With Rivaldo Coetzee having shrugged off his previous injury woes, he is back on the mend and hoping to improve as Mamelodi Sundowns prepare for the 2019/20 Premier Soccer League (PSL) season.
Coetzee made just 12 league appearances last season as he slowly made his way back from a long-term injury.
His exploits even saw him form part of Stuart Baxter’s Bafana Bafana preliminary squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) but missed out on the tournament.
Sundowns have been hard at work preparing for the new season having set up camp in Nelspruit before heading to Botswana and DRC, and Coetzee is raring to go.
“So far it’s been good. Everyone is positive and had quite a long break this time around. The mood in the camp and everything is positive,” Coetzee told IOL.
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“We are looking forward to the new season.
“I’ve always looked forward to the pre-season because that’s where you start from scratch and prove to the coach that you want to be part of the team and play a bigger role than you did last season.
“I wasn’t happy (with my contribution) last season, but in the next one I am looking forward to being more important to the team.”
Meanwhile, since his return from injury, Coetzee has undergone a major transition as head coach Pitso Mosimane has converted the defender into a central midfielder.
“It was a tough transition,” Coetzee revealed.
“I hadn’t played there before, despite trying it a few times in training to see how I’d handle the pressure. Since I started my football, I’ve been a centre-back and not used to people pressing me from behind, but it’s something that I have to get used to.
“When a coach asks you to play in a position, you have to do it for the team and yourself. I didn’t know that I could play there but he (Mosimane) threw me in, and I’ve repaid him for the faith that he has in me.”
Furthermore, Coetzee has set out the side’s ambitions for the upcoming season.
“We want to retain the Premiership title. We want to see how far we can go in Cup competitions,” he said. “If it were up to us, we would want to win everything, but that’s improbable.”
