hahaha, semi final ko,  this team is garbage

mama-gee:

Obafemi Martins and Peter Odemwingie are youths but they are not that dumb!

He backed up all the yellow cards in the match and set out to make flimsy mistakes.

lol,

~Sauron~:

Obasi, Odiah, Nsofor and Kaita should take a hard look at themselves.
They were spineless throughout. Someone should please tell Taiye Taiwo to buy some football sense. . . . . .
A beast of a player but he doesn't use his strength to the team's advantage.

Osaze could have just squared the ball to Martins and we woulda equalised.

We missed Mikel Obi today.
I think his passes woulda helped the attack more.

If I had one wish, Ild ask for Jayjay, oh ok, two wishes, Jayjay and Yekini!

proudly9ja:

If I had one wish, Ild ask for Jayjay, oh ok, two wishes, Jayjay and Yekini!

Let me add 2 more wishes- Finidi on one wing and Amunike on the other. Kai!

Obafemi Martins needs to start in the next match

the super shitgles

SapeleGuy:

Tell the truth and shame the devil. There was no pace, no depth, no ideas, no patriotism, no skill, no invention. Our team was a disgrace. In fact i don't think you will see a bunch of weaker or more effeminate players in this tournament.

Lagerback is bloody useless, but inferiority complex will not allow you people to tell the truth. In what way was this performance better than Amodu's?

medjai:

@ sapele guy
u're so right. Lagerback is bleeping clueless. There was no purpose and urgency. It was like we were playing not to play. Amodu would have performed better. Even if we couldnt close down the Argies we would have defended doggedly but we did nada! The midfield was not existing. Etuhu was drowned in the game. Lagerback didnt even know what to do. He was just looking difident and hopeless

I would be so hard on Lagerbeer. He is not a magician. what is he going to come and do under 5 months?

I said it that before that our players are mediocre and our problem was not the coach. The problem was:

"I came up with the conclusion from what I saw in our games that these are the problems and definitely not the coach:

[list]
[li]Commitment - Our players show no hunger and commitment on the pitch like if they are ready to die on the pitch. This a coach needs time to develop AND SUSTAIN, we saw glimpses of it when we needed to score Tunisia and Mozambique in Abuja and against Kenya in Nairobi. It is hard to achieve and sustain, and harder to achieve with black Africans. Hardest with "I am too important" mentally-caused Nigerians.[/li]
[li]Creativity - There is no creative player that has a Nigerian passport at the moment that is known to be able to play at that level. Hence commitment above becomes more important with the use of people like Odems to do what they can with creativity.[/li]
[li]A Leader - Very few teams win anything without an obvious leader in the team. We have no Drogba, Essien, Etoo that can change a game in an instance, motivate or carry the team. The closest we have is Kanu, but he can not play more than 25 mins because he is 55 years old. Yobo is not an inspirational leader but is the captain as Odems does not have the charisma to carry that clout.[/li]
[/list]"

These are things that take time to resolve, not Amodu despite whatever minute short-comings he had.

I am looking at highlights again on ITV.

Whilst our players are shoving around on one spot when the Argies have the ball, World player of the year and other world class players are chasing like dogs before the ball even touches our players leg before they recieve a pass.

Sagamite:

I am looking at highlights again on ITV.

Whilst our players are shoving around on one spot when the Argies have the ball, World player of the year and other world class players are chasing like dogs before the ball even touches our players leg before they recieve a pass.

I tell you why I say Lagerbeer is useless. You do not play zoning system like robots, for set pieces you have to pick up the runners, thats why heinze had a free header. Anyway whats happened to you why are you feeling sorry for Lagerbeer. Before before nah thunder you for take fire am.

~Sauron~:

Obasi, Odiah, Nsofor and Kaita should take a hard look at themselves.
They were spineless throughout. Someone should please tell Taiye Taiwo to buy some football sense. . . . . .
A beast of a player but he doesn't use his strength to the team's advantage.

You are now just talking.

Obasi with skills but plays headlessly attackingwise like TT does defensivewise most times. He lacks a football brain.

SapeleGuy:

I tell you why I say Lagerbeer is useless. You do not play zoning system like robots, for set pieces you have to pick up the runners, thats why heinze had a free header. Anyway whats happened to you why are you feeling sorry for Lagerbeer. Before before nah thunder you for take fire am.

I can't judge a man that has not been given an environment to give his best.

My gripe with some here is their weak attempt to quickly claim improvement when there is none.

Sagamite:

I am looking at highlights again on ITV.

Whilst our players are shoving around on one spot when the Argies have the ball, World player of the year and other world class players are chasing like dogs before the ball even touches our players leg before they recieve a pass.

I hope you are not just noticing it in the highlights; I have been saying the same thing from the beginning of the game.

[img]http://flagcounter.com/count/Nsu/bg=E1E8E1/txt=E1E8E1/border=E1E8E1/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=1/[/img][img]http://2.s01.flagcounter.com/count/Nsu/bg=E1E8E1/txt=E1E8E1/border=E1E8E1/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=1/[/img][img]http://states.flagcounter.com/count/q0/bg=E1E8E1/txt=E1E8E1/border=E1E8E1/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=1/[/img]
theyll beat greece

CLT123:

Obafemi Martins needs to start in the next match

Exactly!

He's the only player except the goalkeeper that looked hungry for victory, other sucked.

With those terrifying shots!

samdigo:

the super shitgles

Sagamite:

I can't judge a man that has not been given an environment to give his best.

My gripe with some here is their weak attempt to quickly claim improvement when there is none.

You don't need 5 months to teach your players that they should pursue the opponents and pressure them when they have the ball. I can teach that in one training session.

mama-gee:

Exactly!

He's the only player except the goalkeeper that looked hungry for victory, other sucked.

With those terrifying shots!

You are right; the other players sucked. They came to admire Messi, not to play.

Princek12:

You are right; the other players sucked. They came to admire Messi, not to play.

The most unserious player amongst all was Joseph Yobo.

He looked so unserious that I began doubting he was a captain of the team.

Princek12:

I hope you are not just noticing it in the highlights; I have been saying the same thing from the beginning of the game.

I have said it too. Just saying it to nudge some living in the UK to watch and notice too.

YOU NEED TO PUT PRESSURE ON OPPONENTS. Not give them the space to put on the kettle and have a cupa tea before deciding what to do with the ball. They will give you problems like the heart attack moments we had today that Enyeama saved our skin.

Princek12:

You don't need 5 months to teach your players that they should pursue the opponents and pressure them when they have the ball. I can teach that in one training session.

As I said before, to teach that kind of thing to a NAIJA player with their bigmanism and fine boy on the pitch, and to let it sink in and turn to a habit takes time (years) and several iterations of stating and punishing for not being done.

With the time he has, he can only get to a stage when they do it in one game and the next they will forget.

'Our players were scared even before the whitsle was blown

I am sorry there is no point hiring Lagerback. He did not show any tactical expertise at all.

Amodu would have produced this kind of performance

Siasia would have produced a better performance

So what was the point of Lagerback.

He does not even know our best players.'






mketasy, u r talking as if u didnt watch d match. i say they posted a good performance.

The Argentine team that played us today isn't much different from their Olympics team and they didn't completely outplay, peg and dominate us then like they did today. 3/4 of the time, we were just chasing shadows.

Having said this. . .there are too many fundamental flaws in our game.

- We play at a very slow pace
- We don't close down spaces of opponents
- We unconsciously fall back, defend too deep in our own half and easily concede dictating the game to our opponents as if we're content with      chasing the ball. . . .as in, we just don't fight and battle for the control of the midfield. WE ALWAYS CONCEDE IT TO OUR OPPONENTS.
- Our players don't make runs and position themselves off the ball
- We only mark opposing players when they're with the ball and don't close them down on time etc etc etc

I nor just understand. Shey na just Naija mentality or our players are too old and lack the physical fitness to play an intense fast-paced pressure type of football?

semid4lyfe:

The Argentine team that played us today isn't much different from their Olympics team and they didn't completely outplay, peg and dominate us then like they did today. 3/4 of the time, we were just chasing shadows.

Having said this. . .there are too many fundamental flaws in our game.

- We play at a very slow pace
- We don't close down spaces of opponents
- We unconsciously fall back, defend too deep in our own half and easily concede dictating the game to our opponents as if we're content   with      chasing the ball. . . .as in we just don't fight and battle for the control of the midfield. WE ALWAYS CONCEDE IT TO OUR OPPONENTS.
- Our players don't make runs and position themselves off the ball
- We only mark opposing players when they're with the ball and don't close them down on time etc etc etc

I nor just understand. Shey na just Naija mentality or our players are too old and lack the physical fitness to play an intense fast-paced pressure type of football?

Brilliant post.

I don't see how some people would say they did not see these listed today and say it was a tactical match where we improved.

Admittedly, all the stated existed under Amodu but as I repeatedly said, it is NAIJA MENTALITY and it takes time to deal with it.

Let me add as well how our full backs were constantly being sucked to the centre when they don't need to and then leaving an opposition player to stay wide which the Argentines did not exploit enough.

TT was mainly guilty of this, some how he wants to join a headless 3 SE players chasing Messi and then you see him struggling to get back wide when Arg spread th ball to the wing. Thank god Yobo and Shittu are 6' 2 and 3, we would have been punished.

GREAT GAME BY ARGENTINA, BEST TEAM BY A MILE. THEY DOMINATED POSSESSION AND HELD ON TO THE BALL VERY WELL.

ON ANOTHER SERIOUS NOTE, AFRICAN TEAMS ARE NOT GOOD WITH SET PIECES.

nice play, they tried there best

Brilliant post.

I don't see how some people would say they did not see these listed today and say it was a tactical match where we improved.

Admittedly, all the stated existed under Amodu but as I repeatedly said, it is NAIJA MENTALITY and it takes time to deal with it.

Not sure I agree with you it's a NAIJA MENTALITY. Instead I'll say it's a Super Eagles Mentality cos our junior teams. . .Holland 2005, Beijing 2008, and U-17's (Tella's and Obuh's) and even Siasia's Egypt 2009 U-21's didn't/don't play this way. They were very combative, full of running, closed down spaces and marked their opponents. I don't know why it's different with the Senior team.  

Let me add as well how our full backs were constantly being sucked to the centre when they don't need to and then leaving an opposition player to stay wide which the Argentines did not exploit enough.
TT was mainly guilty of this, some how he wants to join a headless 3 SE players chasing Messi and then you see him struggling to get back wide when Arg spread the ball to the wing. Thank god Yobo and Shittu are 6' 2 and 3, we would have been punished.

Very true!

semid4lyfe:

The Argentine team that played us today isn't much different from their Olympics team and they didn't completely outplay, peg and dominate us then like they did today. 3/4 of the time, we were just chasing shadows.

Having said this. . .there are too many fundamental flaws in our game.

- We play at a very slow pace
- We don't close down spaces of opponents
- We unconsciously fall back, defend too deep in our own half and easily concede dictating the game to our opponents as if we're content with      chasing the ball. . . .as in, we just don't fight and battle for the control of the midfield. WE ALWAYS CONCEDE IT TO OUR OPPONENTS.
- Our players don't make runs and position themselves off the ball
- We only mark opposing players when they're with the ball and don't close them down on time etc etc etc

I nor just understand. Shey na just Naija mentality or our players are too old and lack the physical fitness to play an intense fast-paced pressure type of football?

Not totally true. The Argentine olympics team has grown in experience in those two years, ours obviously have not!
And that's my grouse with Amodu. He had over a year with these boys and there was no improvement.

However, I remember I adviced last year that Amodu be fired before the Nations cup and that if that was not done, we should let him take the boys to the world cup.
My arguement at that time was that if we allowed the new coach (foreign or home based) take the boys to the Nation's Cup, whatever mistakes he made would be corrected before the world cup. Unfortunately, Lagerback has not had that opportunity to watch these boys in a proper competition. Like I said in an earlier post, I have seen his team improve in every game since the first game against the Saudis. I am willing to give him the benefit of doubt and wait till we play Greece and Korea.

Whichever ways, I still expect that Lagerback will be sacked after the World Cup and a local based coach (maybe Siasia) brought in who will then lead the Eagles to the 2012 Nation's Cup (if we qualify) and then will be sacked after that cos we won't win it and a foreign coach hired again. Its the Naija way!

Bottom line is we are not producing players like we used to. Now our U17s are 30 year olds who have reached the peak of their games.

We need a coach who will be allowed to work on the long term say between now and the next world cup. Let him work with both home based and foreign based professionals. They don't even have to be from the Overaged youth teams we parade. They just have to be players who will work together, blend together and play as a team for a long time.

Now a whiteman does the same thing, they see nothing wrong with it. Their criticisms disappear.

Its not about the skin color its abt what people see

Berti Vogts was fircely criticised by Nigerians

ANyone who said we played better vs Argentina in 2002 obviously just started watching football

Some of the criticisms on this forum have been too harsh and unfair. The truth is we didn't prepare as well as we should have for this worls cup and infact given the performance today I'd say we were decent for our level of preparation and quality of players.
Lagerback is not our problem. We (players,administrators) are at the root of the SE poor showing. If anything I was impressed by the confidence from the bench to change things around (Amodu's biggest problem) and to make a tactical switch when TT got injured(Amodu only ever made straight swops as Nigerian coach(from his first spell in 1995 till his latest spell).

Am proud the nigerian team. The have improved a lot.

No matter what happens in this tournament, I say Lagerback should not be fired. He should stay on till the next world cup. The coach is not the problem. We don't have good players anymore.

Any serious attempt at solving the Super Eagles problems must start with TALENT SEARCH.
There are certain positions in which Nigeria has never produced a legend before.

The only position we produced a legend for is the number 10 and that is Jay Jay Okocha.
We need legends in 9, 11, 5, 7 and of course 10.
We can manage with any average player for other positions.

We need to produce a George Weah, Roger Milla, or Samuel Eto in position 9.
We also need Okocha's replacement at 10.

For us to talk about mounting a serious challenge for the next world cup, we must get those players immediately after this world cup.
With the exception of Vincent Enyeama, none of the current players would make my team.
Until we get those players, the Super Eagles will remain mediocre. If Lagerback must be fired, it should be because he failed to get those new players as he promised during his interview.