How Pirates coach Riveiro plans to defeat Royal AM in MTN8

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro knows coming up against Royal AM in the MTN8 quarter-finals will be a difficult task, but the Bucs coach has conjured up a plan to defeat their opponents.

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The sides are set meet at Chatsworth Stadium on Saturday at 6pm.

Pirates and Royal AM have already met this season, with the Buccaneers walking away with a 1-0 victory.

Riveiro knows exactly what to expect from his opponents and has already drawn up a plan on how to approach the game.

“In my eyes, they are a difficult team to deal with when they have the ball. So, our intention is to try to minimise the time they are in possession. It has worked in our previous game and we are going to go with the same mentality,” said the Pirates mentor.

Riveiro has has been doing a lot of rotation so far this season and the Spanish coach says the style of play he is trying to implement at the club needs his players to be fresh every game and he wants his team to be difficult opponents for oppositions.

“We try to create a context where we want to dominate possession, we are not looking for long possession, but trying to arrive in the box as quickly as possible. And also trying to play at a high tempo, which is difficult when we are playing every two to three days.

“But we knew it’s going to happen this month (playing a lot of games). Anyway, we are trying to be competitive in every phase and there are moments where we have the ball and we try to be a difficult team for the opponent to deal with. There are moments where we don’t have the ball and we try to be a difficult team for the opponents.”