₦airaland Forum

FabioPeter:
Romero of Argentina, Batshuayi of Belgium, Okazaki of Leicester etc

Romeo and Batshuayi are certain starters for Argentina and Belgium? Okazaki plays for Leicester city's reserves? Which country is he from sef?

tbaba1234:
Cameroon won the nations cup this year and could not qualify.

France were World Champions with Trezeguet and Henry at the top of their game, scoring goals for fun. Arguably the top 2 strikers in the world at the time.

If it was about stats, no one could stop France..

Senegal was a bunch of unknown africans. No one expected them to be that good.

If Cameroun had qualified will you tag them unknown Africans?

We are not discussing about under achievers so why bring up France?
Holland in 2002 had the best players in the world,yet they couldnt qualify.

My focus is on the so called over achievers with our stereotype of "unknown players"

Senegal were world cup débutants not unknown Africans to followers of European football and french league in particular.

Even the Ghanaian team of 2010, had players who played at the highest level like Muntari, Kwado Asamoah, KPB, John Mensah, Paintsil, Gyan, Ayew was like Mbappe of Marseille ......
These guys had no reserve league players.

Icon4s:
Let me also add Bulgaria and Romania of 1994, Senegal of 2002, S Korea of 2002, USA of 2002, Ghana of 2010. Italy were no where near favorites to win the 2006 WC but they won it.

And if we want to go back further in time: Algeria of 1982 and Poland of 1986.
cc:Goldfish80

Italy have never gone to any tournament as underdogs since the first world war.

These teams you mentioned had players in the form of their lives prior to the those tournaments.
I'm talking about performing players, not world class player.
Can you name any player in these teams you listed who played reserve league football or with the U21's prior to those tournaments?

tbaba1234:
For each of those tournaments, i could have mentioned multiple teams...There are always at least 3-4 teams in each tournament that do better than expected. It could be more.

Take 2002

Senegal in 2002 was relatively unknown, South Korea in the same tournament beat the Italians. Already talked about the turks.

I mentioned those teams because they overperformed..

Senegal lost the 2002 Afcon finals to Cameroun via penalty shoot out .
All their players including goalkeepers played for top teams in France(starters not bench warmers).
Diouf, Cisse, Diao,Diallo, Fadiga, N'diaye, Henry Camara, Sylva etc weren't playing in reserve leagues.

South Korea benefited from referee/FIFA largess. If the refs made the right calls, we wont be having this discussion in the first place.

tbaba1234:
Cameroon in 1990
the swedish team of 1994
the croatians in 1998
the turks in 2002
costa rica in brazil
etc..

Before the tournament, much of the team were either unknown or with underwhelming stats.

I feel that we have that kind of squad.

Before the qualifiers, very few gave us a chance but we qualified barely breaking a sweat.

I believe that Rohr knows what he is doing. The team is playing to its strengths.

In 27 years, you could only come up with just 5 teams who have been able to over achieve at the world stage.

Let's put this in perspective, we have witnessed 7 world cups since 1990 ;
7(wc)x32[number of teams]= 224(teams).
If Out of 224 teams, only 5 have actually over achieved, then it's safe to say we are playing against the odds.

This stat alone should be enough to agitate our minds and that of our players especially that they need to dig in deep and start performing.

Even the 5 teams you listed if further scrutinized , Turkey and Croatia should be struck off.

Turkey had very hot players in Europe in 2002 with players like Rustu, Hassan Sas both at Galatasary. Bashturk was the creative force in the midfield of that Klaus Topmoller Bayern Leverkusen side who lost the champions League final to Madrid.
Hakan Sukur, Umit Davala were not exactly nobodies. Their captain Sukur is the best striker in the history of the country.

Croatia, were the offshoot of Yugoslavia. They always pride themselves as the region who produced the better players in the old Yugoslavia.
Call them the Biafrans of Yugoslavia, if you understand what I mean footballing wise.

forgiveness:
That is just the point.

Rohr should not invite dem for our next friendlies. By so doing, dem brain go reset.

If their place is not threatened, it means we are not doing something right.
I wonder which other country heading to the world cup will reserve jerseys for strikers in footballing purgatory like Musa and Kelechi.
Only Nigeria.

darkelf:
But Bros, I beg to differ a bit

In soccer today, scoring goals is a team effort in most cases and not the sole responsibility of one even if that person is the target man

Even though these guys aren't really scoring much, I believe if they are placed in a team that plays together with excellent team chemistry and tactical discipline, we should see goals been banged in.

Also, some of these guys you listed come from the bench in the dying minutes of a game and usually, scoring during those times ain't easy

Also, these guys may not be the fulcrum of attack for their respective clubs (call it the target man or the attack maestro) but may just be role players

I may be mistaken but that's how I feel

So in a nutshell, we are going to the world cup with a semifinal target with cast offs who sneak into games at the deart for their clubs, but somehow we believe strongly that when they play together as a team, they will be better than the other 28 teams in the world.
God is a Nigerian indeed

tbaba1234:
I am not too worried, international football is different from club football.

Even in 1994, Siasia was not prolific, Amokachi was not, Finidi was not but they made magic together in the national team.

I am more concerned about those that are not playing.

Our attackers in 94 cannot be compared to our present attackers.
Remember, the 94 team went to the world cup on the back of winning the Afcon .
Same cant be said about this team with 70% experiencing their first big tournament experience with the NT on the back of a very poor form.
The odds aren't in our favor

lexyman:
i know you desire so much for the team , dont forget we have a good team ,that can do well as a unit , i still believe in the ability of this team as a unit not as an individual player .... before now Iwobi was scoring , and among the best 7players in the attack line of Arsenal you will pick Iwobi . For Iheanacho , i will call this a rough patch of his career , he will get better . ...dont forget the world as a whole lack strikers , i will leave you to this to ponder on .THAT IS WHY YOU SEE MOST COACHES settle for false 9 , and its producing result .

You actually need inform players who play as a unit to achieve something. If you read my initial post , you will discover I didn't hammer on STRIKERS but ATTACKERS.

By the way, the era of false 9 was dead and burried when Spain wobbled and fumbled in 2012 Euros and 2014 world cup.
Proper strikers are back in Vogue.

safarigirl:
Rohr has five months and about three games to get a standing team.

You're not helping him right now

I understand he's speaking to Leicester about Musa and Kelechi.
He's not burrying his head in sand like fans who believe the team will sort itself out because they Play as a unit.

TheGoodJoe:
They will play as a unit in the World Cup.

Seems we have veered off from analysis to prophecy. So, prophet TheGoodJoe, looking at your crystal ball ,what are your projections for Nigeria in 2018?

safarigirl:
and you are yet to provide a solution to that.

What is the way forward? We should drop all our attackers and find better ones? Is it one man that we will add to the team to score all our goals in Russia?

You cannot make an observation or complaint and fail to profer a solution.

The solution is simple. Put me on to plane to Russia.
Na wetin you wan hear abi?

Bants aside, the team needs reinforcement through the spine.

The attack needs to be beefed up.

A solution must be found for Kelechi and Musa's predicament. They must be made to understand they dont have automatic shirt in the team.
If they understand this, they will certainly tast their agents to search for solutions for them this winter transfer Window.

TheGoodJoe:
They are performing well as a unit. What is important is for them to keep performing as a unit.

Do they play as a unit week in week out?

safarigirl:
I have a great idea!

Why don't we overhaul all our forwards because they aren't performing and call up every eligible Nigerian that plays that position with at least eight goals this season for the next friendly in March?

That should help us get a potent strike force

World cup preparation have already started and so far our attackers aren't measuring up.

TheGoodJoe:
“We used to think before then that if the other players are better, you have to lose. After that we learned anything is possible—you can beat better teams by using tactics."... Jurgen Klopp.

What matters is the formidable force the Super Eagles form when they play as a unit. Not individual flattering records. We got this far with sound tactics, brilliant match reading skills and players doing their best o play to instructions.

It is much easier to build a winning team around performing individuals.When your first 11 and supporting cast is off form, your much more likely to loose.

The form of these players worry is a cause for concern

forgiveness:
We go hear am with so called CFs for WC.

Over optimism too dey worry some of us for this thread. I've noticed when that optimism is not fed , all hell seem to break loose.
Truth is that none of our attacking players are displaying anything close to world cup form. In the absence of the much maligned Ighalo and Nwakaeme whats we have left this season is as follows;

IWOBI= 1 goal
VIc Moses =nil
Moses Simon=3 goals
Isaac Success=nill
Kayode= 0
BAzee=nill
Aaron Samuel= nill
Osimhen= nill
Ideye = nill
Henry Onyekuru = out of the world cup

Seriously, these numbers don't inspire confidence. As much as we talk about GKs, it worries me that our attackers are in this paupers form.

If we dont have at least 5 players on double figure goals this season , we could sleep walk out of the tournament at the very first round.
Even with Bufon in goal.

lexyman:
our attack is not bad , the number of goals scored during the qualifier wasn't bad , also the friendly produced a lot of goals , thats to tell you that something is right about the team .

That's what it looks like when you take it on the face value of the qualifiers but seriously, does it not worry you one bit that our attackers haven't managed to score this season?
You must understand that teams have more than 9 months to figure us out , on the back of a solid 1 month camping , expect more sturdy and organized opponents . The dynamics are not the same.
Also,most of our attacking players (bar Musa and V.Moses) dont have big tournament experience with the Super Eagles, I wonder the reason for the optimism that these goal shy strikers (most don't even make their team bench anymore) will suddenly cake walk the world cup on the back of African WQ and a good half in a friendly game.
We need a reality check .
Sincerely

Icon4s:
The beauty of this team is we do not rely on our strikers for goals.

Moses, Iwobi and Mikel do the damage. I am glad Rohr experimented a false 9 formation against Argentina and that worked perfectly.

Even at that, our attackers havent had it so good this season. This should worry any Super Eagles fan, not just the goalkeeping.
Not many of our attackers can boast of Martin's numbers,yet people are vehemently opposed to having him around.

chidi1:
I posted this elsewhere. But since I am looking for a response, I copied and pasted it here....

I may sound a little biased. However, I am an avid supporter of Imoh Ezekiel. In my earlier post, I voiced my concern when I taught he was going to be excluded from the Olympic team by Siasia, after a convincing display during a friendly with Brazil. Ofcourse, he undoubtedly became our most creative playmaker at the Olympics. I watched with dismay as he was overlooked during the world cup qualifiers. Hence, this promoted the creation of this topic.

Guys, I would love your honest opinion on this. What do you think of Victor Moses and Imoh Ezekiel combination on the wings during the world cup. You may rewatch his highlight during the Olympics on YouTube to refresh your memory. I know our attack is one of the best parts of our national team, but my plan is to make it more potent (as to be honest, our defence is very worrisome currently). I sincerely believe that if enough interest is voiced, it may draw the NFF to look more closely at that option. We may start out by trying him out in a friendly match (ideally paired with Moses).

Our attack is overrated. Remove Ighalo and the much maligned Nwakaeme, the rest of our attackers and midfielders combined cannot boast of 5 goals between them this season.
I hope the chicken don't come home to roast come June next year.

What an enigma ...I enjoyed every second of the documentary.

Mujtahida:
okay thanks. goldfish80 its confirmed. you know there's an ex tunisian international with the name Trabelsi

Yes, The former Ajax right back. The guy sabi nack leather no be small.

OMANBALA1:
That was indeed Ndidi. I think his passes are beginning to come good. Its about time he raise his game to the next level.

He really needs to polish his ball retention/distribution to become elite.
For now , he's the ultimate small team midfielder. Full of hustle,chasing, endeavor, running and tackles.
He's like a black skin Scott Parker.

Mujtahida:
not tunisian but Algerian

Nabil Trabelsi is Tunisian, I'm very sure

Just to add another dimension to the discussion. Rohr being an ex Sfaxien manager must have been tipped off by his contacts in Tunisia about Sokari. The news the player being considered is not happenstance.
Also, Rohr's second assistant is Tunisian , it will be difficult for a player doing so well in the in the country not to get noticed by their network of contacts.

If Sokari can do a job for the team, why not? It's not like the players we have currently are tearing up their leagues.

SerVik:
His club won the Champions League and La LIGA, he was bound to be there, Barcelona didn't make it past the quarter finals. Even Victor Valdes was nominated for fifa Balon d'Or goalkeeper of the year 2013.

No denying Navas was great last season but this season ter stegan is in the form of his life, many are tipping him to be the German first choice at the world cup. Although I see that as a tall dream, it is testament to how much he has improved.

I just felt I should put the record straight. Officially, he's top 3 goaliee in the world.
Buffon, Neuer the other two. Any other list is purely personal opinion

SerVik:
One question, if Ramos and varane are better than umtiti and Pique, and navas is better than ter Stegan, then why has Barca conceded just 7 goals and kept 11 clean sheets while Madrid are busy conceding very basic goals?

Navas is so good yet Madrid is tapping up the bilbao goalie.
Top 5 goalies in Europe in no particular order.
Buffon
Neuer
De gea
Oblak
Ter stegan

No way navas is better than ter Stegan.

I would love to engage you on this but I wouldn't like to derail the thread. If you wish to continue, come to the Barca thread.

Navas, Neuer and Buffon were the top 3 goalkeepers in Europe. Rewatch the Ballon d'Or gala night if you're in doubt.

TheGoodJoe:
It is very sad the way Omeruo's handlers handled him. I feel it is another case of agents/managers more interested in keeping a huge paying contract over finding a way to develop the player.

Omeruo was a bright revelation playing for Keshi at the AFCON. A young player standing tall in a field of Giants. The highlight of his performance in the AFCON we conquered was when he marked out Drogba and Drogba could not muster a shot on target.

And, I doubt Cahill could pull off the feat Omeruo did at the AFCON.

Sad he went downhill from there but his talent showed in the game against Zambia during the qualifiers. The game he made a mistake. Apart from the mistake, I saw a field Marshall.

I hope he finds his form to add to our pool of quality defenders.

When in form, Omeruo is easily the best Nigerian CB. I say this with all sincerity.
Take a look at his opta stats against Bosnia.

100% tackels won against a feared striker like Dzeko.
Unreal stuff

Humility017:
very skillful and release the ball quite well....

He's the kind of player I would pay good money to watch. Chikeluba is another one .

Joebie:
Waregem's Peter Olayinka returns. Waregem currently lead Awoniyi's Mouscron 1-0 away

Great news! I saw clips of his rehab. Hes put in a lot of effort.... I actually rate him higher than Bazee. Solid football player.

safarigirl:
their last EPL game? The one that ended 1-0 and Ozil was the scorer of the lone goal?

If it is the Newcastle game you are speaking of, I regret to inform you that Iwobi started that game and played 70 minutes of it.

Better apologise for this blunder.

My bad. I didn't know he started.

jihday:
see as you are making excuses for Ozil and sanchez poor first half, FYI Iwobi also started the last epl game he was even subbed off due to injury.

I never knew I must criticise every Arsenal player before I criticise Iwobi. SMH

tbaba1234:
Yea, a business decision not necessarily made for the field success.

Nobody invests in a dud