By PaperTalk on Thursday, December 17, 2015

Twitter: @papertalkng

In this four-part series, Papertalk’s Guest Writer, football analyst Chiedu Onukogu looks at the abundance of talent Coach Samson Siasia has at his disposal in his pursuit of the Olympic soccer gold in Rio next year. In this first instalment, Chiedu examines the challenges Siasia will have to overcome and takes a tentative look at the first set of players – the goalkeepers.

By Chiedu Onukogu

Siasia has a big challenge ahead of him.
He has a large talent pool from which to select players, but having just qualified for Rio with one set of players, he will now have to incorporate another set of players into his group if he is serious about being on the medal podium at the Olympics in Rio next year.

Some say that this is impossible to do but Siasia has already had to make important shifts in the thinking about his roster – first, with the injury to Stanley Amuzie and the exodus of some of his key players to Europe; and second, in response to his teams’ disappointing 3rd place finish at the All Africa Games. All the same, it will not be easy and will take careful planning by Siasia’s staff and the NFF, which heretofore have not held up their end of the bargain in terms of the support needed to get the U-23 team to the promised land.

That will have to change going forward.

First off, preparations for the Olympic football tournament must start early. Siasia will need time to reconvene his current squad, bolstering it with a few players here and there whom he has overlooked for one reason or another. Hopefully, the 2016 CHAN will help in throwing up some options for the team. It will also be important for him to hold this camp before the restart of the Nigerian League season (or at least have the backing of the NFF and the full cooperation of NPFL) so that there will be no excuse of clubsides holding back players. The squad can then be whittled down through friendly matches to reveal the players whom Siasia will pencil down for further preparations. Mind you, having gone through the qualifiers, the All Africa Games and the U23 AFCON, he should already know who his bankable players are. But this will be a chance for overlooked players to impress, and for others who are ‘on the bubble’ to leave their last impression with him prior to the job of integrating key players plying their trade outside the shores of Nigeria into the team.

Now, to integrate the foreign based players into the team the NFF should seriously consider keeping the Olympic team busy during FIFA windows. We have two FIFA windows between now and the summer: March 21-29; and May 30-June 7. The Super Eagles will, of course, be engaged in the serious business of qualifying for the African Nations Cup, but those players not called up by Oliseh should be free to join Siasia and the Olympic team. By using the FIFA windows, clubs can’t hold onto our players and we stand a better chance of successfully blending the players that Siasia will want to add to the team. Then when the team gets together in late July or August for the Olympics proper, part of the blending process will have already taken place.

So just how many new players should Siasia be looking to break into the team? Well, that is up to the coach. Siasia knows his team and has coached at this level before and knows what is required, so I trust him to make the right decisions. In this regard some have said that Siasia is a coach who is loyal to his troops – meaning that he will stick with his players that qualified him for the Olympics. I must say that there is some truth to that loyalty aspect. But he is also a coach who has a burning desire to win and having come 2nd best at two world tournaments, his goal of bringing home the gold will trump loyalty in the vast majority of his decisions. However, in the case of a roster decision coming down to two players who are close in ability, that is where I see him leaning towards the player who he has been to war with.

In any case, starting from between the goalposts, here are the players that I believe might be on his provisional lists in the coming months.



THE GOALKEEPERS

1. Emmanuel Daniel – Has been Siasia’s first choice from the very beginning and has justified the confidence reposed in him. Very calm and composed in goal with good positioning, underrated reflexes and top notch ball handling. It will be very difficult to wrestle his starting jersey away from him.


2. Yusuf Mohammmed – Has also been with Siasia from the very beginning but the Kano Pillars man has had to work hard to win the battle for the number two goalkeeping spot, beating out the likes of Shooting Stars Akande Abiodun as well as former youth internationals Daniel Emmanson and Jonah Usman. Hard to imagine that he will not be part of the provisional squad, and other invited goalkeepers will have to be at their best to keep him from going to Rio.

3. Dele Alampasu – Siasia appears to be enamoured with his potential, thus it is no surprise that Alampasu has severally been called up to train with the U-23s. Now being groomed in the Super Eagles, he will likely get the nod to compete for a spot on the Rio Olympics train.


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