Leicester City defeated Southampton 1-4 at St Mary’s in the English Premier League on Wednesday and two of Nigeria’s 2018 World Cup hopefuls Ahmed Musa and Kelechi Iheanacho were missing on the team list altogether.
The aforementioned scenario has occurred too many times this season; in fact Musa on his part has failed to start a single league match this season while Iheanacho has only been deemed good enough for the less prestigious Carabao Cup.
This development is coming ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup which many are expecting Nigeria to put up a good showing after an impressive qualifying round, with both Musa and Iheanacho being vital members of the Super Eagles team, concerns have been raised.
The issue has generated debates among numerous football lovers and analysts across Nigeria with some arguing that the two Nigerians have to get clubs in January in order to remain competitive before the Russia Mundial in June 2018.
Former Eagles defender George Abbey was the first to respond to SHOTS inquisition, saying that the duo need to get out of Leicester as soon as possible in order to maintain sharpness.
Adding that training alone without playing actual matches doesn’t equate to being optimally sharp and ready for massive competitions like the World Cup.
“In my opinion, for the interest of our National team The Leicester guys (Musa, Iheanacho) need to go out on loan to get games & match sharpness. You can’t replicate match sharpness by just training & reserve games. The intensity is not the same. The question is will Leicester sanction this? The players will have to push.”
Former Nigeria U20 player Emmanuel Bello told SHOTS that it will benefit the players if they can either go out on loan or get permanent deals in January because continuing as it is will definitely not help their careers or the senior national team.
“The case of Musa and Iheanacho is quite unfortunate considering the fact that they are both quality players and deserve better situations. In my opinion the best thing is for both of them to start thinking of leaving in January so as to save their careers and Nigeria’s world cup dream.”
He added that Musa’s situation is especially troubling because he’s not involved even in the Cup matches at a time he needed to show new manager Claude Puel what he could do for the team.
“When Shakespeare (Craig) was sacked and Puel came in, we all thought Musa and Iheanacho will get good deals considering the Frenchman is more attacking minded compared to his predecessor but unfortunately their situation seem to have worsen under Puel which is sad.” He concluded.
On his part, football analyst and publisher of wolexis.com Wole Odeyemi believes lack of confidence might be a major problem affecting both players which might inhibit their ability to show the Leicester manager how good they are in training in order to give him selection headaches.
“Lack of games breeds lack of confidence and for any player who doesn’t get games at all, it shows in training because in most situations you don’t play your normal game, you either overdo things to impress the manager or you are on the verge of giving up, that is why most European clubs have psychologists to handle these issues.” Odeyemi noted.
The analyst added that the affected players can stay at Leicester, continue fighting till the end of the season because transfers in January are sometimes complicated.
“Transfers or loan deals in January are not always the best as history as shown with a lot of players, so I suggest they continue fighting for their chance at Leicester till the end of the season and from there think of their next moves.” He concluded.
Super Eagles number one fan (as he calls himself) Frank Samuel thinks Nigeria world cup dream stands to be negatively affected if the issue is not resolved as soon as possible.
“It pains me a lot, their situation that is, whenever Leicester City are playing, the first thing I do is to check the team list to see if they are there and I get disappointed. Let them get other clubs and leave there for their sake and Super Eagles’.” Samuel urged.
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