Kelechi Iheanacho Leicester City
Kelechi Iheanacho is doing exactly what Leicester City have asked him to do as he pushes for a Premier League starting spot, assistant manager Chris Davies has said. The City striker produced a thunderbolt at Millwall to wrap up a 2-0 Carabao Cup third-round win on Wednesday night, having played a part in the opening goal with his shot rebounding for Ademola Lookman to finish. It was Iheanacho’s second start of the season, following last week’s 2-2 draw with Napoli, but he is still waiting to earn a place in the Premier League 11 this campaign, despite finishing as top scorer last season after his stunning run of form over the final few months. Davies knows Iheanacho is having to be patient and admits the Nigerian’s performance was everything the staff wanted.
Chris Davies said: “It was an excellent goal. You could say he set up the first goal in terms of having the shot parried, and then the second goal was a great individual strike. In general, his play, he was always available for the forward passes in the game and securing the ball and setting up the play was really good. It was a good all-around performance and obviously a goalscoring performance, which for a striker is everything. I’m really pleased for him. He’s had to be patient at times this season but he knows he’s a really important player for us. We’ve got a really competitive squad, so you’re always trying to pick a balanced team and a competitive team, but the main thing for Kele is that he’s in good form, he’s obviously scored tonight which is great for his confidence. We’re in a lot of competitions so there’s going to be a lot of opportunities for everyone to play. But Kele was an important player for us last season and there’s no doubt he will be an important player for us this season as well. All he can do is do what he did tonight and when he gets an opportunity, perform as well as he can. That’s what we ask all of them to do.”
City will play Brighton at home in the next round of the competition and will therefore be favourites to reach the last eight. That would then be a fourth quarter-final for City since Rodgers took charge.
Chris Davies added: “From our point of view, we want to do well in every competition we’re in. Last year was a wonderful year for us in terms of the FA Cup. This is another competition we think we can do well in, but our mantra since we came is always the next game, approaching that as well as we can and performing in that as well as we can. You need a little bit of luck along the way in terms of the draw as well but that would be something that would be great. We’ll take the next challenge when it comes.”
