Steve Corica says the renaissance of Elvis Kamsoba hasn't taken anyone at Sydney FC by surprise and has backed the diminutive forward to continue his goalscoring form.
The Sky Blues play their first A-League Men game since a Boxing Day win over Macarthur when they take on the Brisbane Roar on Saturday.
The sides met on Wednesday when a Kamsoba goal proved the difference to Sydney beating Brisbane in an FFA Cup quarter final.
Kamsoba, who only found the net five times with Melbourne Victory last year, has proved crucial to the Sky Blues' upturn in form given Bobo and Adam Le Fondre have battled injuries to start the season.
Already, the Burundi international has four goals to his name and there is every chance he could surpass last year's return in Saturday's game at Kogarah Oval.
"He hasn't surprised us," Corica said.
"I think he's surprised a few people because there was a bit of doubt about him from fans and the media.
"We knew what we could get out of him. He scored five goals for Melbourne Victory last year who were a struggling team.
"This year he has confidence and he's scored four goals already for us in the cup and the league and we want him to score more.
"He's a lively player, he's exciting to watch, he's a good guy and the boys love him."
Sydney were one of the first A-League Men clubs to be hit by a wave of COVID-19 and it came just after wins over Wellington and Macarthur had breathed life into their campaign.
Corica's men now face the prospect of playing four league games along with an FFA Cup semi-final and a potential final in the next 16 days.
But if they were able to take a positive out of the break it is that their squad has had time to recover from injuries and COVID-19.
Mid-season signing Mustafa Amini will come into calculations for Saturday's game, while Michael Zullo is back in full training from repeated calf complaints.
"We probably had six or seven players come back (from COVID-19) just before the Brisbane game," Corica added.
"We have to make sure they're medically ready. It wasn't our best performance, but they should be starting to improve.
"We just need to get him (Zullo) some match minutes because he hasn't played in two years."
