₦airaland Forum

Asides Nacho, none of our players have better link up play than Sadiq. Look at the lobbed through pass he just gave his teammate who wasted the one-on-one.

komekn:
In a league that is rated 20 in Europe that is largely regarded as a retirement league that pays well with low tax.

Unfortunately,until he can do it in a better league the questions will always remain if he is truly a quality player.

Replace Nwaekeme with Ighalo and see the double standards.

Icon79:
Dennis better not walk right back into the team after the craps he pulled during the AFCON. He first needs to apologize or else we don’t need him. We don’t lack talents in his position.


O pari

Say na apologize. Apologize to who? He should by gift from Jumia and send to appease you at home? Lmao.

andrewbaba44:
He is good and we need him

He is not better than zaidu ,take this to the bank

He is better than Zaidu. His raw pace and crossing ability are on Zaidu's level, but his football intelligence, recovery and attacking prowess is way way beyond anything we have now.

maidaboi:
my four wingers for Ghana will be
Lookman
Simon
Chuks
Dennis

Ejuke should be excused for now

Ejuke should not be excused. His dribbling makes him an eccentric player, and you need eccentric players to form a balanced squad. I would not drop him for the same reason I would not drop Onuachu and Nacho.

By the way, Ejuke is a really good player, he didn't get enough gametime at the AFCON because Simon was excellent and Eguavoen was biased towards Chuks. Don't dismiss him so early, we have seen what he can do on a good day.

komekn:
I don't know if you consider constructive objective criticism to mean Hate and denigration and a form of quasi tribalism.

If you say KC is among the best in the world at finishing ( shooting) there has to be commensurate return, outcome delivery all reflected in goals.

How can you call someone among the best in the world and he has scored 2 goals this season out of 15 games on the EPL.

How do you then say among the best in the world at finishing ❓How did you arrive at that conclusion.

Goal per minute ratio, Iheanacho has been among the best in the world for the past 2-ish years. The stats speak for themselves.

Subzero47:
Aribo starts for Rangers, Helander replaces Bassey as CB after coming back from injury for Komekn that is sprouting nonsense that Bassey is Van Bronkhurst's first choice CB

So you want Bassey to play 3 90 mins in one week abi? He later came on and assisted Aribo's goal.

maidaboi:
he won the second pk after his shot hit a hand

The shot was goalbound and looked to have beat the keeper already so he might have had a goal and an assist as a sub.

Someone said when Chuks gets back to full fitness, he won't be able to bench Pino. He is proving that someone wrong.

Eizzy003:
Im kind of surprise too, same with the other Striker that was invited alongside Zogg

Roosa Ariyo. Very dominant striker, like a Lukaku of women’s football.

Zogg is error prone though, another Ekong 2.0. Flashes of brilliance but struggles with errors and consistency.

Subzero47:
Look at what I canceled, Bassey has never benched a fit Balogun at Rangers

He has.

Let me rephrase it. Since Bassey picked form, Balogun has never benched him. If Balogun plays, Bassey gets moved to LB because that’s his actual natural position.

PurpleHouse:
Personal opinion:

Nacho has no more business starting our matches. Or even being on the bench. Na waste of good space.

My opinion.

Iheanacho's shooting is still among the best in the world. Despite his poor play sometimes, he is necessary for a well rounded team the same way a player like Onuachu is necessary.

komekn:
Stop dreaming Ndidi technically better than Iwobi, please be serious Aribo maybe a question of preference.

Ndidi is miles ahead of Iwobi. The only problem I have with Ndidi is his shooting, once he gets his long range shooting back to Genk levels he will be one of the best DMs in the world. You would be hard pressed to find players who are better defensively than Ndidi, off the top of my head maybe Van Dijk, Koulibaly, Dias etc and they are all CBs. No DM I have seen cleans up better than Ndidi. Casemiro has gotten too sloppy, Rodri barely has anything to do on most occasions, Rice is a beast in attack but doesn't offer the same defensive cover.

Meliforme:
Technique?
No, they are not.

Speaking of technique, players who have more technique than Iwobi include:
Chidera Ejuke, Ademola Lookman, Kelechi Iheanacho, Kelechi Nwakali, Samuel Kalu, Oghenekaro Etebo (Etebo has improved so much, the last i saw him)

Iwobi has good technique and is ahead of players like:
Samuel Chukwueze, Paul Onuachu, Moses Simon, Joe Aribo, Ndidi, Frank Onyeka etc.

Does Iwobi execute more technique in his game than Osimhen in the here and now? The conclusion is very equivocal. Osimhen keeps improving, Iwobi has regressed in some areas, but kept improving in areas like defending. For now i will still give it to Iwobi, even though the difference is negligible.

Do you know what technique is? It is not pace or dribbling. it is not strength or work rate. Technique is how neat and precise you are in carrying out functions in your position. Imagine saying Etebo has better technique than Iwobi, that is blasphemy. Etebo that struggles to trap ball sometimes, all work rate with no product.

Unsurprisingly, the guys you said Iwobi is ahead of are actually the guys who are ahead of Iwobi (except Simon and Onyeka, maybe Chuks). Ndidi has the best technique in the team, the way he cleans up in defense with tidy tackles is definitely top 5 in the world alongside Kante, Verratti etc. Aribo also has better technique, his ball carrying, neat tackles and progressive carries are also unrivalled in the team. Nacho has the best shooting and passing technique in the team, but his work rate, control, and awareness leave so much to be desired. Osimhen's athleticism covers much of his deficiency in technique, but he still has excellent control and long passing techniques. Surprisingly, I think Osimhen's technique was much better in Lille than in Napoli, it was as if he made a tradeoff for physicality when he joined Napoli.

yinkeys:
Awaziem

Bassey is better. I have watched both.

komekn:
Every player can make an error, and one error does not define a player.

Osimhen is not technically better or astute and or had a better touch than Iwobi.

Within the current set of SE Iwobi is probably the most technically proficient player in the entire group. Tell me who is better than him please.

Aribo and Ndidi are.

Bassey should be in our team ASAP. If that guy gets to the EPL, he might get snapped up quick because of how good he is. He is better than Omeruo at least, possibly Ekong. He is definitely faster than all our current CBs, although Awaziem and Balogun may have better decision-making and positioning (I haven't compared them enough). From Ekong's videos, he also blended well with the team (Aina, Iwobi and co.)

Philosopher1979:
You see most homegrown Nigerian footballers are poorly coached. Our football system does not care about coaching and it is very important.
When they get to Europe it becomes obvious. You can't just survive on your raw talent alone. We need to declare a coaching emergency in Nigeria. Most Nigerian coaches probably don't teach their payers even the simple and basic things.

I knew Osimhen's offside awareness was poor. I didn't know it was this poor.

Aribo played like an elite KDB today. Two assists, he was behind every Rangers attack.

Bassey is head and shoulders above every CB we have. Pace, strength, awareness, positioning, good on the ball. He has everything needed.

TheLoneCitizen:
Osimhen vs Barca. One of the poorest offside awareness I've seen from a striker in any match.

His offside awareness was the worst I have seen in a game since I started watching football, including amateurs. Guy was 5 meters ahead of the last man in some cases and calling for the ball.

jihday:
Owngoal is reporting that Osimhen is injured

He was listed in the matchday squad though.

Danielnino00:
Funny enough, Maduka is the tallest guy in the team... Unless Wikipedia is wrong...

Onuachu is at 6’7”.

Daninya33:
Asamaoh Gyang may come out of retirement to face the Super Eagles.
Should we be afraid?

Lmao someone that hasn't played pro football for a year now and has even started his punditry career at Supersports? Even if Ghana go back and bring Abedi Pele, we will still thrash them comfortably home and away.

TheGoodJoe:

Remember how poor Iwobi looked under Rafael Benitez? You will have the impression he is a lazy person, without the zeal to succeed.

However, Lampard is revealing that Iwobi has a very good work ethic outside the football match pitch. Lampard said he is trying to transfer how hard Iwobi works on the training pitch to the field of play.

So you can not really tell because you are not behind the scene.

You also have to put the talent into the picture. Players have different levels of talent, some players even punch above their weight talent-wise (Ronaldo for example). But remember Nwakali is a player that was the best in a tournament featuring Alexander-Arnold, Pulisic, Osimhen, Upamecano, Edouard etc.

TheGoodJoe:

Remember how poor Iwobi looked under Rafael Benitez? You will have the impression he is a lazy person, without the zeal to succeed.

However, Lampard is revealing that Iwobi has a very good work ethic outside the football match pitch. Lampard said he is trying to transfer how hard Iwobi works on the training pitch to the field of play.

So you can not really tell because you are not behind the scene.

I never referred to Iwobi as a lazy player. I have said Iwobi can add a lot to his game especially with work rate and consistency, but I will not say he is lazy.

TheGoodJoe:

You actually do not know how hard Nwakali works behind the scene to make that summary. He did not get to where he is by being lazy.

As I said previously, being lazy is all about context. Sure, he is not lazy in any sense of the word. He is an athlete, after all. However, in the sense that he can do far better with a little more hardwork and commitment and less "I have arrived" attitude, now that's where the context comes in.

TheGoodJoe:

Nwakali signed the contract because he needed a platform. The problem now is that he does not want to sign another and Huesca feel they deserve more.

Either way, it seems both parties now know where they stand.

Has he done enough to earn a better contract? If he has then the club will be the one chasing him and not the other way round.

The easiest way to know if you are the best at what you do is to see if you are the one chasing offers or whether the offers are chasing you.

Omanambala:
Lets be honest to our-self for a sec. Nwakali is a huge talent and they didnt do him a favor by signing him, they signed him because he has great potentials. You dont expect him to stay in a slave like contract where they pay him barely enough to buy toilet paper. He is a human , so treat him like one. Like they would treat their countrymen. These Europeans treat African players like they are leprous , sometimes. This is why I fight for African groomed players because they are largely defenseless.

I have also noticed some people relevance in this life starts and ends on this threads...nonentities calling people they know nothing about lazy....even those who could not finish a minutes jog.

BS talk. Football was never my chosen career path, if I had the talent and it was I know where I would be. If I tell you my own story of where I started from and where I am now with my own talent and the hardwork I put in to be at the top of my game worldwide you would be shocked. The most important thing is anything you are called to do or blessed with the talent for, do it so well that there will be no one better. Unfortunately, Nwakali is lacking that.

Omanambala:
You made a sensible point. To even drive your point further: should we also call the rest of Nwakali's teammates who didnt make it out of the U17 lazy bunch. You cant tell when people speak out of bitterness and ignorance...despicable.

They were unlucky to not get the same opportunities players like Nwakali got and abused.

When I say a player is lazy, it is all about context. I myself cannot run 90 mins in a pitch, but where I am specialized in I do my best. The difference between Ronaldo and the tons of players with similar talent was Ronaldo was willing to put in the extra work to make himself one of the best. He was always professional, he was a role model. He made sure no one was better than him at what he does.

If you come 9 days late from AFCON, sorry but you don't have that mentality. Look at Partey, flew directly into an Arsenal game from AFCON. Look at the commitment from players like Osimhen and Ndidi and see why they are the best we have right now.

+

maidaboi:
it's seems more to me like badluck it just not working well for him
Sha I wish him good luck

Nwakali has not had a quarter of the bad luck Osimhen has had. Osimhen is really suffering from village people, anytime he wants to enter form something happens. Started with malaria at Wolfsburg, then COVID shortening season at Lille, then shoulder injury + COVID illness at Naples, then cheekbone skull cracking last year. With all the bad luck though, see how well he has performed.

Please, learn to distinguish laziness and poor work ethic from bad luck.

Chuks is skinning Marcelo badly. If I was Madrid coach, Marcelo wouldn't start second half.

Iwobi is a beast from the center. Look at top-class passing to DCL.

Van de Beek is really anonymous. I really think his move from Ajax came to early.

Chuks goes on to dribble like 5 Madrid players to go one on one only to fluff the final pass. Dribbling Chuks is back.