Villarreal of Spain coach, Unai Emery is basking in delight over the return to top form by the Spanish LaLiga club’s Nigerian winger, Samuel Chukwueze, who emerged man of the mach in last weekend’s fixture, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although Chukwueze failed to lift The Yellow Submarine to victory, Emery is showering accolades on the Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup third highest goals scorer and gold medalist, who he admitted has brought the verve back to the team.
Chukwueze has contributed a goal and three assists for Villarreal in the Spanish top-flight so far this season and, though the youngster could not net in his side’s 2-0 loss to visiting table-toppers Atlético Madrid at Estadio de la Cerámica on Sunday, Emery hailed the lad’s performance.
Chukwueze made his first LaLiga start of 2021 in the encounter and was named King of the Match ahead of Atlético’s Luis Suárez, Thomas Lemar, Saúl ñíguez and João Félix, as his runs down the right side of attack, with pace and trickery kept the visitors’ defence on their feet.
This is despite the fact that Chukwueze earlier missed eight matches of The Yellow Submarine in all competitions due to a groin injury that required surgery but he appears to have overcome that blight and his performance in 90 minutes against Los Colchoneros left Emery reeling in delight.
Emery conceded: “We saw Samu’s return after two months without him and after solving some problems that prevented him from being comfortable on the field. He has given us certain things and we need players to widen the field for us, to be able to find the right one on one.
“We have been in games depending a lot on the full-backs and, moreover, without Peña and without Mario. So, we looked for alternatives of a control game, but we lacked certain things to be a little more complete. With Samu, we have found many positive things.”
