Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro says they are not handing opportunities out for free in relation to Thalente Mbatha’s immediate impact.
The midfielder, who turns 24 today, joined Pirates on loan from SuperSport United in January where he was on the fringes of Gavin Hunt’s squad.
And while his signing raised eyebrows amongst Pirates supporters, he’s featured in the full 90 minutes in the wins over Crystal Lake and Polokwane City since the return of football.
“You know I don’t like to speak about individuals and I think I’ve been a little bit relaxed in the last opportunities for you, nothing against him but then I’ll need to speak about all of [my players],” Riveiro said.
“If I speak about one and not say anything about Tapelo, he will feel that I don’t [have impressions] so as I answered before to your colleague, I’m glad for the new weapons in the team – you should do the reflection of talent in the context of our environment.
“He played his first official game a few days ago, so we do our own analysis, if he’s in the starting eleven, with Pirates, with the squad we have, it might be he’s doing something right during the week we’re seeing something [in training].
“We’re not giving opportunities for free, then other analysis must come from you [the media] we do our own but as I said, I like to talk about what we do as a collective not what every individual is achieving week by week, because then we’re talking about trends, I want to talk about the team.”
Mbatha will be aiming to impress against Cape Town Spurs this evening ahead of the Soweto Derby against Kaizer Chiefs on Saturday.
