Aston Villa loanee Caleb Chukwuemeka was dropped from Livingston’s squad for their latest fixture, after manager David Martindale criticised his attitude.
Chukwuemeka joined Livi last month following a promising first half of the season with Villa’s U23s.
The 20-year-old forward scored seven goals and bagged five assists in nine PL2 outings, but he’s not finding things quite as easy in Scotland.
Chukwuemeka is yet to score or assist in five appearances for the Lions, with all but one of his outings coming as a substitute.
Last Saturday, he was subbed off just seven minutes after coming on in the closing stages of a league win over Aberdeen.
Then, earlier this week, Livi manager Martindale spoke out about the decision, which he confirmed hadn’t been prompted by an injury.
He said that he perhaps needed to “take a portion of the blame” [Football Scotland], admitting that it was probably unnecessary to throw Chukwuemeka into the action when the West Lothian side were down to ten men and looking to hold onto a one-goal lead.
But he also very openly criticised the Villa starlet’s attitude and effort levels.
“I ask the players to do the dirty side of the game and that’s what Caleb needs to work on…I was just wanting endeavour and work-rate and that was missing – I think that was plain to see.”
Aston Villa loanee Chukwuemeka dropped from Livi squad
While Martindale went on to state that he’s confident Chukwuemeka will eventually “show his capabilities”, he clearly felt that it was best to take the youngster out of the firing line on Wednesday night.
He didn’t include him in the 20-man matchday squad that travelled to Dingwall for a league fixture against Ross County.
Livi drew 1-1 – with County scoring an equaliser in the 93rd minute – leaving them eighth in the table but just three points behind fourth-placed Dundee United.
It’ll be interesting to see whether or not Chukwuemeka returns to the fold on Saturday against Hearts in the Scottish Cup.
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