Leicester City of England attacker, Kelechi Iheanacho has received a fresh round of accolades from his club’s coach, Brendan Rodgers, as the Irish gaffer said he was impressed with the Super Eagles’ star’s performance in Monday’s victory against Aston Villa, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although Iheanacho had to be replaced early in the second half of the encounter at King Power Stadium, Rodgers declared that the former Columbus Crew of America and Manchester City of England forward had done enough already before bowing out.
He added that taking Iheanacho off for Jamie Vardy, who went on to score twice in the second half, was a tactical step that paid off, as the Nigerian had done a lot to wear out the opponents and The Foxes’ top scorer only got off the bench to finish the job that had been set in motion.
The gaffer was all smiles, as Leicester enhanced their chances of finishing among the top four teams in the English Premier League by thrashing Villa 4-0, as Vardy ended his nine-game goal drought in all competitions by netting a brace and Harvey Barnes also hit home two goals.
Iheanacho was back in the starting 11, alongside fellow-Nigerian star, Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi and, before he was replaced by Vardy on the hour mark, the UAE 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup gold medalist and most valuable player had three clear chances to increase his tally for the season.
Although Iheanacho has not scored for Leicester since netting against the same opponent in the Carabao Cup semi-finals second leg on January 28 and again failed to make his opportunities count on Monday, which left him obviously frustrated when he left the pitch, Rodgers insisted the lad worked hard and put in a lot of effort to run down Villa’s defenders before bowing out.
Rodgers told BBC Sport: “Kelechi has done great for us; he worked very, very hard. Then Jamie coming on for the final half hour, his speed and threat he has. He’s obviously struggled a little bit since mid-December with injuries and of course that has curtailed the team a little bit.”
