Joebie:
How will you know they prefer to play for another country? It's after inquiring you get to know. And I was of the opinion that you don't keep pressing. But first things first. it's always a great thing to have prior relationship with the player.

Modified
Idowu is not 18. Younger players are more likely to say they are waiting for the other country. Aina waited, Iwobi waited..etc. when the calls didn't come we showed them that we believed in them. And the rest as they say is history.

Mujtahida:

I wonder why he's not good at dribbling with all the monkey post he played near Ngwa market those days.

TheGoodJoe:


I repeat, no one is against enquiring. The call is against convincing. It is easier for us to identify those who want to play for us by them declaring. As for the young ones that want to wait, I wish them the best. My concern is with those who want to represent us.

Finito.

TheGoodJoe:



Nice write up but I want to point out a misconception. In the first half of the match against Argentina, we had a conservative set-up where the forward play of the wing backs was not a priority but supporting the defence.

Shehu did his job when it concerns that aspect well. However, being down a goal by half time, caused Rohr to switch to a brave offensive set-up with wing backs required to support the attack.

It paid and highlights my call for us to play with more bravery and offensive strategy.

The call of Shehu Abdullahi playing poorly does not work for me because he did what was required of the system until Rohr switched the system.

Joebie:
okay.. Idowu, Aina, Iwobi etc should have declared first
your unreasonable pride will kill you.
kwantinue!!!

forgiveness:


Solanke is a more complete player than Iheanacho. You can take that to the bank.

TheGoodJoe:


The point is too simple. No one is against Enquiring (not begging). It is EASIER to identify players when they declare. I Wonder why this is incomprehensible. What is pride in that?

TheGoodJoe:


The point is too simple. No one is against Enquiring (not begging). It is EASIER to identify players when they declare. I Wonder why this is incomprehensible. What is pride in that?

Mujtahida:

I beg to disagree regarding what you call a misconception. Not to be too effusive but Joebie's analysis is spot on. The misconception you wrote about is really you misconceivibg obvious facts by saying that we adopted a 'conservative' approach in the first half. Noo no no. Rather the players were 'conservative' not the approach. Joebie did not say that Shehu was poor. This is what he said "Olaoluwa Aina and Abdullahi Shehu did not perform to expectation, especially as they did not offer much options going forward." and this is because as Mikel said they were playing a new system for the first time. Aina and Shehu are simply not suitable for the set up.


In the second half did Rohr switch the system or the personnel? Did he become 'radical '? No he did not. The system, the approach, the tactical formation remained the same but the personnel changed. All the players still played the same role as they did in the first half. What Rohr did was that he brought in two players who were suited to the system and bang! It worked.

So there's no misconception in what Joebie wrote.

Mujtahida:

I beg to disagree regarding what you call a misconception. Not to be too effusive but Joebie's analysis is spot on. The misconception you wrote about is really you misconceivibg obvious facts by saying that we adopted a 'conservative' approach in the first half. Noo no no. Rather the players were 'conservative' not the approach. Joebie did not say that Shehu was poor. This is what he said "Olaoluwa Aina and Abdullahi Shehu did not perform to expectation, especially as they did not offer much options going forward." and this is because as Mikel said they were playing a new system for the first time. Aina and Shehu are simply not suitable for the set up.


In the second half did Rohr switch the system or the personnel? Did he become 'radical '? No he did not. The system, the approach, the tactical formation remained the same but the personnel changed. All the players still played the same role as they did in the first half. What Rohr did was that he brought in two players who were suited to the system and bang! It worked.

So there's no misconception in what Joebie wrote.

TheGoodJoe:


The point is too simple. No one is against Enquiring (not begging). It is EASIER to identify players when they declare. I Wonder why this is incomprehensible. What is pride in that?

TheGoodJoe:


Misconception is not only about Bryan's article but from other comments and articles. People are tagging Shehu poor or to the article's point of not performing as expected.

Rohr set-up the team in a conservative way in the first half. You can judge to our playing approach of giving the ball back to the Argentines with little bravery to play.

So saying Shehu Abdullahi did not perform as expected does not work. You do not set-up a team to play in a conservative manner and criticise the players for not playing in an offensive fashion.

The changes was to get us to play in a more offensive fashion.

It is so simple.

MetalJigsaw:
I tell you, Rohr will have a tough time making his list. I think that 23- man maximum list for FIFA WC is a bit too short. Its better they adjust it to 25.

Joebie:
We are going in circles. I just made you understand that majority of these players making us proud now did not declare for us first..
it's a lazy approach to wait for them to declare. That is pride, and that's my point. You are waiting for them to declare because even if you enquired you could still be "slapped on the face"..lol

modified
how do you enquire?

TheGoodJoe:


Misconception is not only about Bryan's article but from other comments and articles. People are tagging Shehu poor or to the article's point of not performing as expected.

Rohr set-up the team in a conservative way in the first half. You can judge to our playing approach of giving the ball back to the Argentines with little bravery to play.

So saying Shehu Abdullahi did not perform as expected does not work. You do not set-up a team to play in a conservative manner and criticise the players for not playing in an offensive fashion.

The changes was to get us to play in a more offensive fashion.

It is so simple.

TheGoodJoe:



Nice write up but I want to point out a misconception. In the first half of the match against Argentina, we had a conservative set-up where the forward play of the wing backs was not a priority but supporting the defence.

Shehu did his job when it concerns that aspect well. However, being down a goal by half time, caused Rohr to switch to a brave offensive set-up with wing backs required to support the attack.

It paid and highlights my call for us to play with more bravery and offensive strategy.

The call of Shehu Abdullahi playing poorly does not work for me because he did what was required of the system until Rohr switched the system.

Mujtahida:

Simple question: did the coach change the formation in the second half?

TheGoodJoe:


It is not lazy. The players out there should know that the easiest path for the crew to know they are available is by them declaring themselves ready and willing to play for us. After they do that, it makes it easier for the crew to reach out to them.

People like Iwobi and Aina had ties that made it easy to reach out to them to enquire. Apart from that, we can end up with repeated embarrassing situations like Jordan Ibe and Nedum Onuoha.

Icon4s:
Further modified:

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NFF AND THE SUPER EAGLES COACHING CREW FROM MEMBERS OF THE NAIRALAND SUPER EAGLES FANS BASE.


We are ardent followers and supporters of the Super Eagles. Most of us may not make the trip to Russia, we cannot be with the coaching crew, we are not part of the NFF, neither can we kick the balls with the players. However, we can only make our little contribution by way of advice to the NFF and the Coaching crew.We believe firmly in the ability of this team to perform creditably well because we have both the footballing and administrative personnel to make it happen.

We are an assembly of fans who have seen the game for several decades and have followed it with burning passion all through the years. We have extensively X-rayed the reasons for the disappointing ends to our past World Cup outings and hence provided some tips for both the NFF and the coaching crew to critically look into:

1. The need for the NFF to sort out issues of bonuses and players’ welfare on time: We sincerely appreciate the current effort being put in place by the NFF to ensure that bonuses and allowances issues are sorted out ahead of the World Cup. This is a commendable step towards avoiding players boycotting of training session as witnessed in the last World Cup.
2. Majority of the players who qualified the team should be kept. Only players who are better than the current crop should be added. Introducing too many new players had its negative effects in our 2002 and 2014 campaigns. The team should also be a good mix of youth and experience as we hope to achieve a balanced transition in the team even beyond Russia 2018. The best players should be selected devoid of favoritism.
3. Quality pre-World Cup warm up games: We have started with an excellent one with Argentina and should continue in that line. Perhaps a top European and or Asian Opposition would not be bad for us in March, 2018. We propose camping in Russia where we expect high profile friendlies in the window leading to the World Cup
4. Instilment of high level of discipline in the team: This is to curb “over-confidence”, lack of team play by some players, segregation in the team and excessive celebrations both on and off the pitch: These kind of attitude had negative effects in our past world cup outings.
5. Updated FIFA rules must be understood by players and coaches to avoid naïve situations. A simple case in time is with our goalie – Daniel Akpeyi in our most recent friendly against Argentina. Also the same Argentina used it against us at the 1994 World Cup. Ie Cladio Caniggia and Diego Maradona. Also players taking off jerseys to display inscriptions should be kicked against.
6. Our players should learn to react to tackles in such a way as to influence the ref’s decisions in our favor. We have been victims of influenced or lack of influenced referee’s decisions in past world cups. Eg Onazi’s tackle against France in 2014 World Cup would have been a Red Card for Matuidi if the Nigerian players close to the action had reacted appropriately. Brahimi would have been sent off if Shehu had gone down after being head butted amongst others.
7. The technical bench should be fortified to world standard. The NFF should also engage the services of world class sports psychologist and physios

We believe so much in this Team. The NFF and the entire coaching crew are doing a Super Job with the Super Eagles. We can only hope for the Super Eagles to Fly above all expectations come Russia 2018.

Joebie:
okay.. Idowu, Aina, Iwobi etc should have declared first
your unreasonable pride will kill you.
kwantinue!!!

Joebie:
I think the writer was saying the substitutions made the difference. The formation remained the same. We can't be sure if Rohr instructed Aina and Shehu not to go forward and be more defensive minded during the first half.
You are making assumptions. Personally, I think it was a like for like substitution after the first half.

We played 3-5-2 which can easily translate to 5-3-2 when defending. Both Idowu and Ebuehi did just that in the second half.

Joebie:
@ bolded. very WRONG assumption

MetalJigsaw:
Nice but this formation screams MOSES, WINGBACk OR BENCH!!
..lol.
And it should be 3-4-2-1
................ GK
...... Ekong- Balogun- Awaziem

Ebuehi- Ndidi- Ogu/Onazi- Idowu

.......... Mikel-Iwobi

........... Nacho/Ighalo

komekn:


They only way you get talked up is when you are performing. when KC was in City and free scoring as q sub he was talked up with all kinds of accolades.

Football memories are very short and rightly so. Being great requires continous consistent top classs performances. In football you are only as good as your last game, two months is a long time. A year history to be archived.

Marcus Rashford has been consistently performing even if he doesn't always score.

I did say that KC's baptism of fire would be when he leaves city. He has gone to Leicester and has been very far from impressive. As a result thier is nothing
to hype or even talk about he actually failing at Leiceste city.

edi287:

You've just reminded me of what Keshi said when he was asked of Abiola Dauda...he said he hadn't contacted him and can go play for Serbia if he wants. That's not always the right approach. You first have to ask to find out where their allegiance lies.

mank1234:
http://kwese.espn.com/football/nigeria/story/3271796/talking-points-from-nigerias-win-over-argentina

Nice write-up by Collins Udoh

TheGoodJoe:


Not that you can change the set-up of a formation from a conservative to a progressive set-up through a change of personnel. That was precisely what Rohr did.

Chrismario:


This Sone Aluko, Is he messi?
He has been playing in below par league all his life save for one or two seasons in EPL. If he is so good, he would be in mid table team.

Even if he chosed England, there's higher possibility that he would remain capless till today.

BascoVanVeli:


The point is the guys we have didn't declare, so why make it any different?

Humility017:


you're right though ...
I think rohr should talk to him on the need to get a club come next January....even if it is a championship team.

I read..Aston villa are courting him...