please checkout Iwobi's snapchat too funny for days. Even Tyrone couldn't stop himself from laughing. Kelechi is too funny i swear lol

It would have been great to have Messi. But he is injured, right? So are some of our players. Hence, a good test still.

terzurum5:
Mutiu Adepoju: Argentina are strong even without Messi



The Super Eagles legend feels La Albiceleste remain a solid side without their inspirational skipper ahead of Tuesday’s friendly
Mutiu Adepoju believes Nigeria will not be facing a “lesser” Argentina despite the absence of Lionel Messi.


The Barcelona star will miss La Albiceleste’s friendly against the Super Eaglesafter withdrawing from the team to return to Spain.


Messi was on from start to finish as the South Americans beat Russia 1-0 in Moscow on Saturday, thanks to Sergio Aguero’s late strike.


However, La Liga Nigeria’s chief who expects a good game does not think the absence of their captain will weaken Jorge Sampaoli's squad when they clash with Gernot Rohr’s men in Krasnodar.


“His [Messi] absence doesn't mean we're facing a lesser Argentina. Argentina will always be Argentina,” Adepoju told Goal.


“The quality of players in that team cannot be written off as they play in top clubs in Europe and even in South America.



“No doubt, Messi is one of the best in the world but his absence doesn't mean Argentina will be a very easy team for the Super Eagles.


“He is the one who moves the ball in the team but other players are equally good, so when we're talking about their striking area, the midfield and the defence, our boys [Super Eagles] must be at their best.”


Both countries have met seven times with Nigeria’s only victory over the two-time world champions recorded on June 1, 2011as Ikechukwu Uche’s brace powered Samson Siasia’s men to a 4-1 victory.


Also, Adepoju insists that not minding the outcome, Gernot Rohr’s men must take plenty of positives which will help their preparations for the 2018 Fifa World Cup.


“Whether we lose or not, it doesn't matter because it's a friendly game but it's important we get the positives for our World Cup preparations,” he continued.


“We're playing against Argentina, one of the toughest teams we can face in the World Cup. Playing against them will let us see many things that can help us before the competition.


“Not thinking about whether we win or win, we just have to take the positives but our players need to put everything and play as if it's a competitive game.”



m.goal.com/x/en-ng/news/17252/super-eagles/2017/11/14/40218672/mutiu-adepoju-argentina-are-strong-even-without-messi

Algerian1:
first congratulation for the world cup qualification and this beautiful serie in this qualification


just wanted to show poeples who attacks the refree for his decision givin a penalty .



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7w-_Q_mvQ

when you see the action in HD and slow motion *0,25 , you will see that brahimi pass the defender and was going to the goal ( pic1 ) , the defender charge him from his back with both hands and try to grab him judo style ( pic 2 ) , and brahimi resist to the charge, stayed on his feet instead of going down but lost the ball . and even when he fall he try to grab the leg of brahimi ( pic 3 )


So even my self if i was the refree i wouldnt give a penalty and i will let the action continue , but the decision of this refree could be justified according to the football rules . the player havnt touch the ball and touch the player ... penalty

Are you from Algeria?

Mickael2:



if he starts with that 3-4-3 formation it might get embarrasing for us.

Let me start from the back, our GKs are not confident, a 3man backline requires an active GK but this is the least of our problems.

In the defence you have Awaziem listed as the RCB and Balogun in the LCB spot. I already pointed out that using inverted wingers is a risky biz, you could see that some clearances Aina made in the last match were less than perfect because he was using his weaker foot just like I predicted, now you are playing Awaziem and Balogun, two right-footed CBs, in the LCB and RCB, they will find it hard to make proper clearances(Awaziem most especially) and when you consider the wingers they are about to face......


That brings us to the fullbacks. Aina I am okay with but playing him the LWB formation is wrong, he is going to have a performance similar to the one he had against Algeria, you can see he is quality but he will still struggle. For us to effectively utilise Aina in that left side we need to reach out to his clubside and convince them to play him there a little more often. Then we come to the guy who would lose the most in this formation, Shehu. There is a reason why Azpilicueta does not play the WB role and when he does he is always below average. Shehu is NOT GOOD offensively and his take-on rate is very very poor, crosses too are very very poor(I doubt if he has had one succesful cross throughout the qualifers bar that cutback for Iwobi) and he also does not have the pace. Argentina will have Dybala running across our backline looking for spaces to exploit and Shehu's lack of pace will expose that space perfectly then you may argue that our DMF will cover and that brings us to the midfield....

Ndidi is not an out-and-out DMF so he can not do the work that will be assigned to him which is covering the fullbacks effectively for 90minutes and then we have Ogu who isn't exactly fast. Bear in mind that their CF is Belotti so our central CB will have his hands full so in most cases Ogu will have to fall back and help out thus making room infront of the defence for Banega and the likes to exploit.

I enjoyed your analysis. Which formation would you rather have him chose?

mz Safari are u the babe Awaziem is looking for on Iwobi's snap ? says he loves u o. hahaha i'm kidding

Watch Brahimi's motion, you will see he wasn't impeded? Yes you are right there was contact (holding). It will be misleading to say Shehu tried to..., because he easily could have succeeded in holding Brahimi back. I see intention but there was no execution of the intent. I'd like to study that FIFA rule.

if Brahimi had dived it would have looked like a legit call. It was just the referee compensating him for not diving.

Algerian1:
first congratulation for the world cup qualification and this beautiful serie in this qualification


just wanted to show poeples who attacks the refree for his decision givin a penalty .



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7w-_Q_mvQ

when you see the action in HD and slow motion *0,25 , you will see that brahimi pass the defender and was going to the goal ( pic1 ) , the defender charge him from his back with both hands and try to grab him judo style ( pic 2 ) , and brahimi resist to the charge, stayed on his feet instead of going down but lost the ball . and even when he fall he try to grab the leg of brahimi ( pic 3 )


So even my self if i was the refree i wouldnt give a penalty and i will let the action continue , but the decision of this refree could be justified according to the football rules . the player havnt touch the ball and touch the player ... penalty

goldfish80:

It's academic if you have a team of 18 foreign born players, you will become lazy to develop the home talents. What's the point developing them, when you have an easy way out with the foreign born /developed players?
This becomes a problem when you need to freshen up the team. You have no fall back option, no framework for sustainable development. This could take a full 10 years to reset the system once again.

Ur message is clear and only a dummy would try to misconstrue it. Yes u ain't against bringing in the foreign borns /groomed but then, u also wouldn't want us to overlook those measures that gave birth to our great local players because if we focus only on bringing in the foreign breeds while neglecting the schemes( our league, grassroots etc) that supplies us with talents on daily basis, at the long run, we will suffer for it. This is what I can deduce from ur message.


Now the question is, are we doing enough on the local scene in terms of breeding talents?

Whether the foreign players are better than our local made is a debate for another day. When the time is right for this debate, next question will be "what do we do to produce local players as good as their foreign born counterparts because, of course, there are enormous talents down here?"

Mickael2:



if he starts with that 3-4-3 formation it might get embarrasing for us.

Let me start from the back, our GKs are not confident, a 3man backline requires an active GK but this is the least of our problems.

In the defence you have Awaziem listed as the RCB and Balogun in the LCB spot. I already pointed out that using inverted wingers is a risky biz, you could see that some clearances Aina made in the last match were less than perfect because he was using his weaker foot just like I predicted, now you are playing Awaziem and Balogun, two right-footed CBs, in the LCB and RCB, they will find it hard to make proper clearances(Awaziem most especially) and when you consider the wingers they are about to face......


That brings us to the fullbacks. Aina I am okay with but playing him the LWB formation is wrong, he is going to have a performance similar to the one he had against Algeria, you can see he is quality but he will still struggle. For us to effectively utilise Aina in that left side we need to reach out to his clubside and convince them to play him there a little more often. Then we come to the guy who would lose the most in this formation, Shehu. There is a reason why Azpilicueta does not play the WB role and when he does he is always below average. Shehu is NOT GOOD offensively and his take-on rate is very very poor, crosses too are very very poor(I doubt if he has had one succesful cross throughout the qualifers bar that cutback for Iwobi) and he also does not have the pace. Argentina will have Dybala running across our backline looking for spaces to exploit and Shehu's lack of pace will expose that space perfectly then you may argue that our DMF will cover and that brings us to the midfield....

Ndidi is not an out-and-out DMF so he can not do the work that will be assigned to him which is covering the fullbacks effectively for 90minutes and then we have Ogu who isn't exactly fast. Bear in mind that their CF is Belotti so our central CB will have his hands full so in most cases Ogu will have to fall back and help out thus making room infront of the defence for Banega and the likes to exploit.

top post.
I think you meant perotti not belotti

EXCLUSIVE: Akpeyi, Mikel Return As Super Eagles Play 3-5-2 Vs Russia 27 November 14, 2017 8:46 am
By Johnny Edward:
Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr will deploy a 3-5-2 formation when his side face Argentina in Tuesday’s friendly at the Krasnodar Stadium, Completesportsnigeria.com has been exclusively informed. Rohr is expected to deploy Nantes defender Chidozie Awaziem in a three-man central defence alongside Leon Balogun and William Troost Ekong, a source within the Super Eagles camp told Completesportsnigeria.com. Chippa United’s Daniel Akpeyi will return in goal for the Super Eagles after missing the last four games, with the pair of Ola Aina and Shehu Abdulahi playing as wing-backs. In midfield, captain Mikel Obi will return to the starting line-up after he was rested for the inconsequential World Cup qualifier against Algeria in Constantine last Friday. Mikel is set for his 80th international appearance for the Super Eagles. Mikel will play alongside John Ogu, who scored that brilliant goal against Algeria, and Leicester City’s combative midfielder Wilfred Ndidi in midfield. Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho are expected to pair in attack barring any last minute change. Nigeria have won only one game in seven senior meetings against Argentina since 1994 to date. Super Eagles X1: Akpeyi Balogun, Troost-Ekong, Awaziem Abdullahi, Mikel, Ndidi, Ogu, Aina Iheanacho, Iwobi


completesportsnigeria.com

Joebie:
I'm sure people will want to learn something from you. No valid suggestions yet. We can keep talking all day and not learn anything.

That our league is in a dismal state is known to everyone. So what if we "set shops"? The whole world is setting shops and moving forward. You want to stay backward in order to keep your unreasonable pride? What are you proud of?

It's ironic you think setting up shop in Europe is the new cool. Not when the likes of China, India and even European countries are investing massively in their home grown talent and league.
Your logic of moving forward is in reverse.

ChrisKels:


Ur message is clear and only a dummy would try to misconstrue it. Yes u ain't against bringing in the foreign borns /groomed but then, u also wouldn't want us to overlook those measures that gave birth to our great local players because if we focus only on bringing in the foreign breeds while neglecting the schemes( our league, grassroots etc) that supplies us with talents on daily basis, at the long run, we will suffer for it. This is what I can deduce from ur message.


Now the question is, are we doing enough on the local scene in terms of breeding talents?

Whether the foreign players are better than our local made is a debate for another day. When the time is right for this debate, next question will be "what do we do to produce local players as good as their foreign born counterparts because, of course, there are enormous talents down here?"

Thank goodness someone is getting my argument. Its not as if our homegrown players are doing badly even in the face of the poor framework at home.
The evidence is there in our U17 dominace of the world, our U23's is guaranteed to medal at every other Olympics.We have the best record in African World Cup qualifiers.
I mean a alot of countries will kill to be in our position even "when we grow grey hairs looking for talented kids in Nigeria".

I believe we will be unstoppable in the world if we get our framework right at home. Setting up shop in London or wherever is simplistic and clear lack of vision and understanding of the game.

Algerian1:
first congratulation for the world cup qualification and this beautiful serie in this qualification


just wanted to show poeples who attacks the refree for his decision givin a penalty .



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7w-_Q_mvQ

when you see the action in HD and slow motion *0,25 , you will see that brahimi pass the defender and was going to the goal ( pic1 ) , the defender charge him from his back with both hands and try to grab him judo style ( pic 2 ) , and brahimi resist to the charge, stayed on his feet instead of going down but lost the ball . and even when he fall he try to grab the leg of brahimi ( pic 3 )


So even my self if i was the refree i wouldnt give a penalty and i will let the action continue , but the decision of this refree could be justified according to the football rules . the player havnt touch the ball and touch the player ... penalty

I am sorry my friend, they were both jostling for the ball at that time. If u watch closely, not from frame to frame, you will see that the holdin by shehu was momentary. Even while fallin his hands landed on his leg. Intention is what referees are supposed to look at and not body contact. If i played a clearance shot in front of our goal and the goal keeper came for the ball and caught it. If the referee blows and sees it as a back pass, what would you say? So quite frankly, the referee got it all wrong. There is no justification for that outrightly dubious penalty. To make matters worse, The infringed player was on his feet while the offender was on the floor which was probably as a result of Brahimi stronger than shehu. You dont do that as a referee. I am not saying this because I am a Nigerian. These kinds of decisions have a way of upsettin the balance of play. What if all Nigeria required was a win to progress, and that happened? Lets call a spade a spade and not condone Mediocrity!

The latest from OGN: we will play with a 5-3-2 formation which translates to 3-5-2 when in attack.
I think it is a cautious formation.

okay, let me take it paragraph by paragraph.
Balogun has always played as the LCB. And he and Aina have been assisting themselves there. I think nothing has changed. This is continuity for mastery sake. Awaziem is right-footed, so starting him there is a less risky path.

Ola Aina is even more comfortable as a Wing-Back, than a dedicated Full-back. I know both terms are used interchangeably these days, but you know what I mean. The formation will give him room to roam forward, and that's his strength. We are already developing him well for the LB role, and we don't have to wait for his club to do that first. Not saying I don't want to see him play as RB, but i've already made my position known on that. Now as regards Shehu, let's think Victor Moses here for a better comparison. Moses is a better crosser, granted. Moses is better going forward, also granted. But Moses don't go forward TOO often when playing for Chelsea, and that's because they have dedicated wingers. With this formation, we are playing quite narrow at the front, and that means we will not be depending much on wing play. This could also be a test for Shehu to do more forward with this formation, something he didn't have to do often in our previous formation. I have to check on his pace, as I'm not sure he really lacks that. You could have a point though.

on your last paragraph, I disagree on what you said about Ndidi. Ndidi started out as a CB. Someone even mentioned that he will be a good CB and I had to remind him that he actually started there. Ndidi is as versatile as Mikel, but inferior in passing and ball holding.
Granted, Ogu is slow, but like I said this is a very cautious formation as our defense will have lots of cover. Don't forget that Ogu is quite good defensively, so what we have may be Ndidi, and Ogu sitting back especially when we are not in possession.

Mickael2:



if he starts with that 3-4-3 formation it might get embarrasing for us.

Let me start from the back, our GKs are not confident, a 3man backline requires an active GK but this is the least of our problems.

In the defence you have Awaziem listed as the RCB and Balogun in the LCB spot. I already pointed out that using inverted wingers is a risky biz, you could see that some clearances Aina made in the last match were less than perfect because he was using his weaker foot just like I predicted, now you are playing Awaziem and Balogun, two right-footed CBs, in the LCB and RCB, they will find it hard to make proper clearances(Awaziem most especially) and when you consider the wingers they are about to face......


That brings us to the fullbacks. Aina I am okay with but playing him the LWB formation is wrong, he is going to have a performance similar to the one he had against Algeria, you can see he is quality but he will still struggle. For us to effectively utilise Aina in that left side we need to reach out to his clubside and convince them to play him there a little more often. Then we come to the guy who would lose the most in this formation, Shehu. There is a reason why Azpilicueta does not play the WB role and when he does he is always below average. Shehu is NOT GOOD offensively and his take-on rate is very very poor, crosses too are very very poor(I doubt if he has had one succesful cross throughout the qualifers bar that cutback for Iwobi) and he also does not have the pace. Argentina will have Dybala running across our backline looking for spaces to exploit and Shehu's lack of pace will expose that space perfectly then you may argue that our DMF will cover and that brings us to the midfield....

Ndidi is not an out-and-out DMF so he can not do the work that will be assigned to him which is covering the fullbacks effectively for 90minutes and then we have Ogu who isn't exactly fast. Bear in mind that their CF is Belotti so our central CB will have his hands full so in most cases Ogu will have to fall back and help out thus making room infront of the defence for Banega and the likes to exploit.

goldfish80:

It's academic if you have a team of 18 foreign born players, you will become lazy to develop the home talents. What's the point developing them, when you have an easy way out with the foreign born /developed players?
This becomes a problem when you need to freshen up the team. You have no fall back option, no framework for sustainable development.This could take a full 10 years to reset the system once again.

How many times does your national team play in a year? Your league save for breaks is on throughout the year.
If we remove FB, you'd still have to face the fact that for a long time close to three decade our national team has been dominated by foreign based(not foreign born) and generally we refresh with the foreign based not home based. So saying the bolded is disingenuous. Our system has collapsed long time ago before foreign born players.

lol they are doing both, "setting shops" (take note of the quotes) and developing their leagues.
But we lack a system in everything, cant you see?

goldfish80:

It's ironic you think setting up shop in Europe is the new cool. Not when the likes of China, India and even European countries are investing massively in their home grown talent and league.
Your logic of moving forward is in reverse.

TheGoodJoe:


Your contributions on this matter has raised my respect for you on a large scale. I doubt you are against having foreign groomed talent. Neither am I. However, we need a model to build a real strong base of the team. Promote continuity.

We need to put in conscious efforts to improve our football development here. Relying on a foreign base will leave us with an unsustainable model and keep us behind other great footballing nations.

Exactly my thoughts. Your second paragraph says it all. We run the risk of being perpetually at the mercy of European countries. Our national team will be subject to any change in policy in Europe.

I read this morning the Italians are blaming foreign players in their league for the Azzuri woes. Expect a sweeping change in policy of player recruitment into their various developmental leagues. They could be looking at the possibility of making their developmental leave all Italian.
This will shut the door on more Kingsley Micheals finding their way into Bologna B team. Nothing stops other European countries from copying the system if the Italians succeed.
Anyway, I think enough have been said already.

it's just baffling how people think. That "setting shops" will slow down the development of the league. So all these many years that we have not "set shops", why has the league not developed?

Mujtahida:

How many times does your national team play in a year? Your league save for breaks is on throughout the year.
If we remove FB, you'd still have to face the fact that for a long time close to three decade our national team has been dominated by foreign based(not foreign born) and generally we refresh with the foreign based not home based. So saying the bolded is disingenuous. Our system has collapsed long time ago before foreign born players.

tbaba1234:
Reports from ANS and OGN suggest that Rohr might experiment with 3 at the back in a 3-4-2-1 formation.. Shehu and Aina are tipped to play as wing backs.

..............Akpeyi

Awaziem Balogun Ekong

Shehu Ogu Ndidi Aina

.........Mikel Iwobi

.............Kelechi

This would be very interesting to watch.

How ever, one of the limitations of this formation considering the current structure and composition of the team is there would be so much competition between our full backs and wingers. If we want to set up like this in the World cup, baring any injuries Victor Moses already has one of the Wings back slots. The other Wings back position would battled for by the other RBs and wingers. That would be fierce mennn.

But a major merit is we would optimally utilize the abilities of Iwobi and Mikel.

If Rohr is to set up like this tonight I am even more excited to watch that game.

After all it is a friendly. The only thing at stake is our FIFA ranking.

Patapata, if we lose to Argentina, we make up for it by beating Seychelles in March ie if the CHAN Eagles do not do further damage.

Brazil relying on foreign based has never slowed down their leagues. Or if you are actually talking about the Foreign-borns, is not like we are relying on them. Take a look at our team right now. The majority are not Fbs. How about before now? we've had a couple, one or none, so why havn't we still got it right at the home front? The problem here is that some of you have not identified the real problem. The real problem is our way of doing things. Stay on that argument. Just today alone i've watched commentaries on our poor teachers, and our police as the worse in the world. we can go on... The truth is the common Nigerian is not diligent in his/her work. But they are diligent about getting kickbacks. small money here and there. And that's the same problem you see in administration places. So NFF will have to fix that within their system. As I sit here right now I can suggest a solution to solving our football development problem, but will it be considered? And even if the NFF considers it, will they have the will to execute? The problem with Nigerians is the will power. We have people with bright ideas, most of which will be sidetracked. But if any of them find themselves in the system, there will be no support, or will to execute it. Discuss the main issue and stop blaming our calling up FBs. It's more like blaming the street security personnel for your failing to install security bars in your house.

TheGoodJoe:


Your contributions on this matter has raised my respect for you on a large scale. I doubt you are against having foreign groomed talent. Neither am I. However, we need a model to build a real strong base of the team. Promote continuity.

We need to put in conscious efforts to improve our football development here. Relying on a foreign base will leave us with an unsustainable model and keep us behind other great footballing nations.

Mujtahida:

Maurice Iwu, welcome to our thread.

If i cant do it for Vicmo who else would i do it for?

Btw, i aint a newbie on this thread..

Joebie:
your moniker should be wayodude
I'm sure BBC would figure.

Figure Kwa?
Dem get witch?

Joebie:
lol they are doing both, "setting shops" (take note of the quotes) and developing their leagues.
But we lack a system in everything, cant you see?

Let's take USA as a case study. They have always qualified for the World Cup and even threatened to crack the world cup semis.
With a change in policy masterminded by Klinsmann,they went FB crazy and the result is an American team who cannot beat freaking Trinidad and Tobago to qualify for the World Cup, a nation of 3 million people?!

Do you know there are more Americans shopping in Walmart in rush hour, than the entire population of Trinidad and Tobago?

You will get this sort of embarrassment when you stop developing your own in pursuit of foreign developed players.

Lol, the MLS has always been solid relatively speaking. Klinsmann went for the best. His best wasn't good enough. They resorted to more home-based players but still failed to qualify. Chasing shadows. Even South Africa with a solid league and dependence on home based players failed to qualify. Either way they could have still failed. Stop blaming "the pursuit".

Modified
So the US stopped developing their own abi? hahahah

goldfish80:


Let's take USA as a case study. They have always qualified for the World Cup and even threatened to crack the world cup semis.
With a change in policy masterminded by Klinsmann,they went FB crazy and the result is an American team who cannot beat freaking Trinidad and Tobago to qualify for the World Cup, a nation of 3 million people?!

Do you know there are more Americans shopping in Walmart in rush hour, than the entire population of Trinidad and Tobago?

You will get this sort of embarrassment when you stop developing your own in pursuit of foreign developed players.

Joebie:
it's just baffling how people think. That "setting shops" will slow down the development of the league. So all these many years that we have not "set shops", why has the league not developed?

That's the question no one has answered.

Joebie:
The latest from OGN: we will play with a 5-3-2 formation which translates to 3-5-2 when in attack.
I think it is a cautious formation.

okay, let me take it paragraph by paragraph.
Balogun has always played as the LCB. And he and Aina have been assisting themselves there. I think nothing has changed. This is continuity for mastery sake. Awaziem is right-footed, so starting him there is a less risky path.

Ola Aina is even more comfortable as a Wing-Back, than a dedicated Full-back. I know both terms are used interchangeably these days, but you know what I mean. The formation will give him room to roam forward, and that's his strength. We are already developing him well for the LB role, and we don't have to wait for his club to do that first. Not saying I don't want to see him play as RB, but i've already made my position known on that. Now as regards Shehu, let's think Victor Moses here for a better comparison. Moses is a better crosser, granted. Moses is better going forward, also granted. But Moses don't go forward TOO often when playing for Chelsea, and that's because they have dedicated wingers. With this formation, we are playing quite narrow at the front, and that means we will not be depending much on wing play. This could also be a test for Shehu to do more forward with this formation, something he didn't have to do often in our previous formation. I have to check on his pace, as I'm not sure he really lacks that. You could have a point though.

on your last paragraph, I disagree on what you said about Ndidi. Ndidi started out as a CB. Someone even mentioned that he will be a good CB and I had to remind him that he actually started there. Ndidi is as versatile as Mikel, but inferior in passing and ball holding.
Granted, Ogu is slow, but like I said this is a very cautious formation as our defense will have lots of cover. Don't forget that Ogu is quite good defensively, so what we have may be Ndidi, and Ogu sitting back especially when we are not in possession.

Paragraph by paragraph too.

Balogun and Aina played together on the leftside for the first time against Algeria, safe to say that our leftside nearly cost us that match, they created two good chances from the leftside. You are misunderstanding the dynamics here, these are two right-footed players on the leftside of our defence which(just like against Algeria) will leave spaces for opponents to exploit. Awaziem starting there is ofcourse not a problem but I would start Shehu there,I will get to that.


Aina ofcourse is a fantastic wingback we all know that, infact he isn't even a fullback but a wingback BUT on the leftside he will be limited that's my point. Also you cannot teach him how to play with his weaker foot when you only train him for a maximum for 2months in a year, his club needs to help, why do you think national team coaches visit clubsides? Like you pointed out, our forward line is going to be very narrow which means Shehu will mainly provide width not even defending, you cannot play a 3-4-3 without true wingers and expect the wingbacks to sit back except you are parking a serious truck, in a friendly that would be shameful. Worst still if Shehu has to concetrate mainly on defence it would require him to bomb forward during counter attacks, where is the pace? When you consider that Mikel is our AMF you see how much extra pace is needed up front and Shehu does not have that, don't get me started on his ability to take on players or his crosses. You cannot use Moses as an example here because Pedro is always infront of him, a true winger so he can choose when to run forward, but who is infront of Shehu? Probably Iwobi, that's all you need to know.


You did not get my point here. I am not doubting his defensive abilities(Ndidi), I am doubting his ability to sit and cover the fullbacks. In his club what he does is run around the midfield like crazy and win the ball back whenever he can, he is not instructed to be disciplined in his clubside which is the only good thing Chelsea did for Mikel. So in this formation it is easy to see that Ogu will be the Matic kinda guy here, you only need to check out Dybala's top speed and you will understand my reservations.

SerVik:
top post. I think you meant perotti not belotti

exactly, thanks a lot. All these tti tti go confuse person

jobsat34:

If i cant do it for Vicmo who else would i do it for?
Btw, i aint a newbie on this thread..

I'm just teasing you. I've voted for him too

goldfish80:

It's academic if you have a team of 18 foreign born players, you will become lazy to develop the home talents. What's the point developing them, when you have an easy way out with the foreign born /developed players?
This becomes a problem when you need to freshen up the team. You have no fall back option, no framework for sustainable development.This could take a full 10 years to reset the system once again.

How many times does your national team play in a year? Your league- save for breaks- is on throughout the year.
If we remove FB, you'd still have to face the fact that for a long time close to three decade our national team has been dominated by foreign based(not foreign born) and generally we refresh with the foreign based not home based. So saying the bolded is disingenuous. Our system has collapsed long time ago before foreign born players.

goldfish80:

It's ironic you think setting up shop in Europe is the new cool. Not when the likes of China, India and even European countries are investing massively in their home grown talent and league.
Your logic of moving forward is in reverse.

The point is that having foreign born players in your team doesn't stop you from developing your league. Why is this point so difficult to see? OK to make the point clear, remove foreign borns, what do you see? Please tell me what you see

DSTv won't show this match.and I don't have that much data to stream from beIN sports ..

Okay let me repeat, we will be playing with a 5-3-2/3-5-2, not 3-4-3. So it is a cautious approach. I see lots of cover in defense, but not much intent going forward with this formation considering our personnel.

Balogun has always played at LCB. Nothing new. The only thing is he will be playing with a right-footed LB once again. Aina is not poor with his left, but his right is his stronger foot. Now let's talk about those two chances. Are you speaking about the crosses that went past him or when he played the ball away to safety for the corners? Aina is good in man marking. You can see how he marked out Mahrez. The removal of Mahrez was a perfect strategy. And the player who came in must have been instructed to cross and not try to beat Aina. How about we wait to see Aina again today before we make a conclusion? Yes Aina being played there in his club would help him get even better quickly at LB, but don't forget that Aina is a stop gap solution to our LB problem. Yes, and Idowu should get his chance today. I have already made my point that Balogun helped Aina against Algeria, and Aina also did his share helping Balogun, although not excellently well. Shehu wasn't very impressive at first when we played him as a RB. So let's expect Aina to improve there.

Shehu will defend, at least that's what the formation suggests and that is his asset. He MAY not go forward much. But the instruction could be for him to go forward more. Let me repeat what I already said. We had dedicated wingers in the past, so Shehu's support at the front wasn't needed much. So he could have been playing to instruction before now. Let's see how our analysis will pan out tonight.

As regards Ndidi, Mikel did not lose his AM capabilities in Chelsea. Likewise I expect Ndidi to play to his potentials as a DMF -- Leicester or not.
I see both Ndidi and Ogu sitting back in a defensive double pivot way when we are defending such that Awaziem and Balogun could even support the wide areas should our wingbacks be caught napping. I want to think that's how the 3CB formation works.

Again I want to say this is a defensive formation, a cautious way to start the game. I expect Rohr to change things in the second half with substitutions

Mickael2:



Paragraph by paragraph too.

Balogun and Aina played together on the leftside for the first time against Algeria, safe to say that our leftside nearly cost us that match, they created two good chances from the leftside. You are misunderstanding the dynamics here, these are two right-footed players on the leftside of our defence which(just like against Algeria) will leave spaces for opponents to exploit. Awaziem starting there is ofcourse not a problem but I would start Shehu there,I will get to that.


Aina ofcourse is a fantastic wingback we all know that, infact he isn't even a fullback but a wingback BUT on the leftside he will be limited that's my point. Also you cannot teach him how to play with his weaker foot when you only train him for a maximum for 2months in a year, his club needs to help, why do you think national team coaches visit clubsides? Like you pointed out, our forward line is going to be very narrow which means Shehu will mainly provide width not even defending, you cannot play a 3-4-3 without true wingers and expect the wingbacks to sit back except you are parking a serious truck, in a friendly that would be shameful. Worst still if Shehu has to concetrate mainly on defence it would require him to bomb forward during counter attacks, where is the pace? When you consider that Mikel is our AMF you see how much extra pace is needed up front and Shehu does not have that, don't get me started on his ability to take on players or his crosses. You cannot use Moses as an example here because Pedro is always infront of him, a true winger so he can choose when to run forward, but who is infront of Shehu? Probably Iwobi, that's all you need to know.


You did not get my point here. I am not doubting his defensive abilities(Ndidi), I am doubting his ability to sit and cover the fullbacks. In his club what he does is run around the midfield like crazy and win the ball back whenever he can, he is not instructed to be disciplined in his clubside which is the only good thing Chelsea did for Mikel. So in this formation it is easy to see that Ogu will be the Matic kinda guy here, you only need to check out Dybala's top speed and you will understand my reservations.

Icon4s:


This would be very interesting to watch.

How ever, one of the limitations of this formation considering the current structure and composition of the team is there would be so much competition between our full backs and wingers. If we want to set up like this in the World cup, baring any injuries Victor Moses already has one of the Wings back slots. The other Wings back position would battled for by the other RBs and wingers. That would be fierce mennn.

But a major merit is we would optimally utilize the abilities of Iwobi and Mikel.

If Rohr is to set up like this tonight I am even more excited to watch that game.

After all it is a friendly. The only thing at stake is our FIFA ranking.

Patapata, if we lose to Argentina, we make up for it by beating Seychelles in March ie if the CHAN Eagles do not do further damage.

Amaju Pinnick is proposing that the window in March should be used by World Cup bound teams to prepare for the World Cup and that the Afcon qualifiers should be shifted to after the world cup. The Caf committee will meet next week or so