Star Fox Abdul Fatawu has come in for criticism from his manager at Leicester City Football Club. Marti Cifuentes, who previously managed fellow English Football League Championship team Queens Park Rangers, wants more from his player. While the Catalonian was fairly implicit with regards to his words of wisdom or general directives toward his winger, I can read between the lines.
In addition to that hopefully intruiging factor, there is more. You see, the aspect or area in which Cifuentes seeks improvement or changes from Abdul Fatawu is not perhaps what you would be expecting. Most people will now point to a worrying statistic attributed to the extremely skilled Ghana international. That worry would be scoring only one goal in his previous 13 Foxes outings.
However, in the wake of a certainly dreadful and pretty demoralising 3-0 defeat at the hands of Southampton, Cifuentes directly spoke of the need to control games. He knows, especially from his experience wiyh QPR, that referees will not hand out any special treatment to stand out players in the division whatsoever.
Ultimately, I would argue that is absolutely the right stance for officiating, in spite of my Leicester loyalties. Though Fatawu, despite trying to protect himself from injury after an awful anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) problem last year, must mature somewhat. He cannot stay on the ground demanding fouls be awarded: that practice places his defence in jeopardy. I'll now explain how and why Cifuentes' comments relate to the 21-year-old.
Marti Cifuentes asks eminent Leicester City baller Abdul Fatawu to change his ways
Cifuentes is right to request that Fatawu learn from his own quite clear mistakes for the good of the team. The Saints actually scored just after Fatawu lost the ball, he didn't subsequently and immediately track his man, whilst appealing longingly:
"Discussing the moment where Abdul Fatawu appealed for a foul in the build-up to Southampton’s second, Cifuentes said: “We need to control what we can control. We cannot rely on referees’ decisions."Jordan Blackwell, LCFC Live
The LCFC manager previously told the Ghanaian to refrain from asking for fouls and taking embarrassing complaints to social media. As a fan, I would ask Fatawu to please show that he is one of the league's top performers again!