Should Jose Riveiro still have a job at Orlando pirates?

 

Jose came to Orlando pirates as a largely unknown entity to the South African football fraternity, he was head coach in Finland for FC Inter Turku he enjoyed a rather successful time at the club with them finishing up as runners up twice in the league and in the cup, he only won those honor’s as an Assistant coach at Helsinki in the same league.

 

When Jose arrived at Orlando Pirates he arrived with many detractors, with some calling him a plumber because he had won nothing and he was a coach in the Finnish league ,he wasn’t a coach who was in high demand and Orlando Pirates needed a serial winner to compete with Mamelodi Sundowns, Benni McCarthy and Gavin Hunt were two winners who would have been perfect replacements for Josef Zinnbauer compared to Jose Riviero at that time according to the supporters and myself but I thought that this man at least deserved a chance.

 

Jose played a back three in the beginning of his tenure at Orlando Pirates with two holding Midfielders but defensively they looked very suspect as they left big gaps between midfield and defense, very good opposition would exploit that as a proper number 10 would play in those pockets and draw the defenders out of position and the striker/s would run into that vacated space and get a chance at goal. They created little to no chances though but they were winning with no more than 2 goals and I thought to myself that these were teething problems that having a new coach causes.

 

Jose won a MTN 8 trophy playing on the counter against Mamelodi sundowns and having been disciplined but they clinched the title against Amazulu in the final with a well take free kick, I thought that winning a trophy would be the turning point that this team needed but unfortunately it wasn’t as the team seems to have regressed a bit especially in the league.

Whenever I have watched Orlando Pirates under Jose they look to have little to no attacking patterns and runners from midfield would sometimes not be busting a gut to get into the box to provide extra bodies in the box or to add options. I don’t largely judge coaches on results especially in the first season but there seems to be no coaching happening at Mayfair the movements aren’t coordinated and I don’t see Jose stamping his authority and getting the players to play football according to his philosophy, whether certain players have the same qualities or not the team should largely play a similar brand of football because that shows me, that there is a philosophy or a playing style that the coach is implementing. The coach also seems to lack a plan B when he is behind in games or he needs to win the game when scores are level, he hardly utilizes that bench very well although the one time he did it in their last encounter against Arrows he got 2 late goals and they sealed the game, he introduced Makgopa and Dzukamanja and started putting crosses into the box which is what the pirates faithful have been asking him to do, which is to try something different when things aren’t going your way and great coaches learn from their mistakes and try something different when the chips are down.

 

Orlando pirates has never been clinical but the goals expected were at 15 according to laduma analytics when they had scored 9 goals which isn’t great, now they have scored a few more goals but the stats are terrible, having taken 179 shots for 13 goals.

 

Jose Riviero needs to be fired by the club because he has no philosophy or playing style although he has had a few injuries but not having a playing style and not having a plan B or plan C are the hallmarks of a great coach and he has neither, I hope if he stays he proves me wrong but I don’t think that he will