Livingston loanee Caleb Chukwuemeka was given an ‘eye-opener’ into Scottish football – but boss David Martindale believes the youngster will bounce back.
The forward, who turns 20 today, was signed on loan from Aston Villa earlier this month, but his first start north of the border didn’t go as planned as he was substituted at half-time against Ross County.
Playing on the left of Livi’s front three, the former Northampton Town man showed flashes of potential, but seemed to struggle with the pace of the game and had Martindale in his ear on many occasion before being replaced by Alan Forrest at the break.
His new boss admits that it’s a tough learning curve for the teenager and said it’s up to him to ensure that he can adapt to Livi’s style of play and Scottish football. If he can do that, Martindale says, they will have a talented player on their hands.
He said: “It was a big eye-opener for Caleb.
“He’s got to be more aggressive in possession, but you can see the boy’s got talent. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.
“I need to coach him into how I want him to play and he needs to work on his intensity and his fitness because you could see in the transition that the application wasn’t quite there.”
He added: “That’s up to me as the coach to get him doing that. I think he’ll be a very, very good player for us but most foreign players, and I include folk coming up from England in that, get a massive shock.
“You’ve seen it with some top players over the years where they come up to Scottish football and it doesn’t work out for them.
“I genuinely think he will be a good player for us, but it was definitely an eye-opener for him.”
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