Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro says the performance of academy product Thabiso Monyane shows why he received a surprise selection in their opening DStv Premiership fixture.
The 22-year-old right-back who started his career as a forward has long been touted as a future star for Pirates and has captained their DStv Diski Challenge squad in recent seasons.
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However, since his breakthrough 2019/20 season where he made 12 appearances for the first team, he featured just six times in the following campaign which brought about several suitors in the South African top-flight, with Stellenbosch among the teams who were knocking on the door.
But Riveiro’s appointment in the off-season has seemingly brought new opportunities with Monyane starting ahead of Bandile Shandu, who was one of the standout players for the club last season.
“I’m not going to… not only for today but for the rest of the season, individualise when I speak about my players, I have a fantastic squad with plenty of options in every position, so you can imagine good they are performing to be in the starting eleven with the number of options I have,” Riveiro said in the post-match press conference.
“If you think of the players that didn’t make the matchday squad you have an idea of the competition that we have in training so we’ll select the players who we think will be better for the game and bring us closest to winning like we did today.
“So if Thabiso was in the starting eleven then you can have the idea of the level [of quality] the guy has. I think his performance talks for him today.”
Pirates will now travel to the Western Cape this week to face Stellenbosch at the Danie Craven Stadium on Wednesday evening (19h30).
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