Musa a Promising Addition to Leicester's Title Winning Squad

In the past week, Nigerian football feels as though it’s approached some sort of apotheosis. It’s been chaotic, it’s been shambolic, it’s been embarrassing, and yet amid the clouds there has been, on the pitch, much that is positive and offers hope for the future. 

Three days ago, half the Nigeria Under-17 team tested before an African Cup of Nations qualifier turned out to be over-age. The Olympic side, held up in the US by bewildering transport problems, arrived in Brazil only hours before kick-off of their opening game, but beat Japan 5-4. It seems likely that rather appointing a domestic coach, the full Nigeria national side will again turn to an ageing European journeyman in Gernot Rohr. They’re the same old stories rehashed and reheated, the reasons Nigerian football hasn’t developed in 20 years. 

And yet, on Sunday, Nigeria beat Sweden. They’re one of only two sides to have won their opening two matches. And, perhaps more consequentially, Ahmed Musa came off the bench at half-time for Leicester City in the Community Shield. 

Musa first came to global prominence at the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia in 2011, when he was the best of a crop of Nigerian forwards. It was a time before the present dearth, when the big concern in Nigerian football was producing creators, rather than a general dearth of high-class talent. Musa, with his quick feet, dancing in from the left flank, seemed atypical. He did not conform to the pre-existing templates of Nigerian football: he was not a big centre-back, he was
not a dominant holding midfielder, he was not a languid playmaker and he was not a powerful centre-forward - he was a winger playing, in the modern vogue, on the “wrong” flank. 

Musa scored in each of Nigeria’s three group games, but it was the link up of the 4-2-3-1 that gave them their potency. This seemed a bright new era for Nigerian football. But then, as so often happens with promising youth squads, came stagnation. The centre-forward Olarenwaju Kayode is now at Austria Vienna. The playmaker Abdul Jeleel Ajagun is on loan at Roda JC in the Netherlands from Panathinaikos. The right-winger Edafe Egbedi is without a club having been released by the Danish side AGF last year. Only Musa is really delivering on that potential. 

He was at the Dutch side VVV-Venlo in 2011 and moved the following year to CSKA Moscow. There he often played as a central striker, scoring 42 goals in his 125 games. His move to Leicester, for a club record £16.6m, is another step up. Claudio Ranieri has used him four times so far, on each occasion coming off the bench at half-time. He scored twice in the 4-2 friendly defeat to Barcelona, emphasising what a danger he could pose with his pace and directness. 

Musa is a clear boost to Leicester’s creative options. He scored 13 goals and set up five at CSKA last season, and averaged 2.6 shots and 1.3 key passes per game. Even with the caveat that some of those performances were at centre-forward that suggests his liveliness and intelligence. He also completed 1.2 dribbles per game, more than all but four Leicester players last season. 

There is one warning, though, which is his lack of defensive work. Only once has he averaged more than a tackle per game over a season while last year’s average of 0.7 interceptions per game was his best. Those are respectable figures, particularly for somebody who played as a central striker, but last season Marc Albrighton averaged 1.7 tackles and 1.3 interceptions per game. 

What that means is that if Musa is to operate on the left, he perhaps cannot do so with Riyad Mahrez on the right. Albrighton offered balance for Mahrez’s attacking instincts, tucking in, doing the dirty work. It may be that Mahrez this season, assuming he stays at the club, operates behind Jamie Vardy in a central role at times, with Albrighton perhaps switching to the right. Or it may be that Ranieri is thinking of possible rotation, when the demands of the Champions League mean Mahrez needs to sit out some Premier League games. 

And Musa, of course, can play centrally if required. He is a highly promising addition to the squad. And his development is a promising sign for Nigerian football as a whole: perhaps the 2011 Under-20 squad isn’t a dead end after all.

How will Musa fare in the Premier League following his club-record switch to Leicester? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below