Minatouchiha:
Which deep? Abi ma another ball dis wan de talk of? U guys were defending upandan.

achimendy:




The performance they put up in that final was trash, except you just started watching football yesterday.

gigabyte13:


So what is the explanation for the defeat they suffer in the hands of the Guinea with that wide margin 4good goals with their WORLD CLASS PLAYERS AGAINST CLASSLESS GUINEA.

Kessie plays in the Saudi league now, l guess
He couldn't hold a starter shirt at AC Milan and Barcelona.
Pepe couldn't even keep an arsenal shirt
Haller and lukman are not mate when it comes to goal scoring going by current form.
Haller was the reason Dortmund loss the bundesliga last season against mainz.
Aurer is past his prime. He couldn't hold a starter shirt at PSG and Tottenham

The NIGERIAN side was just not tactically there on the final.
There is/was nothing special in the ivorien
Absolutely, nothing special.

Quest7777:
Abeg forget tactics. You guys tried but Ivory Coast was simply better in that Final - either because of their home advantage or the extra motivation they had by the miraculous way they qualified from the Group.

We played against 12men in that Final.
I strongly believe we would have won any other country aside Ivory Coast in that Final.

Laurene:
Defeats do occur in matches... Varieties of conditions could have made them lose 4 nil to Equatorial Guinea.

Seriously? Haller had testicular cancer and he beat it... I think that contributed to some of his below par performances. Dude was fire in Ajax.
Haller is better than Lookman; his control, mentality and finishing from critical positions... No argument.

And who told you Equatorial Guinea is classless? Most of their goals were scored by Emilio Nsue, who's a top flight player. They were one of the best teams in the tournament. Some of their players still play for Top European teams so don't label them as classless.

Stop guessing, players mostly went to the Saudi league for the bag... Check Neymar and Mane. Those players are doing exceptionally well. Anytime they return to Europe they'll bench lots of players still.

VeeVeeMyLuv:

Yea I concur

We are almost saying the same thing

Though your submission/analysis is far more accurate and precise than mine. Our lone striker was severely isolated.

comodo:

Calm your emotions. He was only feeding on crumbs. So pls cut him some slack. Conceding that MF to CIV was our undoing. Our game plan was dissected by SA and we were lucky to have escaped. And he deployed the same formation in the finals. Who does that. Even didn't switch tactics immediately we got the goal. Putting the whole team under pressure.

Timoleon:

Haller did not play in the group stage. In the two matches he started, he scored. The semifinals and the finals. Osimehn started every match and has fewer goals than Haller

Laurene:
Defeats do occur in matches... Varieties of conditions could have made them lose 4 nil to Equatorial Guinea.

Seriously? Haller had testicular cancer and he beat it... I think that contributed to some of his below par performances. Dude was fire in Ajax.
Haller is better than Lookman; his control, mentality and finishing from critical positions... No argument.

And who told you Equatorial Guinea is classless? Most of their goals were scored by Emilio Nsue, who's a top flight player. They were one of the best teams in the tournament. Some of their players still play for Top European teams so don't label them as classless.

Stop guessing, players mostly went to the Saudi league for the bag... Check Neymar and Mane. Those players are doing exceptionally well. Anytime they return to Europe they'll bench lots of players still.

ladgentle:


I don't see anything wrong in what majority of people on this thread have been saying. We got our tactics all wrong against CIV. And if we don't analyze and see what adjustments to make now, it might cost us our chances of qualifying for the world cup when we meet SA June 3 later on this year.

Laurene:
Besides Osimhen, who else is world-class in Nigeria squad? From the attack to defense?

Nicholas Pepe was once 1 player of year and highest goalscorer in Lille when they won the league even though he might have fallen off now.

Sebastien Haller is also terrific. He won player of the month severally in Dortmund and also appeared on Bundesliga team of the season.
He was much better in Ajax, being the highest goal scorer. Cancer only slowed his pace.

Willy Boly was also spectacular in his prime then in Manchester city.

Serge Aurier was one of the best wingbacks in Premier league.

Franck Kessie? On fire! He was one of the best players in AC Milan

Jean Michael Seri?
Seko Fofana?
Jonathan Bamba?
Ismael Diallo?
Max Gradel?

Swanzi:







My grandfathers won four Afcon…! What were ur lazy grand-fathers doing

Timoleon:

Haller did not play in the group stage. In the two matches he started, he scored. The semifinals and the finals. Osimehn started every match and has fewer goals than Haller

gigabyte13:




Emilio Incase you are not aware is a natural right back, he is a defender for his club.
You can Google that.
He was just a make shift striker in this tournament.
A defender scoring an hat trick against a world class team, isn't that funny enough.

I insist there is nothing classy about the ivorien s.
If it were Didier Drogbas set of ivory coast, then you can talk about world class. But this very one na na na.
I insist they were the better side against Nigeria but , they are still average players, nothing classy about them.

But if truly you are a lady, l enjoyed your knowledge of football.
I do like ladies that have such knowledge
#RESPECT#

Jeferious:
Ndicka That guy is a low-key beast. A monster of a defender. As big as Osimhen was, he ate him alive

lexy2014:

Omeruo said it all. because the coach was not interested in goals. his tactics was to sit deep and defend. the clown had the best player in Africa in his team who was able to manage just one goal. instead of unleashing him on opponents defences, he caged the guys ability by making him defend for almost 80% of games.

Laurene:
I never mentioned Emilio's field position... I was only reiterating his world class position rather.

What some of the Ivoriens need is just more name recognition.
Aubameyang won player of the year in Germany, England and Africa, do you think Gabonese team is world class?

When was the last time a Nigerian won African best player until last year?
In conclusion: There's no clear criteria/yardstick to measure the state of being world class.

And Thanks for the compliments.

Timoleon:


That's what deep means in football. To play defense.

Laurene:
Osimhen ain't big, he's just tall and fit!
And Ndicka is actually good... At least in this tournament.

Timeshalltell:
Your grandfathers? You will never witness Ghana win an AFCON, I have witnessed Nigeria win AFCON and in 2 years I will witness another AFCON win. POOR FOOL

Quest7777:
Abeg forget tactics. You guys tried but Ivory Coast was simply better in that Final - either because of their home advantage or the extra motivation they had by the miraculous way they qualified from the Group.

We played against 12men in that Final.
I strongly believe we would have won any other country aside Ivory Coast in that Final.

hilaryCU:
Homegrown or home based?

Beverlyjean:


It's not by scouts... there's also a reason y teams in South America invite the foreign based players in Europe than their own league ... Europe carves out the best of the best ...and will bring out the best version of u as a player ... u think players like Ekong , oshimhen lookman would have been this good if they were still playing in our local league ...

Seagodess:
Make home grown win chan first..ndeara

Beverlyjean:


Home grown talents would have knocked us out in the group stage.... our league is not technically sound... its not by the local players being hungry for success to sell themselves.... its about technical abilities... u cant sell a rough diamond...u need to shine and cut it to be attractive for sale.. no one can run faster than their legs .... all the so call small teams that always underperformed in previous tournaments, did well this time cos their players noe play in foreign leagues unlike b4 when they were local league players ... only Egypt, Morocco and South Africa can boast of a standard league in Africa

Gboyeee:


Thanks for saying the truth. 5-2-3 useless formation. How do you expect 2 midfielders to be creative enough for the strikers. Never iwobi’s fault.plenty people don’t understand football

Kingrshd3:
This guy dey yarn dust because to me all the matches they won are all by luck and in the finals the luck ran away..


because the highest goal they scored in all matches is just 1 goal 🥅

So luck is all around u

CyberWolf:
that’s not correct, what he played was 3-4-2-1 formation, that’s why Osimhen was isolated upfront without a support which of course, pose no threat to the Ivorians defence thus, they came out fully to attack SE while SE kept defending hoping for a chance for counter attack. That’s a typical Mourinho tactic which is outdated. 4-4-2 formation would’ve been the best, we have fast wingers and striker but the coach failed to use that.