There were no minutes for Sheffield United striker Iliman Ndiaye as Senegal lost to The Netherlands, but that could change as the week goes on.
Ndiaye was an unused substitute as a toothless Senegal side failed to really trouble Holland. Goals from Cody Gakpo and Davy Klaassen were enough for Louis van Gaal’s side to see out a comfortable win.
Of course, for Blades fans tuning in, the lack of Ndiaye was disappointing. After being in such fine form for United, there has been high hopes in Sheffield that the forward would feature in Qatar. However, his manager Aliou Cisse had other ideas today.
But speaking after the game, there seemed to be hope for Ndiaye as Cisse criticised his strikers.
“We are disappointed to have not scored, we had two or three very good chances,” Cisse told reporters. “We needed to be more effective in front of goal,” Cisse said to SuperSport.
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“Ismaila and Krepin are responsible there, but of course, the absence of Mane is a problem for us… Our attackers are good and we know what they are capable of. t was a challenging game… We need to work on it (scoring goals) with Ismaila and the others. We expect a lot from him and Krepin.”
Sheff U News View: Ndiaye has to get Senegal chance v Qatar on this evidence
Senegal were woeful in attack. Let’s be honest about that. Their strikers and attacking midfielders produced nothing of note, and there was no urgency to get an equaliser at the end either.
Surely, then, Ndiaye gets a chance for Senegal against Qatar? For a start, we all know his class. But even beyond that, he can’t do any worse than we saw today. That, coupled with how bad Qatar looked, could mean Ndiaye has a field day.
Cisse is right to slate his strikers here. But he needs to play Ndiaye, or Senegal risk flopping completely.