Manchester United of England striker, Odion Jude Ighalo has received a strong prediction that he will hit home many goals with The Red Devils, as one of his teammates, Juan Mata believes the Nigerian star has enough experience to stand out within a short while with the club, megasportsarena.com reports.
Mata noted that Ighalo did not have any form of pre-season training with The Red Devils, nor could he join them on their mid-term warm weather camp in Spain, few days after arriving on loan from Shanghai Shenhua of China, but the Spanish midfielder said he is sure the former Super Eagles’ striker will make his mark with goals for the Old Trafford club.
The former Chelsea star added that United’s transfer deadline day loan signing from Shenhua is a player with good character and great attitude, which Mata hinted makes him back the new arrival to rain goals in the coming days, especially as he has previous experience of playing in the English Premier League with Watford, where he spent a season and a half.
Ighalo first starred for an earlier season with Watford in the English Championship, from where his goals helped The Hornets into the top-flight, with promotion sealed after his spent his first term with the Vicarage Road side, such that Mata is expecting much from the Ajegunle-born lad, who is in contention to play his second game this week in Thursday’s Europa League round of 32 tie against Club Brugge of Belgium.
Before starring as a late substitute in Sunday’s 3-0 win against his former club at Old Trafford, Ighalo had earlier also played cameo roles for United versus Cheslea in the EPL as well as away to Brtugge in the first leg of their Europa League fixture, such that Mata is amazed to see his new teammate hit the ground running.
This is despite the fact that Ighalo had some inactivity for more than two months, as he had not played any competitive match since helping Nigeria win the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations’ bronze medal, emerging top scorer with five goals in the process, such that Mata is amazed seeing him make three promising appearances off United’s bench in consecutive matches.
Mata expatiated: “Odion has experience of playing in the Premier League and hopefully he will score many goals for us from now until the end of the season. As the manager said, he’s a good character as well and he’s got a good personality which has fitted straight in the dressing room.
“The better he does, then the better for us – and I wish him all the best. It takes time for a player to settle and we shouldn’t expect any miracles from anyone, but I’m sure that with the right mindset and the right qualities like Bruno and Odion have they will be a big help for us.
“Sometimes you have seen players arrive in January and they have been a great success for the clubs they’ve signed for, maybe even sometimes better than when players have arrived in the summer. So, I don’t think it has a lot of impact in the long term. Maybe in the short term it’s not the easiest but in the long term it’s irrelevant.”
