On-loan Brighton and Hove Albion striker Leonardo Ulloa future seems uncertain as he is yet to feature regularly for them. He moved to Brighton to find some regular playing time, as at Leicester City, he was below the pecking order. Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki have usually been preferred over him and the Argentine was usually confined to the bench at his time at King Power Stadium.
The Seagulls, have done well this season as they were expected to be in a relegation scrap and many of the pundits touted them to go down in their first season. The usual starter in the striker role Glenn Murray has done pretty well this season as he has scored 12 goals for his team. Ulloa extended his loan contract in January until the end of the season but his return to the Seagulls coincided with Murray’s comeback to prolific form. The veteran forward struck 5 goals in 5 games at that time and looked pretty much irreplaceable in his team.
Ulloa, though, has been pushing hard for his place in the eleven. He has regularly featured from the bench recently and he could be close to getting first-team football as Brighton have pretty much secured their future in the Premier League.
The striker has been at Leicester for close to three and a half years but has managed just 39 starts for them. Ulloa is a traditional no.9 striker as he his hold up play is good. He uses his physical presence well and is good in the air. In the 2015/16 season, when Leicester did the unthinkable by winning the Premier League trophy, he did pop in with some crucial goals coming from the bench.
However, he has never been able to secure a regular place being overshadowed by Jamie Vardy. Besides being a prolific goal scorer, the Englishman is a brilliant athlete and jet-heels through the defence line at will. Ulloa, on the other hand, doesn’t have that facet to his game and that’s why Vardy has been preferred over him.
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Ulloa’s contract extension deal at Leicester City was signed when Craig Shakespeare was the manager but after Claude Puel came in, he was loaned to Brighton. As of now, he certainly doesn’t have a future at Leicester as Vardy and Okazaki have been doing well. So it will be better if Ulloa looks for a place in the lineups of the other Premier League clubs or maybe Championship clubs to continue playing regular football to revive his career, with the Seagulls being his first preference.
