know where you are when you have three, four or five games in hand. You want to be optimistic that you will collect all the points and then the gap is going to be different,” Riveiro said as quoted by iDiski Times.
“Because we don’t know, the only thing we can do is to focus on the next one. That’s what we try to do in the best of our capacity to just think that every game is an opportunity to dream, to do something big.
“And that’s the way we are facing the games, we are not – at least personally and I try to explain the same thing to my players – to not look at the table, to not look at the log because the reality is still not there.”
The Pirates coach is, however, keeping hope alive and is keen to ensure the players do not lose focus of the main goal.
Riveiro staying positive in title fight
“It’s gonna be there soon, hopefully in some weeks. But right now, it’s just 16 teams trying to fight for their position in the log, we are trying to find our own and focus on our own race,” he added.
Pirates have 39 points from 17 matches and saw their cause helped further on Wednesday when Sundowns drew 1-1 with Golden Arrows while they beat Chippa United 1-0 to see the Brazilians move to 55 points.
The Buccaneers are the only team with a realistic chance of catching Sundowns who have won the last seven PSL titles and are firm favourites to claim it again.
