adminLONDON. — Manuel Pellegrini expects Kelechi Iheanacho to play a significant role in Manchester City’s English Premiership soccer title challenge after the Nigerian teenager’s first goal for the club secured a dramatic 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace.
Iheanacho, who has the appropriate middle name of Promise, burst onto the English Premier League stage on Saturday when he scored the 90th minute winner at Selhurst Park moments after appearing as a late substitute in only his second appearance for City.
City manager Pellegrini has high hopes for the Nigeria Under-20 international and admits the player’s development persuaded him he did not need to bring in a replacement after Edin Dzeko left for Roma.
“He’s a very important player for us. He’s just 18 and started working with our squad last season, but he was unlucky and had a big injury in the last three months of the season,” Pellegrini said.
“This year he started pre-season with the squad and will be a very important player for the future.
“He’s one of the reasons I didn’t bring another striker in when we sold Edin Dzeko. He deserves that chance. I told him to go and score a goal.
“I was going to make the substitution before, because Wilfried Bony had only worked the last few days with the team, but he told me he was okay.
“That’s why I kept him on, but Kelechi deserved more minutes. It was important he took that chance.”
Pellegrini’s forward options were stretched following a 17th minute injury to Sergio Aguero that could rule the Argentina striker out of tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Juventus.
Aguero, who tweeted after the match that it wasn’t a serious injury, was kicked on the knee by Palace’s Scott Dann and the City manager believes the centre-back was lucky to escape a red card.
“It was an important kick on his knee. We’ll see if he can recover between now and Tuesday,” Pellegrini said. “Sometimes you must show the red card immediately because you know the intention of the player, just to make him fall down.
“I don’t like protesting every decision like Alan (Pardew, Palace manager) does from the first minute, but that was an important decision.” — AFP.
Online Reporter