₦airaland Forum

i won't be too hard on mandela. he was a pragmatist who knew change after so many years of apartheid wouldn't happen so dramatically like that overnight. mbeki i agree didn't connect enough with his political base but zuma? honestly i think for the good policies you said he initiated he's just using that as a form of populism to cover for his ineptitude

Lionessza:
Lol , we were drunk. To be honest though, not everything about Zuma's administration has been a disaster. If you follow SA politics, you would see that there is more behind the zuma must go noise. Look closely who's behind it and why. Zuma did bad things that have pissed me off, but I don't buy that he is responsible for the crap we are in , his lack of formal education has made him an easy target to ridicule as stupid and all sorts of words. Infact , In some of his decisions I support him more than Mandela and mbeki. The noise about zuma is to hide the weaknesses of these two men in my opinion. The 783 charges are a ridiculous stunt by the DA and their friends to destruct people from the real corruption that has gone on for centuries and zuma hit a nerve . The guy has made some questionable decisions, but the real reason he is ridiculed Is because he has signed policies that bothers Mandela and mbeki failed to.

yeah i know burgles the mind unfortunately we have a lot of irresponsible governors. pity his goofs made it internationally

but seriously speaking how did you guys end up with zuma? from mandela, mbeki all the way to him eissh man

Lionessza:
I don't mind having him , but I find it hilarious that a governor in another country thought it was wise to immortalize him at the expense of his own people .

i don't know what you are laughing at sister you still have the REAL LIFE ZUMA as president my condolences

Lionessza:
LMFAO, look at what we turned Nigerians to . We have turned you into desperados that have resorted to using white propaganda media houses as refrences . The un stats we have been posting have really harmed you deep .

Now go to imo state and kneel down before your new master

hmmm Uzoho starting for deportivo has definitely given him edge over alampasu. if he continues to start games for la coruna it will be hard to justify inviting alampasu ahead of him for future matches. all the same i'm happy as this will only add to the depth of quality in the goalkeeping department. on Uzoho himself i like his size but i would want to watch more of him to judge how sharp and good he is in goal but that a la liga coach trusts him is a huge plus in his favour

tbaba1234:
Alampasu has been in Feirense for years and has not played a league game. You do not test players,in important games.

Uzoho playing a league game at the expense of more experienced keepers is a testament to the trust of the coach not testing. If Uzoho continues till the end of the season, he will be an easy world cup pick. How many Nigerian keepers are playing at that level?

ndidi excelled with genk in belgium he's now with leicester city

omeruo impressed in holland now he's with chelsea

alhassan from npfl has joined austria wien your beloved kayode's former club

kelechi nwakali? please highlight the posts where i clamoured for his invitation. let's even agree without conceding that i asked for his invitation he's currently with arsenal and agewise we can fairly say he's ok so what other diversionary point do you want to bring up to distract us from the clear as day fact that ajagun is not super eagles quality?

you can't educate me because you have no facts to work with. did ajagun win greek league player of the year? No! did he ever give the most assists in the greek league? No was he ever nam... no let me make it easier for you was he ever nominated for panathanikos player of the season? please supply the answer yourself

if me speaking out against you hyping below average players to join the national team means i'm biased bro you better get used to it cos
i'm gonna be biased all day long

forgiveness:
Wilfred Ndidi failed MRI test. Alhassan failed MRI test, and so?

Kenneth Omeruo was part of that Ajagun set, and so?

Did that stop dem from excelling?

Don't bring age cheat into this matter because all the best players we ever had were products of the same system but you singlehandedly pick out few as public examples while exonerate your beloved. Why?

Stop your public point and kill castigation of players you don't like because they are not your type.


I don't need to educate you on Ajagun exploit in the biggest club in Greece because your mind already biased against him.


Now, tell me what Kelechi Nwakali has done for you to clamor for his invitation to the national team. What?

i think he meant 2009 U17 world cup.

what he said about ajagun being overage is quite plausible. remember adosiye amesiemeka exposed the team captain fortune chukwudi of being an age cheat when he produced a picture of the guy in the feeders team of sharks of port harcourt. also the MRI scan process wasn't 100% then it was still random testing which ajagun could have avoided if someone like chukwudi could scale through.

so all this performing you say he performed during U17 and U20 would be a case of an old man bullying small children

like i have always asked what has ajagun done that makes him such a serious candidate for the super eagles? his club stats anywhere he has played are not exceptional. if like you always argue the NFF are deliberately ignoring him because of some phantom reasons why is it that no reasonable clubside has signed him? true talent always stands out no matter what

forgiveness:
How can I take you seriously when you don't even know the year Ajagun played for Nigeria U17, huh?

Kelechi Nwakali and Victor Osimhen wey failed in there U20 exams, na em you wan take compare Ajagun wey pass U17 and U20 test wella even as a captain?

Thank God you are not in charge of his career else Ajagun wouldn't have played for the biggest club in Greece and now in Belgium constant.

Your Kelechi Nwakali and Victor Osimhen have both done nothing worthy of note to be compared with Ajagun who had done enough for both country and clubs so far, and they have virtually done nothing of worthy to be invited to the national team.

If there is any, tell me, what have dey done to be compared with Ajagun or to have merited a call to the national team.

My friend, National team is opened to 'ANY NIGERIAN PLAYER DOING WELL ABROAD'. Don't come here and start bringing down players to exaggerate that are still finding their foots in Europe.

We fit manage dem in the U20 were dem never pass common U20 exams.

Let dem goan pass exams before you come dey dash dem double promotion.

in an ideal world if we had the players of spain's caliber yes we would look to play possession based expanse football but let's not kid ourselves as at today we don't have those kind of players and if we do there are currently not yet mature to join the senior national team set up. why i say not ready it would mean years extensive grassroots development to get the kind of players who would give you the kind of football you dream. spain that you mentioned it took years of trial and error, plus and minus before they got to their current. nigeria currently we have players who can give you the technical stuff but we don't yet have enough players who can give you that kind of football consistently to that high level. you can bring lopetegui, guardiola or resurrect johan cruff to come coach us they still won't be able to transform us to attacking beasts over night based on the quality of players we have.

going into the world cup i expect rohr to build an effective counter attacking team. against lesser technical expansive teams like poland, russia, iran yes we would expect to dominate them but the truth is at the world cup we won't be facing too many technically poor teams. this counter attacking setup would work a peach against the english, portuguese, croatia and maybe the french. however against the brazils and germanys of this such tactics won't ultimately work except we play to the absolute max of our potential and also hope for a huge slice of luck to go our way

TheGoodJoe:
Even now, we can play attacking football. What affects us is our selection. If the current Spanish boss, Lopetegui is our coach, he would not select a park bus squad bit select players that will suit a possessive, attacking setup. It is the manager and not the talent pool that is making us play in a conservative manner.

where in my post did i say you said so? i was just saying your exaggeration of kayode's skill set and game play at girona could make one think he is tearing it up in la liga

forgiveness:
Haba! Where you see me talk say em score goals or gave assists?

OK! Since, you watched the match pinpoint any lie you saw in my post.

marketer of life. even kayode's agent cannot do a better job of this image laundering than you. pesin wey no watch am or no know what's up go think say olanrenwaju don score many goals and give multiple assists. i give you multiple tiri gbosa lai mohammed na learner where you dey

jokes apart if kayode's form improves he will definitely get my nod for final camping but let's see how he does against algeria next month

forgiveness:
Girona-fc 1-2 Villarel


Kayode olanrewaju was introduced in the beginning of second half after Girona-fc were down by 2 goals to one. He was deployed to partner the main striker though he dropped deep to the act as a SS and sometimes on the wings.

Although, I have seen him played for Girona before now but I noticed his confidence level has grown times ten.

Now, I know why Guardiola personally placed a call to him. Kayode is an all rounder forward player. He can place a through pass with a long ball, he can hold the ball, dribble, defend, play many roles and he is very dangerous in the box. Above all he is a team player, not selfish and I think his pace is equal to none in the SE

However, he has some dirty tricks under his sleeves. He is very experienced and I think he should be in the world cup.

Anyway, he was very lively when he came on and he changed the game.

Joebie:
I won't even write you off. U sef can make Russia.

if they were well timed like you claim he should have aleast connected with one

TheGoodJoe:
Iheanacho was not caged in any way in the SA game. He broke free on repeated occasions with well timed runs and good positions to score. Unfortunately, the final balls were awful. Not even close. That is not caging.

of course they will move towards him or watch him he's the danger man duh! he didn't do any exceptional thing that i haven't seen any decent striker do

TheGoodJoe:
Watch the Movement of Iheanacho and the central defenders. You will see them move towards his direction. On both occasions. Their eyes were on him which also created the room.

brother he was caged against the south africans just like the algerians did. the senegalese tried to cage him but he broke free. why i'm saying that you shouldn't rely on the lack of good service excuse is that every good striker knows it's not every game that service will be ideal. if i had seen KC hustling and trying to make things happen then i would have agreed with you

TheGoodJoe:
Iheanacho was not caged by the South African defence. Algeria yes. But in the South African game it was not caging but our inability to deliver basic final balls. Some even went to the goalkeeper. They were that poor.

Iheanacho has thrived in the role. Unfortunately, we are a team that is not utilizing his ability. If we attack with pace and dynamism, Nacho will flourish in the role.

In the modern way, with a lot of emphasis in team work, a player can thrive and do well in different roles. Restricting a player to one role now is diminishing the quality of the player.

bros you are the only one seeing this ''movement'' the first goal moses made a darting run at the algerian defence tried to find nacho with a pass
got a lucky rebound and buried his chance. for the second the incompetent algerian defenders were ball watching. if you are going to praise KC for the 2nd goal then ighalo deserves praise for drawing the zambian defenders so iwobi had enough space to rifle home the winner

TheGoodJoe:
Please, Iheanacho's movement was also a distraction to the defenders for the second goal. Even in the first minute, you can clearly see Iheanacho's pressing causing Victor Moses to win the ball.

yeah we were under a lot pressure for parts of the game from the algerians. we did well to weather the storm

Joebie:
Let everyone watch and analyze for themselves.. You can only make your argument on the first goal. But your argument won't still hold true on that one for obvious reasons. On the other two goals Iheanacho was barely involved in any way.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_m64ISLoAM

Modified
I must say this was not one of our best games. forget the scoreline

been reading all the comments from yesterday must say its has been entertaining viewing all the back and forth. i think victor moses has been the best player in this successful world cup campaign. i had thought he played his best game against algeria but against cameroon he was simply unplayable. the cameroonian defenders will be having nightmares about the man. i think it would be stretching it abit to say KC provided space for moses to flourish against the algerians. victor was just a different beast that day.

on iheanacho i rate him highly but like other posters have said it won't be doing him any justice if we keep blaming other factors for his poor or above average performances. the first game against zambia in ndola was his best game. his movement and guile confounded the zambians. his second against algeria he wasn't as threatening as he could have been. to juxtapose this look at his performance against senegal in the international friendly earlier in the year. he always occupied the senegalese centre halves and was always a source of menace to them even though the service wasn't great. that senegal game is the reason i can't readily exonerate him in the SA match. yes the service too was poor but kelechi didn't do himself any favours in that game just waiting for everything to be perfectly laid on a plate for him. ighalo before his recent form was also like that waiting for nonexistent service but now he know he has to hustle. it's because of this i'm not too critical of odion's performance against the zambians. he did not have the rub of the green goal scoring wise but he continued to make himself a nuisance to zambians.

i think it's also a bit harsh to question herr rohr's tactical ability. we qualified out of a group of current and former AFCON winners if that's not impressive then i don't know what is

nope i watched the game when i was a child. couldn't watch it live nepa took light but later watched the replays. plus youtube videos reaffirmed what i saw. again get my point you implied that rohr was tactically poor because we struggled against zambia and i'm saying we have always struggled against zambia. even the westerhof you used as example sweated to beat them comprede?

Mickael2:
from saying we dominated through Jj to saying we were even. You watched youtube highlights right?

we didn't dominate them throughout the game they gave as good as what we threw at them. our better quality edge us over them. exactly like the game panned out this past saturday

Mickael2:
you just said we dominated through JJ, how then did I goof by saying that Westerhof produced a team that could dominate any african team. Simple question, did we dominate Zambia or not? For like 90% of the game

I've said this before but i think Mikel is on course to be one of the best captains nigeria has ever had if not the best. in my hierarchy of captains he'll be right up there just behind Stephen Keshi RIP. players love and respect him. i'm most impressed with the way he has ensured team harmony and unity by acting as a bridge between the foreign born lads and the other guys. the coach, NFF, media and sports administrators respect him. his captaincy has been a perfect blend of leadership by example both on and off the pitch. he's been there when we needed him most and never shied away from responsibility. a true leader of men Odogwu JOHN MIKEL OBI!

i can understand rohr's mindset in bringing agu on to shore things up in the midfield but hasn't quite delivered. any player we bring in should be better or have similar quality to what we have at present. sorry agu doesn't tick those boxes for me yet. as a case in point do you remember the first leg in zambia? when in the second half they were all over us esiti came in and completely neutralized them and calmed the game. that's the kind of new quality i desire in the national team

edi287:
The Mikel Agu sub isn't that bad. Mikel Agu was simply nervous but managed to recover afterwards. Etebo wouldn't have been able to replicate Onazi ball winning abilities upfront(which Ndidi sort of did) while Ogu's lack of mobility might have been an issue if he played deep.

boss i tire but forgiveness keeps trolling us by adding his name

komekn:
Tiago Ilori for me non starter. I could be biased but I've seen him up close and personal and he didn't cut after so many chances at Liverpool.

ezenwa in place of akpeyi. he has been forged in fire and found not wanting. tiago ilori LOOOOL . etebo and ogu to replace agu and aluko. if musa continues with his poor club form aluko/onyekuru/bonaventure to fight for his place

forgiveness:
My 23 man list for the world cup

GK

1. Vincent Enyeama
2. Daniel Akpeyi
3, Alampasu


DF

4. Leon Balogun
5, Elderson Echiejile
6, Troost Ekong
7, Awazeim
8, Shehu Abdullahi
9. Ola Aina
10. Tiago Ilori



MF

11. Mikel Obi
12. Joel Obi
13. Onazi Ogenyi
14. Wilfred Ndidi
15. Mikel Agu
16. Sone Aluko


Attack


17. Alex-iwobi
18. Ahmed Musa
19. Odion Ighalo
20. Victor Moses
21. Simon Moses
22. Kelechi Iheanacho
23.Kayode Olanrewaju


Modified

yes i watched the game zambians scored a goal few minutes in we roared back. we were dominating them through okocha's inspired play removed JJ to go defensive midfield almost completely collapsed. zambians troubled us through kalusha bwalya for the final few minutes. zambians have always been competitive against us which results over the years have shown so it was wrong using them as a yardstick. just accept you goofed there then we can move on to other aspects of this discussion

Mickael2:
like I said before which you tactfully tried to ignore, there is a big difference between playing against Zambia in a match that they must win and in an Afcon final.

Did you watch that 1994 final? Please Oga Icon4s tell my bro here if we struggled in that match

bros on the bolded westerhof struggled against this same zambia you are using as a yardstick. remember the 1994 AFCON? what makes your argument worse is that the particular zambian team was a hurriedly assembled one for that matter. i also remember reading one interview of late stephen keshi where he said clemens wasn't the greatest tactically and he should know better since he played under him.

now regarding rohr's tactically ability i would still give him 60% his use of subs have been here and there. his use mikel agu in place of ogu and etebo puzzled me personally. overall though its been a long time i've seen the super eagles play with such intensity and cutting edge. iwobi's goal is a case in point how many times have you seen nigeria score such a goal after an unbroken sequence of passes? to do it in such a high pressure match is even more impressive. based on the quality of players available to him i think rohr has really gotten the best out of them

Mickael2:
Ok I have to strongly disagree here.

There was a game we were playing, I think it was against Algeria in 2005? Westerhof was in the NTA studios, immediately the team sheet was released he analysed the games and told us how it would pan out and the number of goals Nigeria would score in the first half and bam it happened. In the second half too he said he expects Martins speed to be a bonus plus other things he said and there we go it happened that way.


Westerhof after 4 years built a team that was easily outplaying Bulgaria and most of the teams on the African continent, trust me after 4years our team would still be dragging with Zambia. German coaches as a matter of fact do not dwell on team spirit/maintaining the same team etc etc (cc Joachim Low, Jurgen Klinsman and Klopp), these people depend on their tactical nous and their ability to get players to play to their formation, that is why teams like Germany and USA under Klinsman can field an entirely different 11 and still maintain the same identity, the only day we failed to name 3 of our starters we were playing kick and follow football.


I applaud Rohr for his all round man-management skills but comparing him tactically to Westerhof is just not true

i hope CAF can help out the African teams who qualify for the world cup by postponing their games in march to enable them prepare adequately for the world cup by playing top grade A friendlies. since FIFA has said a country cannot play back to back matches in 2 different confederations it's unlikely that a team like nigeria would be able to play a good friendly. one might argue that playing a competitive AFCON qualifier would help keep your players in shape but in reality it doesn't benefit a team like nigeria facing african opposition so close to the mundial. after the world cup the AFCON game can easily be rescheduled. unless FIFA relaxes their rule about where you can play your friendlies going into the world cup i think it's something CAF should consider so that african teams can represent well at russia

tbaba1234:
Lost to the whipping boys of the group..

I'm truly shocked USA didn't qualify Na so dey no like Russia reach be that?

Icon4s:
How come none of you had ever said this.

You had to wait till Zambia almost exploited it.

No player should be free from criticism.

you make it sound as if he was troubled throughout the game. After his initial errors he adjusted and the defense settled. Leon is by no means perfect I'm sure he will be the first to admit that their are aspects of his game he can improve on but the facts of the matter is that he's still our best defender for now

Icon4s:
That is world average.

Balogun at 29+ you know wasn't born in Nigeria (you know what I mean) may be at his peak.

But Other defenders like Ambrose, Echiejile, Obaobona, Omeruo, Egweke, who are even younger (officially) have long past their peak.

But I am sure you agree Balogun's lack of pace was really exposed in that game. I am not one of the Eagles physios but I can tell you it could be age related.
Defenders typically slow down as they age but that doesn't mean they declining. Experience and positional ability can make of for loss of pace. It is normal.

Leon has never been the fastest his game has always been about decisive tackling and smart positional play. Like you rightly said as defenders age they rely more on experience and reading the game expertly

i seriously love your list.

for GK i would have taken alampasu for the learning experience but rohr would probably go for akpeyi instead.

for defence realistically omit the german guys and we are good to go.

midfield remove agu and nwakali and we are set.

attack still abit fluid baring any unforeseen circumstance KC, ighalo, iwobi, and the two moses are going. the remaining spot we leave to best in form

safarigirl:
Following elyte39's suggestion, and for the sake of a little fun....my 30-35 man WC list barring injuries:

GK (5)

1. Ikechukwu Ezenwa
2. Vincent Enyeama
3. Dele Alampasu
4. Daniel Akpeyi
5. Carl Ikeme ( not likely to make it)

DF (9)

6. Leon Balogun
7. William Troost-Ekong
8. Shehu Abdullahi
9. Ola Aina
10. Elderson Echiejile
11. Chidozie Awaziem
12. Tyrone Ebuehi
13. Kenneth Omeruo
14. Felix Uduokhai/Torunarigha (whichever we can get)

MF (8]

15. John Mikel Obi
16. Ogenyi Onazi
17. Wilfred Ndidi
18. John Ogu
19. Oghenekaro Etebo
20. Joel Obi
21. Mikel Agu
22. Kelechi Nwakali/ Obinna Nwobodo


FW (8]

23. Victor Moses
24. Odion Ighalo
25. Kelechi Iheanacho
26. Alex Iwobi
27. Moses Simon
28. Ahmed Musa
29. Cyril Dessers
30. Henry Onyekuru/ Olarenwaju Kayode

Standby (5)

31. Tammy Abraham
32. Ademola Look man
33. Dominic Solanke
34. Josh Onomah
35. Uche Agbo

Cc Joebie, Icon4s, Kog45, Terzurum5, forgiveness, joseph1013, daveP, napoleon55, icon79, Mujtahida

Icon4s:
In modern day football, Full backs over-lap a lot. So it is common sight seeing CBs covering for one LB or RB that overlapped out of position and could not recover quickly enough.

I think it is age related. Balogun is ageing.

defenders usually peak between 28-30 years which balogun falls into. God willing nigeria can still enjoy 2-4 years of good service from him. yes he made some mistakes especially in the first half against zambia but he later got back to his imperious best. i expect ekong, awaziem and any other young talented defender we discover between now and after the WC to observe and learn from him

the oyinbo wall is still our best defensive pairing baring injuries i don't see anyone realistically taking either leon or ekong's place good coaching and decent protection should do them ok. for the future we watch how awaziem progresses and also try to snap another german born defender.

for the immediate future aina will play LB. echejiele will still be the LB back up going into the WC because of his experience but after the WC the search for another decent LB should be more rigorous.

yes the lack of a reliable striker other than kelechi is worrying but i still feel the likes of onyekuru and kayode have not been given a decent run in the team they might just be the solution. my take on tammy's matter is that we shouldn't foreclose all options regarding him. based on footballing reasons i'm yet to see anything in way of form but if by season's end he emerges as one of the best players in EPL after scoring loads of goals and says he wants to play for us i will gladly take him. we have made the first approach let's wait for him to reciprocate

tbaba1234:
Weaknesses in our team

Alternatives to the Oyibo Wall..
A new left back
Limited Striking Options

Potential Solutions

I. Awaziem is 3rd choice but he is very green. Omeruo can be decent on his day but does not always inspire confidence. I think both players can do the job but i 'd like to see us chase Felix Udoukhai. That boy has been outstanding in the bundesliga, also a green horn but it is only a matter of time before Germany come calling. He is that good.

2. Elderson has sometimes been unfairly targeted but it is obvious that the Zambian team saw his wing as the weak point. He needs to be replaced. Ola Aina can certainly do a great job there. No one is displacing Shehu at RB, he has been world class. Needs to move out of cyprus.


3. Ighalo can blow hot and cold. Dessers is an exciting option to me. He has declared for Nigeria so why not? If Tammy is willing, he should also be invited.

Joebie:
Why do people keep saying 27 years as if the world cup is held every year.. Please just say since 1990 or say how many times they missed out of qualifying.

lol Na 27 years before Na ABI did the number 27 offend you personally eh persona personally