You need to work harder, Ezeugo tells Iheanacho

Former Super Eagles’ midfielder, Emeka Ezeugo, has described Manchester City striker, Kelechi Iheanacho, who was included in the reserve team of the Confederation of African Federation (CAF) best 11 for 2016, as an underperformer for the English club.

Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi were the only Nigerians to make the bench of the CAF Africa XI in the African Footballer of the Year award ceremony won by Algeria’s and Leicester City midfielder, Riyad Mahrez.

But Ezeugo described Iheanacho as a flop, who did not seize the opportunity of Sergio Aguero’s absence due to injury and suspension, to become a first team player at Manchester City.

“Iheanacho in my estimation did not do well for his club in the year under review. I do not know why Nigerians cannot see that. The boy had the greatest opportunity ever when Aguero’s almost four months injury sidelined him, but he never took it.

“Iheanacho started a lot of games and he underperformed in my assessment. If he had done well, the moment Aguero came back, he should have been the one partnering him. He would not have dropped to the bench again,” he said.

Ezeugo said the young striker needs to be told the truth for him to fight to realise his true potential, which will be good for him and Nigeria.

“At times I wonder why people watch soccer with emotion. If we were to help the young man improve on his game, we have to tell him the truth. We must remove emotion completely… our people are not getting it that the guy is not doing well.

“Frankly speaking, nobody is giving Iheanacho the right advice. If he was doing well, he should be Aguero’s partner by now. Goal scoring is an act, if you are not well schooled in it, you will not understand it that. Somebody should please advise him on that,” he said.