₦airaland Forum

Exactly CM is at best a makeshift role for him. He thrives in or around the box. His days at Warri Wolves and in the U23s highlight the kind of positions he was effective in.

Danielnino00:
GBAM!
That CM role doesn't seem to suit him well.
He should have continued his normal role as a winger or SS . He has pace, tricks,powerful shots and all,but lacks the technical know how of a good CM

Etebo tries I agree but the thing is how effective is he in the role? yes he was our best midfielder but can you recall any game and say wow Etebo you sure stood out. During the WC and AFCON how many games can you say yes we won the midfield battle?

Etebo in my opinion has not been played in a role that allows him to play his best football and Rohr should be held responsible for that. Siasia seemed to be able to get the best out of him

BascoVanVeli:
Please name the game that Etebo dropped off in level for the super eagles? Only SA in Uyo comes to my mind

UCL Semifinals

Head of hair United vs Baldy FC

They were reckless. Their actions could have put the whole squad at risk of contacting covid-19.

IDENNAA:
What right does a coach have in stopping players from attending social activities/-parties. These are grown men who also have life outside football. They probably said to hell with you Rogers.

I was so pissed when Rodgers removed KC during the Man city game. What made it so baffling was that a couple of minutes earlier before the substitution he was involved in creating a goal scoring chance for Tielemans which was blocked.

Ok you don't won't to remove Vardy fair enough but you then yack off your most in form striker leaving Perez who did almost nothing all game.

Even the commentators were surprised. I still have a sneaky feeling Brendan doesn't rate Iheanacho and he's just forced to play him due to KC's up swing in form and injuries to his 'golden boys'.

BascoVanVeli:
Come to find out James Maddison, Perez and another player were dropped from the Leicester City squad because the broke Covid rules. That means Rodgers might have only left Iheanacho on the pitch out of necessity. Thank goodness KC took his chances. Now Rodgers is trapped

but who did Ghana beat to get to the quarters? Serbia which could have easily finished as a draw if not for the serbian defender that had a brain fart. USA an ok team but not so fearsome. Ghana had some decent players that year so they made their advantage count. Mentality yes is important but backing it up with quality will give you a fighting chance.

mank1234:
Would you say that Ghana that almost reached semifinal in 2010 had so much depth? It's the mentality of the team. The Ghanaian team is the team that won u20 that year and yet we're not called young team as our coach would.

we are just about even but on a good day they will beat us because they have superior organization. That said we all know these kind of teams are unlikely going to be your opponents if you manage to make it to the second round.

andrewbaba44:
All the teams you mentioned are better than us no doubt

Now tell me if Denmark Sweden and co are better than us

Andy let's be realistic yes we have a decent group of players but do we have the kind of depth teams like

Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, England have?

and I never mention Croatia, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia oh!

2nd round with our current squad of players is a realistic target. with inspiration and luck maybe quarters but that's about it.

andrewbaba44:
2nd round for World Cup

After we go claim say we get good players

2nd round is a failure

Average European teams we are better than do make it to the quarter finals but na second round be una target

minimum I expect from our current squad is AFCON title, qualifying for WC and 2nd round

andrewbaba44:
Agreed

3rd place is a failure

We don win bronze medal for afcon tire

Loosing the final is also a failure ,Athens afcon trophy or nothing

And concerning the World Cup ,I will manage semi finals ,the rest will be a failure to me

Yekini was a force of nature. A relentless train that wouldn't be stopped until he had found the back of the net.

Yekini did not have the explosive pace of Martins or Aghahowa, The raw power of Amokachi, Yakubu or Emenike, The guile and trickery of Siasia, Kanu and Ike Uche. What stood him out for me was his passion and drive to score, from powerful golazos to intelligent use of space Rashidi was simply awesome.

I see a lot of that similar drive and determination in Osimhen. One of the reasons why I'm so supportive of the boy. hope he can leave up to the expectation.

TheSuperNerd:
No Dad. Don't get it twisted. This is not an Osimhen-Yekini comparison. It is only a post testifying to the Ultimate Greatness of the Goals Lord and the most complete striker of the 90s, Yekini and speaking of a young lad who could go on to rekindle such glorious moments in the National team colours in the same attacking role.
Also made reference to the "Fire" and "Fearlessness" present in both Strikers. The Legend and the Lad.

Osimhen, The Lad, is still growing. So no comparisons at all.



Meanwhile... I didn't enjoy the huge privilege to see Prime Yekini live. But I am thankful for Video technology. Lol. What a player. What a legend. The True Super Striker.

with the way the English and French league were at that time I think it's debatable that the Portuguese were up to their level.

charlesemeka85:
not at all

Portuguese league like charlesemeka rightly noted was one of the top leagues in europe during that era. english football wasn't as dominant as they are now. Italy was were the big boys went to play with germany, france and spain also accounting for the rest of the best talent. What Yekini and Owobukiri achieved then would be like Moffi scoring 20 goals in the french league.

Apart from the Porto's and Benfica's Sporting Lisbon was also good. Infact Emmanuel Amunike joined Barcelona straight from Lisbon during that decade.

andrewbaba44:
Was the Portuguese compared to or same level with Germany Spain England and Italy then ? This will solve it all

If not then I am right

As in! last game against man city KC was beginning to look threatening ok as a coach you want to freshen things up but who do you take off? your most in form striker ment!

BascoVanVeli:
People always try to paint me as an over patriotic lunatic but if Brendan Rodgers had taken out Iheanacho at the 70th minute like last game where would those 2 goals have come from? This is why I was angry he got taken off last game. U should never take off your most in form player

Yekini scored 21 goals in 1994 for his club Setubal in the portuguese league

andrewbaba44:
So no Nigerian has ever scored more than 17 goals in a single season in Europe top league ? It’s shameful and we sabi make mouth say we get world class players

So it’s only yak that has scored 17 goals ? That guy deserves some respect

Simmy will surely get to 20 goals

orriyomi33:
Kelechi Iheanacho is Leicester city's joint top scorer along side Vardy with 14 goals.o

he has also equaled his best season in the top flight with less game time.

andrewbaba44:
Yep

10 goals will be a good season for him

yep. If Osimhen can finish with at least 10 goals then that will spur him on for next season

andrewbaba44:
Mtscheew

I just tire. Has anyone stopped him from posting the news here?

Odunayaw:
EXCLUSIVE: Ahmed Musa set to join Kano Pillars




https://www.aclsports.com/exclusive-ahmed-musa-set-to-join-kano-pillars/

Abi Musa de check Nairaland?

and I was half serious when I said it some days back

pass diabetes

andrewbaba44:
Iheanacho simmy onuachu osimhen all scored

E sweet

Also thought the same about the bold but later learnt in football rules it's not a pen if the ball deflects of any part of your body unto your hand. If the ball had touch rojo's hand first it would have been a stone cold penalty.

BascoVanVeli:
Var was there when Iheanacho was kicked on top of the head by rojo, also there for Rojo's hand ball

Excellent points you make egbon. From talent discovery to development to training excellent coaches so many things need to be done by African countries in general. Love the point you made about economy. As long as our different countries on the continent don't have the financial muscle to back these aforementioned initiatives we will continue to rely on ishan, vibes and inshallah.

Icon4s:
That is age Grade, where Africa has won it all: U17, U20, U23.

The senior world cup is a different ball game. You need more than luck to even qualify not to talk of winning.

For you to win the World Cup, generally, you need nothing less than 8-10years of strategic planning which will also involve football Development across the country and that includes massive talents discovery and infrastructural development. Your national team needs to be rated among the best for a number of years and yours players need to be playing in some of the best clubs around the world for over a number of years also.

You need an assemblage of great players and a great team to win the WC.

raumdeuter:
No concrete offical link to him yet. I see he is a striker and last I heard, Bayern were trying to extend Chupo Moting as backup to Lewandoski

If Umar comes he will be 3rd choice which is not good for him, It was the same reason why Joshua Orobosa Zirkzee left Bayern for Parma on loan

thanks

raumdeuter:
We create a lot of chances and we need a sharp striker to finish them off. That is our strenght. If we now lose 2 of our best scorers in Lewandoski and Gnabry, That will be a major issue

hello Chief this news about the Nigerian player Sadiq umar getting interest from Bayern Munich is there any substance to it?

forgiveness:
FIFAPro World11 nominee 2019. Adjourned 4th best midfielder in the world. Same nomination in December 2020 and eventually came 6th best midfielder in the world.

ESPN best midfielder of the year 2020.

Can you please show me what nominations or award Ndidi won?

you are talking about the past I'm talking about here and now

based on these facts are you still sure?

forgiveness:
Kante is still far ahead of Ndidi.

it was zaidu watch it again

forgiveness:
Was it Zaidu that tried to intersect? Make una dey open eyes watch ball ooo.

based on what? you should know we deal with facts here ''I said it therefore it's true'' reports

forgiveness:
Kante is still far ahead of Ndidi.

Sad news it seems Onyekuru lost his mom. RIP to her. Comfort to Henry and his family

to be fair that statement was made in 2019 before Ndidi had evolved to this current level. That said I agree his statement was very harsh because Wilfred even at that time was already besting Kante in some key indices like tackling, interceptions and recoveries.

Meliforme:
But some folks in here refer to him as a poor man's Kante.

The bold is debatable. Yes Aurier might trump Aina and Ebuehi in an attacking sense but I'm not sure he doesn't beats them defensively. At least I can beat my chest that he's not better than tyronne in that regard.

For the right wing based on stats Pepe would probably start not that I rate him. Chukwueze needs to improve substantially in that role.

ChrisKels:
Stop deceiving some guys who do not keenly follow African football. Kessie is a CM not DM. So, it is Kessie over Aribo. Ndidi battles Sangare and fit again Jean Gbamin of Everton.

Zaidu >> Singo and makeshift Cornet

Aurier >> all our RBs

Baily >> Ekong, Awaziem

Boly >> Balogun, Akpoguma

Ndidi >> Sangare and Gbamin on DM

Kessie >> Aribo in CM

Zaha >> all our LWGs

Pepe = Chucks. But in dept, Amad(Man United) and Hamed(Sassoulo) over any other player we have behind Chuks

Iwobi >> Boga

Chriskels and Supernerd una too like argument

On the Kessie/Ndidi comparison no doubt Wilfred trumps Franck in the DM aspects of the game but the truth is Kessie is more of an CM or CDM. Look at this example Chelsea has Jorginho and Kante. On paper you might call both of them DMF but in reality it's only Kante that fits that bill while Jorginho is more of a conductor controlling the game from the base of the midfield. Think of a Alonso/Busquet comparison then you will get what I'm saying.

Even though the position map showed Kessie's position as mostly DM my question would be what type of DM was he? A look at his defensive stats I suspect would be quite low compared to Ndidi so that leads me to suggest it's his passing and ability to retain possession is probably why he gets deployed in the DM role. Like Gundogan for Man City in previous seasons, Jorginho for Chelsea, Partey for Arsenal etc.

Ndidi I noticed was initially your classic DM like Makalele, Roy Keane and Kante but over the past two seasons his game has matured even further. While retaining elite attributes of a world class DM he's beginning to add qualities of a good CMF which you need to survive in today's modern game. His passing is getting to if not already elite level his creativity is fast improving reflected in the number of assists he has so far notched up this season.

So for the purpose of this debate I wouldn't say Kessie and Ndidi are in competition for one spot because their game differs.

bascovanveli I now see what you say about Anayo great centre of gravity with proper coaching could become NPFL's next big star in SE.

Dear Gernot Rohr.

Your boy, Anayo Iwuala dazzling. 🤣🕺

Delicious assist.#CAFCC pic.twitter.com/mAzDKZ7RWC

— OgaNlaMedia 🇳🇬 (@OgaNlaMedia) April 4, 2021