Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has explained why Kelechi Iheanacho has been struggling for regular playing time this season.

Iheanacho, City’s top scorer last season, has played just 54 minutes of football in their past six games in all competitions, with three of those spent watching from the substitutes’ bench.

Before that, he played some part in every fixture bar the away game at Legia Warsaw in which he was halted at the Polish border because of mismatching documents.

The switch to a 4-2-3-1 system has been the big factor in his limited pitch-time, with Rodgers suggesting he is best as part of a strike pairing.

Rodgers has said he prefers City to play with four at the back, and so to then field two frontmen, he would either have to pick a flat 4-4-2 or a midfield diamond. The former was used at Crystal Palace in October and has not been seen since.

READ ALSO: Ekiti Poll: We Will Resist Attempt By Any Party To Rig 2022 Election – Oni

Iheanacho will get his share of game-time, Rodgers has said, but equally the manager admits finding a spot for him is not of great concern right now, while City’s attack is consistently finding the net.

“I think we’ve said it before: he’s best in a two, that’s clear, that’s when he’s been really good,” Rodgers said.

“He’s training well, he’s a great professional, Kels, and he knows he’s going to feature over the course of this period at some point.”

Iheanacho scored 16 goals between February and May last season, usually playing alongside Jamie Vardy, to finish as the club’s top scorer.

This season he has three goals and five assists, averaging a goal involvement every 104 minutes, a better rate than Vardy (one goal involvement every 133 minutes) but not as good as Daka (one every 91 minutes).

Juventus forward, Federico Chiesa, is being linked with a move to Chelsea at the end of the season.

According to football transfer expert, Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel, would love Chelsea to sign Chiesa from Juventus at the end of the season.

Romano, however, insisted that Juventus won’t entertain selling the Italy international.

“We had rumours about Chiesa, and there are 100 million Chelsea fans asking me about Chiesa,” Romano told the Here We Go podcast.

READ ALSO: Give Rohr Time Before Sacking Him – Sam Pam Tells NFF

“The rumours started because Thomas Tuchel loves this player. He thinks Chiesa is one of the best wingers in the game. He is a modern player, so Tuchel would love to have Chiesa at Chelsea. This is something true.

“Juventus are not planning to sell Chiesa. Juventus are not speaking to Chelsea. Chiesa’s people are not speaking to Chelsea. As of today, there is nothing.”

Recall that Chelsea are willing to make a ‘monster’ £84million bid to sign Chiesa at the end of the season.

Chiesa scored the only goal of the game when Chelsea lost 1-0 to Juventus in the Champions League a few weeks ago.

The 24-year-old has scored three times and has made one assist in 17 games in all competitions in the 2021-2022 season.

With just weeks to the kickoff of the 2O21 Africa Cup of Nations, former Nigerian defender, Sam Pam has called on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to give Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr some time to work with the team.

Pam made this assertion on the backdrop of call by some Nigerians to sack the German tactician from his managerial role due to the team’s poor performance in the qualifying series of the 2022 World Cup.

Recall that the Super Eagles qualified as Group C leaders after playing a 1-1 draw with Cape Verde at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.

READ ALSO: Police Arrest Dowen College Students Over Sylvester Oromoni’s Death

However, in an interview with Brila FM, Pam said that Rohr deserved to be given time to perfect his tactics ahead of AFCON 2021.

“I just believe they should give him (Gernot Rohr) some time. As at now for Rohr, I don’t know him as a person or as coach but tactically I believe he will get it right. But I still insist that they should give him time to work.”