₦airaland Forum

Where was I when your almighty Yobo was playing? 🙄

The last defender we had was Leon Balogun. Dude brought some sanity to our backline. Shame he didn't join us early.

Yobo had longevity but wasn't really up there.
I rate 2013/2014 Omeruo higher.

Subzerooo:
You answered your question, our defenders have glaring limitations that could be exposed in a 2 man defence, the last defender that we had that could comfortably hold his own in a 2-man defence was Joseph Yobo

Someone wrongly credited Edo State government for the resurgence of the state female club .
Wrong because most of the problems in our sports and other walks of life are what we know the solution to, and they are not rocket science.

The issue is that the government actively works to sabotage all purposeful ventures and endeavours in the country.

Anytime there is some positive news, it is due more to the agents of government not sabotaging it than they being instrumental to it.

That system was an initiative of Bolaji Abdullahi a former Minister for Sports, and it was following the introduction of MRI bone scan.

I knew it would not last because it was a system that 1. Was going to promote excellence. 2. Yielded very little to the kleptomaniacs. 3. Put the coaches and players in the driving seat.

The NFF just like any other organ of government in Nigeria works to sabotage excellence.

TheGoodJoe:
There was a time we pushed Iheanacho and Chidiebere Nwakali to Manchester City. We pulled the plug on such growth when the NFF abandoned out U17 open scouting system. That has led to poor young talents and less buzz of our talents.

I agree with you.
People think that packing 5 defenders against Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Benin is the way to go. How could a country boasting some of the most talented attackers in the world be such mediocre?

We need to play 4-4-2 because that is our strength. This is basic logic!

Philosopher1979:
Our coach needs to work on our ability to pkay with 2 central defenders. Playing with 3 Centre backs limits our options in midfield and attack. Are our defenders so poor that they can't okay with 2 centre backs. I don't understand.

Maybe igbo ogbu should be tried in defence. As per calvin bassey if he does not play well in a 2 man centre back, then he is limited. The issue is a lot of people here will say bassey is better than ogbu because he is in a better league but formation and tactics trump league. Players like omeruo, igbo ohbu may be better than bassey in a 2 man centre back but anyone who reasons like this will be deemed foolish.

It remains to be seen what tactical formation Eric Chelle will deploy. Many are predicting 4-4-2 which I think will favour a player like Victor Boniface who thrives better in a partnership.

Fingers crossed on Lookman and Iwobi who usually are among the first names on the team sheet. Lookman is more an inside forward than a winger. Iwobi on the other hand is a left/right AM.

But it pays to have a lot of options in terms of personnel and tactics.
At the end of the day, it is not about the players and not about the formation as Finidi rightly said. It is about teamwork, team spirit, determination and the right culture.

Who says both Iheanacho and Boniface cannot be revived?
I guess they were particular about Boniface given that he has got so much potential yet struggling to find his mojo in the national team.

zicky:
why still looking at Boniface and not Iheanacho cos Boniface has never fired for SE unlike Iheanacho so what does the coach want to rejuvenate.

Those two countries you underrate run better domestic league than Nigeria

Odunayaw:
We should get out of the group alongside Senegal. Congo and Sudan were pant at the last tournament

Please free my guy.
Will you offer to be updating us?

charlesemeka85:
u Dey sleep for LiveScore?😳🤦‍♀️🤣🤣🤣

If other ethnic nationalities had their sovereignty, currency and constitution, I doubt if they would "flee" as you mentioned into another ethnic nationality.
What resources are they exporting in Lagos? The revenue is from tax, tax and tax.

codemaniacs:
yes it is the reason Nigeria is the way it is but Nigeria's case is different partially because in Nigeria's case every ethnic nation has free access to move into another ethnic nation territory without border checks because there are no borders and ethnic nations who did not grow their indigenous ethnic economies just "flee" into another ethnic nation that grew their own ethnic economies even though we use the same currency..

if each ethnic nation stays put in their territory then Nigeria won't be the way it is today..

Our football in Nigeria and subsaharan Africa is rotten with all sorts of malfeasances, incongruities and inelegance.

The factors that stymie our football are lucid to all but many here have elected to be politically correct. I am not going to be.

I will speak to the issues and mention specifics while ignoring bile and scurrilous attacks on my person.

Come back home?
Do you know what relocation means?
Academy is an educational institution, not online forex business.

How is home? Poor infrastructure, insecurity, administrative incorrigibility, theft of public money.

TheGoodJoe:
Our African coaches in Europe, especially the high grade ones should come back home and open academies. Use their knowledge to raise stars that they will push to Europe. The marginalization over there is just crazy.

I hope Kolo Toure finds a way to succeed.

Africa is really hamstrung by bad leadership.
Imagine, 3 countries not able to come up with the minimum infrastructure and logistics to host a tournament for players based in their local leagues.

I assume these countries have leagues and clubs playing on the continent.

I am backing Eric Chelle to do well because that will be a win-win situation for us and for African coaches.

Are the thieving politicians running football interested in Chelle succeeding? Never!
Very soon the government will release billions for the so-called WCQ project.

There is no Senegal in our group, no Morocco or Egypt. Just Rwanda and Benin and we have had 4 coaches. Una well done 🤝

When the Portuguese journeyman left with his boring defensive tactics, everyone was clamouring for Amunike to be given the job. It was just natural.

In the following weeks, paid hands from the usual quarters started producing articles and write-ups about how Amunike would have a fierce and querulous relationship with the NFF ...bla bla bla. Before one could say jack, enter Finidi!!
The rest is history.

Igbos have now been officially barred from holding any tangible coaching position in the Nigeria and that is why we are here moving from Finidi to Eguavon to Mali...next is China or Cambodia. THE BIG NIGERIAN PROBLEM

We have won the U-17 world cup only 5 times since its inception. Amunike has 2: one as assistant coach, another as head coach.

Amunike took a rag-tag Tanzanian team through the AFCON qualifiers and secured the ticket.

Amunike played for top clubs like Sporting Lisbon and Barcelona.

Amunike scored decisive goals that won Nigeria international laurels.

Amunike has a top coaching license.

Stop the hate guys!!

Eguavon's baptismal name...lol
Autocorrect with its doings anyway.

elyte89:
Who is hello?

As for those who say Amunike is not qualified to be the head coach, I wish them luck.
It is a replay of what the Lagos-Ibadan media did to the poor guy in 2014/2015.

Immediately he commenced the preliminary stages of U-17 team selection process they descended on him and labelled him all sorts(ethnic jingoist, sectionalism, etc)
Their grouse was that he had a handful of Igbos in his team.

When his team did not win the U-17 AFCON title, they mounted pressure on the NFF to remove him but Pinnick would take none of that.
Pinnick led a delegation of the NFF to Chile after we thrashed Brazil 3-0 in the quarter finals and there he praised Amunike for silencing his critics. He told the boys to listen to everything Amunike told them because he(Amunike) played at the highest level including for Barcelona.

Today, some of his boys are among the key players in our senior team.

I would think that Eguavon is a mockery of the term "technical director" because he clearly is not. He is just a stand-in coach unfortunately.

He is eminently qualified to be one but the hawkish politicians wouldn't allow any reasonable thought to prevail.

I thought it was part of the roles of technical teams to shop for coaches.

What exactly is Eguavon's role in the NFF?

Let's be honest guys, Eguavon himself is not confident of topping that WCQ group as the coach.
Granted he won a couple of matches, but we know he usually crumbles when it matters most.

I'm not interested in Nigeria qualifying for the WC. What I want is to see us make progress in football, have a good system in place, play good football.

I'm not a fan of Chelle but I have studied what he did with Mali a very poor country.
Let's give him a chance. If he underperforms, we fire him. Simple.

You didn't mention that Aliou Cisse did not make it past the group stage at the 2018 WC, and lost to Algeria at the 2019 AFCON final.

Franktom247:
Does Chelle have a better track record than these guys?

AFCON WINNER
WORLD CUP SEMIFINALIST
CAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNER

Nothing good about the letter. Headless arrogance: Nigeria as "giant" of Africa.
Why do our brethren from the west like belittling other Africans?

As we speak, Nigeria is a crumbling entity, not even among the top 3 economies on the continent.
Our teams struggle to qualify for group stage of CAF CC. Our league is crap. The football administrators are bunch of thieving politicians.

Why do we still stymie our progress by retaining this retrogressive colonial mentality that it must be a white man?
Why did we go round Finidi, Eguavon and now Chelle in the first place? Because Amunike must not be the head coach due to his ethnicity.

I am not a fan of Chelle but I want Africans especially my brethren from the West to desist from this embarrassing infighting within us. We have a host of brilliant minds on the continent. It must not be a white man please!!!

villagereporter:
https://scorenigeria.com.ng/an-open-letter-to-eric-chelle/.

A good read.

Ninety percent of the players listed here will not make the actual list.
This is an indomie list.

Napoleon55:
Modified.

20 Most skillful Nigeria players

1.Jay Jay Okocha
2.Kanu Nwakwor
3.Christien Obodo
4.Musa Yahaya
5.John Utaka
6.Rabiu Ibrahim
7.Chidi Ordia
8.Etim Esim
9.Samson Siasia
10.Osaze Odemwingie

Completing the top 20,
In no particular order are:

11.Samuel Chukwueze
12.Victor Boniface
13.Solomon Okoronkwo
14.Pius Ikedia
15.Chinedu Ogbuke
16.James Obiora
17.Ikechukwu Uche
18.Moses Simon
19.Friday Ekpo
20.Ademola Lookman

As usual, the ceremony was very chaotic and the organization quite kindergarten. A "country" that never grows.

The officials were misbehaving during the announcement, and someone was even talking on the phone.
Bunch of barbarians!!

Must we have a high table?
Undergraduate school events are even more grand.

elyte89:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsU0SX7va1o?si=S13DnMFJA-kGPYKX

The cheering aspect of Eric Chelle's speech for me was insisting on playing attacking football and scoring goals.
I am not a fan of boring football, parking-the-bus, win-at-all-cost, etc.

I would prefer a coach who adopts a flamboyant and expressive playing style than one who just plays defensive and tries only to win.
When Rohr joined us, his style of play was really enthralling but after we qualified for the WC, everything changed. We became the most boring team in the world.

Someone rightly mentioned that Finidi's speech was quite uninspiring. I think his interview on Arise did his respect much damage, because he could not articulate a logical plan for the team.

How do we vote?

Danielnino00:
,

It's not about Boniface, it's about the team. The boys won the game as a team. Boniface might not have scored but he played his part. Let's give him time to adapt to the setting here.

Again I think he needs more game time to build his confidence. I would like to see him as one of the two support strikers behind Osimhen.
He is very creative and not typically a centre-forward.

Regarding his social media activities, no law bars him from being a footballer and a comedian at the same time. People do a lot of things to ease stress and he seems to be active on social media. So far, he is a disciplined and committed boy and he is popular among the fans. Let's not make strict laws about these things.

Bannedlargejr:
Someone needs to speak to boniface and inform him that he is a professional and not a comedian. Despite having a below average game, the dude is still twisting foolishness on twitter thinking he is a comedian. Usually, people might not like me but my prediction on things pertaining to SE has a high accuracy level. Boni you’re a footballer not a comedian

Tella is a potential candidate for that position if he gets invited. Simon is a good winger but we need a forward or SS for that position.

lbrichman2:
I wss hoping Nathan Tella would be brought in, but I understand why he was excluded for now
Truthfully though, I'm not much impressed by his game
I watched him in the DFL pokal against a non league side, and he wasn't glowing
Maybe I am being harsh, but I don't see what Tella brings to the team that we don't already have..
Maybe we can use Simon there as well
Or persist with chuks

Regarding the goalkeeper position, I believe Nwabali has earned his place and should continue. Few coaches would really want to make changes in that position if the current custodian is equal to the task.

If we manage to secure friendly matches, that will be a good opportunity to try out new goalkeepers but not in competitive matches.

Some pundits have called for Okoye to be named first choice just because he has a regular shirt at Udinese. That's horribly infantile and typically African. The black man sees playing for UDINESE superior to playing in Africa even if the foreign-based player is dumb.

I have followed Okoye since his days in the German youth teams and eventually Sparta Rotterdam. He is decent but Nwabali is far more talented.

Currently we have a position in attack that we need to fill and it is the right inside-forward. Chukwueze usually plays there but he has been largely ineffective. He has his moments but they have been few.

I think Victor Boniface could replace Chukwueze in that position. Along with Lookman, he can act as a foil for Osimhen or Awoniyi(whoever plays) allowing Ola Aina or Bright Osayi more freedom to roam on the right.

What I would like Eguavon to do in the interim is to get the boys to be more expressive, cohesive and aggressive.

The formation is fine given that we lack dependable defenders and skilled midfielders at the moment.

We could have the wingbacks be more adventurous and create overloads on the flanks. Or they could come into the middle at some point to allow the central midfielders move forward to create or to finish attacking moves.

In addition, we could be more proactive in defending aerial balls and creating mid-blocks by having Ajayi or Tanimu(whoever plays) go into midfield more often.

I am really delighted that the boys were able to shake off the winless jinx and secure this massive victory against our neighbours.

Eguavon is usually more confident when there is very little at stake, but when there is immense pressure, he tends to cave in regardless of the opposition.

I still prefer him to the Labadia clown the corrupt NFF planned to hire. He knows the environment, the players, his nasty bosses and the media.