Coach of Italian Serie A side Lazio Marco Baroni has spoken about the qualities of Nigeria international midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru despite his limited game time at the club, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
On loan from Turkish side Hatayspor, the 23 year old has featured sparingly for Lazio this season casting doubts over a possible permanent signing after the expiration of his loan deal.
Earlier today he was an unused substitute in their 0-0 draw against Ludogorets Razgrad in the Europa League despite scoring the third goal in their 3-0 win over Bologna at the weekend in the Italian Serie A. He played for just 5 minutes.
Dele-Bashiru who has five caps for the senior national team of Nigeria with two goals has so far made good use of the minutes he has been given with two goals and two assists in the 8 games he has played in all competitions this season.
Speaking ahead of today’s game in the Europa League, Baroni spoke highly about the former Manchester City youth prospect which made his decision not to play him at all a huge surprise, although the coach did say he has some fitness issues in the build up to the game.
“Dele has a lot of energy, he is a midfielder who can play at all range. He has quality, energy, physical strength and is a growing player. I see him during training, he will be an important player for us. We have to evaluate him, he had a very small problem, today we have 2-3 players that I have to evaluate. If he’s okay, he will play from the start”, he said at the pre match presser.
It appears he didn’t shake off the knock hence his unused substitute role in the 0-0 stalemate, which still kept them on top of the group standings in the Europa League new format with 13 points and a goal difference of 9.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
