Leicester City of England striker, Kelechi Iheanacho has found words of encouragement and sympathy coming his way from his coach, Brendan Rodgers, who urged the Super Eagles’ star to take heart after missing a penalty at Selhurst Park, megasportsarena.com reports.
Rather than scold Iheanacho for failing to convert the spot kick that could have given The Foxes victory away to Crystal Palace on Monday in the English Premier League, Rodgers urged the former Manchester City lad to bounce back stronger.
Though Rodgers noted that Iheanacho seemed to lose confidence at the wrong moment, as the Nigerian star hesitated while going for the spot kick, the gaffer stressed that his player showed immense ability from similar positions during training before the game.
Iheanacho, who is yet to score in the EPL so far this season, wasted the opportunity of breaking his duck when The Foxes were awarded a first half penalty, but Wilfred Zaha’s opening goal for the hosts was canceled by a late Harvey Barnes equalizer to eke out an away draw for Leicester.
While Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi was dressed for Monday’s game, Iheanacho, who has made eight league appearances for The Foxes this season but is yet to open his goals account, featured for 72nd minutes before he was replaced by Demarai Gray.
However, seeing his kick stopped by Palace’s goalkeeper, Vicente Guaita would also remind Iheanacho of how he also missed from the spot during the Super Eagles’ 1-1 draw with Tunisia in an international friendly back in October.
It also means that Iheanacho has not scored in the English top-flight since getting one in Leicester’s 3-0 rout of the same opponent in July, but Rodgers declared that he had nothing against the Nigerian lad taking the kick, since he scored all his penalties during training.
Rodgers told the BBC Sport: “If you get the goal from the penalty it gives you a foothold in the game, but we had good control and then we didn’t start the second half at all well. [Iheanacho] practised and hit five out of five, so he was confident; but it is just one of those things.”
