Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro says the emergence of Sandile Mthethwa is pleasing as he’s slotted seamlessly into their defence in recent weeks.
Mthethwa, 25, joined Pirates from KZN Academy back in 2016 after a move to Portugal fell through but was loaned out on four separate occasions – twice to Richards Bay and twice to Chippa United.
While he picked up valuable game-time, the South Africa youth international who featured for the country at the U20 AFCON and U20 FIFA World Cup in 2017 remained on the periphery of the Pirates squad due to the form of Tapelo Xoki, Nkosanathi Sibisi, and Olisa Ndah.
But injuries and suspensions of late have afforded him a chance to prove his worth in the starting line-up under Riveiro, as he started three games in the last month.
“The players improve because they want to improve, that is the first thing you need, we’re glad we have a group where everyone is trying to progress, to get integrated into the team dynamics,” Riveiro said.
“That is the key in the end if we speak about every player, I think there’s many who are improving from our point of view, [Mthethwa] is one of those cases, we’re so happy to see him performing.
“As I said, things happen every week, we have to replace players, and sometimes we manage to have a period of continuity but now for example, we can’t repeat our starting eleven, if a player suddenly comes in and performs at that level – it means he’s training well, he’s involved and it’s something as a group of coaches are we’re very proud of and something we all benefit from.”
The towering defender will now be aiming to retain his place in the team when Pirates travel to Mbombela Stadium to face TS Galaxy on Sunday afternoon (15h00).
