Kelechi Iheanacho at a “nice high level”, says Brendan Rodgers

Leicester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho is at a “nice high level”, says Brendan Rodgers.

The Nigerian is the latest Leicester player to make headlines for his fine displays.

After being a bench-warmer for the majority of the season (appeared four time in all competitions), he has grabbed his opportunity with both hands.

The 23-year old has scored and assisted in each of his two Premier League appearances – the first of which came against Everton on December 1.

Iheanacho really seems to have won over Rodgers if his words are anything to go by.

"“I thought he was great. He played the role how we wanted him to play. He creates Jamie’s first goal, gets the second one with a good finish,” Rodgers told the Leicester Mercury.“I just think with Kels now that he’s settling in to being a Leicester City player. He’s come in and he was playing second fiddle to Jamie without many appearances.“Probably before when he’s come into games… When you’re not playing so much, sometimes can you force it. You come and try to force the performance.“All I said to him was just work hard in training, that’s all you can do. Don’t worry about being picked or not, that’s the manager’s choice.“But as long as you’re working hard and giving me something to think about, then that’s all you can do. He’s been first class in his training.“You saw him in the cup games, he comes in and he scores. He did it at Everton, came on and made a great impact. It’s just a case of him coming in with confidence. I thought he was very good [against Aston Villa], his hold-up play, his link-up with the midfield. He was excellent.“With any player, if their confidence is low, they don’t play so well. Every single player has confidence. For him, you can see his level is at a nice high level. He just needs to keep working, that’s the key to it.”"

Well, wow. What life does to you. Most of the Leicester fans had forgotten that Iheanacho was still at the club but look at him now. He’s a hero in the East Midlands.

The winner against Everton and the performance against Aston Villa a week later could go a long way in defining his future at Leicester.

He has been suffering with a lack of confidence and self-belief for quite a while, which is precisely why he needed such performances to lift himself up.

We have always acknowledged the fact that he does have the ability to turn into a really good player but sadly, that ability has hardly ever been visible on the pitch. Now that it is, let us hope he only gets better from here.

He will surely get a lot of chances from hereon in given the fixture congestion: whether he buries them all like he has so far is a question for another week. For now, he can enjoy.