Kelechi Iheanacho has had one of the seasons in a Leicester City shirt he will hurriedly forget as he got limited game time under coach Enzo Maresca and did not produce to his otherwise high standards.
Kelechi Iheanacho na crazy guy. His job is to score the crucial goals in the tournament and celebrate like a clown. Soft work. 🤣🤣🤣🤣#NGARSA #AFCON2023 pic.twitter.com/4TZkoXzkH7
— Yoruba warrior, Yoruba Ronu Advocate (@raymond93292700) February 7, 2024
In the season under review, Iheanacho played as a striker, but the likes of Jamie Vardy and Patson Daka were often considered ahead of him as ‘The Foxes’ made it back to the Premier League.
Iheanacho found it hard to find the back of the net, netting a meagre six goals (two penalties included) all of last season and assisting three goals across 23 appearances (mostly cameo) and 1,170 minutes.
The Imo-born forward had an average of 0.49 Championship goals per 90 minutes and an equally poor 0.1 assists per 90 minutes, including and XG(Expected goals of 0.49 per 90 minutes.
In terms of attempts on goal, Iheanacho took 23 shots on goal, 12 of which were on target, with the other 11 off target, averaging a shot per goal scored of 4.90 and a poor shot conversion rate of 21.74%.
With regards to goals creation and assists making, Iheanacho made just one Championship assist, made 299 out of 359 accurate passes, with a good pass completion rate of 85.67 despite his key passes being only 16 throughout the season.
Iheanacho had no successful cross in the Championship last season, with the two he attempted being poor and unable to reach its target.
He was also dispossessed 27 times in the 2023/2024 season.
‘Senior Man’ was named in the Super Eagles squad for the delayed AFCON in January, but was largely an unused substitute after he recovered in time from a muscle injury amid rumours of a major falling out with coach Jose Peseiro.
However, Iheanacho finally started getting little game time towards the conclusion of the tournament, playing 18 minutes in the semifinal against South Africa and 11 minutes in the final, netting only one penalty shootout goal in the process.
Iheanacho’s form in 2023/2024 was nothing to write home about, but several clubs are hot on his heels as he will soon be a free agent and as they often say, form is temporal and class is permanent
