Former Nigeria midfielder, Etim Esin, has backed Watford striker, Odion Ighalo, despite his miss in the English Premier League match against Manchester United on Sunday.
Although Watford secured a 3-1 win over United at Vicarage Road,Ighalo missed a chance to get on the score sheet with just 15 minutes into the match. United goalkeeper, David DeGea, spilled the ball into his path but the Nigerian could only drag his shot wide of the goal.
The social media was awash with criticisms of the player but Etim told our correspondent that such misses happened to players once in a while.
He stated, “It is not a good thing to miss scoring chances in a match like that because it could come back to hurt your team. But one cannot rule out such in football because it happens to the best players in the game at times. When such occurs, the fans should not call for the head of the player because it will affect his confidence for the next match.
“The same player who missed such a chance could score from an impossible angle in the next match. Such things occur out of the anxiety to score the goal and one will see that Ighalo was distraught after he couldn’t score from that chance.
“What is important is for him to pick himself up and do the needful in the coming matches and prove to his fans that he is still the same player he was last season. If he scores in the other matches, people will soon forget that he didn’t convert this chance.”
