₦airaland Forum

A40:
Really? You brought 1 player who has a better goal ratio in a tiny sample size of league games as proof that current strikers are doing far better.

A player that is only playing in the league mind you


You named Isak. What are his exploits outside Newcastle, players that have literally done nothing for club and country. I didn't see Sweden at the last Euros. Why?

Name the so called strikers today bar Haaland and what they've done in elite Europe. What titles are they driving their teams to. Since you want measurables

Who are the out and out strikers leading and deciding titles for their teams in today's games. You dey call Isak and Ollie Watkins

So it is now about mentioning another player not named Isak right? Remember what led to this discussion was u dropping a video compilation trying to prove that there aren't strikers who are as skillful as Drogba was shown in the video clip.

That was the reason I mentioned Isak to show u that indeed there are strikers who score as much as Drogba did and still possess skills that u are trying to use to prop Drogba.

Talking about out and out strikers who are proven goal scorers, is Lewandoski as Efiggy ? Is Luiz Suarez a goal keeper?

All these talk about past players being the best thing after slice bread, it's just nostalgia at work and nothing else. There will always be players in the future that will play better than and break records of past players.

Unlimited22:
Lol my guy. No allow stanship choke your neck.
There's a reason Havertz has been chased away from midfield at every club he's played in

So Havertz played the whole midfield alone to make Arsenal's midfield better than Chelsea's own?

Haba now, my guy

Lolz.

Let him be whining himself. He said Havertz made Arsenal midfield solid ; Somebody that was chased upfront to allow real midfielders do their job while he feeds off their hardwork. Sometimes he will still play shot directly at goalkeeper after those ones must have toiled in midfield and set him up to score cheap goals. The Same Havertz that can't even pass well; in fact he doesn't have the passing ability of any of our midfielders. Wingers like Trossard even play midfield better than Havertz the so called solid midfielder.

swiz123:
Havertz plays rubbish in midfield but somehow, Arsenal's midfield was solid and miles better than Chelsea's in 2023. Continue backstabbing your players just to conform to a baseless opinion.

This ur submission just shows u don't watch Arsenal matches

Havertz made Arssenal midfield solid? Lmao

swiz123:
Take your trash and feed it to your low IQ sheep. Havertz was solid for Arsenal as a midfielder and above average as a false 9. He is not a striker and I am sure you can see that clearly even in your foolishness.

Each time Havertz plays in midfield in Arsenal colors he plays rubbish ; he's an average false 9 at best.

If you dispute this, please mention 5 games u watched him play for Arsenal as a midfielder and he was solid.

This is what happens when u allow bitterness to consume u , refuse to take criticism and go all out attacking the messenger instead of focusing on the message.

Peter Obi called the APC government out for their poverty inducing policies that has continued to throw more Nigerians further below poverty line. He called out the government over food inflation, insecurity and other myriads of problems bedeviling the country under the leadership of the APC government. That is the job of opposition, not to praise-sing the government of the day while majority of the people are groaning under the hardship foisted on them by the government's policies.

Instead of the government taking the criticism with the view of solving some of those highlighted problem, they send the publicity secretary of the party to a media house to start attacking the messenger. In his rabid bid to serve his pay masters he ended up saying disgraceful things which sounded like threat against the person of Peter Obi.

Instead of apologizing and withdrawing those shameful things he said, he is still busy grandstanding and claiming he was wrongly accused. Smh.

It's really not these people's fault tho, It's the fault of people who put such despicable characters in position of authority.

Ibime:
He's a generational flop as a midfielder everywhere he went with his only redeeming quality being an average striker, so you are only compounding your foolishness. Which team will accept Havertz as midfielder in this day and age. You were scammed and bamboozled by Leverkusen who played him as a striker most times and scammed the world by selling him to be a goalscoring midfielder. He has zero skillset of a midfielder

Havertz is not even generational anything ;He's just an average player

popizaino:
Should a country's law supercede regional law?

Most countries don't just adopt international treaties/agreements just like that. Most countries would have to make the international treaty pass through their legislature before such international treaties/agreements becomes law in their country.

I don't have an inkling about the Legal frame work/legal system of Republic of Benin as it concerns trade agreements in the West African region, but I won't be surprised if their local laws don't agree with some of those trade agreeements. Maybe that's why u get smooth passage of goods through other countries within the corridor while the opposite is the case in Benin.

popizaino:
I am of the opinion that you can still use 4-4-2 to your own advantage. 4-3-3 is not the only formation to winning or scoring more goals if you know what you are doing as a coach.

There are various formations coaches use nowadays that have rendered 4-4-2 obsolete.

While u have 4 players in midfield using 4-4-2, the teams using 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, 3-4-2-1, etc will overload midfield and overwhelm ur players . Nobody will tell u to ditch 4-4-2 when u see that ur two front men rarely get served becuase ur 4 midielders lose the midfield battle almost at every point in the game.

popizaino:
Do you realise that there are some tiny details that determines goals,like goalkeeper playing out from the back in these has caused so many errors leading to cheap goals for some of this recent attackers?
Do you also realise that 4-4-2 formation was the common and preferred formation with most teams,were the goal scoring duty are shared by two strikers unlike now which is one.

The scoring more of recent strikers is not due to anything but this fact below that Strikers before now were scoring something out of nothing. Unlike Strikers now who scores out of something and even missing alot along.

So u are just realizing the bolded abi? Were u not here last week when we mentioned that teams have since abandoned the traditional 4-4-2 formation for more modern formation that allowed for more the team to depend on not just the strikers for goals but also full backs, midfielders, and wingers?

As regards ur talk about errors due to playing from the back leading to more goals for strikers, u will need to provide stats to back that assertion up. U can't just assert without showing workings.

Nigerians continue to grapple with food inflation despite the promise by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, that food prices would crash in 180 days.

In July 2024, Kyari raised hopes with the assurance that strategic measures would be put in place to address the high food prices nationwide.

According to him, some of the measures include the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on food items such as maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas.


He also promised that the Federal Government would import 250,000 metric tonnes of wheat and 250,000 metric tonnes of maize to be supplied to small-scale processors and millers across the country.


To strengthen dry season farming and boost productivity, the minister assured Nigerians that the government would embark on aggressive agricultural mechanisation.


These measures, calculated to calm food inflation in 180 days gave Nigerians a sense of hope that by the first week of January 2024, the prices of essential staples would have crashed.


Food prices
Unfortunately, 180 days after the minister’s lofty promises and assurance, implementation of the measures is yet to be seen as food prices continue to soar.


As things stand, a 50kg bag of rice sold for N85,000 when Kyari unveiled the measures now sells for over N100,000.


Besides the agriculture minister’s yet-to-be fulfilled promises, the government had earlier highlighted other factors that hinder its efforts to control food inflation.

In his last Monetary Policy Committee meeting, Yemi Cardoso, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, identified “the rising cost of transporting farm produce; infrastructure-related constraints within the distribution network; security challenges in some food-producing areas; and the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on the prices of imported food items” as some of the factors that the efforts to control food inflation.

Meanwhile, as food inflation surged to 39.93% with Nigerians looking up to the government for immediate solutions, the Ministry of Agriculture has not offered any explanation as to why the measures it promised have not been implemented yet.

Why govt failed – CSOs, farmers

As Nigerians grapple with high food prices, Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, and farmers have reacted to the government’s promise to crash food prices in 180 days.

Speaking with Vanguard on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, they pointed out that the government failed to put a whole lot of issues into consideration including insecurity, high prices of farm inputs, the exchange rates, high interest rates, flood impacts, holistic planning, and others.

The Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Federal Capital Territory, FCT Chapter, Nkechi Okafor, asserted that the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security had a very good intention to crash food prices but that lack of appropriate actions slowed the process.


Okafor said: “I can clearly say that the Honourable Minister’s promise was made with the mindset of a better Nigeria. But unfortunately, a promise can’t be achieved if there are no effective actions in place.


“Food prices cannot just go down overnight especially with the multiple taxation faced on Nigeria highways by transporters, which is just one out of numerous challenges faced by agricultural value chain actors in Nigeria.


“Can farmers sell their produce at a loss just to fulfill a promise made by the minister? Your answer is as good as mine. Can a farmer risk his/her life to the farm amidst security

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/01/180-days-after-agric-ministers-promise-nigerians-see-no-drop-in-food-prices/

APC= All Promises Cancelled.

Fkforyou:
True. But getting any other coach now, will disrupt the team mentally.

This loss is on the players as much as it’s on Arteta, they keep talking about wanting to win something and when it matters the most, they switch off.

Where is the winning mentality? Just look at Troosard yesterday? Baba was just playing anyhow. Infact, he had no business returning for second half.

Hervertz was playing with a heavy feet all through out till he was shifted to the wings, and when Jesus came in, he was trying to play stylish game when we were two nil down, trying to guide the ball against Burn, that 6 ft7 man, and Odegaard was just misplacing passes up and down just because Saka wasn’t there for him to do 1,2.

The bold is the truth.

The players just switched off at a time when it mattered most. We can blame Arteta and the management of the club for not getting a formidable bench that can come in to change the game; but we can also blame the first team players too for letting us down when it matters most. Two truths can coexist.

Trossard was terrible yesterday, Odegaard was misplacing passes and not at his usual best, Partey was very bland in the middle ; he also misplcaed passes that it took the much maligned Jorginho coming on to change the Tempo of the game from the middle. Skelly was busy doing overconfidence all over the pitch tho one can excuse that one for inexperience. Havertz was playing like Ogbono but then Arteta and Edu are the one responsible for that nonsense .

In summary, yesterday's match was lost due to our first team players swicthing off when it mattered most and Arteta not getting a solid bench. As we dey blame Arteta make we dey blame the players too that get paid millions yearly and didn't turn up when it mattered most.

Kimbeast:
A player with over 200games as a left winger has suddenly become a striker. This guy needs to stop polluting this thread with his insane takes.

That's why I was asking him if he actually knows the player or he just checked Transfer market website and started calling him a striker.

popizaino:
No,you are not getting it. Nigeria 🇳🇬 is ivory coast second largest import country after China 🇨🇳. China only exceeded Nigeria by 2.3% of total import. The percentage from China is 14.4%, and that of Nigeria is 12.1%. Now can imagine how important these two countries are to each other. And i bet you 80% of this import is done through land border. So Benin Republic just position itself to be exploiting this trade that has nothing to do with them other than just passing through their country. Whereas the likes of Togo and Ghana do not do such thing because they have no business with goods passing through their country.

We are saying the same thing . Benin knows that if u want to export goods from Nigeria to Ivory Coast through sea or air border it will cost u a fortune so they know u would opt for land boarder which requires u to pass through Benin before getting to Ivory Coast from Nigeria .

Knowing how poor they are as a country , they decide to eat out of whatever profit u intend to make exporting ur goods to Ivory Coast ; so they come up with all sorts of levies, taxes and duties on those goods .

You are right that they are exploiting u as a businessman but u can’t blame them for trying to lookout for themselves out of ur potential profit . Business is war . Irrespective of AFCTA, they still need to generate revenue for their government .

iamoyindamola:
Blueraydick will say it's problem and desperation that makes people accept all these nonsense
I think it's pure stupidity

Baba , some people get serious problem for this life . The kind problem wey some people don see for this life , if u tell that to sleep with their pastor to get solution they would gladly do that .

It’s desperation for solution to problem that makes some of these people consent to stupid requests from their pastors .

popizaino:
Look no further,Welbeck who use to be like man urinated 4th striker in 2013 is now the first man on Brighton's list.

At a point,man city,had Adebayor,Balotteli,Aguero,Dzeko as their strikers and all the strikers can comfortably lead the line alone,today if they don't use Haaland they would be back to improvising a winger as a manshift striker but i am to believe the quality of strikers/football isn't diminishing because the new ones happen to score more.

You are confusing urself as per the bolded . Is the job of a striker not to put the ball at the back of the net ?

Which other irrelevant quality are u looking for in a striker if ur striker already does the job of putting the ball at the back of the net more often than old school striker does? Is it until the striker scores acrobatic goals every week or the striker scores zidane vs Leverkusen kinda volley every week ?

I don’t even understand . Una wan judge strikers of different eras and una no gree accept goals as metrics for measuring their performances , neither do u agree to use stats . So we should all rely on ur personal conviction of “Trust me bro , I no fit lie give u? “

A40:
What's Rooney's goal per game ratio in the PL. We can also say Isak is better than him if that's what you want to argue.

You skillfully glossed over Isak missing far more big chances than Drogba.

And when we are talking about lesser quality are you factoring their playing style and who the team is built around?

Shey Newcastle get Lampard wey go dey follow you drag penalties and shot attempts?

Arsenal has gone from Henry to RVP to Havertz

Chelsea have gone from Drogba, Anelka to Jackson,

Liverpool have gone from Torres to Nunez

Germany have gone from Voller, Klinsmann, Klose to Fullkrug

Spain have gone from Raul, Villa to Morata and Oyarzabal

Holland have gone from Van Horseface, RVP to Wout Weghorst

Brazil have gone from Romario, R9 to (who be even their striker now? )

Italy went from Baggio, Vieri, Toni and Co to Moise Kean and Belloxxi.

Call it nostalgia all you want but the level of strikers has clearly dipped

The quality of strikers have dipped and the current strikers are doing far better numbers than the old school strikers did ? How?

U must show us one thing that is measurable that u feel the old players can do that the new players can’t . U tried to show skills using Drogba as a case study but that has been shut down immediately because there’s actually no skill shown in the video that is out of this world that some of the current players are not doing and scoring goals to back it up . Neyamr does all those tekkers and still scored loads of goals for club and country playing the attacking role .

Baba look for another thing and bring another set of video compilation . That Drogba own no fly

airmark:
My argument with you is that you believe teams have moved on from using strikers. You even named City winning the league without a striker. You shot yourself by picking Spain winning the Euros, forgetting that a striker scored the winner for them in the final.

You tell me the position he played in that final since he is not a striker.

Don't change the argument to quality or no quality bro.

So what were u doing here mentioning Morata and Jackson ? Have u suddenly forgotten what u typed few hours ago ?

U said Spain took two average strikers to the Euros one of which is Morata the one u love to hate and the other Oyarzabal . You admitted in ur own words below that they are not the “quality “ strikers u desire in teams .

Now same u is trying to make a case for strikers with one of the two “average” strikers who scored in the final .

I asked u if u know what position he plays because the Oyarzabal I know is a left winger whom gets drafted to play Center forward at times . Attached is UEFA referring to the same player u christened striker a midfielder .

airmark:
Well, City are still holding on to Haaland while Bayern and Barca are still with old traditional strikers. And Vlahovic is still playing for the old ladies too.

It's majorly lack of quality strikers that made the likes of Jackson and Morata to be starting for big clubs and not because most clubs have moved on. Madrid are just an exception and they still bowed against City when Fraudiola added Haaland and won Ucl under their nose.

Ibime:
Drogbas main skill was his ball control in the air (chesting, bringing the ball down) and his delivery (crossing)

YouTube can make anyone look good. Drogba dribbling level no reach half of Jackson level, talkless of Isak

Help me me tell A40 o.

A40:
Diaz is not even a striker. He's supposed to be Mane's replacement. They play him at striker now because Nunez is so shyte (another example of the mediocre strikers I'm talking about)

Dribbles, crosses, dead ball and set piece abilities Isak can't hold a candle to Drogba

That’s why I asked u to go watch YouTube for Isak’s clips . These things u claim he’s no match for Drogha , check YouTube videos and see him doing exactly those things .

A40:
You stat merchants no go kill person.

Drogba that has statue at Emirates stadium that's who you're comparing to Isak.

Just look at the big chances missed alone that should tell you who was getting the better quality of chances in their respective teams.

If not Chelsea gidigbo system and semi Haram ball. Isak has missed 2.5x the big chances Drogba did his whole career. That should tell you all you need to know.

It’s not about stat merchant. We all watched Drogba play ; at least right from when he got to Chelsea till he went to Galatasary .

You are the one who claimed he’s skillful and asked that we mention other skillful players around currently . When we mentioned skillful strikers , u turned back to start talking about goals .

Now I’m telling u that the same Isak u are painting as mediocre has a better goal per game ratio than Drogba . How do u want to measure that if u don’t check the goals scored and the number of games it took both players to score those goals ? Don’t even forget Isak is playing in a lesser quality team than one in which Drogba played and under a lesser quality manager when compared to the coaches Drogba played under .

It’s nostalgia that is making u think retired strikers are the best while the current strikers are no good

airmark:
Nothing like moving on from using a striker, Spain were not stupid by taking two strikers to the Euros despite their average qualities.

Spain were drawing the match until a striker scored the winner for them where it mattered most - final.

😂😂😂😂

Wait fess! Are u saying with ur full chest that Oyarzabal is one of the “quality strikers “ u’ve been talking about all day long ?

Are u sure u know who Oyarzabal is or because u saw google sports put “striker “ in front of his name in the screenshot u uploaded, u decided to use it to score a point ?

Because u are the same person who said Diaz is not a striker o but a winger drafted in to replace the wasteful Nunez . U need to think carefully to answer this o

A40:
Isak is not Drogba level. Speaks to overall mediocrity of strikers and ball today that we are wowed by Isak, he's good too make no mistake about it but camaan

What do u mean by Isak is not on Drogba’s level ?

Isak has a better goals per match ratio than Drogba . Isak has a better shooting accuracy when compared to Drogba’s and that is according to EPL official stats , not “Trust me bro , I no fit lie give you “ .

I think some of these hype we give retired players are just out of nostalgia and nothing else .

A40:
None of these jokers you mentioned are at Drogba level tekkers wise, never mind the likes of Eto'o and a David Villa.

Watkins

You guys should be serious abeg

Baba go to YouTube and type Isak skills or Luis Diaz skills , u will see video compilation of those players doing all sorts of skills .

I watched the Drogba video u dropped and Drogba didn’t do anything spectacular that has not been seen before . Most of the things he did , a playful player like Neymar did over and over again: most people even criticized Neymar as being too playful for doing all that .

daveP:
Blueeeeeeeee


Smalll smalll now... Ahannn


Look face.

Me? I never ever said that. You're mistaking me for the person that actually said that.

Look face!
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂


On the reiterating side, for that my post you're reacting to. Take am jeje. It's not an attack on Rice. It is me saying he gets to do double or triple work whenever the whole team messes up.


Clear now?

No vex , it was koded that actually said that . I mixed u two up ni.

U are right , Rice played his heart out . Partey also played rubbish in his preferred Midfield role which we’ve all been clamouring for Arteta to return him there .

One thing with our fans is that we all have faves ;when our faves don’t play well we go silent and don’t say anything . But when a player we don’t like but others like plays badly , all hell will let loose .

Overall sha , I know when the team is on a winning streak everybody cheer the team and don’t remember the lesser quality bench and useless players in the starting lineup . The moment we hit a brick stone , Arsenal fans will join fans of other clubs to troll their own club. This I always find amusing

daveP:
Chai.


It's like it's written in the stars, all the terrible games Arsenal had in last 2 years, na Rice go end up being the best Arsenal player. Na Law at this rate.

U still have an agenda against Rice 🤦‍♂️

I mean u literally said Rice is not better than Elneny the other day . But as u watch this match , Shey na Rice be the problem Abi other players ?

What was Rice supposed to do that he didn’t do well in this match ?

airmark:
Ofcourse there would be few exceptions.

My point is nothing like moving on from using top strikers by the big teams. It's dearth of quality strikers forcing teams to improvise.

Arsenal fir example need a natural striker, that's why you have been pretenders since.

So Spain winning the EUROs is also part of the few exception Abi ? Humour me , who was Spain’s quality striker when they won the last EUROs versus England that fielded Harry Kane ?

So spain EUROS win is an exception , Madrid UCL is an exception ,Man City EPL win is an exception and Loserpool EPL win is also an exception .

Wehdone Sir!

daveP:
Even when he plays terribly, you'll still see fans reviling those that want to drag him. You'll think he was an Aubameyang or some Giroud sef.

When did he okay terribly and his fans defended him ?

Show an instance here let’s see first . I’ve not seen anybody defending him when he played badly here to the best of my knowledge .

daveP:
He get supporters here well. Asif its forbidden to call his game out. Ive gotten used to him disappearing in games this season sha.

No u are mixing things up .

Nobody supported his purchase .

But when he became an Arsenal player , fans had to support him like every other Arsenal player . When he plays well he gets his deserved credit and when he doesn’t he gets the stick .

Blaming him for games other didn’t perform is also not ideal .

Odegaard that should be our midfield creator also played rubbish in this match . He didn’t create anything through the middle and we had to rely on the out of form Trossard and all speed no brain Martinelli on the wings .

daveP:
He has no reason being at this club too

We all agree on that . I don’t think any fan here celebrated his signing

This Havertz has no reason to be in this match till now .

This Skelly is a stupid boy doing nonsense and forcing the ball with his yeye overconfidence .

You see Newcastle playing like thugs and u are still trying to use strength against them