It's been quite the summer for Nathan Collins. First he cements his place in the Ireland eleven before channeling his inner Diego Maradona on his way to scoring a super solo goal against Ukraine.
Then, he gets his big move to Wolves and instantly becomes one of the first names on the team sheet, ousting captain Conor Coady from the club in the process. And now, the former Burnley star is earning favourable comparisons to Virgil Van Dijk after his performance against Fulham yesterday.
The 21-year old managed to shackle Fulham's Alexander Mitrovic yesterday, with the Serbian striker anonymous for 90 minutes. This is the same Mitrovic that just a week ago scored two goals and made Van Dijk give away a penalty against Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side.
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Collins' performance yesterday was near flawless, and he's got the stats to back it up. Two interceptions, every tackle won and 93% pass completion rate tells the entire story.
For the duration of the game, Collins made Mitrovic look ordinary. This is a far cry from a week ago, when the man who scored 43 goals in 44 Championship games last season looked like a superstar against a man widely regarded as one of if not the best centre half on the planet.
As seen in the above tweet, the Serbian striker was awarded a 9.4/10 match rating for his performance against Liverpool on the opening weekend of the season. In contrast, Mitrovic received just 5.7/10 for his showing against a Collins led Wolves defence.
Many fans were extremely impressed with how Collins managed to subdue the prolific striker.
Kav quote tweeted the above picture showing Mitrovic's ratings saying, "Mitrovic vs 'worlds best' Van Dijk & Mitrovic vs Nathan Collins."
Cal posted on Twitter, "Mad how Mitrovic used to slap Coady about for 90 minutes, but today he didn’t get a sniff against Collins and Kilman."
Another Wolves fan said, "Dealt with Mitrovic consummately. Kilman was a class above and Collins looked totally at home. Seriously good partnership in the making with all the necessary attributes."
While Siobhán wrote, "Loving the Max Kilman and Nathan Collins partnership so far. Mitrovic didn't bully us like usual."
Collins will be hoping his strong start to life at Wolves continues. So to will Stephen Kenny, with Republic of Ireland's Nations League matches against Armenia and Scotland coming up in September.
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