Pirates started the season well in the last two campaigns, winning the MTN8 on both occasions, but have struggled on the league and continental fronts. What appears to be Riveiro's plan in the 2024/24 campaign, to maintain consistency in the league, in competition with Mamelodi Sundowns and continental cups, has been to retain almost the same team from last season, in his regular line-ups. The plus factor is that of no major departures.
Going into last term, the Soweto giants had lost the services of Terrence Dzvukamanja to SuperSport United, while Thembinkosi Lorch sustained a long-term injury and Kermit Erasmus fell out of favour. The Spaniard then had to make significant changes, as Zakhele Lepasa was drafted in alongside new signing Patrick Maswanganyi. However, ahead of the current campaign, Bucs had no major departures to deal with.
Judging from the Nedbank Cup final against Sundowns in June, which they won 2-1, Riveiro kept more or less the same team for the MTN8 quarterfinal against SuperSport, with the hopes that continuity will keep them in good stead, in the league and CAF Champions League. "There's a lot of concepts within the group that are working well because in the end, we are in our third season together, it's two years and one month together. I think there are things that you can recognize, like Pirates are playing, somehow," Riveiro said in his post-match press conference.
"But the new players are also quality. They gel, they are extremely motivated, they want to make an impact in the team and very soon I'm sure they will have the opportunity. "I'd like to know the secret so we can do the same things in the league when we play for three points.
I'm sure there's many components and it's our challenge. We have the capacity to not really think what we are playing for every game, understand that we are playing for Pirates and the responsibility is always the same. "I'm not trying to be modest, it's the truth.
We're in the right space to do these types of things. We're expected to play final games. We have a beautiful challenge to go to the group stages of the CAF Champions League, which we couldn't last season, and [do well in] the league.
".
