The Manchester City man played a blinder against Crystal Palace, practically forcing his way into Super Eagles contention. What took the coach so long to come around?
Nigerians in every clime, both within and outside her borders, got their wish on Thursday. Sunday Oliseh’s 23-man Nigeria squad for the two-legged World Cup qualifier against Swaziland had just begun to elicit grumbles when a one-man addendum was introduced.
Kelechi Iheanacho has finally warmed his way into Oliseh’s heart. As the Twitter handle of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) revealed, this volte face was precipitated by the Super Eagles gaffer’s decision to review the 19-year-old’s performance in the league cup tie on Wednesday against Crystal Palace.
The precocious youngster did not exactly put in a virtuoso display, but his contributions were decisive and elegant. First, he ran in behind the Eagles defence, before squaring the ball across the six-yard area for Kevin de Bruyne to tap in.
Having set up his team-mate, he helped himself to a second senior Manchester City goal, collecting a cut-back with consummate ease and firing low and hard into the corner. He then proceeded to put a final exclamation point on the result, playing an angled through-ball for youngster Manu Garcia to finish.
This was all it took for Oliseh to have an experience akin to Damascus-bound Paul, Iheanacho gleaming like the noonday sun, each stroke of genius a bemused query as to why the rules seem to be bent for everyone else but himself. Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi, whose first-team prospects have improved greatly following a debilitating injury crisis such as only Arsenal can manage, made his debut on the same night in rather more humble circumstances.

Boasting only middling grades as it were, he rode the very first bus home, while Kelechi sat on the curb like a forlorn kid, almost an afterthought, his straight-As result sheet clutched in hand.
Iheanacho in the Premier League so far this season

Having been so insistent up until now about leaving out the Manchester City man, and that for nebulous reasons, it is amusing in the utmost that all Oliseh required was one Man of the Match display in England’s lowest-rated cup competition to turn his head. It might come across as cynical somewhat, but it almost seems the Super Eagles head coach was looking to justify his previous reticence by feverishly pointing at Calling him up the first time around (bear in mind the list was handed in before Oliseh got a chance to see Iheanacho dazzle) would have been a tacit admission of the arbitrary criteria of his selection, having kept the door shut until now. Iheanacho essentially gave him an excuse to belatedly extend an invite and redress an earlier error.

A long-overdue call-up will now be looked upon as an act of benevolent concession, when rather this is a player who is, for all intents and purposes, one of the very best youngsters in world football. Granting that he was decisive against Palace, the performance was not a bolt out of the blue, neither did it come as a shock to even the most cursory follower of Nigerian football. We already knew Iheanacho is that good. He did not attain a new level of transcendence in order to vanquish Alan Pardew’s Eagles; he played to his level, at best. So really, what new information did Oliseh glean from the performance, which was not already apparent? If the coach really needed that game to affirm what an entire nation has known for a year, what does that say about his grasp of Nigerian football’s present situation?

In truth, there were enough caveats against Crystal Palace to indicate Iheanacho might not seamlessly take to international football. His ball control was somewhat lax on the night, and is something he must improve within a high-tempo set-up, and also when faced with heavy pressure.
His work against the ball is also a work in progress, not so much from a lack of endeavour as a recently budding sense of intelligent defensive positioning in the final third. Infamously bipolar, Nigeria fans must acknowledge these imperfections and afford him the leeway to make mistakes. If he still manages to decide games with these foibles, there will be very few gripes, in all honesty.

The Crown Prince of Nigerian football, now in from exile, begins his coronation march to the throne of his predecessors.
source : http://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/4082/editorial/2015/10/30/16815772/belated-iheanacho-call-shows-oliseh-is-out-of-touch
cc: lalasticala

k

one minute he is called. the other he isn't.
which are we to believe.