₦airaland Forum

fabyom:
If you know Oshimen personally tell him to sit up and learn.
He should stop all these silly memes and concentrate on his football.
He still has a long way to go.
Trying to be a guy man by disrespecting former players will not help his career.
My2cent!

The former players are the ones disrespecting him and respect is reciprocal. it's human nature to disrespect people who disrespect you.

Disrespecting former S.E players can only affect his national team career and not his club career and that's if the NFF president allows it.

He does not have a long way to go since his already playing for a top team.

He only needs to improve on certain parts of his game.

Pidginwhisper:
Osimhen sometimes struggles with positioning.

most times not sometimes and his always in between defenders instead of looking for space..

at least he has started dropping deeper than the last defender..

he needs to learn how to drop deeper and work with the midfield..

Subzero47:
What are your other options, I want to know them

Updated midfielders List
Aribo
Nwakwali
Onyeka
Iwobi
Ndidi
Tijani
Bonke
Onyedika
Alhassan Yusuf
Ramon Azeez ( recent addition )
Iyayi Atiemwen ( recent addition )
Anderson Esiti ( recent addition )
Dele-Bashiru ( recent addition )

jieta:
Coach i have a question?

Odunayaw:
That's right! The runs!
Intelligent runs will make even a turd pass to you.

A good example of this is one of Osimhen's goal against Lesotho. Where this former Granada guy was able to give a splitting pass to Osimhen because of the run

I've completely forgotten about Ramon Azeez.

andrewbaba44:
None of midfielders are intelligent like Parejo Baba

Ndidi is class but not creative ,maybe only iwobi can do that .

It's not just about intelligence it's also about if there are other players around him making forward runs he can pass to.

If it was S.E under Eguavoen and his coaching crew there will be no other player to pass to or the players won't make forward runs they'll just stand by parejo side waiting for him to pass.

And most of the forward players will already be in front waiting for the ball to magically reach them.

andrewbaba44:
You are right about Moses Simon being on Gerard Moreno shoes and won’t pass that ball ,but another question you should ask if which of our midfielders can still that brilliant build up like Dani Parejo deceiving more than a player

Ndidi , onyeka , Nwakwali , iwobi, aribo and any midfielder who has other midfielders or forward players who drop deep around him can have brilliant build up like Dani Parejo..

that goal started with Estupinan to Parejo to Lo celso to Moreno to Chukwueze.

Another thing to note is Gerard Moreno drops deeper than the opposition defense line and sometimes to midfield then runs with the ball with the intention to pass or cross into the box or shoot at the goalkeeper..

Another thing to note is that the Super Eagles formation has less midfielders than Villareal's formation and build-up for the S.E is usually from the full-backs or defenders to the wingers to the strikers or the wingers take the shots and NOT from the full-backs to midfielders to another midfielder to winger to striker to another winger then winger or striker takes the shot..

Villareal had four midfielders on the pitch Capoue, Lo Celso , Parejo and Coquelin, In their formation, Lo Celso can also make forward runs and temporarily play as a winger or right wing forward role and Parejo also makes forward runs and plays a central forward role.

for the Chukwueze goal, Coquelin had been substituted for Pedraza who is a winger but can also play as a left back this also means he can play as a left midfielder and even if he wasn't involved in the build up to the goal.. Villareal still technically had 4 midfielders on the pitch or at least 3 midfielders on the pitch..

these 4 Villareal midfielders drop deep to help the defense that's why they could build up like that, If it was in the Super Eagles there will be nobody in Lo Celso's position to receive the ball then pass to Moreno , so Dani parejo ( or the S.E midfielder ) will have to use a long ball over the opposition midfield and defense to get the ball to Moreno's position and since its a long ball it means the opposition defenders can head the ball away..

what the Dani Parejo pass to Lo Celso means is that at least one opposition player will be drawn out of position to get the ball from Lo Celso and there were 3 Bayern players on Dani Parejo so that pass alone took out 3 Bayern players.

you're making me write essay.

Ppogbae:
How the heck do we have these folks banging in goals week in, week out but fail to secure a simple win over Ghana in 2 legs?

We are slowly turning into another Ivory Coast.

wingers not crossing especially moses simon and chukwueze...

strikers trying to score extravagant goals instead of simple goals especially Osimhen.

strikers and wingers who don't drop deep to help the midfield and defense especially simon, dennis, chukwueze for the S.E.

strikers who don't drop deeper than the opposition defense line and fail to beat the offside trap especially Osimhen.
e.t.c.

there were counter-attacking situations in the Ghana match where Moses Simon could just run and cross or pass into the box but he always chose to slow down or stop so that he can try to dribble the Ghanaian or opposition defenders which stops the S.E counter attacking opportunities.

the goal Chukwueze scored against Bayern, If Moses Simon was in Gerard Moreno's shoes Moses Simon will not cross or pass into the box for Chukwueze to score. Moses Simon would have waited for the opposition defenders to catch up and regroup before losing possession to the opposition..

then bad coaching from E:guavoen...

JohnBullMySon:
Those players you mentioned had obtained elite status at their clubs.

Tell me one player who made it to those national teams solely on performance in an age grade competition?

Ronaldo de lima

Denílson

Ronaldinho

Lionel Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo

Xavi

Iniesta

e.t.c..

Bigzigg:
They are all largely unpolished..

When Equatorial Guinea won those cups, the level of the game was still poor. Then, it was just about Nigeria, South Africa, EQ. Guinea, Ghana, Cameroon...The gap btw these teams and others was very large. Such is not the case today, okay... We've got strong teams in Ivory coast, Mali, Zambia, Tanzania, Morrocco, etc.

While progress is being made, the standard on the continent is still low. Problem is, Nigeria hasn't been improving.

You have to leave those young girls to prove themselves at the U20 first.

Bigzigg:
Are you seriously comparing those girls with the players you named above? Cool down, bro, the coach knows they have a very long way to go. At least, let them prove themselves at the U20 world cup.

If you are Good enough you are old enough...

If Barca had left messi, fati, Pedri and Gavi e.t.c to play youth football they will not be scoring the match winning goals that they scored and are scoring..

Pedri won't have been in the senior team to score the winning goal against Sevilla.
Messi won't have been the player he is today...

ceejay80s:
Pls be quiet, how old were u then?

I can't keep quiet when I see a lie..

I'm debunking his lies version of history that Ig:bos have been marginalized since the 1950s.

Rafaell:
And who caused it ? Is it not the same Afonjas n Almajiris that marginalized, terrorized n harangued the Igbos so mercilessly all the way from as far back as 1956 till date in this God-forsaken kwantri called Nizooria. Are they not the "Monsters you made" Go and listen to Burna Boy again !!

from the 1900s to the 1950s to 1960 till 1966 Igbos were the ones in powerful positions..

It was after independence at 1960 where the regions were fully in the hands of the major regional ethnic nations that Igbo leaders like N:namdi Azikiwe who was the president of Nigeria started to marginalize the indigenes of other regions from getting employed in federal institutions in their own region using his presidential powers which was one of the reasons for Ahmadu Be:llo's and Akintola's anti I:gbo comment.....

for example, federal Universities and institutions in northern Nigeria had more I:gbo lecturers and i:gbo administrators than northerners and it was the same in the western region there were more I:gbo lecturers and I:gbo administrators than Yoruba...

It was so bad in the western region, that N:namdi Azikiwe had the guts to want to be premier of the western region and Yoruba leaders were against it and when N:namdi Azikiwe and his other I:gbo leaders noticed they couldn't gain control over other regions they started a coup to kill the leaders of the other regions and abolish regionalism and replaced regionalism with unitary government because they thought they will be in charge forever...

the entire southern Nigeria is suffering the aftermath of 1960s Igbo leaders decisions ( aftermath of the civil war )....

TheSuperNerd:
Funny how this report partly shows a glimpse of what I already knew.

Eguavoen and Amunike were clearly not in sync with each other. Eguavoen didn't listen. This is why I say this loss is majorly on him.

Amunike did complain about Dennis' unwillingness to track back/track a man and truly it is that one moment of lackadaisicality that earned Ghana the throw-in, in the first place. Then from the same throw-in, Dennis again didn't track his man.

Abeg, I have read and seen enough. Eguavoen is a true dunce.

And Ghana actually switched to a 4-5-1 at the beginning of the second half. The DM dropped back to the back four to make it 5 at the back leaving 4 in the middle and only Afena up front in case of a quick counter.

Inability to read opponent tactical switches and then not being in tactical sync with your assistants further exposes Eguavoen for the one dimensional dummy he is as a coach. Tufiakwa!!!!

Eguavoen is not a dunce... Eguavoen and Amunike were in sync stop trying act as if Amunike wasn't part of the coaching crew.. Eguavoen, Amunike and the coaching staff all failed...

the thing you should say is Eguavoen is a typical adult Nigerian who must have things done his way and other opinions are nonsense... A lot of people on this thread also have the same mentality..

Subzero47:
Only Ndidi, Aribo and to an extent Iwobi are competent enough on an international level the rest are just there

Eguavoen's coaching has shown that it is what you do with what you have that matters.

competent midfielders in the hands of a coach with poor tactics will make them look like incompetent midfielders...

those midfielders are competent enough to play in Euro:pean leagues so that means they are competent enough for the Super Eagles.

5inchdick:
let's quit blaming these players. The coach wey play them no sabi their strengths?

Eguavoen was trying to make "some people happy" concerning the player selections and players that played on the pitch and relies on luck.

So even if he knew their strengths he has to play some players so that he doesn't annoy "the people his trying to make happy".

Subzero47:
Well I'm glad this thread is getting back to normal my take is that until we have 6-7 competent midfielders we are going nowhere as a footballing nation

S.E already has 6-7 competent midfielders.

Nwakwali
Onyeka
Iwobi
Ndidi
Tijani
Bonke
Onyedika
Alhassan Yusuf

elyte89:
We viewed lookman performance as been good because odas were so bad dt we didn't notice lookman performance dt day was just average and nothing more.those guys were disappointing

Lookman played well and when he came off that wing became toothless.

Lookman played that wing better than Simon.

Beloved03:
I wonder how no one is talking about the inability of our boys to hit long range shots from outside the 18yard box.

The last SE midfielder who could do this were John Ogu. I miss his powerful pack of shots.

Ndidi is to Nigeria what Partey is to Ghana (both the only world class players in the teams) but while Partey is able to carry Ghana forward at decisive games Ndidi doesn't. He (Ndidi) needs to re-learn how to take those shots.

andrewbaba44:
You can’t give what you don’t have

Our players doesn’t score with shots at their clubs

Amoo can take long range shots...
Onyeka can take long range shots..
Samuel Adegbenro can take long range shots...

Ndidi cannot leave his DM role often to be taking shot unless there's another DM or midfielder on the pitch to cover him or forward player that drops to midfield to cover but most of the time it's another midfielder..

Partey plays as a CAM for Ghana and drops to midfield to also support the other DM.

When Fred runs forward McTominay is there to cover.

When Kante runs forward another DM or midfielder is there to cover.

In summary atleast a 3 man midfield is needed to create long range shooting chances.

Under Eguavoen it was mostly a 1 man midfield except the times Ihenacho dropped deep.

do4luv14:
And it's usually the local coaches that failed us

And Eguavoen was the coach on the two occasions.

COOL10:
The senseless OAPs are talking again. Sometimes e dey do me like say make I enter my phone go knack these people small sense.

on which station

komekn:
I really don't know to be honest, but with regards to club football I would say Bassey is way ahead.

A good barometer is to see how many clubs will put in a bid to buy him and how many put in a bid for Bassey.

I very much doubt if Bassey will be in Rangers next season most likely the EPL but I don't see Sanusi moving to La Liga , EPL ,or a higher league.

I'm not talking about club football so keep your barometer to yourself..

Porto plays in the UCL so if Bassey moves to an EPL team that's not playing in the UCL that means he still can't lace Sanusi's boots especially for the S.E..

RaymondJohnson1:
Brilliant. We simply don't have an organised way to attack. This was not emphasized enough on this thread after the painful AFCON exit. All we heard was Okoye dis, Okoye that.

Teams practise how to get the ball from their goalkeeper to the opponent's net. Teams practice how to score from set-pieces; how players are to be placed, the different angles the player could play into, the movement after the freekick is taken, but our team lacked all of this. I wonder what they do in training....... na to they jog on the field and crack jokes during the training, na im they know pass.

NFF should please get a team of committed home-based players that will play together more, learn basics of the modern game, learn how to string accurate passes together, learn how to shoot balls from outside the box. We should have a sound home- based team.

It was emphasized on this thread and why a lot people on this thread clamored for more midfielders..

what you're explaining is the job of midfielders and can never be played with a thin midfield like A.E super eagles.

In A.E team, most of the time the strikers , wingers and attacking midfielders are all by the box waiting for the ball to magically come to them instead of dropping deep and helping the midfield.

Most of them are too attack and offensively minded. That's why anytime S.E played 3 midfielders their gameplay was better..

Now imagine if S.E played 4 midfielders or the wingers drop to midfield often to make it 5 midfielders.

drDoom3:
We are simply not efficient in attack against drilled teams. We create many half chances instead of proper chances due to poor passing, decision making and build up play. When we do create decent chances, our attackers don't communicate well, make the wrong decisions or just outright miss.

We lack organization and efficiency in the way we are set up. We struggle to find ourselves on the pitch. We didn't know how to attack, we struggle to maintain possession in attacking areas and control the tempo of the game because we cannot pass.

We are relying on one lucky ball to Osimhen instead of setting our team up so that we have regular direct balls to him in good positions. It shows our coaches are either lazy tactically or just not knowledgeable enough on the modern game.

It's both.

The coaches are lazy tactically and not knowledgeable enough on the modern game.

They rely too much on luck and religion.

semid4lyfe:
*This thread will not be closed*

It has a lot of brilliant contributions, analysis, data and is an invaluable resource library / repository on Nigerian football and footballers

Furthermore, this thread has transcended Nigerian football into our personal lives as connections have been made and friendships have been forged here.

The thread will only be renamed to reflect our future aspirations and I welcome suggestions for that.

As seen with Eguavoen's inability to qualify the S.E for the World cup on 2 occasions in 2006 and 2022 means humans are repetitive.

This means that the new thread will have repeated or rehashed comments that are already on this thread especially if some players continue to get call ups..

Stormtrooper11:
We started with a 3 man midfield but we still didn't play good in the 1st half of the game. We actually didn't play good. We fielded if not our best crop of players available but we were still toothless.

Kinda agreeable about Sanusi.

Lol, they're all inter-related. Nigeria problems is like a tree. Nigeria cut few branches out of the tree but never gets to destroy the stem nor roots. They don't even stop the water supply to the tree!

They're corrupt doesn't mean a developing country like ours with poor structures and institutions should be. The States, Kingdom, Jean-Fraude, all have structures in place to checkmate excesses. We don't have those strong institutions.

Nigerian billionaires owning a sport academy isn't mandatory. The government, with the ministry of sport is responsible for the advancement of sports in the country. Makin sure we're doing the appropriate partnerships for development, PPPs included, is their responsibility. We're not honest with ourselves here. The government aren't serious in the development of even grassroot sports! We can't keep relying on rejected foreign borns to move us to great heights. Our supply of players should be a mixed variety.

S.E controlled the midfield better in the 1st half and if not for Uzoho's blunder and osimhen poor positioning at beating offside trap the result would have been better.

You don't understand what I'm saying. I'm talking about their private institutions not public.

The government and the ministry of sport won't pay high salaries the same way billionaires would.

Nigeria can't keep relying on government.

Stormtrooper11:
Actually, I'm one of those guys that wanted a 3 man midfield. We got the midfield most of us requested for. We got the lineup most of requested for. Many guys here wanted Lookman and Dennis to start because we felt Simon and chukwueze dribbles too much .

Some guys wanted Bassey over Sanusi cos they felt Bassey was so good in rangers and better than Sanusi. We got that.
We got everything we asked for. We lost.
Why did we lose? Poor coaching. I saw the eyes of the boys, they fought, they gave their all. People here saying that the foreign borns are lazy are just being petty. Players born in country of origin might have quite more hunger but it doesn't mean our foreign borns were lazy at all.
Do you know that's the world cup? Is their anybody that'll just leave the opportunity to go to the world cup slide?


Nigeria tried. We're giants. The day Nigeria stops these tribalism, nepotism and corruption, that's the day even the U.S will catch goosebumps.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

3 man midfield for the whole match.. in the 2nd half it turned to a 1 man midfield and that midfielder was a minus the only good thing he did was bringing down a Ghanaian player which was due to his poor positioning and he got carded.

For now Sanusi is better than Bassey for the S.E.

Promotion of mediocrity is what's affecting Nigeria not tribalism, nepotism and corruption.

Europeans, Whyte Americans and Asians e.t.c are tribal, nepotistic and corrupt but the high quality their corporate, academic and sports institutions produces is what hides their tribalism, nepotism and corruption.

Mention 7 high quality football academies in each region in Nigeria which means mention 1 in each region in Nigeria and their players playing in Europe top 10 leagues and compare it to only Chelsea FC academy and the players Chelsea have produced not to talk of the clubs ..

How many Nigerian billionaires own fully equipped football or sports academies in Nigeria not to talk about clubs.

TheGoodJoe:
You are just attacking. You are not really making a point.

Today, I became bitter because I have seen we will not play the way I want and also we have influences that will not allow it happen.

For instance, we needed Iheanacho towards the end. But, he must play Ighalo. No one should tell me anything, it is influenced. Iheanacho is the only striker we have that can drop deep and hit a decent pass. He is good at crossing. He has a good shooting range.

Should Musa come in ahead of someone like Amoo?

Musa and Ighalo coming on shocked me... you may be right because Yesterday I was watching a sports program where former S.E goalkeeper Idah and Victor ikpeba were talking about the S.E and Idah said Ighalo and Musa should play and in my mind I was saying thank the heavens you're not the coach only for Eguavoen to bring them on in the 2nd half.

I don't think it's the politicians. It's the ex and retired players that are picking and influencing the team.

That's why I don't want any local coach anymore until after 2026.

Most of the players today will be 4 years older and some of them will be past their prime so it's bad S.E is not qualifying this year.

komekn:
If Chukwueze was in Norway he would be hailed as the next Ronaldo.

Until Amoo gets to play in better quality league he doesn't deserve a call up to the SE.

Amoo is a ball carrier and goal threat just like lookman and he can also score from outside the box which is what S.E was lacking.

Amoo deserves multiple call-ups and game time.

S.E lacks players who like to run with the ball from defense/midfield to attack.

JohnBullMySon:
Shehu was not bad.

Shehu was terrible. His passes kept getting intercepted and he was losing the ball.

Once onyeka left part of the midfield also left then once Etebo left then the midfield died and Shehu was minus one.

mirinder:
we dont deserve to qualify. This team is useless

the team is poorly coached not useless and wrong player selections..

Odunayaw:
Now it's about the basics of football

Go and sit down bruv

yes Oooo...

S.E was playing like the Zambian womens team where the tactic is kick the ball over the midfield to Barbra Banda and S.E defenders were just kicking the ball over the midfield to Osimhen who does not know how to beat offside trap or drop deeper than the last defender..

Osimhen will be a better striker the day he learns to drop deeper than the last defender..

Meliforme:
You guys are now seeing the importance of Nwakali.

I have always advocated for Nwakali Oooo... Its because of his club situation and league his playing in most people on this thread don't rate him...