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Leon Balogun was an unused substitute in Brighton Hove Albion in their 1-0 loss at home to Southampton in Saturday’s Premier League clash.
Balogun is yet to feature for the Seagulls in EPL in 2019.
Pierre Hojbjerg grabbed the only goal of the encounter in the 53rd minute of the encounter.
Balogun has made eight EPL appearances for Brighton so far this season.
At the King Power stadium Wilfred Ndidi played all 90 minutes for Leciester City who defeated AFC Bournemouth 2-0. His compatriot,Kelechi Iheanacho replaced Jamie Vardy in additional time of his side’s win.
At Old Trafford, Isaac Success replaced Will Hughes in the 81st minute of Watford’s 2-1 loss away to Manchester United.
A goal in each half from Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial ensured maximum points despite Abdoulaye Doucoure late goal in additional time.
At Selhurst Park,goals from Luka Milivojevic and Patrick Van Aanholt secured a 2-0 home win over Huddersfield Town.
At Turf Moor, Burnley defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0. An owngoal from Conor Coady and a strike from Dwight McNeil
in the 72nd minute secured maximum points for Burnley.
By Johnny Edward.
3 Comments
I will be surprised to see Balogun is a Brighton player next season because it doesn’t look good for Nigeria’s best central defender (in the eyes of many) to be playing 3rd fiddle to the duo of Irish international Shane Duffy and 1 cap England international Lewis Dunk.
To be honest, when I see these 2 underwhelming central defenders play, I can see why Balogun will not be able to break into that central partnership in a hundred years.
Both are firm, positionally highly disciplined, tactically aware, sturdy with good starting positions and far more advanced abilities to read the game and make decent interceptions.
They have the ability to organize their defense and be imposing in a manner that instil confidence.
Balogun, whilst possessing all these skills and attributes, does not possess enough of them (at least in the eyes of coach Chris Houghton) to leapfrog any of Shane or Lewis to the starting position unless either is suspended or injured.
Coming to his 30s, it will be good for Balogun to find himself where he can play football regularly for experience his what would stand him in good stead in seasons to come as he would not be able to rely on his youth and speed (which has already diminished anyway).
Shane Duffy and Lewis Dunk are not world class defenders by any stretch however in them I see what some of our central defenders are missing in the way of skills, attributes and capabilities.
_To talk that talk…._
“From what I’ve seen in training and when I’ve spoken to him (Iheanacho), he has shown a wonderful appetite and enthusiasm to get better.
“We have a culture where we want to improve players and make them better and Iheanacho had responded very well to that”: Brendan Rodgers.
This former coach of Celtic and Liverpool is talking the talk but is he truly prepared to walk the walk?
He talks about improving players yet I saw Victor Moses’ game diminish under him at Liverpool so much so that the now-retired Super Eagle was eventually shown the exit door after his loan deal was not extended.
Under Brendan Rodgers’ watch at Celtic, Efe Ambrose reached an all-time low in his football which all but destroyed his national team prospects and led to him leaving Celtic only to have a fruitful time at Hibbs afterwards.
Now we are here again.
He talks about wanting to improve Iheanacho whose attitude and appetite have been ‘wonderful’, yet the Under-17 world cup ace has only seen about 16 minutes of action in 3 games since the Northern Irish man took over.
OK OK OK! Perhaps I am being too impatient, perhaps I should give him time.
I will try to exercise some patience and would give Mr Rodgers time to try to turn the fortunes of Iheanacho around.
However, judging by Brendan’s track record with Nigerian players, I can only hope that Iheanacho will fare better that Moses and Ambrose before him.
Isaac Success’ link up play was instrumental in Watford’s only goal against Man U yesterday but has, or, will he do enough to force his way back to the Super Eagles ahead of the 2019 Afcon?
With a plethora of options in the wings coupled with the emphatic way that Denmark-based Onouachu announced himself in international football, you have to say the chances of Success making the final list is that bit slimmer than it was.
But, unlike his compatriot Iheanacho, Success continues to get meaningful game-times for Watford and this will not go un-noticed to Gernot Rohr (who wants his boys to play regularly for their clubs).
Will game time for Javi Gracia’s men save Isaac’s Afcon attendance bacon? Only time will tell.