Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro was left impressed by how Relebohile Mofokeng has improved his game but believes he can even get better.
Mofokeng, 19, scored the much-important away goal for Pirates in their 1-1 draw with Cape Town City on Wednesday evening.
The skilful winger is proving to be vital for the Buccaneers as he also scored in the CAF Champions League first preliminary round second-leg against Madagascan side Disciples FC.
When Riveiro was asked about the targets for Mofokeng this season he remained coy but stated that he has improved a lot and that their job as coaches to make sure their offensive players play to their strengths.
“Rele, like everybody else especially our offensive players, our forwards, we try to play with their strengths, we try to create spaces and scenarios where Rele can be Rele, where Rele can express himself as a football player and show the talent that he has,” Riveiro told the media
“Like I said before talking about the collective, the process, the possibility to play very competitive games in the club, is giving Rele and other player get the opportunity to be more mature, to fulfil the spaces where maybe he is not top because you cannot be top in every department. But you can work to get close to that.
“So when you go to the field you try to show who you are – in the positive and negative, you don’t want to be seen as your deficits. So we try to help each and every individual in the team, Rele is not an exception.
“We all have the capacity the see how much he improved in the last year in every phase. He’s not only a player with the capacity to threat, capacity to eliminate, capacity to create chaos, he’s also a player who is helping us a lot in the defensive phase. He’s improving his capacity to win duals as well and that says a lot about his commitment.”
Pirates welcome City for the MTN8 semi-final second leg at Orlando Stadium at 15:00 on Saturday.
