{"id":15241,"date":"2019-02-11T12:58:41","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T12:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=15241"},"modified":"2019-02-11T12:58:41","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T12:58:41","slug":"club-troubles-for-iheanacho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=15241","title":{"rendered":"Club troubles for Iheanacho"},"content":{"rendered":"

Claude Puel shuffled his pack for Leicester City\u2019s away clash with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, offering to send out something of a new-look Foxes XI imbued with youth.
\nThe selection was surely a response to the East Midlanders\u2019 miserable recent run, in which they\u2019d taken just one point from their last four Premier League bouts.
\nPuel opted to bench talisman Jamie Vardy, while captain Wes Morgan was also among the substitutes.
\nDanny Simpson, another of the title-winning team of 2016, was also on the bench and, with Marc Albrighton out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury, Kasper Schmeichel was the only survivor of that great team to start against Spurs.
\nMidfield anchorman Wilfred Ndidi was originally among the substitutes, but with Nampalys Mendy injured during the warm-up, was promoted to the first team.
\nKelechi Iheanacho was the other beneficiary of the Franco-Senegalese midfielder\u2019s injury, taking Ndidi\u2019s spot on the bench when his compatriot was promoted to the first team.
\nIt was a bold and exciting team selection by Puel\u2014if risky.
\nStarlets Harvey Barnes and James Maddison were given key roles in midfield alongside new man Youri Tielemans\u2014a January recruit from AS Monaco.
\nRachid Ghezzal, another Monaco old boy, was given only his seventh start of the season, with Demarai Gray completing the attacking unit.
\nThe decision\u2014to play the winger as something of a false nine\u2014was an ambitious step by the French coach, and it didn\u2019t truly come off.
\nWhile Vardy came off the bench to miss a penalty and then net his eighth goal of the season, Gray has only three goals all term.
\nIt already equals his best ever tally in the Prem, and while a talented wideman, the former Birmingham City man has never been a major threat in front of goal.
\n“I would like to develop other options than Jamie,” Puel explained to Sky Sports. “We need other responses, not to give all the time and pressure on Jamie.
\n\u201cI think Demarai had good attributes to play in this position and can is comfortable with the ball,\u201d he added. “It would be a good opportunity for him and for us.”
\nEven though Puel opted to place his faith in youth, and even though he opted to make the bold move to axe Vardy, it was telling that he plumped for Gray rather than Iheanacho.
\nThe Nigeria international\u2019s miserable campaign with the Foxes perhaps reached a nadir on Sunday.
\nNot only was he overlooked for Gray, but he originally didn\u2019t even make the matchday squad\u2026only reprieved by Mendy\u2019s injury.
\nThe forward did get onto the pitch, with 18 minutes to play and Leicester trailing 2-0, but he was unable to influence proceedings.
\nThe visitors did pull one back\u2014through Vardy\u2014but Son Heung-Min\u2019s late winner secured a 3-1 triumph for Spurs.
\nIheanacho was largely ineffective, making just 15 touches\u2014incidentally, only six fewer than Gray\u2014and taking one shot, which failed to trouble Hugo Lloris.
\nHe took his tally to 16 league games without a goal. 20 goalless games for Leicester City, and 21 overall if we include a barren 69-minute showing in Nigeria\u2019s 1-1 draw away at South Africa in November.
\nIt\u2019s the worst run of the 22-year-old\u2019s career, and his failings this term come in stark contrast to his early successes at Manchester City.
\nWhile Iheanacho averaged one goal per 94 minutes during his maiden season in England, he\u2019s scored just once in 871 league minutes this term.
\nFar from finding his feet at the King Power Stadium after being deemed surplus to requirements by Pep Guardiola, Iheanacho is slipping further and further from view.
\nThe timing couldn’t be worse.
\nPerhaps the West African will have optimistically expected that as Vardy\u2019s reign as the Foxes\u2019 leading man began to come to an end, he would have grown in prominence.
\nCertainly, the former England international\u2019s time as an untouchable with Leicester has come to an end, with Puel forced to defend his relationship with Vardy ahead of the Spurs game.
\n“I have a good relationship with him,” the Frenchman began, as per Football London. “We know Jamie and after he has lost, he is never happy and that is normal for a player.”
\nYet rumours of tension between the two men\u2014and of Vardy\u2019s discontent at the club\u2019s changing style\u2014suggest that the former Fleetwood Town man might not be with Leicester for too much longer.
\nHowever, as Vardy\u2019s prominence dims, Iheanacho is looking less likely than ever to be the man to replace him.
\nPuel has revealed that a new striker could be at the top of his summer shopping list\u2014if he remains at the club\u2014with Iheanacho no longer being considered as the future of the club\u2019s strikeforce.
\nWith even Gray now stepping ahead of him in Puel\u2019s pecking order, Iheanacho appears to have no place in the Frenchman\u2019s new-look Foxes.
\nThe writing\u2014now surely more than ever\u2014is on the wall for the Super Eagle.
\nBy GOAL.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claude Puel shuffled his pack for Leicester City\u2019s away clash with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, offering to send out something of a new-look Foxes XI imbued with youth. The selection was surely a response to the East Midlanders\u2019 miserable recent run, in which they\u2019d taken just one point from their last four Premier League bouts. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5778],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}