Jose Riveiro reacts to Relebohile Mofokeng's consistency
By Neo Poho
Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has expressed his delight towards Pirates' attacking midfielder Relebohile Mofokeng, describing the youngster as one of the promising talents the Buccaneers have.
Mofokeng, previously known as Ratomo when he made his professional debut last season but has since switched his surname, featured in both Pirates' opening league matches of the 2023/24 season.
With Mofokeng's technical ability, pace and the way in which he eases past his markers at regular intervals becoming a force to be reckoned with, Riveiro admits that alongside the likes of Patrick Mswanganyi and Monnapule Saleng, the youngster is indeed an exciting prospect.
“In general, it’s a challenge, the tactical part of the process, it is especially with youngsters because they come with habits sometimes not so good sometimes not too bad, but if youngsters like Rele make it to play for Pirates it means he is coming from one environment and maybe for two seasons where he was really superior, he was showing superiority almost in every game with 16 and 17-year-olds, that is the difficult step.
Usually when they arrive in professional football and in a league where nothing is for free, to understand the different moments of the game, to understand being on the ball is not enough, you have to contribute when you’re not on the ball because the tempo is higher," Riveiro said.
The Pirates mentor who was part of the Celta Vigo Academy as a coach admits that developing any player becomes easy, when they see progress and are willing to be coached, something which he is observing within his squad this season.
"If the player feels you are not helping him develop much, then it becomes difficult because all players are smart, at least in football and if players know what they want from their coaches then as coaches we can help them to be better and help them to win.
That is the key to the relationship, so if they feel I can help, it’s easy, if not it’s difficult and it doesn’t matter if they were 16, 25 or 30, but it’s nice to work with them because they have the technical] quality, so whatever you ask them to do, they can execute it and that’s amazing," Riveiro added.
The Sea Robbers are back in action on Saturday the 12th of August in the MTN 8 quarter-final against Sekhukhune United at the Orlando Stadium, kick-off in that encounter is 18:00 o'clock.
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