₦airaland Forum

Iwobi, Chuks and Dennis start.

drDoom3:
3 DMs? Is Frank a DM at Brentford? Is Aribo a DM?

Like it or not, our best midfield trio currently is Ndidi - Onyeka - Aribo, each playing slightly ahead of the previous. We can’t start with such a midfield and get overrun in the center, and all three offer decent creativity, football intelligence, and excellent work rate.

Similarly, our best front 3 is Simon - Osimhen - Dennis with Lookman/Chuks/Ejuke for wing cover and Awoniyi/Onuachu/Sadiq for CF cover.

13large:
He created one for sadiq (clear cut) another corner kick clear cut to (iheanacho) and another crossing clear cut. If those 3 chances was into the hands of lewandoski, it’s 3 goals for us. The issue with nwakali is that we don’t have another like for like player at SE and we don’t have the luxury of omitting players with his skill set. Some people are mentioning onyedika, Frank d tank etc just remember that selecting 3 dm in a game will just devoid your midfield of any creativity

3 DMs? Is Frank a DM at Brentford? Is Aribo a DM?

Like it or not, our best midfield trio currently is Ndidi - Onyeka - Aribo, each playing slightly ahead of the previous. We can’t start with such a midfield and get overrun in the center, and all three offer decent creativity, football intelligence, and excellent work rate.

Danielnino00:
You're being petty again as usual...The same attitude you displayed when people were voicing concern over Okoye before the AFCON... After his famous blunder, you lost your voice...
It's only in your head that people hate foreign borns...

Based on current form, Lookman isn't better than Chukwueze... Chuks has scored in the laliga,champions league and Copa de Rey this season.. 6 goals and one assist in total compared to Lookman's 5 goals and 1 assists despite playing fewer games...

Let's see Lookman in action in the GWG first before we conclude that he is better than our current wingers..... Okoye is playing in a top league but is delivering a disasterclass every matchday for the super eagles

Half of Chuks’ goals came against 3rd tier teams you can’t even pronounce in the Copa del Rey. Chuks’ end product has always been miserable, we are just the ones who have been overlooking.

komekn:
You failed to mention Dennis ❓

If I say a player is clinical and has excellent finishing then it will be reflected in goals and the extent to which he drives his team forward. It will not be ASSUMPTIVE.

Scoring in the EPL is not the same as any other league this is established.

Wheh you get older in football you may lose some pace but your football intelligence for top players should actually increase and so will thier finishing.

Why did Manchester United pay crazy £££ for Ighalo ❓to motivate their players?

Aboubakar is in the same league as Ighalo but has scored less goals. He is literally the same age as Ighalo. After his exploits in the AFCON he is now wanted by a duplicity of EPL clubs. But we have no respect for Ighalo here.

Osimhen is not a top striker in Seria A yet, there are still many questions for £75 million striker. I repeat yet before you say it's hatred.

10 goals last season in Seria A after 24 games is not outstanding for a £75 million striker, he was not in the top 25. Nonetheless, he got injured for two months with a shoulder injury, so he probably would have done better.

Meanwhile if that was Harry Kane that had moved to Napoli and scored just 10 in 24 the larger majority of people here would be calling him HARRY BIG FLOP.

It's the new season 2021/22 unfortunately he got injured and missed a lot of games maybe 10, I don't really know. But it's still 6 goals from 14 games, I don't know if you call that prolific ?. I think it's good but not particularly outstanding.

So when I say that our top strikers are Ighalo, Dennis and Osimhen with none of them being COMPREHENSIVELY the best out of the three.

That's my objective view but many will call it HATE here.

Dennis is not a striker. He is a winger who can play as a striker.

Truidstar:
Awoniyi is not it. He is not SE material.

The Awoniyi I saw against Egypt is SE material.

BascoVanVeli:
Just had a shot blocked and gave a pass for a good attempt.

He has to get service for any of what u said to be considered

That is the difference between Osimhen or Awoniyi compared to Ighalo.

Awoniyi barely had service against Egypt or Sudan, we could still feel his impact.

Osimhen barely gets service at Naples, they still feel his impact.

A striker must not receive service for his impact to be felt. Even Onuachu, as static as he is, still uses his strength and height to create danger in the absence of service.

TFLASHOGEE:
The problem here is that some people on here don't want to come to the reality of ighalo's return to the national team,we giving our submission does not mean we want him but as long as ighalo is on the squad list he will always make the first 11 the problem is how do we play with him because osimehn will always start also and either we like it or not Onuachu and awoniyi are behind ighalo on the pecking order

The reason Ighalo started against CPV was Rohr's bias. Eguavoen and Amuneke are not stupid (sorry Rohr), they will not start an Ighalo over an Awoniyi.

Like I said, Ighalo dangerous with his first opportunity in the box. Outside the box though, he offers barely anything.

andrewbaba44:
You can say that to Brazil Belgium and many big teams who rely on players from the Chinese league at the 2018 FIFA World Cup

For example if you are the super eagles coach you won’t take a player like Matheus Perriera in your team because he plays at Saudi league ?

And besides who even said we should rely on ighalo? Rely on ighalo ke ,as many of una Dey complain for awoniyi and sadiq we Kukuma remember ighalo ,not even as a starter but as one of the back ups to victor

Look where it got them. By the way, they did it because there were not any better players at their positions.

So who would you pick to lead SE's attack in Osimhen's absence? Ighalo or Awoniyi?

andrewbaba44:
I am not watching the game ,but there have been worst errors in Europe top leagues ,I know you want to use this to discredit ighalo performance in that league ,is there any need of this ?

International football is not for a player from Saudi league ? Lol

As if most European players wey Dey Saudi league never perform for Europe top leagues before they went for the cash

I specifically said "top level". Like if you have ambitions in international football (i.e. going far in a world cup) you cannot rely on a player from such a league.

BascoVanVeli:
Ighalo might find it hard to score on this team ooo. That Salem guy is shooting every ball he sees.

Playing against a decent team that will have most of the possession, Ighalo struggles to assert dominance. He is more of a target man/in-the-box finisher and Chelsea will not allow you play in their box.

drDoom3:
The gulf in quality between Al-Hilal and Chelsea is laughable. If every club in the Saudi league is at the level of Hilal, I can understand how Ighalo is stat-padding in that league. Imagine a CB trapping a ball nicely for Lukaku to finish from 5 yards.

While there may be a few exceptions, international football at the top level is not for a player of the quality of that league.

Ighalo that cannot outpace Christensen in a counter attack is who some elements in this thread are claiming is our best striker besides Osimhen. SMH.

The gulf in quality between Al-Hilal and Chelsea is laughable. If every club in the Saudi league is at the level of Hilal, I can understand how Ighalo is stat-padding in that league. Imagine a CB trapping a ball nicely for Lukaku to finish from 5 yards.

While there may be a few exceptions, international football at the top level is not for a player of the quality of that league.

caprikon:
Evolution of modern tactics has somewhat reduced the need to have a playmaker.

An effective high press can create far more chances than a single AM would.
The SE midfield lacks a genuine CM/CAM who can dictate the play with intelligent passing , positioning and movement.
We have a fair number of good dribblers already.

We have one but continuously prefer pairing him with Ndidi as a double pivot instead of playing him where he is most effective.

komekn:
That's your perception.

I first went to look at Etebo when he played for Warri Wolves and he stood out, it's not today I've known about Etebo.

Fast Forward he goes to Stoke city after the world cup, l had GREAT EXPECTATIONS for him. Sadly he did not live up to those expectations. I expected him to have a style of football similar to Ngole Kante.

He had some good flashes but was overall not able to to dominate in the club and league. That doesn't mean he is not good enough for the SE.

He has been playing for Watford has had a few games but injury has not helped him, effectively been out for 5 months plus.

He is not SPENT please, you are now TALKING HIM DOWN and your comments by are not objective but derogatory.

I gave an honest objective assessment of Etebo club and league performance that's not Talking down.

So who will he bench in our midfield? You don't need a Kante when you have an Ndidi. Aribo offers much more attacking-wise, and Onyeka is also good enough to play B2B easy.

komekn:
The current AFCON Golden boot winner plays in the same league as Ighalo the only difference Ighalo has scored more goals than Aboubakar. Food for thought to the objective.

Sadiq is an embarrassment to the SE and cannot even clean Ighalo boots. He is tall without aerial be domination has no Physicality and keeps fallling be down for no apparent reason, always diving .

Osimhen is faster than Ighalo that's all NOTHING else is he clearly better than Ighalo at. When it comes to Physicality and hold up play as well as technical play Ighalo is superior.

Dessers is not on Ighalo level, 17 games and 4 goals in the Eredivisie this season is not outstanding. Awoniyi is just starting not better than Ighalo, Onuachu is a good proposition but he is not better than Ighalo.

There is no Favouritism for Ighalo rather unjustified discrimination.

I give up

TFLASHOGEE:
but same Iheanacho was off against tunisa and I don't know what ighalo can do till the coaches show us that

Ighalo that has over 30 caps, you still don’t know what he can do? Hell, with one cap as a substitute against Tunisia, Sadiq showed us what he can do. With one first half against Egypt, Awo showed us what he can do.

Ighalo is not one new player from nowhere we are calling to see something new he can bring to the team. He is not Amoo, we all know what he can and can’t do, the same way we know he is not better than what we have.

This World Cup is set to be one of our most promising in decades. Let us not waste it by going for name over merit.

TFLASHOGEE:
so what have we be doing to accommodate Iheanacho and as long as ighalo is considered as a super Eagles player he will always be ahead of both awoniyi and Onuachu and won't seat on the bench he will start with osimehn so how do we do that if not play him upfront with osigoal.

To your Iheanacho question, I have one answer: Nigeria 1-0 Egypt.

Coaches try to accommodate Nacho because he can do that. Now what can Ighalo do? I am still waiting for your response.

TFLASHOGEE:
yeah he isn't ideal for the position but can't lie to ourselves or pretend about knowing he won't make the squad after coming out of retirement and once ighalo makes the squad list he will definitely start

I don’t want to attack your personal character, but you speak like one of the people holding Nigeria bondage by choosing favoritism and name over merit.

TFLASHOGEE:
baba like it or not ighalo is in the team for now till he announce his retirement again and if he is in the team we would have to mention him in the squad and he won't seat on the bench that am sure of so how do we accommodate him is the option I gave up there expect if you think Onuachu and awoniyi are ahead of him in this present Squad

So you want to take us back to the days when a player will hold a team bondage because of name? Well I trust our current coaches, they will want to keep their jobs. If Ighalo does not play better than the others then he will not get game time.

TFLASHOGEE:
odion Best day's was him playing 4-4-2 at Watford him and Troy Deeney, currently his partner in crime is Musa marega am only saying base on me not seeing ighalo on the bench if he comes to camp

You do see the problem with your argument right? “Odion’s best days”, so we want to have a team structured to make a particular player score more goals at the expense of the team? We want to turn to Man U and their Ronaldo saga? At least Ronaldo will offer you a goal almost every game + excellent shooting + more fluid link up play.

TFLASHOGEE:
ighalo will do that remember his day's at Watford their captain Deeney comfortable did the dirty work upfront making ighalo flourish by getting the goals so I expect ighalo to do same for osimehn he try doing it against cape Verde but it their first time being together and if Eguavoen would be using 4-4-2 he would tell both what he wants

We do not want to play like Watford of seven years ago. With all their “flourish”, how far did they go in the EPL? Please we don’t have space for a lazy player in our team. Instead of having one hardworker and one lazy player who will reap the fruits of the hardworker, why don’t you just have two hardworkers who will reap the fruits off each other?

TFLASHOGEE:
remember rorh isn't the manager anymore and ighalo has always function and still functioning in a 4-4-2 system

So the lackluster display from Ighalo compared to the energetic play from Osimhen in the same game is now attributed to the coach? SMH.

Even a blind man could see that Ighalo was not on the same wavelength as Osimhen was by miles. Awo is not far behind from Osimhen. Sadiq too. Onuachu is even more prolific, albeit in a lower tier league. Do we drop them all just to make sure Ighalo gets an assured spot in the team? If that is not favoritism then what is?

By the way, if you can mention one on-pitch quality Ighalo brings that is better than what we have (excluding Osimhen) I will concede to your argument. Just one, no more.

caprikon:
Bro, derbies are tricky by default.

If Okoye starts, he will be under a lot of pressure mentally due to recent events.
Resting him for this tie is for his own good.

I don’t think this is an argument. Uzoho has shown time and time again that he is better. The reason Maduka keeps getting starts is he plays for a bigger club, Rohr preferred him, and he is foreign born and foreign born/white GKs are always preferred to local born/black GKs because of the indiscipline stereotype.

TheGoodJoe:
Iheanacho offers lots of attributes. He can cross, he can pass, he drops deep to distribute play. He presses defenders when the team is not with the ball. I see him do these more than Ighalo. Ighalo is most suited for a target man role. However, in such role, I feel Sadiq offers more presence.

When it comes to attacking space, Osimhen rules hands down, but Awoniyi against Egypt was so tidy doing it. Olayinka is on another level to Ighalo when it comes to attacking with speed.

In a nutshell, I will go with these four before Ighalo.

Coupled with the fact we are playing an offensive strategy that needs lots of work.

I think they all just have an agenda to push Ighalo to the forefront even when he is not better than what we have. Ighalo is a good guy, we all know that. Impeccable character and all. On the pitch, he is not the best we have. He is not the second or the third or even the fourth best. Name any attributes he has right now, I will call at least two strikers we have that have those attributes better than what he has.

Bullying: Osimhen, Awo, Onuachu
Pace: All except Onuachu which is debatable self
Finishing: Osimhen, Dessers, Onuachu, maybe Sadiq
Aerial prowess: All except Dessers which is debatable self
Work rate: All except Onuachu

andrewbaba44:
System that failed at the afcon ?

Lol

How many times will you be told this. The system at the AFCON DID NOT FAIL. You don’t judge a system by a fluke match where you played over 30 mins with 10 men, that is unjust. Even Man City loses games with complete 11 to worse teams so who are we?

TFLASHOGEE:
if Eguavoen will be using 4-4-2 then let osimehn and ighalo spear Head the attack then Onuachu seat on the bench, the problem come be say where nacho go start from as he will have to settle for a place in the midfield/ wing or seat on the bench which I don't see happening why I choose ighalo to start is that baba Sabi drag defenders and he will help reduce much pressure on osimehn thou we know na osigoal be the go to guy for goals.

So I take it you did not watch Nigeria vs Cabo Verde?

TheGoodJoe:

My point has always been that you are so full of yourself and talking as if you have an idea of things you do not know. Increase your teachability index. You claim knowledgeable of things you have no idea of.

What do you know about players compared to coaches that have direct contact with these players?

Salisu is a fan of this kid. Eguavoen said it openly that he is a fan of the kid. Amunike called Nwakali a gift to football.

Then you who have not played professional football, let alone coached even departmental class will come up screaming as if you know more than them.

Sometimes, you chill and learn. You do not always run your mouth as if you know all.

That is how the Chidera Liverpool trial came on and you tried to run it down. Talking as if you have a tenth of the ideas of scouting players for Europe than one of the big wits like Babawo Mohammed.

Even I was pissed with the appointment of Eguavoen, but I had to chill and study what he is doing.

All our coaches can not be wrong. If they feel Nwakali can help, sometimes chill and learn.

The kid was brilliant when he came on. Beyond even my own expectation. Yet you are running nepotism, corruption.

As if you are not one of the most biased persons I have ever met on Nairaland.

These guys know more than you. CHILL.

Have you ever heard the story of Neymar and Ganso? I criticize Nwakali so much because he is like a Ganso to Osimhen's Neymar.

Beloved03:
Perhaps only Osimhen and Ndidi in the Nigerian team can make the Senegalese starting line up.

Zaidu will, Aribo will, Nacho will. Aina maybe. Las las it's almost equal. They beat us CBs, we beat them full backs. They beat us wingers, we beat them midfield. We beat them CFs, they beat us GK.

Gabaski deserved Goalkeeper of the tournament ahead of Mendy though.

Villareal has the most organized team I have seen in Europe this season. Their players are in a perfect formation with perfect straight lines almost 90% of the time. Very difficult for any team to penetrate them the way they play.

Chuks is becoming very direct in his game, he doesn't dribble at all again. Just pass, lay-off, run, shoot. He just needs to be a little bit more dangerous, a little bit more daring. He also needs to improve his stamina, he gasses out too early.