₦airaland Forum

Sorry I didn't know he was called up for his DMF abilities which I doubt because at the moment we are over saturated with good to decent DMF. Ndidi, onazi, Mikel agu, shehu abdullahi too can play that role, if worst comes to worst Etebo too can fill in that role so I see no sense in c.nwakali's invitation if it's to play DMF like you claimed.

Like you rightly noted I listed CMF because that's where we have an urgent need currently which I thought was the basis of C.nwakali's call up but if you insist he was called to be tested in the DMF role then it makes it harder to justify his inclusion

TheGoodJoe:
That is the problem a lot of people are making with respect to Chidiebere Nwakali's invitation. They have midfielders they want to play the role and want players from glorified leagues.

Newsflash; we lack players with the attributes of Onazi who are playing in glorified leagues.

The names of players you listed there are not naturally defensive midfielders. They will hardly get picked to play the defensive midfield role ahead of players who play that role naturally.

Also, Chidiebere Nwakali is one of the few DMF's we have who rely on pace than positioning. Also he can play as a right back. These are qualities he has that the names you listed above do not have. This is why I feel he got the call to join in camp to get a closer look. Unless you have players that fit in the attributes I ticked, I do not see how anyone will say Chidiebere Nwakali invitation is unjustified.

Icon4s:
Peter Rufai was the only available credible option after Ike pulled out due to injury and Baruwa made a mess of himself. Are you sure you watched Rufai during his playing days?

You and this your drills. Haha. You make me laugh.

Goalkeeper selection is a lot more complicated than selecting an outfield player.

I disagree sir rufai wasn't the only good option we had then. Godwin okpara was doing well for Orlando pirates but he wasn't given a chance to prove himself. I'm also sure there were other good talented home based keepers

TheGoodJoe:
Can you give your reason why you think Chidiebere Nwakali's invitation was not justified?

hi bro hope you enjoyed your Christmas I know you directed the question at Kog but let me give my own opinion. For me nwakali's invitation was not justified not because he doesn't have potential but he hasn't done enough to warrant a call up. I felt his performances and not the country or club he played in per se were not up to scratch. In my opinion players ahead of him like Sokari (he has been invited now), joel obi (admittedly he was injured at the time), ifeanyi Matthew, his brother k.nwakali even ajagun should have been called before him.

FabioPeter:
We can get a psychologist to make you believe you can man our Post....it takes a lot more bro.
If you watch the games Ezenwa has played for SE, you will notice he has been consistently erratic, even the games he kept a clean sheet.
Akpenyi is terribly poor and Uzoho is inexperienced. If we can’t get an in form Enyeama, we can kiss the group stage good bye

like you I want the best goalkeeper for the world cup and like you also I would not mind Vincent making a return but i don't share your view that if for whatever reason he can't come back it will necessarily lead to our ouster. Yes ezenwa is not the solution but we made due with him but I have faith that come June next year we will have a capable goalie

joseph1013:
How else would the thread be as long if random names are not called?

Someone even said Sokari is better than Joel. Another agreed with an emotional fan who said he is the best midfielder in leagues all over Africa.

It's his time. It will be up soon. Then may be Gbolahan Salami will take over.

Merry Christmas, people!

lol Na so o I think one thing going for Sokari is that he is one of the few pure central midfield players we have but I can't say if he is better than joel. No doubt he's a competent midfielder but the few times I watched him I wasn't bowled over he looks just average to me but hey what do I know I'm not the coach

Merry Christmas Fam .... and you too forgiveness

sorry about your loss bro and you were carrying this burden these two months stay strong bro and continue to make your dad proud. regards and comfort to your family God bless

TheGoodJoe:
Very sorry for your loss. I am dealing with the same heartache. I lost my dad about a month now. During the end of October and it has been hectic. I pray God gives you and your family the strength to bear this painful loss.

please accept my sympathy bro. may God bless and see your family through this time

Certitude:
Bad day for me as I lost my dear father this morning.

BascoVanVeli:
It is called sportsmanship, there was nothing on the line.

Guy for real Algerian fa should do your job for you?

Icon4s:
Zambia are now just 3 points away. Trust that this night they will start their own investigations.

The records would now be Algeria 3-0 Nigeria!
And some say it doesn't matter that nobody is above mistake. Gushh....it could have been worse. What if Shehu had collected that second Yellow against Cameroon in Younde? It means it would have been that crucial Zambia game in Uyo that we would have forfeited 3-0 to Zambia! God forbid.

I'm so pissed right now and Google could have prevented this. Nigerian people and our lack of attention to detail very annoying. Sweat of hardwork to earn unbeaten run down the drain. Most painful part Tyrone would have been easily capped. Someone has to be punished for this error if not we will never learn

quality post i couldn't agree more but alloy agu also contributed to this unnecessary goalkeeper crises. if he had picked the best keepers in the NPFL from beginning to deputize for ikeme by now they would have gotten the necessary exposure and experience. looking for new keepers now in the local league is almost too late considering the time it will take to acclimatise to the team. like you said it looks like we might have to manage ezenwa but for the world of me i can't understand why alampasu hasn't been tested in any game to at least ascertain if he's quality or not

Icon4s:
Truth is even Carl Ikeme was not so reliable as even before he was diagnosed of Leukaemia he was mostly out injured which was why Akpeyi kept goal a number of times.

Akpeyi and Ezenwa are the real causes of this keeper crisis and not the Leukaemia that affected Ikeme.

The duo have been within the Super Eagles fold since the time of Keshi and Oliseh. Playing second or third fiddle to the top goalies then. Now this is a time for them to step in and we found out they have not learnt much.

Akpeyi is even more disappointing to me because he is the most exposed of all the goalkeepers in the squad. You need to see him in Chippa United colors.

Post Russia I would willingly want to push out the duo from the team completely but first we need to climb that huddle of a world cup. I have nothing personal against Uzoho but there is no way I would agree to making an inexperienced goalie a first choice. Second choice, third choice no wahala.

If u look at Ezenwa's down side it is easier to manage than Uzoho's and Akpeyi's down sides.
Ezenwa even despite his height disadvantage never conceded any goals from open play in his 4 games against big African oppositions. His problem of lack of composure can be worked on by the goalkeeper trainers. I have seen his best and his worst. We can work on his worst.

Uzoho's lack of experience is a major down side for him. I am not just talking about WC experience, I am talking about real competitive game experience. How can the goalkeeper trainers make up for that? The team psychologists may try to work on him but if probably he was a little older he may find the mental strength to pull through. That boy is still a teenager and may get overwhelmed with the responsibility. Being the goalkeeper of a side is a very huge responsibility. Taking a teenage goal keeper as your first choice, without a real competitive game experience, is a huge huge huge risk that if it back fires the coache's coaching certificate could be queried.

After the 2018 WC, as we play the AFCON qualifiers, we can boot out Ezenwa and Akpeyi and parade only Uzoho, Alampasu and Okoye if we like (which is still not likely because we still need at least an experienced goalie in the mix).

odunlami to be fair was decent before the world cup in CHAN but agbim, rueben, uchebo, uzoenyi, ameobi Keshi!? chai

tbaba1234:
Nigeria's Bench against Bosnia in 2014

Moses was the only decent outfield player. Odunlami, WC team o!!

Ejide,
Uzoenyi,
Gabriel,
Egwuekwe,
Moses,
Odunlami,
Azeez,
Nwofor,
Uchebo,
Ameobi,
Agbim.

komekn:
Firstly, do not know what you mean by your player.

Secondly, Dominic was a regular for England U21 and has been playing consistently and continously in the championship for near 4 years.

Omeruo has not been exceptional or outstanding for the SE. There just it seems to be a lack of quality top level CB's available to us at this time in the SE. I can not explain why.

In other areas we have quality in some regards top quality. But for me our CB's are not on the same level of quality as our forwards or midfielders.

The team needs quality in all areas.

Youth level is different from senior football level I get am before no be property. Dominic as of 4 years ago what still potential he is yet to live up to his promise.

Omeruo didn't do anything in the national team? Now I know you're sentimental and un objective. I will not try to convince you as you have already made up your mind about him no matter how flawed. However for the sake of those reading this posts so they won't be misinformed kenneth was a crucial member of our nations cup winning team kenneth also did well for Nigeria at the world cup in brazil until the past two years kenneth was our best defender and no bad belleism can change that

Kog45:
I disagreed totally.Pls go and watch Shittu in eagles colours even when he came in he was better than Yobo cos Yobo was on declining period.

Danny Shittu cams late as regards Eagles career.I remember how Onigbinde first called him into national team but dropped prior to 2002 WC but still wondering why cos he showed the class than Sodje even regular Enakhire.

I remember Keshi gave him a late call prior to 2014 WC but declined the invitation.Shittu might not be flamboyant one or find it difficult to make headlines but he was solid.He always have high rating than Yobo in few moments he spent with eagles,pls check him out at 2010 WC,he was Nigeria best defender.

Shittu yes I like him too. One of best defenders from that era. He wasn't the most gifted naturally but I loved his work ethic and never say die attitude. It's a pity that he was a late bloomer as regards the super eagles. He could have given us many years of meritorious service

komekn:
He never rejected, AT ALL He needed to sort out his long term future which would be easier as a potential future England full international. When considering potential clubs.

He Explained he would commit when he turns 23. That never changed what changed is the NFF and it's lack of transparency and integrity.

When Omeruo was near anonymous at Middlesbrough Iorfa a teenager was winning MOTM and best young player awards in the same league and in the same season. Somehow there has not been any competition
for the CB position in the SE. Not sure why

I will leave it at that you can guess the rest.

Komekn sometimes you baffle me why can't you defend your own player without bringing someone else into it to downgrade. Omeruo that you mention during that period was our best defender. He did well during the nations cup and also stood out in the world cup. You make it sound as if kenneth was undeserving of his national team place which is far from the truth. I'm not saying he's a world class performer but he has paid his dues in the super eagles. Anyways since he has lost his place in the starting 11 as a result of poor form I think mentioning his name is mute. Dominic on the other hand must improve the man of the match performance you keep mentioning was 3 or 4 years ago he needs to step up his game before he can be called up to the national team

forgiveness:
Maybe Joel will be ready for this major tournament by the grace of God.

We should be optimistic rather than being pessimistic.

I agree I pray also that he is fit by God's grace

forgiveness:
Joel Obi also had long periods of sustained performance for Inter milan for two seasons though he spent most times on the bench the second season.

Last season, he played 11 matches before he got injured and a total of 20 games but with limited time.

His case is not different from a Roben Arten but will you drop Robben if you are the coach because of his tendency of getting injured?

robben for all his injuries was always fit and ready for the dutch at major tournaments can we say the same for joel?

true but there have been periods where he has had good long periods of sustained performances for club (wigan, chelsea) and country. joel obi if fit would always be one of the first names on my team sheet but as a coach preparing for a tournament i would always have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that i may be wasting a spot taking him along because joel is the kind of player who will start the first game, blow his hamstring then be out for the rest of the competition. real dilemma

forgiveness:
Due to injures, Vicmo couldn't enjoy his loan at Liverpool and Stock city.

I don't think there is any difference.

right off the bat the average age of the croatian team is quite high compared us. in the midfield where they have a technical advantage over us they have a couple of old legs who will be older next summer. you know we have a lot of young players who are high energy. i expect them not to give modric any room to comfortably dictate the pace of the game plus the speed of our counter attacks should be hard for them to cope with.

in attack perisic and manzukic are very capable and dangerous but thankfully it seems we now have decent fullbacks who can the threat the former offers and in ekong/balogun we have guys who should be able to cage manzukic.

in conclusion we should be able to wear them down with our pace and strength but we should be careful. croatia has dealt with physical sides like cameroon in the past so they will be up for the physical battle

Oasis007:
Teams Scout Report

The below are the present Players of the Croatian National Team. I hope we can analyze them one after the other. Figure out their Weaknesses and how it can be exploited.

Goalkeepers

1. Dominik Livaković (age 22) Dinamo Zagreb
12. Lovre Kalinić (age 27) Gent
23. Danijel Subašić (age 33) Monaco


Defenders

2. Šime Vrsaljko (age 25) Atlético Madrid
3. Ivan Strinić (age 30) Sampdoria
5. Matel Mitrovic (age 24) Beşiktaş
6. Dejan Lovren (age 28) Liverpool
13. Zoran Nizic (age 28) Hajduk Split
14. Marin Leovac (age 29) PAOK
21. Domagoj Vida (age 28) Dynamo Kyiv
22. Josip Pivarić (age 28) Dynamo Kyiv


Midfieders

4. Ivan Perišić (age 28) Internazionale
7. Ivan Rakitić (age 29) Barcelona
10. Luka Modrić (age 32) Real Madrid
11. Marcelo Brozović (age 25) Internazionale
15. Marko Rog (age 22) Napoli
18. Filip Bradaric (age 25) Rijeka
19. Nikola Vlašić (age 20) Everton
20. Mario Pašalić (age 22) Spartak Moscow


Forwards

8. Ante Rebić (age 24) Eintracht Frankfurt
9. Andrej Kramarić (age 26) 1899 Hoffenheim
16. Nikola Kalinić (age 29) Milan
17. Mario Mandžukić (age 31) Juventus

Cc

TheGoodJoe, Tbaba1234, Icon4s, Komekn, Kog45, Forgiveness, Joebie, Mujtahida, Mickael2, Goldfish80, ChrisKels, blueto
and others.

Moses assist

I want to employ all of us to not get ahead of ourselves talking about qualifying for second round or quarters or semis right now the croatia match is our most important game our cup final. In short we should take it a game at a time

tbaba1234:
My proposed friendlies

Sweden, very organised, similar to what you'd expect from Iceland. We saw it against Italy.

Serbia, similar type of football to croatia.

Uruguay, another south American test for Argentina.

In addition I can't emphasize enough that we should try and play a friendly against a country with world class or exceptional midfielders who would dominate possession this will help us know what to expect from modric and rakitic so we can prepare adequately for them

Mickael2:
most of the world cups have been won by teams who had difficulties during the qualifiers. France did it, Italy and even Argentina before. Tbh I see Argentina in the final, does that mean they must top our group? No, we can that's assuming Croatia plays the way they did at the Euros instead of the way they played against Greece. Do not forget Sirgudsson and his crosses and setpiece prowess so I wouldn't write off Iceland, like someone mentioned before, at the world cup minor things like setpieces determine games. At the last world cup we lost to Argentina and France because of crosses/setpieces. In 2010 we lost to Argentina and drew against SK because of setpieces, I can go on and on and Iceland have a wonderful setpiece king, that should worry us as well but we can navigate the group

Icelanders are many things but minnows they surely are not. Like a lot of posters have said they are very disciplined defensively and compact they also have a good team spirit. They have beaten solid teams like england and croatia so they are very dangerous

Mujtahida:
Let him be invited. That's all. We don't need to drag this issue much. If the ability to perform at the highest levels the Coach will surely pick him. Our arguments on whether to call or not to call Martins sometimes gets too personal. Some(not you though) do not embrace the team because Martins and others have not been invited. That to me is just too annoyingly partisan.
Again others have set a barbed wire fence against the recall of Martins. That too is petty. I once argued strenuously against his invitation but I've since re-evaluated my position. I now say let him be invited. Not because of experience per se, not because the young lads cannot deliver but simply because one cannot argue against performance. If he performs I think the team stands to be all the better for his inclusion.

top quality post. I will not lie I'm not 100% convinced that martins can still deliver in the green white green but like you said his recent performances are hard to ignore. If there's a chance that he can transfer his good club form into the national team then I think it's a chance worth exploring

I like our group personally. It's not such a deadly group that'll make us scared and again its not such an easy group that will make us complacent.

Now to our preparations since we have faced argentina I don't think we need to face south american opposition in our friendlies. I think playing serbia sweden and a top team with a dominant midfield like that of croatia will prepare us very well. The hard work starts now may God reward our efforts.

Go super eagles

Hello everyone today is world cup draw day pray for a favorable grouping my prediction is poland england costa rica nigeria

My top 5 goals of the qualifying campaign.

5. Ighalo 1-0 Cameroon

Mikel obi's pass to find him was both visionary and exquisite but the goal was all odion's doing. Hardwork and grit to displace the Cameroonian defender before perfectly placing the ball in the bottom corner.

4. Iheanacho 2-0 Zambia

This was all kelechi's speed and movement. Again Mikel was at the heart of everything with his incisive passes and orchestrated play before ideye's lovely lay of for KC who calmly finished efficiently.

3. Victor Moses 3-0 Cameroon

Counter attacking football at its devastating best. Moses with an unstoppable run to leave the Cameroonians flat footed laying the ball to Simon who gave him back to finish with aplomb.

2. Ogu 1-0 Algeria

Wasn't the best of matches due to the horrendous pitch but ogu's 25 yard golazo sure lit things up. Beautiful goal to cap off a find performance by the big man.

1. Iwobi 1-0 Zambia in uyo

Which other goal was going to be number one if not the goal that sealed our world cup place. The sequence of passes, the brilliant movements the emphatic finish the goal celebrations truly breathtaking

yes i agree that stepphonwolf's character could have been further explored plus yes his motivations are your standard super villain template '' i want to take over the world just because'' how are his motivations any different from ultron, red skull? not by much but the latter's movies were praised no unnecessary nitpicking about how bad the villain was or not.

about the resurrection part remember supes body is a living battery absorbing all that solar power already started a regeneration process all be it at a slower pace. the mother box just sped the process up. even in the comics when he died he was revived in a special chamber. my take would be the levitating sand indicated the regeneration and repair of his bodily cells had begun. with time and more exposure to solar rays he would eventually come back to life but the extreme trauma he suffered from his death just made that healing process much slower

in all as an introduction to the team justice league i think the film did ok. hopefully if they decide to do a sequel the stakes would be significantly raised when they face darksied

charlesm91:
Character development for Stephenwolf was poor; his motivations for stealing the mother boxes wasn't fully explored and so I didn't feel like the world was at stake. The resurrection of Superman in justice league totally negates the scene in BvS at his funeral where the sands were levitating on the coffin- I wished they referenced it when the mother box was used on him. The movie was enjoyable no doubt but it could've been better with a longer runtime.
P.s feminists aren't dealing too well with wonder woman having a hard time with superman. I mean he's superman for f**ks sake, and that's just a glimpse of his overpowered nature if he were to go dark.

Hi everyone not a regular poster here but just watched justice league today don't get all the negativity about it. It was a fun, super hero movie. Supes portrayal was good, same for bats, WW and the rest. If you watch the film without any bias it's truly enjoyable.

lol sincerely if you have time watch that game again and you will see what i'm talking about

Icon4s:
Ghana did all which playing?

Dem still dey make such comment for modern day football? Hahaha.

i think they were unlucky to face the brazilians in the 2nd round. the ghanaians did all the playing while brazil did all the scoring. if ghana had faced england, ukraine or even portugal that year i dare say they would have won

Icon4s:
How did the 2006 team deserve to get to the Q/final when they needed to beat Brazil in the 2nd round to get there and they lost 3-0?

i think icon4 has said it all we would really need to have a fantastic world cup next year to boost our rankings and continue to sustain the tempo in AFCON qualifiers and tourney proper. africa's poor point allocation in FIFAs ranking of continents is not the best

Icon79:
So I was just thinking last night how a country like Poland (and to some extent Portugal) played and manipulated the FIFA ranking game to find themselves in the pot 1. This something we could discuss here and make some recommendations to the NFF regarding the 2022 World Cup. I mean, Poland has shown that you can game the system and that's not cheating .... it's called gaining a competitive edge

Anyway, let's put on our thinking caps on and come up with ways we can make FIFA ranking work for the Super Eagles going forward.

Mickael2, Junnyjake, Kog45, MetalJigsaw, elyte89, Icon4s, Mujtahida, tbaba1234, Joebie, goodjoe, Taliban, forgiveness, komekn, ChrisKels, Chrismario, kennysville, kingphilip, soetanoreoluwa, safarigirl, chrisooblog, optional1, Napoleon55, realpoacher, jotey, sontoly, Daejoyoung, nelszx, etc.


O pari