Ighalo Was Considered Sharper Than Liverpool Striker

DBasia.news – Manchester United reportedly extended Odion Ighalo’s loan. Ighalo was rated sharper than the Liverpool striker trio.

Ighalo actually had to return to Shanghai Shenhua as of June 1^st 2020 because his loan contract had expired. However, due to the corona virus pandemic, Premier League and all competitions in Europe have been suspended for more than two months.

MU who needs Ighalo’s performance finally asked for an extension of the loan period, considering that the 2019/2020 season has not yet been completed. Had a push and pull happened, Ighalo was finally allowed to continue playing with MU until January 31^st 2021.

Of course this is a relief for MU because they are still targeting to finish on the top four and also title in the FA Cup and Europa League. But, with Marcus Rashford already recovering from a long injury, does Manchester United really need Ighalo?

Quoted from Opta, Ighalo actually has good statistics even though he just debuted since last February 17^th. There were a total of eight appearances made by Ighalo, and was a starter for three of those, with an accumulation of 319 minutes.

Of the eight appearances, Ighalo made four goals, the same as Opta’s prediction if he saw a total of 17 attempts released, 11 of them on target. The ratio of shot conversions to Ighalo’s goal is 23.5 percent.

Not only making goals, Ighalo is also good at opening up space for his colleagues with eight efforts to create opportunities. One of them succeeded as an assist. Then, how do Ighalo’s statistics compared to other Big Six team attackers?

Since his debut, Ighalo has scored more goals than Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal attackers. A total of four goals by the Nigerian player could only be matched by his team mate, Anthony Martial, and one goal ahead of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Although Ighalo’s total shots were still lost to Mohamed Salah who made 19 attempts, he was more precise because he was able to release more attempts on target with a better shot conversion ratio.

Even the figure of 23.5 percent is far above the trio of Liverpool attackers, Salah (10.53 percent), Sadio Mane (13.33 percent), and Roberto Firmino (7.4 percent) and duo City striker Gabriel Jesus (15, 38 percent) and Sergio Aguero (13.33 percent). The shot-to-goal conversion ratio still belong to Aubameyang with 42.86 percent.

In fact, Ighalo made more opportunities than Aguero, Mane, Firmino, and Mason Greenwood, who only made four. The eight trials made by Ighalo only lost to Jesus (10) and Salah (9).