Manchester United striker Odion Ighalo says he is delighted to be playing under a “great manager” such as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after extending his scoring run in the FA Cup against Derby County on Thursday night.
The Nigerian striker made it three goals in three starts for United with a brace, with Luke Shaw also on target, as United cruised into the quarter-finals with a 3-0 win.
Ighalo impressed when leading the line and could have bagged a hat-trick only to fire over the bar with just a few minutes remaining.
Read Also: Ighalo Bags Brace In Man United’s FA Cup 5th Round Win Vs Derby County
And the 30-year-old expressed his satisfaction with life at Old Trafford after arriving on loan in January from Chinese Super League outfit Shanghai Shenhua.
“I am happy to be around this great team, great lads and great manager,” he told BBC Sport.
“I am happy and we are working hard. We want to keep the momentum going and make sure we do great this season.”
15 Comments
I wondered why MOTM was awarded to Luke Shaw. Racism or partiality.
Nah Ighalo got the man of the match tho
Terrific performance! Fire on and keep your detractors speechless.
Weldone Odion.
Keep it up and never look back. More power to ya boots. God is great indeed.
Ndi ‘Isaac Success is FAR BETTER THAN Ighalo’..Ndi “he scores only tap ins”… children of the same father’s with Warnock or hammock abi Wetin be that mediocre looser of a coach name again…ngwanu over to you o…..!
LMAO.
Hahahaha… Oboy no kill me with laugh. Sometimes in situations like this, it’s better to keep peeping from between the curtain blind.
I just dey laugh. The deafening silence from the Ighalo critics is so funny. All of them have gone into hiding. Where is Gary Neville? Paul Merson? Neil Warnock? Where are these guys? Hehehehe! The thing about these people is that they are quick to criticize and condemn, but not so quick to admit it when they are wrong. The day Ighalo does not perform well, watch out! They will start coming out again. For now, let them remain in hiding, eating their gigantic slices of humble pie!
Nobody said ighalo was a bad striker, he is not just nigerians favourites simple we are not the cos of that its is nature. Ighalo was always surported by those you feels hated him. He is the one who proved them wrong i will tell you why. Ighalo captained the under 20 team to egypt 2009 he floped and everybody lost hope on him then he started doing well in granada and then watford i fell in love again so as many others he came back to eagles and even forced emenike to retire there after wat happened. He failed again could not score goals that should push us to the nations cup sotay a little iheanacho gave us more hope than him then he started loosing fans again. I lost hope until that goal against cameroun in wcup qualifier gave us little hope again. He later spuel the show at the world cup everybody started doubting him again. The onlyvtime ighalo proved consistency was at the last nations cup and its qualifiers. I will tell you technical reason why most fans dont gbado is style 1 he doesnt shoot hard from outside the 18 yard. 2 he is not a rugged header of the ball. Three he doesnt go extreme to cash in a hard cross from angles. 3 he doesnt posses that crazy spead and skills and appear to slow on the ball sometimes 4 he lacks consistency and great courage or boldness. Look we are not guinea or mali . We are Nigeria we cant just accept anyhow striker even gabon doesnt like aubamiyang becouse of same reasons despites scoring in premier leagues every day. We have had yekini, aghahuwa, ikpeba, odemwingie, martins, utaka, and ahmed musa we have also seen drogba. Eto. Kanoute. Even asamoah gyang . We nor they forbid better thing that is why we love osimeh even if he is just coming up you can already see the defrence between him and ighalo wether you like it all not you canot teach Nigerians football.
…..las las, he has 3 goals in 2 starts for Manchester United FC of England. That’s all that matters. Lolz
Nigerians fans are not just patient with our players, we sing their praise and write them off after a slight mistake or dip in form. And that is why most of our great players retire early. We criticize destructively. From Okocha, to Oliseh to Emenike, Moses to Ighalo and more. We force our players to retire because we turn against them at the slightest mistake and forget all the other years of their perfomance. Same with our coaches, they throw the experienced players away easily. But thank God for Coah Rohr who saw the strength of Ighalo and stood by him during his trying period and now you can see the benefits. The same coach did same to Musa and we saw how he made over 200 million Nigerian fans both home and abraod to smile during the world cup.
Now we are doing same to Akpeyi, but the European coaches of Keizer Chiefs and Super Eagles are seeing him diffrently but we say he is finished or nothing good can come from him. We forget that every star can make mistake or have a bad day or season. But how do your know a great player is your ability to bounce back.
Let us learn to support our players and stars even when they are not performing as expected. This will make them one to die for the country once the bounce back.
Congrats to our man Ighalo, I know you have it in you, and I believe what we have seen is small, You still have a lot to show to make your doubters and haters cry. Even CAF that could not shortlist you in the Top 3 Africa footballer of the year. Nor include you in CAF best 11 for 2019 after winning the golden boot in both qualifiers and Afcon proper. Them go hear something, you have just started. Ride on my bros
Good talk @ Ikeben. These al d kinda man. I wanna listen to. You see how same nigerians tried to accept those evil peoples claim at Brighton, that Balogun isnt good enough. These same people are the once that come here to call Iwobi all kind of names under the satanic disguise that they want him to improve. Firstly, I ask them, is it by coming to social media , with such heavy critism, that will make any player improve? Again who is that player that doesn’t know he has to improve. Why then, will some continue to echo that against such player if not down to wickedness. But Glory to God Almighty, who God has blessed, no man can pull down.
This is clueleass because you don’t know about Ighalo. His skilss for a striker is next to none in England, hold up play, shoots with both legs. So what else do you expect of a man like you. See how Messi walked of the pitch last week agaims Madrid like a man caught stealing someone’s goat. Now would you say Messi is a bad player. Every individuals have their ups and downs not only footballers. Pls show some respect to the man of the moment Ighalo
@Ugwudede
Good day brother, with reference to all these you’ve said, I would like to counter some of your points.
“His skilss for a striker is next to none in England”
Are really serious with this statement?
You see, it’s quite OK to praise our own but not okay not to be honest while at it. Arrays of strikers with better skills ahead of Ighalo in England and you’re here saying this.
I’m really happy Jude is making waves in England and I pray he continues to fire on.
@Collins Id submission about Ighalo is very correct and that doesn’t mean he got no respect for him, he’s only being honest .
Ighalo remains one of our best all time strikers no doubt and we’d always acknowledge and remember him for that.
And for the ones seeking Ighalo return to super eagles, that’s completely outta it , are we that short of better talents upfront? Some peoples comments around here just makes me laugh atimes.
May Ighalo continue to paint England with goals , he’s made history already, he’s one of the great in Africa .
So let’s not allow emotion becloud our sense of reasoning pls
U said my mind
One thing I like about Odion Jude Ighalo, he always proves doubters wrong; time and again.
He isn’t the classiest of finishers;
But he always finds a way to come out tops when the ovation is loudest.
That is something really special.
The fact is , no matter how many bad moments have had in the past, he has created loads of good ones. Top scorer in different clubsides,top scorer in Afcon, qualifiers and all.
The numbers don’t lie.
Right now he is creating a legacy in the highest of peaks.Manchester United.
What more can one do?
As a Manchester United fan. I have always approved of Ighalo. I never doubted his ability to deliver. I wasn’t expecting him to come in and be a Cantona or C.Ronaldo but I knew he would get us those goals that would help us push through some tough times. Times Martial and co. Would be wanting.
He is a fox in the box.
The only thing against him is age.But quality finds a way round numbers.
Ighalo has done Naija proud.and will still do more.
Right now, Nigeria flags are been hung in Old Trafford. Nigeria flags are been carried by United fan clubs groups like the “United stand” and ” fulltime devils”.
Ighalo did that. He is bringing an ambiance of respect towards Nigeria by his play. And this could open doors for Nigerian players to be signed by top clubs in the future; cause now they know, we can hold our own.
Ighalo carry on.Keep being humble.keep turning those doubters to believers.
And to those that would never believe even if you do good.
You can’t help a man lost to hate.
Coach Rohr is reading no doubt Odion’s speed and control especially.
He is pacy and have good movement with the ball to dribble past defenders. His accuracy lies in his ability to put the ball behind the goalie with his traditional quick on the ball shot. Head or foot, if a ball is coming into the box from a cross Odion is relied on to at least get a good, accurate volley on the ball as it has been over the years. He is the biggest threat to any defense right now.