|
Seven goals in eight games for Odion Ighalo. Three goals in eight games for Ahmed Musa, including two assists. These are nowhere quite near being Mohamed Salah-esque numbers, but they make for consoling reading for anxious Super Eagles fans wondering where their goals will come from when they get to the World Cup in Russia this summer. Gernot Rohr's team have struggled to find the net in recent games. Line-leader Ighalo blew hot during his early days in England, and he netted just once in 18 games during his final season at Watford before moving to Changchun Yatai. To his credit however, his first season in China was almost a replication of those early days in England as he hit 15 goals in 27 games. That rich yield placed him right back into national team reckoning after a spell in the wilderness, and he did not disappoint, scoring the opening goal in a 4-0 rout of Cameroon. However, that was to be his only goal of the entire campaign, leading naturally to questions about his expected production at the World Cup. Musa's story is somewhat more depressing than Ighalo's. Deployed as a winger with Nigeria, Musa is currently behind Victor Moses, Moses Simon and Alex Iwobi in the pecking order.  Two major reasons account for that; his previous lack of playing time at Leicester City, and his imprecise crossing. Since returning to CSKA Moscow on loan in January, Musa has resolved the first issue. Those eight appearances are more than the grand total of zero he made for Leicester the entire first half of the season. He'd made only 21 appearances for Leicester the season before, out of which just seven were starts for a total of 753 minutes. His eight appearances for CSKA - all starts - have yielded 682 minutes, almost the total he made for the Foxes in one and half seasons. More importantly, he appears to be genuinely enjoying his football again. To eliminate the crossing issue, CSKA play him through the middle, as a centre forward rather than a wide forward or winger. Rohr appears to have taken inspiration from that tactical move, experimenting with Musa in the same position in last month's friendly against Serbia.  The tweak did not quite pay off as the Super Eagles fell 2-0, but it was a day when the German tried out a few other things, and with a marked shortage of first-choice personnel, it was clearly too early to dismiss his experiment. Musa hardly received the sort of supply suited for his skillset: early balls in behind the defence for him to exploit his pace and finish, and it remains to be seen whether Rohr will assess this option again ahead of the World Cup. The tweak may not have succeeded, but it offered an insight into the workings of Rohr's mind heading into Russia, and which roles Musa could potentially play in the squad. The fact he's scoring goals in Russia - three and two assists in his last four - certainly helps his case. At the World Cup, chances do not exactly come in droves, and the ability to take the few that present themselves could be the difference between progress and an early flight home. In general, Rohr's team spread the goals around pretty well. Captain John Obi Mikel, Victor Moses, Kelechi Iheanacho, Moses Simon and Alex Iwobi are the other scorers in the team, and it's not all doom and gloom, with the Eagles outscoring even Salah's Egypt during qualification. Goalmouth sharpness from Ighalo and Musa can only be welcome news for Rohr, and with the World Cup approaching, there are reasons to believe that goalscoring deficiencies won't hamper Nigeria's hopes of reaching the quarter finals.
|
