Orlando Pirates captain Innocent Maela backs Buccaneers to do well next season

Orlando Pirates captain Innocent Maela believes the Buccaneers have the squad to challenge for the league title ahead of the upcoming season.

The Soweto giants were touted as being the team that could break the dominance of Mamelodi Sundowns last season. However, things did not go as planned as the Buccaneers ended the season in second place, 23 points behind Masandawana.

However, despite the club's misfortunes last season, Maela believes that the Ezimnyama Ngenkani have assembled a good enough squad that can challenge on all fronts.

"As a team, we always want to challenge on all fronts, it is no secret that our fans are longing for the success of the league and we are competing against top teams. But, I believe this season we have a good chance.

"I believe we do have a good squad so we will go out there and give it our all," Maela said in an interview with the SABC.

The Orlando Pirates captain also touched on the Buccaneer's pre-season camp in Spain saying the club has learned a lot from playing against top teams such as Sevilla and Plymouth Argyle.

“Pre-season is always tough and intense as it should but our tour in Spain, I believe it was a success from the player's perspective, I think it helped us a lot the few lessons that we got that side playing against top teams.

“Tactical awareness those things so as a team we get to learn and we get to test ourselves so looking ahead of the new season, I think it will help a lot,” Maela concluded.

IOL Sport