Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena says it will take time for new signing Marcelo Allende to fully adapt to the club.
The 23-year-old Chilean midfielder opened his account for the Brazilians in the 3-0 DStv Premiership win over Stellenbosch on Wednesday.
Neo Maema had opened the scoring at Loftus Versfeld on just two minutes. Peter Shalulile added a second on 41 minutes and Allende rounded off the scoring with his goal on 76 minutes of his Sundowns debut.
Reflecting on his side’s new signing, Mokwena said on KickOff: “Allende of course we are excited and it’s the same thing with [Abubeker] Nassir.
“But as I said with Nassir, Allende is a 23-year-old South American who comes from a different environment, style of play and league so again I plead for a lot of patience, and time.
“He needs to get to the culture of the club, the expectations, the way we do things here, we do things a little bit differently from how things were done for him in Chile.
“He has great potential but needs time for adaptation, he needs time to adapt to the culture, to the way of working.
“The food is different, the way we speak is different, the game here is different, so we need to be patient with the players.”