Four more points, and Bendel Insurance will be few steps away from making their NPFL return in two years – all boiling down to the impact players have made so far in the NNL season, amongst these key players is Gabriel Abu.
Gabriel Abu is a right-footed forward who can as well play from the left flank and behind main striker and as well play as a false 9, due to his versatility, depending on system or tactic adopted by the Coach. From Gabriel’s style of play, he’s a player you can regard to as ‘palm tree’ that has every part of him useful to any team.
Physically, Gabriel Abu stands at 188cm/6’2″, and weigh 75kg with agility and swiftness in flight, a player with pace, fitting legs to cover distances and posses range of movement which gives him edge over others and a threat to any defense.
Gabriel’s link up play is another feature you finds in a player of high quality, quick on the ball and promising in defense, always handy for his team when defending, using his wings play mastery to halt any threat from the flank as well as using head to defend his team in set pieces situations and readjusts to counter attacking with his positioning.
Gabriel, in two games for Bendel Insurance, first against Joy Comet FC, Gabriel Abu had 75 passes, 60 of which were threatening balls into opponents’ dangerous area, his hot shot was parried by the away team’s goalkeeper, raised himself again to push in an assist for his team’s equaliser from the resulting rebound, the assist ignited the comeback and his team went ahead to winning the game, 2-1 from a goal down.
Against Crown FC of Ogbomoso, the goal hunting forward, on the backdrop of his stellar performance against Joy Comet, got the Coach’s nod to start the game and yet shone like million star, demonstrating his excellent box positioning, running into space and long range passing accuracy of 87%; gave the host team defense restless time on the field with his drive, moves, passes and support for team off the ball. Few minutes after he was subbed off, the opponent got the all freedom and advanced to hurt his team by scoring from the penalty mark to hand them a painful 1-0 away defeat. Though not too defensive minded, but Gabriel would have been helpful in time of need for his team if he had remained on the field.
The Kaduna born, who started his footballing career at Flamingo Football Academy, has got an excellent first touch on the bal couple with his electricfying move into right position for attacks nare what you will be delighted watching in the former Rising Stars of Akure forward.
With the likes of Osaze Odemwingie, Elderson Echiejile, Julius Aghahowa and host of others climbing the high stage of football, Gabriel Abu is another player who might be announcing his presence to the world in a very short time from now.
Gabriel Abu has a lot of features that catches the eye: size, technical quality, passing range, technical ability…He has an excellent shot from distance, both open play and also gets into great scoring positions in the box. These qualities makes him a nightmare to other players and that to him is a super advantage.
At a very young age, Gabriel has got a lot of years ahead of him and with some fine-tuning in his delivery and a little work on his decision-making process he will come out good, if he manages to take these steps, he will improve on chances creation to become a complete attacking threat for any team as well as a great addition to any team.
