Once the Premier League’s most lethal striker who cost £25m, what’s gone wrong for Leicester striker Kelechi Iheanacho?
The 21-year-old has been limited to just two Premier League starts and has fallen dramatically down the pecking order
WHEN Kelechi Iheanacho scored what proved to be the winner in the first Manchester derby of last season it was hard to imagine the striker rooted to Leicester’s bench little more than 12 months later.
The Nigerian was one of the first beneficiaries of Pep Guardiola’s coronation at Manchester City and rewarded the Catalan coach with a decisive strike against rivals United at Old Trafford.
Iheanacho finished the 2016/17 campaign with seven strikes in all competitions, but was afforded a grand total of just nine starts.
That is understandable given Guardiola had Sergio Aguero and, later, Gabriel Jesus at his disposal. But Iheanacho knew his opportunities would be limited joined Leicester City in the summer for £25m.
It seemed like a good move but the 21-year-old’s issues remain. Our friends at Football Whispers ask what has gone wrong for the prodigious striker.
As Iheanacho’s star waned last season, Leicester caretaker boss Craig Shakespeare saw his rise.
Appointed as Claudio Ranieri's short-term successor in February, his impact on the Foxes players was immediate and profound.
Given the job on a full-time basis in the summer, Ranieri's former No.2 quickly set about bolstering the Foxes squad to avoid a repeat of the previous season.
On August 3, eight days before the new Premier League campaign started, a deal for Iheanacho was agreed.
Leicester’s reliance on Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki was well known and the high-profile captures of Ahmed Musa and Islam Slimani the previous summer had not worked out.
But Iheanacho was different. He was young, knew the Premier League and had proven he could score goals – bagging 14 in Manuel Pellegrini’s final season at City.
Yet, as with most new big-money signings, he had to bide his time. Vardy was, rightly, top dog at the King Power and on the opening weekend it was the England star, alongside the tireless Okazaki, given the nod up front.
Iheanacho was afforded just eight minutes from the bench as the Foxes blew a 3-2 lead to lose 4-3 at Arsenal.
That galling defeat set the tone for the rest of Shakespeare’s reign. City won just one of their first eight top-flight fixtures and he was put out of his misery following a 1-1 draw with West Brom.
And Iheanacho’s fortunes mirrored that of the team. With the Foxes faltering, Shakespeare did not feel the time was right to hand his big summer signing a start until September 16.
On that occasion Leicester drew 1-1 with newly-promoted Huddersfield. Iheanacho clearly did not do enough earn consecutive starts.
He had to wait until another month before getting the nod in the game which sealed Shakespeare’s fate at the Hawthorns.
A change of manager often presents a player out in the cold a second chance. Iheanacho would have been hoping that proved to be the case when ex-Southampton boss Claude Puel was appointed.
But the Frenchman, like Shakespeare and Ranieri before him, instead recalled Okazaki to the side.
The Japan international is not the easiest on the eye but his importance to Leicester cannot be understated and his relationship with Vardy was integral to the club’s unforgettable title win.
And in the same way that Shakespeare was reluctant to thrust Iheanacho into a struggling side, Puel has so far resisted the temptation to bring the Nigerian into a team which had been unbeaten under him until Saturday’s 3-0 loss against Crystal Palace.
Another factor has been Puel’s switch from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1, enabling former Arsenal transfer target Riyad Mahrez to play in the same attack as Demarai Gray and Marc Albrighton.
But all is not lost. With the Foxes playing four times in nine days between December 23 and New Year’s Day, Iheanacho should get a chance during the packed Christmas schedule.
“He is a good player but he improves and he finds his place in the squad,” said Puel.
“We have a lot of players in this position. It is good competition between them, perhaps a little more because for one or two positions we have six possibilities.
“We have Iheanacho, Islam Slimani, Ahmed Musa, Shinji Okazaki, Leo Ulloa and Jamie Vardy; it is a lot of players but I hope we can give them good game time for the future because we play every three days.”
If Christmas is the time for giving then Iheanacho must hope his manager makes good on that promise.