“You see, he is paying the price for being inactive for so long and with his huge frame and being in a position where you need to be alert and must deliver, we need to be patient,” so says Downs’ executive technical director Ted Dumitru.
“But so far his progress is good and even ahead of some people’s expectations. He is more mature now and tactically more settled and enjoying the play combinations more than before.
“He still has his arsenal of tools in the air and on the ground and can score with both left and right foot.
“He’s doing well from a training point of view and well accepted at the club and connecting well with everybody. Collins is very happy at the moment. I think he had a problem of accumulated frustration and he didn’t know where his game was going since he left Chiefs a few years ago.”
Though still looking a notch or two from reaching peak fitness, the powerful Zambian international showed some neat touches and scored Sundowns’ third goal with a coolly taken instep goal from Koketso Mmotong’s pass.
He had replaced Katlego Mphela on 67 minutes to play alongside Mozambican striker Dario Monteiro – an appetising double-strike combination in the offing.
“Everybody must be patient,” continues Dumitru. “Collins likes the ball to be on the ground and mixing passing with dribbling and when that combination is going to be consolidated, he is going to benefit. I don’t think at the moment he’s getting the service we would like to have him have. But it’s a temporary thing because players are getting better in their understanding of each other technically.
“The process is going in the right direction,” the Romanian mentor added.
