Rohr: Why I keep inviting Musa despite not playing in Leicester's first team

Rohr: Why I keep inviting Musa despite not playing in Leicester’s first team

October 04

11:36 2017

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Ahmed Musa’s “positive attitude” and his regular presence in the second team of Leicester FC have earned him a consistent call-up to the Super Eagles squad, coach Gernot Rohr has said.

Rohr revealed this to TheCable while explaining his logic for sticking with most of his squad from the last two games against Cameroon.

He said: “For your information, Ahmed Musa is playing with the second team regularly and he is playing very well.

“Not in the third team but the second one. He played also in the Cup game and his influence in the team is good and positive.

“His attitude is very positive in the team. His World Cup experience is needed. He is a player who can have a very positive influence on his partners on the field of play.

“And that is why he is with us and I am happy to have him with us.”

Rohr, however, said he did not invite Kenneth Omeruo because he rarely gets enough playing time at his club.

“Omeruo? He doesn’t play. He didn’t play at all in the club. You must take players who play in the club regularly,” he told TheCable.

“He played with the third team of Chelsea, he didn’t play the pre season with them. He didn’t play in the friendlies. I think he played with the U23 team only and now he has gone back to Turkey.

“We have Balogun, we have Ekong, we have very good defenders now. We have Chidozie who play for Nantes, a first French division team.

“We need cohesion and continuation of such with the team.

“Kenneth is not eliminated totally but we only hope he can be playing regularly and then have the chance to come back.

“It’s better to have the same list we had against Cameroon because of the spirit of unity in that game and we need such in this game too.”

The gaffer noted that the stability of the team was paramount on his mind when he made his squad selection for the upcoming World Cup qualifier against Zambia.

“Alex Iwobi is back now and well over his injury- what I did was to bring in one offensive player and take off a defensive player which means we want to win this game without taking any risk,” he said.

“So, there was no reason to change. We stuck with these same players because we have seen what they can do.”