₦airaland Forum

Mickael2:
I will explain why I am trying to fit Onyekuru in and not Ahmed Musa or anybody else.

There are teams you come up against and quick passes will not work, Iceland is a perfect example. You can stand infront of their backline and make 20 quick passes but those guys won't move until you come closer and you see that they will double up on each of your players what do you then do? You need quick dribblers. When you have a player who can just beat his immediate marker that creates room instantly and serious panic through the opposing teams rank(this is why I believe Iceland will be mincemeat for Argentina precisely). Now we don't have Messi but we have Onyekuru and Iwobi two guys who are nice(not great) dribblers and under normal circumstances we will place a CF who can pass the ball well and engage in your one-touch-two-go football, in that same way Onyekuru or Iwobi(depending on who is well-placed) can make those Alli-esque runs when the CF falls back and joins the passing triangles in the middle.

Against Croatia though is another thing entirely. We will have to adopt a system similar to Barcelona 2015. These guys midfield will kill us if we engage them so here we sacrifice midfield play for outright direct football. Rakitic is a briliant DMF when he plays there and someone said Kovacic hardly plays for Madrid, well that is because he is out injured, he recently returned and has already played a game for them, pure quality, no need saying much about Modric. There is another problem too, their midfielders all have wonderful shots so they should not be allowed to even come so close to our post which is why I wouldn't play Onazi. In this type of game we need direct players, once we get the ball we should take a maximum of 3-4 touches and get the ball to the forward players without dwelling on midfield play

Nice analysis.

Your formation requires good "wing plays", meaning that we need V.Moses at the LWB role and Ebuehi at RWB.

Napoleon55:
when i said few months ago shortly after ONYEKURU switched to Anderletch,that he could score up to 30 goals to gate crash WORLD CUP team list,someone tried to mock me.

for all the SE players going to WC,ONYEKURU is the one i want to shine more than the others,i just a new and unlikely star from NIGERIA
to emerge from in the WC

From the way he talks, you can tell he's confident of making the WC list.

I won't be surprise if he scores more than 30 just to make the list.

sontoly:
watched first half, his defensive abilities needs more work cos he is not as efficient defensively so he may not be really suitable for a wing back, but his attacking is more efficient than vic mo.

He really needs to work on that aspect of his game.

Kog45:
Starter when WC is not even sure though the guy is good but not all good players make WC,so don't be disappointed if he failed to make the cut.

Make him just score 30 goals first.

Joebie:
He looked very lively the period I watched it

Yes.. wing-back 3-4-3

Ok.Thanks.

Joebie:
Bout to watch the Anderlecht vs Lokeren match
Onyekuru start of course.

Did he play as a wing-back or as a wing-forward?

How was his performance "defensively"?

Mujtahida:
I will be a wee bit sad if this guy doesn't make it to Russia.

If he is able to score 30 goals this season, I see no reason why he shouldn't be a starter for the Eagles at WC.

safarigirl:
It's a fair group

I personally think Argentina will crash out at the Group Stage this time.

Nigeria and Croatia to go through from this group.

We need to top this group to avoid France and in case we somehow meet them, PLEASE break a French player's leg.

Onazi will be ready this time around.

Icon79:
All the clowns on Fox Sports are picking Argentina and Croatia to advance out of the group. About 6 people on the panel and none of them picked Nigeria to go thru.

Clowns on TV



O pari

No mind them.None of those teams have the quality to beat us.

We will qualify from that group unbeaten just like our qualifiers.

A fair draw with Eagles in the Weak group D, just like the weak group F of 2014 WC.

We should top that group.

Go Super Eagles!

Mickael2:
I disagree. The main CB in a 3-man backline is the one that needs the pace the most, when you adopt an attack-minded 3-4-3 formation that means a high-line and guess who is more concerned with that high-line? The middle CB. If you play a conservative 3-man backline the middle CB is still the one that will be playing the ball out of the back or carrying the ball forward which means he needs his pace. Who is the middle CB for Chelsea? Compare the person's speed with Azpi and you will understand. When Barcelona plays a 3man backline who plays the RCB? Masch and he is not fast, as in not at all. Our backline was okay, I'd only replace Awaziem with Omeruo and that would be all.


Ps: I dont think Idowu is the best we have though

Nice, but I was shocked when I saw " replace Awaziem with Omeruo".

Do u know about two of our goals came from Awaziem?

That guy for me, is the best among the 3 CB's that played that day.His poor performance against SA didn't even affect his play, he was comfortable and confident with the ball.

krattoss:
I wonder how some peeps here worries more than nacho who is seating on the bench...believe u me,i think he himself should be worried of himself because od he eventually looses form and playing time,i believe the position is wide open ...

So whether he plays or not, it is in no way going to affect the super eagles..

Some are crying over Nacho's playing time, If Nacho were to be in Girona and puts-up the same performance that Kayode does and still be left on the bench, I wonder what this thread will look like.

It is more justifiable to cry over Kayode's playing time than Nacho's because the few times Kayode has played he never failed to impress.

Icon4s:
First off, for the national team if you don't have players of certain qualities you don't go and purchase like clubs do. If you don't have you don't have.
If you have a left footed CB that can replace Balogun please recommend to us.

Secondly, our attack can also be effective from the left. Players like V. Moses, Iwobi, and Simon alternate between left and Right of the attack.

We have found more joy from the right of our attack due to a seeming lack of quality in the left of the teams we have faced.

Any team that chooses to concentrate their attacks from their left just to foil our attack from our right would have themselves to blame as we have what it takes to also sting them from our left.

Talking about the technical competency of Argentina there are not more than 2 or 3 countries in the world above them. So we have tested ourselves against one of the best technically and we came out tops.

In a 3-man CB, the RCB and LCB should be players who are fast not slow.

Balogun should have played in the middle of them.

Do u mean we shouldn't work on our left-side?

And we still want our team to reach the Quarter-final of the WC.

Icon4s:
Which kine a more technical team will punish who?
That is what we have always been hearing "a more technical team will punish us".

Name the footballing teams in the world that are more technical than Argentina.

Ha ha ha, it's not like Argentina used to dash us 3-0 and above in our previous meetings.

They have been lucky, the last two times we met them, always escaping with just a goal.

In 2010 WC,it was 1-0 and In 2014 WC, it was 3-2.

We should admit that we have a very weak left-side for the 3-5-2 formation.

Did you not say "most of our goals came from the right?"

What if a team decides to pay special attention to our right side,shutting down our attacks and attacking our right just to stop us from attacking?

What then will be the reaction of our weak left-side if they decide to "defend" at the left and wait for the right to initiate both attacks and counter-attacks?

We should work on our left-side starting from the LCB.Balogun is slow and right-footed(I stand to be corrected) and shouldn't have played in that position.

I've already talked about that of Idowu.

If we could get a good left-footed player.We can play him in the LCB and probably draft V.Moses to the LWB.

Doing the above means bossing the both flanks.The opposing team might have no choice but to try the middle where they will meet both Onazi and Ndidi.



With this, even Germany go confirm say Nigeria sabi ball.

We can now say go!!! Super Eagles.

And who says we no fit win world cup with this formation and the right players?

Mujtahida:
Idowu is naturally left footed but still good with his right foot just as Ebuehi is naturally right footed but still uses his left foot.

How come is not comfortable going forward with the ball?

Kog45:
I hope this 3-5-2 will not scattered this team in the WC,just 45 minutes performance against Argentina it seems we want to neglect our original pattern which is 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3.

As you have rightly said we are having issues with our LWB and i don't see moses playing RWB in the WC meaning we have limited players to play 3-5-2.Aina,Shehu,Ebuhei,Idowu are all RB with only Echiejele LB and he cannot function as LWB,Idowu and Aina can only be a makeshift players at LB.Even Ebuhei cannot do it as LWB as he does at RWB.

I watched Ebuhei against Mainz 05 in a friendly this season,he first started at the Right side and his performance was average,in the second half he was moved to left side,his performance was below par meaning he would be useful at RB.

Good the 45 minutes against Argentina see all the players turning to Superstars even Iwobi who was awful in the first half later put MOTM performance.Something tells me if Rohr started Ebuhei and Idowu we will still have the same performance in the first half.

Rohr should know he can't get a perfect team so he should start now,enough of switchers,with the full backs at his disposal i don't see any issue.Spain won WC with false striker in Fabregas

3-5-2 is delicate if you don't have good players to prosecute it,better for us to continue with our traditional formations but if needs arise we can use 3-5-2 but it should not be the main formation or else we pay dearly for it.

Well said.

realpoacher:
I am sorry to say ,You must have been watching the back of your TV during the match because the idowu that I saw was superb at both defending and attack. FYI, I have the second half of that match downloaded on my phone and I have watched it over a hundredth times and I can say confidently that both at our attacks and our defending, you will always see idowu lurking around marking space, meaning that he haas the pace to do both at the same time which is a good thing on its own. Someone that was even in the 6 yard box when iwobi scored. There are two forms of marking, 1. Man marking and 2. Space marking . I saw idowu doing more of the later than the former while ebuehi did more of the former than the later. And from my experience playing amateur football, players/defenders who are very good at space marking or shadow marking are extremely intelligent folks who can read games very well. These set of players are indispensable in a team.

For every time we had the ball going forward, idowu was always at the third half of Argentina looking for a pass or loose ball. For every attack from Argentina, idowu was back behind in our 18 yard taking off Argentine's Pavon. Intact he frustrated Pavon out of the game and he was changed. The player who replaced him resulted to crossing from outside because he couldn't pass through idowu. There was even a clear rebounds that idowu cleared off else that woud have become 3-4. Idowu had Ogu always beside him providing support which was essential and necessary. So please, I want to believe that your assertion was erroneously made. Idowu was only silent because he was marking well "off the ball" and covering space which didn't allow the Argentines to create anything tangible through his wing. Remember that it was through his same position in the Argentines were recking havoc althrough the first half.

I will advice that you get the clip of the second half and rewatch in order to notice what I just analyzed.

Ha ha ha."Back of TV".

realpoacher:
I am sorry to say ,You must have been watching the back of your TV during the match because the idowu that I saw was superb at both defending and attack. FYI, I have the second half of that match downloaded on my phone and I have watched it over a hundredth times and I can say confidently that both at our attacks and our defending, you will always see idowu lurking around marking space, meaning that he haas the pace to do both at the same time which is a good thing on its own. Someone that was even in the 6 yard box when iwobi scored. There are two forms of marking, 1. Man marking and 2. Space marking . I saw idowu doing more of the later than the former while ebuehi did more of the former than the later. And from my experience playing amateur football, players/defenders who are very good at space marking or shadow marking are extremely intelligent folks who can read games very well. These set of players are indispensable in a team.

For every time we had the ball going forward, idowu was always at the third half of Argentina looking for a pass or loose ball. For every attack from Argentina, idowu was back behind in our 18 yard taking off Argentine's Pavon. Intact he frustrated Pavon out of the game and he was changed. The player who replaced him resulted to crossing from outside because he couldn't pass through idowu. There was even a clear rebounds that idowu cleared off else that woud have become 3-4. Idowu had Ogu always beside him providing support which was essential and necessary. So please, I want to believe that your assertion was erroneously made. Idowu was only silent because he was marking well "off the ball" and covering space which didn't allow the Argentines to create anything tangible through his wing. Remember that it was through his same position in the Argentines were recking havoc althrough the first half.

I will advice that you get the clip of the second half and rewatch in order to notice what I just analyzed.

Ha ha ha."Back of TV".

What's the duty of a LWB?

Did we build-up from the left?

Did we attack from the left?

A more technical team will punish us for that because to ward-off attacks you have to do both defending and attacking as a WB.

Since he kept them quiet, was he able to build-up and attack from the left?

It's the WC that we are preparing for oo.

Or you care more about goals rather than a players contribution to the team's formation?

You can watch the game again with what I've said in mind.

Mujtahida:
Well said. An article I read shortly before match said Idowu has an aggressive style and that he likes to attack. I stressed the fact that defensively he was solid. Di Maria was putting crosses through the right wing where Ebuehi was but none came through Pavon on the left.
Idowu has the advantage. Rohr has almost said he'd be part of the team.

Am not saying he should be dropped but to say he is a starter for the left wing-back get comma.

Icon4s:
Our LB is settled.

I disagree because Idowu is not left-footed and is kind of careful with his play when he plays as a LWB.

Some said Pavon was quiet, but my question is "how many times did we build up from the left?

Did he(Idowu) boss the left-flank like Ebuehi?

How many times did u see him running with the ball from the left and positioning in our own half to initiate attacks from the left like Ebuehi?

At a time it was even Ogu who tried to run with the ball from the left, but was stopped because he lacks pace.

Idowu is mainly good at defending and positioning himself in scoring positions.

These are too different things running(without the ball) to meet-up with the ball infront of goal to score, which Idowu does and running down the flank to defend , pick the ball and launch attack with the ball on one's feet which he didn't but was seen in Ebuehi.

A wing-back should be someone who is able,comfortable and ready to play the ball like V.Moses and Ebuehi. It's not just something of defending and running up to meet a cross without building up from your flank.

Am not saying Idowu is a bad player, he has two good qualities, when he plays on the left which is his positioning for a cross and his good defending.

The same thing(being right-footed) limited Aina on the left, that most times he used his right foot.

If Aina sat deep, defended and ran to meet a crosses to score like Idowu, he won't be replaced in the second-half.

He(Aina) made the mistake of trying to play the LB comfortably, forgetting that he is right-footed. He also failed to boss his flank in that game.

If you watch the match again you will see that he became cautious after we conceded the second goal by defending well.

Am just saying that for the 3-5-2 system, we need wing-backs who can comfortably go forward,build-up from their wings and be very good defensively like Ebuehi and V.Moses.

Idowu is a kind of careful while playing as a LB which is right because he is right-footed.

Teams come to the WC prepared tactically and technically.

Anyone who watched our match against Argentina will observe that the Argentines biggest mistake was concentrating their attacks on the right.

If they did what they did on the right to the left Boss we go concede because Idowu no be ball player for LWB.

But we can wait and see sha because wing-back should be ball-players.

If ball-players are not that important why is Rohr still searching for a CB?

Mujtahida:
You are right in your analysis. Ighalo is our 9 for now but Rohr is still looking for backups. I read on Completesportsnigeria.com that Rohr is looking for backups for Mikel, Ighalo and Echiejile.

We really need a Left footed player as a back-up for Echiejile, if not as a replacement.

Taking Aina or Idowu to WC with the intention of playing them as LB's will limit our progress in the WC.

But we can try Ebuehi since Toyin said he can play comfortably as a left-back, the same way he did against Argentina.If he(Ebuehi) fails to impress as a LB, we should get J.Torunarigha.If not ,our LB will become our weak link since Aina is not that good as a LB and Idowu does not defend and join or link up with the attack like Ebuehi does.He only edges Aina in terms of positioning as seen against Argentina.

But, can he defend and link up with the attack,No No No.

Modified:Aina is more attack minded which resulted to the second goal we conceded, while Idowu focuses mainly on defending which puts us at a disadvantage because the best way to defend has always been to attack.

safarigirl:
there is no rule that says we must play the formation we used during qualifiers. That is why there are friendlies, for experiments, whichever formation turns out to be the most effective, we use.

There is a saying of "use what you have to get what you want"... We want wins, so we use the best formation we can to get it and if we cannot get an effective Top 9, then we should build our team and formation with what we can get.

All the Top 9's we have been taking to World Cup for our last five appearances, how far did they take us? How many goals did they score? One of the biggest misses of all time was made by an EFFECTIVE Top 9, was it not?

Football is not a one-way street o, this is 2017, we cannot be playing 1996 footy in 2017, you need to come with an element of surprise sometimes, can't give opposition an easy target. Confuse the enemy's camp so that they don't know who to mark, that is how we excelled this round of qualifiers, we did not need an effective Top 9 to score 12 goals

Both Mikel and Rohr said "going to the WC you need to perfect at least 3 different formations".

Our first formation(4-2-3-1) is our best because with it, we qualified from the group of death and we are more accustomed to playing it, being that we faced oppositions in competitive matches with it.

I will say the formation is tested , trusted and more reliable to others(not saying we shouldn't try others).

There is also 70% probability that the 4-2-3-1 will be played in one or more of our group stage matches.

Why is Rohr still searching for a 9 ?

The reason is that he sees the 4-2-3-1 as indispensable because you can't compare competitive matches to friendlies.

Rohr is trying to make sure that we have players who will do well with our "first choice formation".

It's wrong to say we abandon a formation we played in our "six -qualifying matches" and pick another which we only played at most 2 or 3 times.

Just like you don't change a winning team, you don't drop a winning formation.

A friendly is what it is, "a friendly".

komekn:
To win the World cup you will need at least 3/4 World class players complemented by a good number of quality players.

One thing most top teams will have is a top lethal striker. Do we really have one

True talk.

Since we qualified with the 4-2-3-1 formation , we need a "very good" striker(No.9) to play it(the formation) at the WC.

Kog45:
I don't think we need to talk much on this,these guys are for post 2018 WC.

Comparing Uzoho rise with Orji is two different things,Uzoho came into the team cos we need options due to unconvincing performance from Akpeyi and Ezenwa and till today any solid keeper can still break into the team cos we are still searching.

Rohr said the door is still open for Victor Osimhen and other fast forwards.

With Uzoho I think we are okay in the GK department but we need more options.

Our concern now should be "Who is our no.9?"

Rohr is not satisfied with Nacho as his no. 9, which is the reason he played Nwakaeme as his nine and started Nacho on the wings against Algeria, just to see if he can do well on the wings.

If Rohr is not satisfied with Ighalo and Nacho.
Who then,is the right man for the Eagles.

Probably , the search continues.

tbaba1234:
Calm down biko, he is just starting..

Success had good seasons in Spain.

Bazee had a great season with Hannover last year.

Okonkwo never even start..

How many of our players are scoring in the five(England,Spain,France,Germany and Italy) major leagues?

Why do u think Uzoho was called up?

Not every young player will be like Ogbeche.

BascoVanVeli:
They are in 2 completely different situations. We don't know how much Osimhen has progress because he doesn't play.

Do u mean u will take a bench warmer to WC ahead of a starter?

Orji is currently better than Osimhen.

No player has ever progressed by sitting on the bench.

neighy:
for this I want germany in the final..
Please dont even try begging me
We have to teach Mr Low a lesson
#StraightFace

Maybe, he forgot that we were in a group of death, with African champions ,Cameroon.

He can go on and play Morocco in a friendly.

Happy Birthday,Sir The Goodjoe.
I wish you many more years and success in all your endeavours.

mumemma:
Na so una hype Aina o....say d guy dey ball for Championship.....I nor see wetin e don play for our 2 games o.....

Na Ebuehi dem gve just 45mins and we know wat he can do....

Bro,Aina is a very good player.

A RB/RWB and not a LB or LWB.

Ebuehi played in his natural position (RB/RWB) unlike Aina who played the LWB.

Idowu who substitituted Aina is also a RB.In the match against Argentina, Idowu didn't do much going foward .He focused more on defending rather than going forward unlike Ebuehi.

The reason being that "when players are being played in a makeshift position,they can't be as good as when played in their natural position".

Aina will do well if played as a RB/RWB .

We had Ebuehi in camp when Rohr made the move to get Aina for the Cameroon game, after seeing him train with the team after the Senegal friendly.

I could recall a journalist said this during their training after the Senegal friendly in which Isaac Success was outstanding, "He (Aina) defended well against I.Success with ease,covered up for Troost-Ekong and linked up well with the attack.

BascoVanVeli:
The question now is where does Victor Moses play in this system? I mean I know where and I am sure we all do but will the man himself agree to play in his club position for the SE.

Bro,only Mikel's absence can be felt by the team.

With Brian and Ebuehi, V.Moses knows we won't miss him that much like the S.A match.

Our major concern should be "Who will step into Mikel's position, if he gets injured in maybe the knock-out stage?

The team has always struggled to create chances in his absence.

Etebo have failed twice in this role.

Mujtahida:
Ogu provides 'soft' energy and it favors Ndidi cos Ndidi is high octane. Onazi too is high on energy and does not pipe for Ndidi. Perhaps the best is to play one and not both of them.

Exactly,in our next friendly play one of the two with Ogu.

Eligreat247:
Did you just say even Rohr was surprised because he didn't believe in Ebuehi? Read this:

Ebuehi’s Performance Against Argentina Didn’t Surprise Me – Gernot Rohr

The impressive performance of ADO Den Haag Dutch-Nigerian full back Tyronne Ebuehi against Argentina didn’t come as a surprise to coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr .

Ebuehi put up an impressive display for Nigeria in the 4-2 win over Argentina after coming on as a substitute for regular right back Shehu Abdullahi with Nigeria trailing Argentina 1-2.

His performance down the right pegged Argentina backward, which helped the Eagles to find their rhythm and hit three goals that gave them the win in the friendly game.

” We always know what he is capable of doing. He ( Ebuehi) has been with us for some time now, we won’t keep him if we have no faith in his abilities “, Rohr said.

” I’m not surprised because I know his qualities and what he can do. He did well in the second half just like goalkeeper Francis Uzoho and Brian Idowu during the game”.

Source: OGN

I think he meant that his back-ups were as good as his first choice.

He once said "we have no second team".

Iwobi,Ogu and Ndidi, their face be like "we never knew you(Ebuehi) were this good".