₦airaland Forum

Truidstar:
Finally, hope goldfish80 can now see that Akpeyi has been exposed for the fraud that he is. He shld pls stick to chippa united and never come near this team again. I can se Alloy Agu's input is zero as usual.

Hahaha Akeyi is an idiott I was fooled by his form back in 2009 when he was in Heartland.

OMANBALA1:
Akpeyi's blunder tilted the game to Argentina's favor.

Minus his blunder, we don't have the right personnel to play this formation. This team desperately needs an outlet down the wings.
Kayode or Henry should have started.

I said it this morning that we won't have a shot on target with this formation.
... Lol

Joebie:
haha.. I had written an article on this, showing I had done this research long before now.. Read what you posted very carefully, maybe you will see how this does not support what you have been saying.

The national team losing it's identity is based on earlier tradition. Secondly, it's got nothing to do with stalling the development of the MLS (that was never implied from this write-up)

gerrit?

Come again?

Joebie:
Lol, the MLS has always been solid relatively speaking. Klinsmann went for the best. His best wasn't good enough. They resorted to more home-based players but still failed to qualify. Chasing shadows. Even South Africa with a solid league and dependence on home based players failed to qualify. Either way they could have still failed. Stop blaming "the pursuit".

Modified
So the US stopped developing their own abi? hahahah

Isn't it better you kept mute on a topic you obviously know very little about?
Exerpts from Tim Howard ;

Howard critical of Klinsmann's use of foreign born players

Tim Howard says he understands Jurgen Klinsmann’s job was to unearth new talent, but the U.S. Men’s National Team goalkeepeer says the team became too reliant foreign-born players that didn’t bring the passion required to represent the national team.
Speaking to USA Today , Howard was critical of Klinsmann, who was fired in November after losing the first two games of the Hexagonal round. According to Howard, the USMNT lost its identity under Klinsmann, and the goalkeeper believes it will be rediscovered under new boss Bruce Arena.
“Jurgen Klinsmann had a project to unearth talent around the world that had American roots,” Howard said. “But having American roots doesn’t mean you are passionate about playing for that country.
“I know there were players that came in that it didn’t matter as much to,” Howard said. “If you get enough of those players, one or two can get found out, but if you get enough of those players you lose sight of what you are all about. While it was a good idea in theory, it had its flaws. Bruce will 100% get that back.”
Howard went on to state his belief that “80 percent” of the next World Cup roster will come from MLS. The goalkeeper says there has been ” this rhetoric that has been spewed out over the last couple of years” about players heading to Europe, something which he sees changing over the coming years.
The change in attitude is widely expected under Arena, who is almost certainly going to look at MLS harder than Klinsmann. The latter consistently encouraged players to head to Europe in order to test themselves at the highest levels the game had to offer.
Now, following the change, Howard is glad the USMNT has a fresh voice to help guide them through World Cup qualifying and, in hindsight, he believes that voice should have come years ago.

Please indulge due diligence if you want to engage me. Dont make the mistake to think I make wild and unverifiable comments just for the sake of arguments.
cc Mujtahida

Joebie:
lol they are doing both, "setting shops" (take note of the quotes) and developing their leagues.
But we lack a system in everything, cant you see?

Let's take USA as a case study. They have always qualified for the World Cup and even threatened to crack the world cup semis.
With a change in policy masterminded by Klinsmann,they went FB crazy and the result is an American team who cannot beat freaking Trinidad and Tobago to qualify for the World Cup, a nation of 3 million people?!

Do you know there are more Americans shopping in Walmart in rush hour, than the entire population of Trinidad and Tobago?

You will get this sort of embarrassment when you stop developing your own in pursuit of foreign developed players.

TheGoodJoe:
Your contributions on this matter has raised my respect for you on a large scale. I doubt you are against having foreign groomed talent. Neither am I. However, we need a model to build a real strong base of the team. Promote continuity.

We need to put in conscious efforts to improve our football development here. Relying on a foreign base will leave us with an unsustainable model and keep us behind other great footballing nations.

Exactly my thoughts. Your second paragraph says it all. We run the risk of being perpetually at the mercy of European countries. Our national team will be subject to any change in policy in Europe.

I read this morning the Italians are blaming foreign players in their league for the Azzuri woes. Expect a sweeping change in policy of player recruitment into their various developmental leagues. They could be looking at the possibility of making their developmental leave all Italian.
This will shut the door on more Kingsley Micheals finding their way into Bologna B team. Nothing stops other European countries from copying the system if the Italians succeed.
Anyway, I think enough have been said already.

ChrisKels:
Ur message is clear and only a dummy would try to misconstrue it. Yes u ain't against bringing in the foreign borns /groomed but then, u also wouldn't want us to overlook those measures that gave birth to our great local players because if we focus only on bringing in the foreign breeds while neglecting the schemes( our league, grassroots etc) that supplies us with talents on daily basis, at the long run, we will suffer for it. This is what I can deduce from ur message.


Now the question is, are we doing enough on the local scene in terms of breeding talents?

Whether the foreign players are better than our local made is a debate for another day. When the time is right for this debate, next question will be "what do we do to produce local players as good as their foreign born counterparts because, of course, there are enormous talents down here?"

Thank goodness someone is getting my argument. Its not as if our homegrown players are doing badly even in the face of the poor framework at home.
The evidence is there in our U17 dominace of the world, our U23's is guaranteed to medal at every other Olympics.We have the best record in African World Cup qualifiers.
I mean a alot of countries will kill to be in our position even "when we grow grey hairs looking for talented kids in Nigeria".

I believe we will be unstoppable in the world if we get our framework right at home. Setting up shop in London or wherever is simplistic and clear lack of vision and understanding of the game.

Joebie:
I'm sure people will want to learn something from you. No valid suggestions yet. We can keep talking all day and not learn anything.

That our league is in a dismal state is known to everyone. So what if we "set shops"? The whole world is setting shops and moving forward. You want to stay backward in order to keep your unreasonable pride? What are you proud of?

It's ironic you think setting up shop in Europe is the new cool. Not when the likes of China, India and even European countries are investing massively in their home grown talent and league.
Your logic of moving forward is in reverse.

Mujtahida:
Granted you are not against foreign born players neither am I against home based players. The sole criteria is quality irrespective of where you are born. That being said, I however do not understand how basing the foundation of our national team (I'm not saying this should be done but for argument sake let's examine the point) on FB players stops us from developing our league. The way I see it is this: having a good look impacts on our national team but having a national team dominated by fb does not have effect on our home league and this point I made in an exhaustive post last time.

It's academic if you have a team of 18 foreign born players, you will become lazy to develop the home talents. What's the point developing them, when you have an easy way out with the foreign born /developed players?
This becomes a problem when you need to freshen up the team. You have no fall back option, no framework for sustainable development. This could take a full 10 years to reset the system once again.

Joebie:
you will grow gray hair finding them from your home..or can you name talents from the streets in Nigeria from where you are right now? I can sit here and research on my computer and dig out names in Europe.
See how you tell lies after I cleared you on that. I still havn't learned anything from you till date. I've learned from so many here. it's unfortunate.

You who said we should leave the problem to our grandchildren. you are just like our leaders before now. Let's keep pushing the problem because we are bereft of ideas.

Leaving the problem to our great grand kids was a chided remark to your idea of setting up shop to get all the European born Nigerian football players to commit to the Super Eagles.

Keep waiting for fourfourtwo magazine to dig out talented footballers walking the streets of Nigeria for your googling pleasure.

Joebie:
Your position is well understood. Doesn't still make it logical.
Whether you choose to base the foundation of a team with foreign-groomed, home based, foreign based etc it wouldn't kill a generation of players. Remove sentiments, and pick the best irrespective of where they are based or groomed. Stop the tagging/prejudice.

I regret engaging you on this topic. I should have stopped the moment you said I will grow grey hair looking for talented football players in Nigeria.

On a second thought, it was good I continued. Otherwise ignorance would have reigned supreme on the thread.

tbaba1234:
I think, shehu and Aina are expected to provide width and also defend.. The three man backline and 2 DM is supposed to give them more freedom with some cover.

Anyway, let us see how they set up first.

Shehu and Aina are full backs not wing backs. Dont expect that much width coming from both players.
We need Victor Moses and maybe Sone Aluko (I think he could make a decent wing back) to pull this off.
Shehu and Aina are not skillful enough to fly past 2 markers (wing backs must possess this quality)

cc Mujtahida

I see alot of comments giving Morocco the thumbs up for qualifying with with the Dutch, Belgian and French D team. Why use Morocco as example?
Why not use Egypt who played up to the AFCON finals and qualified for the World Cup in grand style with a team of home grown players.

Algeria went all foreign and qualified for the World Cup in 2014 and even.made the last 16, what have become of the Algerian team of foreigners 4 years on?
They can't even beat (no disrespect) Zimbabwe, nearly lost 6 world cup qualifying games in a stretch. They will be forced to do what they failed to do 4years ago.
This one don pass replacing coaches at will. They need a full system reset!

Inviting foreign born is not wrong, but basing the foundation of your national team on players like these is all shades of wrong and not a sustainable development in the long run.
If you like argue blindly, but I've made my position so clear on this matter that even a 10year old will understand.

tbaba1234:
Reports from ANS and OGN suggest that Rohr might experiment with 3 at the back in a 3-4-2-1 formation.. Shehu and Aina are tipped to play as wing backs.

..............Akpeyi

Awaziem Balogun Ekong

Shehu Ogu Ndidi Aina

.........Mikel Iwobi

.............Kelechi

No width in this team. If we play this personnel and formation, I don't see us having a shot on target.

wayodude:
I couldn't agree with you more!

I have been observing comments here about players that can strengthen our current team and it is infuriating what even some of the most sensible guys here are saying.

Except players like Matins and Uche are playing in a top league and scoring goals like they did in their prime, why consider them for the World Cup? At least we can all agree they're no longer in their prime, right? By the way, in their prime what exactly did they achieve at the world cup? Did they achieve so much that it is inconceivable that our current squad and of course other younger options will be unable to match it? How many World cup goals does Martins have to his name? or Ike Uche? In fact both those guys had their main strength in their searing pace, and trust me they've lost more than a yard of pace since you last saw them in action at the highest level.

And about the Goal keepers and all the talk about Enyeama being recalled. While he was good, and no question he had some really exceptional games where he saved us from embarrassment, he was equally as poor in key games. We didn't bother castigating him though, because we knew he had an exceptional performance in him waiting again to be put on show.

I put it to anyone who wishes to argue that if we choose to point a finger of blame at anyone over our World Cup exit in 2010 AND 2014, Enyeama is not free of fault. Infact sadly he is a contributor to our exits. Though I still think he's a national hero.

In 2010 - no1. blame goes to Kaita for silly red card against Greece. Granted public enemy number 1, and rightly so.

no. 2 blame goes to Enyeama for spilling a long range shot which a Greece striker pounced on to score the winner. He literally dropped the ball on the foot of the Greek forward for a tap in! If the likes Ezenwa did that we wont hear the last of it. To save time see 5:30 on below yotutube link


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAojhrjGCFQ

no. 3 blame goes to Enyeama again. He moved to the left just before the freekick is taken which gives S. Korea their second goal. If he doesn't do that, he saves that free kick 100% and we maybe go on to win considering the balance of play on the day!! See 1:17 of below youtube link


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8yoblanjis

In 2014 vs France Enyeama comes out to punch a routine cross and misses the ball completely leaving an empty net for Pogba to head in to. See 0:55 of below link. Will Ezenwa get away with this kind of error?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOzkCOzK-64

I liked and like Enyeama, Martins, Obasi etc but others should have a chance. They were good in their prime, but not so good they should present an obstruction to the growth and exposure of the new generation.

Lol... Vincent is not faultless. However it must be said, Vincent makes up for his errors with stunning performances. He got to the level where anything he does, is OK. Critising the coach and FA.
Even Ikeme is not infallible himself. I posted a few of his fockups in the Championship and they almost ate me alive here.

Kog45:
Yes quite annoying.

I read Alphonsus Dike comment on Ezenwa and am baffled.He said Ezenwa is a smart keeper but very poor when it comes to cross or aerial ball.

He noticed this weakness as his coach when he was in Ranger fc but on the verge of correcting it,Ezenwa moved to Enyimba,this weakness gave Ebere Obi,Mikel senior brother an edge over him in Ranger.

My point is this after almost three or four season ago if am right(icon4s, goldfish80, enomakos) can tell us the year he was with Ranger fc.If Ezenwa is still battling with the same issue that coach Dike discovered some years ago then i fear for Super eagle.

I believe so much on experience but if experience ones lacks the rudiments of goalkeeping then the talented and the young ones should be given chance.

Uzoho definitely must have learnt a lot coz no European club we have a keeper without giving him solid foundation.

The same thing Alampasu, he must have gone through a lot as a young keeper in Portuguese league,learning basic things as a keeper.

Ajiboye too must have learnt a lot.I remember he was once on the book of lowly Spanish club,time for Rohr to give these guys chance,let us see them in action,enough of patching player for us.

Uzoho i watched against Girona is better than Ezenwa,Ajiboye i watched against Guinea is better than Ezenwa, Alampasu cannot be worse than Ezenwa i saw against Algeria.

Enyeama coming back is dicey,so we need to get it right now or else we regret it.

Akpeyi confidence issue Ezenwa lack basics then what do we do than to turn to the young ones,let see their performance may be we don't even need Enyeama.

I made a comment about Ezenwa after the Cameroun game. He was getting lots of plundits and most people gave him the number 1 Jersey on the back of the performance.
I made it very clear then that Ezenwa is not a Super Eagles number 1 material. Most people felt I was just an Akpeyi apologist.

I knew Ezenwa when he was at Heartland back in 2009, he was Akepyi's deputy in the Heartland team that lost to Tp mazembe in the Caf champions league final. When he moved to Rangers, Ebele Obi (Mikel's elder brother) kept him out of the Rangers squad.
Ezenwa is the old skool kind of goalkeeper who is into more of shine-shine, show booting and fancy stuff (who saw the Cyruf turn he sold the Algerian attacker in the first half). Infact he plays too much, he's like a comedian at times.
The result of his playfulness is total loss in concentration and making quite avoidable errors.

Again, his height is a very big minus. A goalkeeper should at least average 6ft4. Being tall is a huge advantage for a goalkeeper. Most American goalkeepers, Tim Howard for example started out as a Basketballer.
We know how big America is with sports science.
This should give you the inclination the direction we should be going towards, in search for Enyeama's successor.
Ezenwa was a stop gap and nothing more.

tbaba1234:
If he misses Russia, he would have thrown away a golden opportunity to easily play at the WC. No guarantee, he will be in the reckoning in 4 years time.

He can't get into the world cup team I'm afraid. I don't think he's good enough just yet.
Welbeck, Sturridge, Lallana(they can't wait for his return), Vardy, Rashford, Lingard, Harry Kane, and Delle Ali are all ahead of him.
He can't get into the English squad on merit ahead of any of the mentioned.

elyte89:
D guy was awful jare,very irritating to d eye


I knw sabi wetin dey spectacular abt d guy wet ppu dey shout,if not for our own strikers who refuse to put dier thinking cap on

Indeed nothing spectacular about his performance last night. Loftus cheek, Eric Dier, Pickford were the young players who caught the eye of the British press. Tammy hardly got a mention.
Another tipid performance like this next week against Brazil, he could be out of the squad.

Apparently Tammy Abraham didn't pull up trees with his performance last night.
I understand he completed only 4 out of his 9 attempted passes. Another performance like this, could be bye bye to Baghdad to his international career.

TheGoodJoe:
This is not about defending Ndidi. All our players had trouble stringing simple passes. This was due to the poor pitch. You can not use such condition to run down Ndidi.

My analysis was beyond the Algerian game. If you noticed, I gave his stats from Genk and Leicester City.

TheGoodJoe:
Poor pitch.

No point defending him. I've followed him closely enough to make this observation. His pass accuracy accuracy in Genk was very low (64% at some point), now in Leicester he's clocking 70%.... He should to be in the 85- 90% average to be considered elite.

tbaba1234:
No player covers as much ground as Ndidi.. The number of tackles, he won against Algeria was outstanding. A midfield of Mikel and Ogu alone will be porous, you need a ball winner.

If only Ndidi can improve on his passing. There was an incident in the first half where he led a 3 v 2 counter. He totally wasted the goal bound counter with an erroneous pass straight to a surprised Algerian defender.
If he doesn't improve on his pass accuracy, he will always be stuck playing for a mid table club. No elite team can pardon such wasteful passes.

krattoss:
lol... who knows what iwobi might have told that Algerian defender that warranted the war of words and fights....I expect the lip readers and pundits to come up with what possibly transpired as they didib the gas of Ashley young and dele alli....

I think he must have told him something along the lines "You and your team mates are piece of shiit, that's why you're last in the group"....

DrKlever:
My best comment today. i love you bro, no homo. These eagles love themselves, and that character will take them places. They can't be intimidated or bullied. I'm waiting for Argentine friendly.

Exactly Dr, these guys can't be intimidated. They passed the test with flying colours on this one. We will know more about the team when they take on Argentina.

For me, the positive to take away from the game was the siege mentality gradually coming back to the Super Eagles.
This team is showing signs of maturity with people stepping up to take leadership when it matters most.

In recent past, the Super Eagles would have been bullied by these Algerians. I mean, at the last world cup , we took weak characters who couldn't fight for each other. They were all smiles and watched Onazi get bullied and kicked out of the game.
I am happy this present team have the character to fight for one another! I loved the way Balogun removed his mask and threatened to pull out Brahimi's eyes when the Algerians threatened to go gangster on us. I loved the way the team came to the rescue of Iwobi when he went toe to toe against the Algerian defender.

This was the character I admired about the Mourinho Chelsea team and even the Pep Guardiola's Barcelona side, Arsenal invisibles. Football is beyond kicking a ball around the pitch.
Show of strength and character in the face of intimidation is the hallmark of a great team.

As reported by cafonline.com

Yacine Brahimi won and converted a harshly-awarded late penalty to rescue a 1-1 draw for Algeria against already-qualified Nigeria Friday in a World Cup Africa zone Group B dead-rubber.
The Gabonese referee ruled that Abdullahi Shehu fouled Brahimi as he moved into the box in Constantine, but big-screen replays suggested otherwise.
Porto midfielder Brahimi was lucky to still be on the field after escaping with a yellow card for head-butting Shehu 12 minutes from time

It's obvious they were dismayed by the refree's poor decisions last night. Imagine if we needed 3 points from this game to qualify and the refree came up with that embarrassing decision.
How a FIFA graded refree will make mockery of himself like this before the entire world beats my imagination. The man is not fit to handle a secondary school inter house game. I hope this will be the last game he handles at this level.

Match rustiness is telling on Balogun's game. I haven't seen him this bad since 2015.
Iwobi once again showing he's not a winger, absolutely nothing from him so far. He'd better play from the middle and let Onyekuru or Kayode run the flank

Old habits die hard. Still we haven't solved the habitual first 10-20 mins lethargic start.

junnyjake:
The players should protest against that vigorously, else many would end up without experiencing national team football.

Some players will have to pay for their own clearance from their pocket.

Abusule007:
Nigeria line up for today's game as released by nff on their twitter handle

Playing without natural wingers? Lots of question marks on the balance of the attack. Let's hope Rohr made the right call on this one.

chrisooblog:
hmmm a player who is yet to score and has barely featured for liverpool this season is about to be called up. what has he done to justify his inclusion? this is pure conspiracy infact gareth southgate and the FA have collected egunje! abi forgiveness

England have changed policy in player recruitment into the 3 lions set-up. When the legislation for payment of developmental compensation as proposed by the Montagliani lead Committee see the light of the day, they will have all the cards.
The black man in Africa should continue living in foools paradise,thinking the oyibo man will do the heavy lifting, scout and develop your players just so you can use the same players and knock them out of the world cup.