₦airaland Forum

Meliforme:
Now eyes are opening. My criticism of Eguavoen began even before the AFCON.

During AFCON i criticised his system of play and choice of players for a 4-4-2. Many celebrated his wins, i inferred the wins to the new coach syndrome and individual brilliance. Many said we played beautiful football, and i asked where and when was the beautiful football.

Eguavoen said he spent sleepless nights selecting his squad for the AFCON. I judged the scenario and said it is not good that he should spend sleepless nights over a task like that given that he is not new to the team, he should have known the players that will suit his system, and players that will struggle. After the sleepless nights, i saw his starting eleven, player positions, instructions and tactics, and somehow gave up.

This day, everything that i said of Eguavoen is begining to make sense to some people who were then still celebrating their new coach and making excuses for him.

Criticisms are good when the people being critisized are open to learning. I hope Eguavoen learns. Learning on the job is something that can happen to everybody.

One thing I like about Eguavoen from that Ghana game though is his ability to interpret the direction the game was going and at least make some tactical subs to solve specific problems. That Bassey sub for example was a tactical masterclass, it immediately killed all their attacks from that wing where the danger was. His only poor sub was taking out Aribo, If that was Iheanacho he took out it would have been perfect.

With Rohr, no matter how bad a game was going, the guy already had predetermined subs he would put in at 80 mins. I can't remember a game Rohr made tactical subs, his subs were either injury or vibes and inshallah.

andrewbaba44:
Tunisia that won away from home already ?

That Sissako guy should not be playing football. He has a weak mentality and is extremely error-prone and unlucky for a CB. I first noticed how poor he was since the game Genk beat Standard Liege 2-0 when Onuachu intercepted a very poor back pass from him to his keeper to score the second goal. Guy was literally crying after the goal, even had to be subbed off as he couldn't continue.

I still believe Mali can stage a comeback though. Their attack is too blunt, they don't score enough goals.

JohnBullMySon:
Don't write off Iheanacho like that. He has been responsible for so many of our much needed goals. Iheanacho is like a gamble. It goes either ways.

Iheanacho should be the alternative, not the norm, the way Origi is the alternative, not the norm. If Liverpool starts Origi every game like Eguavooen does with Iheanacho, Liverpool will be lower on the table than they are right now.

Unpopular opinion: Chuks has Amunike's nudes from U17

We should abandon this 4-4-2. It is not working. Play Etebo, Onyeka, Aribo behind Simon, Osimhen and Dennis.

Icon4s:
After all the talk about Bassey.
He was just running like a headless chicken.
He is no where close to Sanusi in terms of ability.

He handled Kudus far better than Zaidu did. Kudus was disgracing Zaidu on that left wing.

AndSunGorilla:
I thought the Moroccan keeper is supposed to be as good as Mendy or even better.

I think it deflected.

JayromWrites:
Omoh My guys for area dey call me to ask what time on Sunday be the match(imagine, dem no know the day)


D thing dey pain me sef... nothing dem sabi only work hard, cush and woman

E pain me say Work carry me comot.. I for Organise my little battalion enter stadium

People go still dey interested in watching the game

Make dem just run mad PR round the city sha... enter Maraba and Kubwa dem.. provide Buses for those willing to attend


Make we fill up the stadium like we did ABS some years back

Make we see weda dem Azonto boys go fit kick ball that day

Abuja will be filled up, don’t worry.

daveP:
For the tactics, I hope AE is not that dumb to play 2 midfielders against Thomas Partey?


It will be the dumbest decisions this year even if we win this first leg. No matter how tactics dey sweet belle, if one doesn't regard individual players with exceptional skill and try counter it, that going to be horrible. It's not a hyping of Partey. It's reality. EA better not allow him try such nonsense o. This will be the only rant regarding this game.

Let's go GWG.

You guys are funny.

You don’t mark a defensive midfielder. Forget how good Partey seems to be at Arsenal, he is still basically a destroyer/box to box, not a playmaker. That’s like saying you want to mark Ndidi out of a game or put extra midfielders to counter Ndidi, it is unwise.

What you do is to play to your strengths. Since you know Partey is good in midfield, avoid going through his lanes. Bypass him, easy. Make him as less involved in the game as possible.

TheSuperNerd:
Since I saw this earlier today, only one major tot crossed my mind...

How did Akinkunmi Amoo make it off the plane?

The same way he scored 2 headers and gave 1 header assist while at Hammarby.

yinkeys:
Maybe they fielded Team C
Honestly can’t believe it

The main guys Bertrand, Tapsoba and co. were there. Embarassing.

Kosovo, Kosovo using the 4th place team in AFCON to wipe their butt. 5-0.

Africa is still so far behind football-wise.

lovewins:
I watched the game between Leicester City and Rennes for the Europa Conference League qualifiers, and noticed a name that looked Nigerian (different from the one we are familiar with) in the team list. I looked further and realized the player, Chituru Odunze who in fact is a goalkeeper is of Nigerian heritage.

My assumption was, for him to have made Leicester City team list for a euro based match then he is someone worth considering. He is 19 and currently plays for the USA u-19 team. He is also 6"7 and you rarely find goalkeepers with that height advantage. He has already been invited to the USA senior team, I believe he's someone worth considering for Nigeria. If our goalkeeper trainers were doing their job we have many more like this young man all over Europe.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd9-A9RkjBg

Forget him, he is US-destined. Has been with them forever.

The guys we should be targeting are Ovie Ejeheri, Arthur Okonkwo and Josh Oluwayemi.

DR Congo might pull a heist. They got Wissa and Bongonda into their squad, I am honestly surprised.

mostob:
Kelechi should sit down abeg...
Spine or no spine, Sadiq should start,he is better suited as an SS

Not true, I watch Sadiq every matchweek, he cannot play just to set up another striker. He IS the striker.

Sadiq is very good with his feet. That does not mean he will drop so deep in the midfield to literally win tackles and recover possession. Nacho can do that. Anyhow you want to look at it, Nacho is our best player behind the striker, the only reason I would play with a front 2 would be to use him. If the game is not going well in that direction, you can bring on the extra midfielder and switch to a regular front 3, that was the mistake Eguavoen made during the AFCON. He had an excellent strategy, but didn't know when to abandon it in favor of a more conventional approach that may have yielded better results.

Joebie:
How many through passes have Iheanacho laid for Osimhen. Na today dem start to play together?

Off the top of my head I remember Victor goal against Lesotho. There are more but I don have time to go watch all our highlights, you will see them.

TheSuperNerd:
Funfact: Since his debut vs Argentina in November 2017, Uzoho is yet to concede a direct FK Goal for Nigeria in a real march situation. He has faced Messi, Sigurdsson, Trippier and even Lewy (I think?) from Direct FK situations and came out on top.

Then comes Iheanacho in 2022, albeit in training, and Uzoho is beaten effortlessly.

Relax. It seems some of you in here don't rate Nacho's left foot.

Isn't it crazy how Uzoho who has held his own against much tougher world class opponents is second fiddle to Maduka who was struggling against Sierra Leone and Cabo Verde?

charlesemeka85:
ejike not ejuke

Mk una no Dey follow oyibo dey mumu

If the guy no want am, he for don change am na? Abi if your teacher for school no spell your name correct, you for never show am how Dem dey spell am?

If the guy says it is how they used to spell his name, leave him let him be. Stop the oversabi please. That's how in school they always misspelled my name because there was a more popular variant with one less letter, imagine teachers telling me they know my name more than me that is bearing the name. Please stop this, it's annoying.

jasena:
Thank you bro. That's a technical outlook on your part. Amunike is far tactically superior to eguavon. Eguavon is clueless. His selection isn't the best Nigeria could have come up with

We can already see clearly the difference Amuneke adds to the team instantly.

Remember at the AFCON I complained that we don't have specific drills? How Liverpool has specific counterattack drills and City has specific passing drills that make them so efficient? Amuneke has already began playing in tight spaces drills. From this, you can already infer how he wants his team to be set up: collective attack/press, slow build up to keep possession but quick transitions leading to direct attacks. That's the difference between quality coaching we've been missing for a long time and just vibes with no flexibility.

Joebie:
I will start both on a 3-5-2

God forbid.

Why is everyone here having wet dreams over Ighalo? You will not start Victor and Sadiq, Awo or Onuachu, but you will start him together with Ighalo? That's a waste of 4-4-2.

At least with Victor and Nacho in a 2 you know what each of them brings and how their skillset complements each other: you have Nacho laying through passes and pinpoint crosses for Victor to latch on to, then coming late into the box to finish from distance and mop up any loose balls while linking up with Victor. Ighalo will not do that, he simply doesn't have it in his skillset and there's nothing wrong about that.

AndSunGorilla:
What do you folks think, maybe Ighalo should start and Osimehn come off the bench

Thunder...

Icon4s:
If you have to chose between Starting Osimhen or Onuachu against Ghana, who will it be?

Osimhen of course. If I had to break down a low block though, I would start Onuachu.

yinkeys:
Sadio Mane said his new dream is to win the World Cup with Senegal
Somebody please wake him up

Croatia that reached last finals don't have more talents man to man than this Senegal side. Imagine Mandzukic, the European Choupo-Moting, leading their line. Senegal have a world class GK, a world class CB, a world class CM and a world class WF. The rest of the squad isn't bad either. They have the right blend of physicality and technicality in their players. All they need is a solid coach with tactical prowess and they can go far.

Anyone who is still holding hopes for Olise, please stop wasting your time.

In 2019, before he became the star he is currently, he made a post celebrating Mahrez’s free kick goal against us, saying [quote]“We are going to the finals!”

Obviously, the post has long been deleted to avoid controversy so you won’t find it on Twitter again but that’s just to let you know where his personal allegiances lie.

TheGoodJoe:
Osimhen, you must say yes if Guardiola comes knocking.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/b5/76/7eb576a91e5dfe8734dc22154521a9d9.jpg

Osimhen is not a Guardiola player, he is not as good on the ball. He is more of a Liverpool/ManU or maybe Arsenal type player with their more high tempo/direct/counter attacking styles.

fabyom:
Sor!!
That boy is a gem!!
Reminds me of Obafemi Martins!
So happy for Alex!
I pray Ndidi's injury is not that serious!

I said it the last time. Sor is giving me Patson Daka vibes. His next move should be to a Red Bull side like Salzburg where he can follow in Mane and Daka's footsteps because he is a very similar player.

The guy was a cheat code today. He even did that Bale's trick of pushing the ball, running outide the pitch and back in to overtake your man. Made LASK defenders look like amateurs, totally violated them today.

Sor is fast. Blindingly fast.

elyte89:
What happened to him

You know you’re bleeped when you’re one of the best defenders in Serie A and Maguire is getting invited ahead of you.

Fikayo Tomori.

komekn:
He is in the much lower rated Eredivisie, take out Ajax and the rest of the teams are not high level competition.

6 goals from 20 games is not prolific by any stretch of the imagination. He is not outstanding IMO both in league and club.

Is he better than Elijah Adebayo, Luton Town, 13 goals so far in Championship. Or even Afolayan, Udoh and Ladapo all in League one with over 10 goals all three of them.

He is comfortably better than them all.

komekn:
Now we come to the key issue.

Ndidi has not progressed his game ,it's one dimensional and he offers good defensive cover but nothing else.

As a consequence he is no longer pivotal to his team and this means his value is dropping.

If you make the comparison with Thomas Partey you see Ndidi has work to do.

The only area Ndidi has not improved is in his shooting. He has improved in everything else from ball carrying to confidence on the ball and even dictating play from deep. He was always good defensively, but he is no longer the one-dimensional defensive midfielder you portray.

codemaniacs:
Look at Lukaku's Chelsea form but he will still make the Belgian squad.

If Lukaku's was Nigerian you guys will say he shouldn't be called up due to his form .

Our top strikers Awoniyi and Sadiq couldn't score goals at the AFCON.. is it against Ghana they will now score.

Dessers must at least always make the S.E bench..

for the S.E, Sadiq, Awoniyi and Ihenacho are not it..

In fact Ihenacho hasn't done anything extra ordinary this season but he will get a call up..

Many of us here like Dessers but please don't make us dislike him.

What can Dessers do that the invited guys can't? Hold up play? Dribbling? Finishing? Passing? He is a good player, no doubt. However, I don't think he should be in the team ahead of Onuachu for example, and Onuachu wasn't even in the main list. It is tough but what can we do?

If we had to carry 3 strikers to the World cup, I would go with Osi, Onuachu and Sadiq. Nacho too but as an SS. I love Awoniyi but his lack of lethality is my problem with him. We know Osimhen will start all games, so we primarily need strikers who are lethal enough to score goals from scraps off the bench and I don't think Awo is that kind of striker. Awo is better as a pure Osimhen replacement because of his work rate like at AFCON but not as a backup.