Iheanacho deserves respect for difficult Leicester City role, says Brendan Rodgers

[davieG]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/kelechi-iheanacho-deserves-respect-difficult-3141965

 

Kelechi Iheanacho deserves respect for the difficult role he plays at Leicester City, manager Brendan Rodgers has said.

The Nigerian striker ended his 10-month drought on Tuesday when he headed in the second goal of City’s 3-0 pre-season win over Cambridge.

Iheanacho had not scored since last September’s 3-1 home victory over Huddersfield and appeared to be suffering from a lack of confidence in front of goal.

With Jamie Vardy in form, Iheanacho was limited in his opportunities to end his dry patch and Rodgers has said that being a back-up striker is far from easy.

“What (Kelechi) has to do, and I’m sure he will, is take his training form into the games,” Rodgers said.

 
“He’s been absolutely top class in training over pre-season, he’s been amazing. When we were away in Evian and he played in the practice game, he scored four goals out of five. He was sensational.

“He needs to take that into games. That’s key for him and I’m sure he’ll do that.

“It’s difficult. You have to respect his position. He’s a support striker for one of the best strikers in the Premier League. It’s not easy.

“All he can do is continue to work and work well and when the opportunities come, he’s got to take them.

“Once they start to go in, he’ll gain more confidence from that.”

Iheanacho’s task could be even harder this season following the £30m signing of Ayoze Perez.

 
While Perez is likely to start on the wing, Rodgers classes the Spaniard as a forward and so he will be a rival to Iheanacho should Vardy be unavailable.

Perez twisted his ankle after scoring on his non-competitive debut against Scunthorpe, but is set to feature for City against Stoke today.

“Perez is a central striker that can play wide,” said Rodgers.

“The thing for me is that wherever he plays, he has the possibility to score. Against Scunthorpe, he played off the side but he could have had a hat-trick. He’s just that type of player.

“Jamie definitely plays. He’s top class.

“It’s important in other areas of the field in terms of getting goals, Perez will give us that and other players will contribute also.”

Iheanacho joins Demarai Gray and Harvey Barnes in the squad to face Rotherham on Saturday.

[Collymore]

I remember him doing well in last season's pre-season and then went on to have a semi decent start to the campaign. 

 

Scoring 4 goals in training is ok but the defenders aren't going to be tackling and as physical as they would be in the Prem. Saying that, someone's got to put them away so it's good that he's building a bit of confidence. 

[koop.]

dont do it

please god no 

[foxinsocks]

This is worrying.  Experience has shown nacho looks goid on training... and also that he is not a pl player

[Nick]

Well if he’s top class in training, it’ll be up to BR to bring that confidence back to first team appearances.

 

Good luck Nacho and Brendan - hope it works out for you both.

Edited 27 July 2019 by Nick

[Nick]

Bit sad that Barnes is in the Rotherham squad but it would appear that Albrighton is ahead of him and Hamza is given the Ndidi role in front of the back four at Stoke as well... interesting times.

[Guest MattP]

From those quotes it looks like Perez up front if Vardy gets injured. 

 

He might be trying to keep his confidence up but I don't think we'll be seeing too much of him this season thankfully.

[foxinsocks]

I think barnes...albrighton and ayoze are the wingers. ..any 2 to start.

What is the destiny of gray... ghezzel?

 

One of... Ndiddy pappy or hamza to make up mf with youri at front of diamond.   That gives us cover for injuries and to sub on

We need to send king & james on loan. Silva must be sold

Edited 27 July 2019 by foxinsocks

[Tielemans63]

3 minutes ago, MattP said:

From those quotes it looks like Perez up front if Vardy gets injured. 

 

He might be trying to keep his confidence up but I don't think we'll be seeing too much of him this season thankfully.

I thought the same. It's not exactly a glowing endorsement is it? It reads a bit like he won't be playing unless both Vards and Perez are injured and if he does get picked then he should try not to **** it up too much. 

 

When a manager talks about how decent a guy is in training, that's usually a good sign that he's nowhere near the first team. 

[Ginger_Filbert]

Clever bit of Man management from Rodgers here. Trying to boost Kels confidence whilst also trying to get the fans on his side and stop match day grumbles every time Kelechi is brought on. 

Never agreed with anything but a cheer when bringing players on. 

[VLC86]

I’m actually shocked that Brendan hasn’t come out and said he’s wank.

Edited 27 July 2019 by Costock_Fox

[Jimothy]

New season, new(ish) manager, hopefully new Iheanacho. It's a fresh start. I'm sure if he thought he was a complete waste of space, Rodgers would have shipped him out.

[foxy boxing]

Respect is earned not just given in the hope he might do something or become good. he has to show dedication and a commitment to want to work for himself and the team.

[Foxymcoxy]

He's never really been that bad in the sense of looking like a genuinely bad footballer. Confidence has been extremely low and decision making impacted accordingly. I definitely wouldn't be surprised to see him do well again at some point either with us or another top flight club.

[DerbyshireFox]

Definitely needs to start showing his potential but deserves more respect than being booed onto the pitch at his home ground. Hope he proves the doubters wrong 

[lgfualol]

Let's hope he can turn it around instead of calling him shit as much as possible and booing him.

[Stuntman_Mike]

BR trying to get the fans on side by saying all the right things in the HOPE that he improves. 

 

There's no way he wouldn't be sold if an offer come in, just no one is willing to do it and rightly so right now.

[norwichfox]

52 minutes ago, Ginger_Filbert said:

Clever bit of Man management from Rodgers here. Trying to boost Kels confidence whilst also trying to get the fans on his side and stop match day grumbles every time Kelechi is brought on. 

Never agreed with anything but a cheer when bringing players on. 

Quite right

[z-layrex]

16 minutes ago, DerbyshireFox said:

Definitely needs to start showing his potential but deserves more respect than being booed onto the pitch at his home ground. Hope he proves the doubters wrong 

Imagine booing a Leicester player as they come on the pitch. **** me.

[StriderHiryu]

Interesting to hear this. For me Nacho seems like one of the biggest examples of a confidence player I've ever seen. Even in the last friendly once he scored he looked completely revitalised and was very unfortunate not to score another.

 

I would suggest giving him the Barnes treatment. Loan him out to the Championship or Celtic / Rangers for 6 months or a season to find his form again and give him another try. He really is a bit of a mystery because for as crap as he has been, there are definitely elements to his game that are very good.

 

As it stands I have a feeling Nacho might end up being like Kramaric who ends up being pretty good, but at an older age and probably for a different club and maybe even different league. I reckon he would do well in France for example.

 

it is a bit of a longshot but I could still see him doing well for us, but he would need a streak of goals to boost his confidence. The best he has been for us was at the back end of Puel's first season where he was really good, including that stunner against Spurs. At the same time those just want him sold and replaced I can very much understand why!

[CosbehFox]

He deserves criticism because he’s not been very good but there needs to be a balance to it, he does have a difficult role. 

 

We wont find a buyer for him; so we’ve gotta give it a go with him 

[ozleicester]

Still believe he has quality, just yet to display it for us.

 

In BR we trust

[Foxxed]

Rodgers is defending him and trying to improve his confidence so we can get closer to the Iheanacho we thought we'd bought. Great work tbh

[Fox42]

41 minutes ago, z-layrex said:

Imagine booing a Leicester player as they come on the pitch. **** me.

This. I got proper angry when Ghezzal was greeted with boos when Maddison came off Man U home game last season.

[murphy]

47 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

Interesting to hear this. For me Nacho seems like one of the biggest examples of a confidence player I've ever seen. Even in the last friendly once he scored he looked completely revitalised and was very unfortunate not to score another.

 

I would suggest giving him the Barnes treatment. Loan him out to the Championship or Celtic / Rangers for 6 months or a season to find his form again and give him another try. He really is a bit of a mystery because for as crap as he has been, there are definitely elements to his game that are very good.

 

As it stands I have a feeling Nacho might end up being like Kramaric who ends up being pretty good, but at an older age and probably for a different club and maybe even different league. I reckon he would do well in France for example.

 

it is a bit of a longshot but I could still see him doing well for us, but he would need a streak of goals to boost his confidence. The best he has been for us was at the back end of Puel's first season where he was really good, including that stunner against Spurs. At the same time those just want him sold and replaced I can very much understand why!

 

Genuine question, what are the elements of his game that you think are very good?