MetalJigsaw:
Is AFCON ’25 going to be next year or in two years time?

next year in summer

TheGoodJoe:


I disagree. His response is so unprofessional. These so called bullies are mostly kids on social media trying to be funny. Ignore them and focus on those emanating love.

the same unprofessional response that got Uzoho to where he is today. . I can bet you if Umar comes back to the national team and plays rubbish, his backlash will be worse.

Dsimmer:
Anyways, Nigeria team tried by reaching the final because I wasn't expecting anything after they lost agaisnt Guinea just before the tournament, so they tried in the tournament but if they really want to have a good shot at the trophy, the team have to even do more. Take Senegal for example. Senegal got to the final 3 years ago and then regrouped and made necessary improvement to win it in the following afcon.

we don't have a progressive developmental framework for our national teams which is a major headache, right now we don't know who will be our coach and we have World Cup qualifiers coming up. We dabble in competitions and hope for a miracle, after the 2013 trophy we could not even qualify for the 2015 edition. In 2019 we were in the semis and in 2021 we got eliminated in the second round, that is not how you can win subsequent editions of Afcon. You need a deliberate progressive framework of management of coaches and players and we can't because we do not manage even a little success well. This is why I was pained on Sunday cos it was a lost opportunity to make it our 4th trophy. We are not too good at regrouping especially with the way we chop and change coaches like pieces of cloth. Until we have stability in our football administration, especially with those who call themselves technical committees, omo we may not achieve much.

TradingGod:
I guess Lionel Messi is a very spoilt brat for retiring 3 times, not so? 🤔

So we should expect the return of the Mac be that, that’s good to know

forgiveness:


That should be the mentality.

All human beings have different ways of reacting to situations but the most successful are those with strong mindset.

Iwobi needs to see this a a slip and not a fall then he can stand up and come back next year to shut those bad mouths with player of the tournament performance.

and that's the kind of players we need in our national team not spoilt brats. Until Messi won the World Cup, he was bashed by Argentina (a whole Messi) that he could never be like Maradona, even Diego Simeone said he's not a leader but today the story is different. jeje my brother na so life be

forgiveness:


Saka that is far better than our players didn't retire after he was cursed for loosing the penalty.

I no support cyber bullying ooo.

Odion Ighalo was bashed left right and centre after 2018 World Cup performance, he came back to Afcon 2019 and became the highest goal scorer. Maguire (even Ghana Parliament use am do example), Onana have all suffered yet they keep going stronger for their teams.

Amedino99:
what do you mean come forward to score? Ekong goals no pass pk and corner kick?

yes na very easy thing to do

elyte89:
Even though I don’t support any form of cyber bullying cos I believe say na cowards Dey do dt.however if iwobi decides to retire truly ,he won’t be missed a bit if we can get someone who can actually play well in a consistent manner(at least averagely) not iwobi nepa kind of performance…having said dat,those using playing out of position as excuse for a “73 cap” national team player doesn’t really hold water to me …no be person be camanviga ,dt excels perfectly despite been played outside his position outrightly….abeg in a nutshell ,CM ,AM ,he hasn’t really been top notched for 🦅.

even ekong dey come forward score, it's all excuses for a below-par performance jare. We need more bravery from those who wear the green and white jerseys,

Omanambala:
Peseiro went to the nations cup with 3 defensive midfielders and and two wannabe AM. Well, the team actually performed beyond my expectation. But you can't start your world cup qualifiers with this pattern. The South Africans will come for a revenge

we have been exposed, you need to see how those Ghanaian analysts finished Paseiro, one of them said our coach was busy fighting the referee instead of reading the game. While I appreciate Paseiro, he sure needs to reflect on what truly happened yesterday and stop saying our players were overwhelmed. I have listened to other foreign media outside Africa, they are all shocked at what we played, they all felt we made it too easy for the Ivorians.

zicky:
we some forumites talked about bringing in fresh legs even is it's in the dying minute, many cried that you want to change a winning team, the players in the bench can not withstand the heat blah blah blah

We surely paid for it. But let’s be real this afcon intensity was off the charts. Every player that has participated I wish them speedy recovery cos their body go hear am wella

forgiveness:


Perhaps, you might be right.

Paseiro reminds me of Rohr. They have same thing in common in that they don't like substituting trusted players.

a supersport studio analyst complained of this after our match against Angola and that the coach should have quickly brought out our tired legs in that game to rotate our players better. Many people here I remembered said the same thing, we surely paid for this in the long run

forgiveness:


Not all. Some were actually loosing ball and gave misplaced passes.

there were tired legs in that game yesterday one analyst I listened to on Saturday said most of our starting 11 have played far more minutes than the Ivorians who perhaps did more rotation than us. Those can be minor differences from what we saw yesterday. Players like Bassey, Ajayi, and Aina played through the entire duration of all our matches.

forgiveness:
Paseiro said our players were nervous hence lost possession.

I think I will have to agree with him. They were overwhelmed by the occasion.

How can players who have played in massive stadiums in Europe be nervous, which kind talk be that. Players who have played in wembley, Bernabeu, nou camp, San Siro, what can be more overwhelming than such atmospheres, make Paseiro talk something else jor.

If he says Fatigue, I can understand

yinkeys:
Fatigue
Poor rotation by coach
Osimhen had nothing
Moffi & Iheanacho should have been used a lot more in this tournament

Yeah especially for Aina and Bassey in yesterday's game

MetalJigsaw:
So what was Iwobi's role the then?

I'm sure JP and the entire team would be glad if Iwobi at least tried to engage himself in the midfield. He was just shying away from duels. How often do you even see Iwobi do that. The guy is just overrated. Prime Iwobi was far better

dem go explain tire

Just to remind everyone, Ekong that's the MVP of this tournament was never one of the fan's favorites he has started getting being snubbed for games. But today he's been celebrated by fans, critics, analysts, and everyone. This was even a player a former Eagles coach told he was never going to be a good fit in the African game.

Why am I saying all these, Ekong is a testament to how a player can raise his game in spite of all the odds against him including bashing and whatever. This is what we expect from anyone wearing that green shirt, go there and impose your game and you will be celebrated. Winning the MVP of a tournament is no fluke.

codemaniacs:


Criticism of iwobi is justified not unfair.

He has been in the team since he was a teenager.. he should be fired up in midfield and motivate others the way Ekong was always fired up in defense.

He might 1 day be the captain of the SE and a person who is not fired up and taking charge should not be the captain.

I finally rest my case

Kog45:
We just need to fix that midfield

Yes, our midfield let us down, am glad everyone now knows this and if there are nff technical team indeed checking out this thread, this should be the main takeaway.

But it's not all gloom, we have discovered an Onyeka but we need more ball-playing midfielders

Blueelf:
Going forward, perseiro is not the one for us he is too timid and defensive. While he has improved our defense, he is too lazily a coach to scout for midfielders. This bad tradition of carrying 4 midfielders to major tourneys must stop

Iwobi can't be starting for us. This tourney showed that he isn't really as good as he is touted. A good sub nonetheless but not a starter for a title contender.

Osimhen tried. He just wasn't getting services

Zaidu sanusi shouldn't be starting. We need to get a solid LB or draft a player there.

Maduka Okoye should come take the place of Uzoho. His time with is is over.

We did great and surpassed expectations. Just need a new coach and some few tweaks here and there. Maybe Angola's coach or Hugo boss since he has more experience...or herve Renard. Emmanuel Amunike wouldn't be bad but I'm not sure about him

I'm talking of coaches that are realistically within our reach

Dude played with an injury, He is one of the players am most grateful to. He wasn't 100% fit for this Afcon yet he gave his all. Twice in the early minutes against SA and CIV he went down, how he still gets all that energy to press upfront is a wonder. His APOTY is no fluke

TheGoodJoe:


Let us be real, throughout Peseiro's time here, we have never built our midfield. We did not freeze on the occasion. We never grew. That is how we ran with the myth that we had no keeper. Scout and screen and freaking build a team. Nigeria is not a country that fields chickens as players. Pound for pound, Brazil had far better players than us in 96, but we did not cower, we gave them hell.

Simple. Can't say it better than this. Agreed 100%

Daninya33:
A big congratulations to the Super Eagles for coming thus far.
I never envisaged that we could even get to the finals.
Kudos to everyone for making that possible.
It's no time to trade blames as we cannot undo what has happened.
We can only draw lessons from the tournament.
Who knows?,we can be Afcon winners next year if we fix areas that are broken.

It's high time we move on to the next game which is a world cup qualifier against our rivals,South Africa next month.
Nigeria has underachieved at the Afcon looking at the number of times we have reached an Afcon semi finals.

From a reliable source,Jose poseiro won't continue as Head Coach. Should the NFF source for a Nigerian to lead the team? Or source for a White journeyman who is familiar with African football?.

The second dilemma stems from the fact that certain players need to exit the team. Who are the players that can add depth and stealth to the current team?.

A member of the NFF technical team is reading proceedings on the thread.

Members can suggest players good enough to play for the Super Eagles.

We,football loving Nigerians want to

This has always been our issue, we can hardly build on our successes going forward but I have hope that if we could fix our goal-keeping crisis just before this afcon then we should be able to fix our midfield crisis too. I've listened to some of our ex-players like Oliseh, Osaze, Amunike, and others, they were never too comfortable with this defensive pattern we deployed throughout this Afcon. If we indeed have a technical team, they should start with a thorough assessment of the football tactics we used during this Afcon and perform a true SWOT analysis of this team. From there they should know the players who need to be appreciated for their service to the nation and allowed to ease themselves out of the team while new players ( many have been suggested here) should be given a chance. The national team is not anybody's father's property.

Am grateful to Paseiro, we can build on some positives and value he has added to our team, I wish he could stay on but we can't tie him down if he wants to go. If we want to get another foreign coach or even a local coach, let's remember that he will need some matches again to understand our players, I hope it won't come at a cost with the World Cup qualifiers already here.

Mujtahida:

Cos today the spotlight is unjustifiably on him when the whole team was poor. I see now that the reason why we had so much fouls was because the entire team was not sure-footed.

You dunk on Iwobi so tay you said he should be excused from the team.

so na wetin dey pepper you for body be this? Have people not also mentioned other players they think should leave the team so what's so special about Iwobi.

I have learned my major lesson bruv from this Afcon. I will never follow anyone bash any Eagles player again even if they are not doing well. We can always make excuses for their poor performance. All na perspective. Lesson learned

Mujtahida:

Three players have suffered more criticism than others throughout the tournament - Iwobi, Zaidu and Osimhen. Go and listen to those Ghana analyst you once tried to dismiss and you'd see how they point out iwobi’s defects and one can hardly argue against them.

Our own na to blame from morning till night. Ours is just pure attack.

so why are some of you making it look as if it's only Iwobi who's getting the knocks?

Mujtahida:

Apart from Iwobi point out where you have criticized any other player today. Judge yourself by your own statement. I'm waiting

you guys are funny when this match was on, I was mentioning Aina and Bassey's errors (you can go back if you care, I was even asking whether it was due to fatigue), no one came for me, it's when I started mentioning Iwobi that some of you jumped out and this is a confirmation of the trend I have seen here for a very long time where those who mention Iwobi's errors are always been bashed as if Iwobi is touch not my anointed. This is very unfair mhen. You guys are making it as if Iwobi is the only one singled out, have zaidu not been bashed here, even Oshimen whom some of us were supporting against those bashing him, Simon has been bashed, chukwueze has been bashed, most of the players have been heavily criticized here but once Iwobi is mentioned then we begin to accuse people of being unfair and using the tactics of the coach as an excuse for his errors which we don't use for others.

Mujtahida:

It is the criticism of Iwobi that is unfair if we just say he's a senior player and so? He's got more caps. He no senior (and I don't mean age wise) anybody in the team like that apart from Osimhen, Ajayi, Aribo and Chukwueze.

while the criticism of others is fair or fairer according to you

Mujtahida:

Chai. Is it the loss or what? Baba you dey shame me ooo. Was Uzoho used as a defender and he failed. He was deployed in his proper capacity as a Gk. Iwobi on the other hand was saddled with defensive duties. I'm not even saying not to point out his deficiencies. Those Ghana analyst did so brilliantly but were objective enough to say that Iwobi is basically relearning that part of football cos he's being tasked to do what he's not suited for (and you mention Uzoho. Chai)

You on the other hand is piling on Iwobi like he's at fault for everything. Yet the goals came from the wings with Aina at fault. Pim you no talk.

The team was poor. No be only Iwobi. That's the point.

you guys are not being fair, making excuses for some players' defects but condemning others for their defects, chai

safarigirl:


If this is as far as your comprehension skills can take you, good for you.

Hopefully, you will also use your time post AFCON to brush up on those skills.

you know I never address you this way but thank you

safarigirl:


It's a team failure. Zaidu failed to mark Kessie for the first goal, I have not seen one person mention that in the middle of this whole Iwobi slander.

Aina was useless all 90 minutes, nobody has mentioned it. Chukwueze ghosted his entire time on the pitch, nobody has said that. Lookman has basically been AWOL our last two matches, but 3 Knockout goals dey cover him shame. Osimhen was neutralized, him gidigbo no see light, everybody unlook.

But it is Iwobi that everybody wants to come for. Even people wey no watch match come online dey fight Iwobi.

We conceded 2 goals for the first time in the entire tournament. The defense collapsed, but it is Iwobi that killed the team.

Anybody that is coming here to single out one player for criticism is being dishonest and they must be shut down immediately.

Very good Iwobi did no wrong, every other person was useless

safarigirl:


Abeg abeg abeg.

Iwobi no send anybody work, free am.

I see you have been blasting the other players but leaving out Iwobi

mrwilliams9:
I don’t think we need to disband the team, some players need to be phased out, yes, but the biggest place we have to plug is the midfield.

You’ll notice with AFCON nations then to have a 4-6 year period where they make b2b finals / have deep runs in the tournament.

We had a successful tournament loss in the final aside. W have to build on it.

Look at Senegal. Runner up in 2019, winner in 2021.

2025 AFCON is in 18 months. We just need to start integrating the next generation of midfielders and defenders.

Agree 100% with no sentiments. I pray we dare to make the needed changes.

safarigirl:


Iwobi's poor performance is not why we lost the game.

He was not the only poor performer and he has not been horrendous this entire tournament, so, this entire thing just looks like easy bullying. Iwobi has been very good for us for the last 7 or so years, so, the comparison to Uzoho that was never particularly good is even unfair.

Even in this tournament, Iwobi put on a shift in the group stages at least, but he is always a convenient scapegoat for you people. Maybe he should retire, so, y'all can go and find your topclass midfielder and have someone new to insult.

You're wrong, he's one of our experienced players, He should be a leader on the pitch and we can't lower the standards because of the poor performances of others who should even be looking up to him. To whom much is given much is expected.

Mujtahida:

You are the one allowing your bias against Iwobi making you sentimental. First question: is that the role he's suited for? You saddle him with defensive duties and expect to get the best of him. Make una free the boy jare

it's better we free uzoho too nah