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Cape Town - Former Nigeria goalkeeper Joe Erico believes Manchester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho has the potential to be a star for the Super Eagles.
Iheanacho joined City in 2014 as an 18-year-old and has quickly advanced through the ranks at the club. He has already played in 17 Premier League games for the Citizens, albeit only three as a starter, and has contributed 10 goals in all competitions.
He scored the equaliser in the eventual 2-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur over the weekend and Erico is very excited about the future of the young forward.
"Iheanacho is currently in blistering form for his club and he can replicate same for the Eagles. The main issue with the team is that they lack a player who can create the chances for the strikers to score from," he told Punch.
"Ighalo is doing well for his club because of the service of his club's midfielders and also that of his strike partner.
"That is not the same with the Eagles. As we saw at the last CHAN and some of his other matches, (Sunday) Oliseh is making use of the wings mostly but a good defender will stop your wingers and neutralise them. When you have a creative player in the midfield, the team can switch from wing play to another pattern when that fails.
"Oliseh should deploy Iheanacho in the central midfield role and allow the duo of Mikel and any other defensive midfielder back him up.
"Iheanacho was a central midfielder in his U-17 days and he has a lot of skills to fit into the role. It will be a waste to deploy him in another role apart from the central midfield."
