₦airaland Forum

TheGoodJoe:
We are more of a passing team than direct play. Our defenders also play a highline which is a direct proof of our team work play. Resorting to direct long ball play as against cohesive build-up play is actually us switching from the norm.

The call for us to rely on our speed/skill/build-up as against playing in a more physical fashion is a call to stick with what we are known to do.

pyrex23:
plz wah does at bolded mean
been seeing dat on this thread since..

Icon4s:
Are we going into a Rugby game?

What I mean is we have the calibre of players that can COPE with their physicality. we are not going into a physical battle with them.

All this all emphasis on physicality does not hold for me. If we rattle them with our sleek play and crisp touches and passes they may not finish the game with 11 players. Haha haha. Typical of them.

I think I would need a sleek player like Simon in this kind of game, even if it is second half.

Victor Moses is also sleek and strong in addition.

Mikel will definitely cope well if played in AM position.

Onazi as we all know is a kind of player for this occasion. He is a fighter in the midfield.

Iwobi may not be too physical but he makes up for it with his sleek passes.

Kayode if made to start if Iheanachp does not make it is also quick and sleek player.

We have a strong CB pairing of Eking and Balogun. And Ndidi must sit just on front of the duo.

Echiejile is not a newbie as far as African football is concerned. So I trust him to cope.

I dont know who will play RB but if it is Shehu I am not worried.

Bros me no fear o.

AndreTAyodeji:
Joel Obi`s stat from the 76 minutes he played on the pitch yesternight:Pass accuracy of 88.1%, 5
interceptions, 5 long passes, 59 short
passes, 2 tackles won, 3 aerials won, 3 key passes, 1 assist. I am not hyping the guy oo but just impressed with him after his comeback from injury,hope he put his injury woes behind him and also keep playing well. Elsewhere Nura Abdullahi was on Roma`s bench yesterday but didn`t come on but i think he will get his chance in the cups and some other games.

AndreTAyodeji:
Mikel is a special,talented and intelligent player but i think it`s high time we stop blaming the S.A loss on the absence of Mikel from the team,Rohr himself bottled that game with his midfield selections,bad tactics,No Plan B and the atrocious long balls Onazi with a low passing accuracy was hitting to Nacho all game.Mikel`s experience would have been a major boost for the team in the game but he was unfortunately absent and we must learn to cope in his absence, Balogun would have done Mikel`s job from the back and also bring experience to the team,Victor Moses would have also silently done his own job bring experience to the frontline and effectively drag the team to victory.Now we know Onazi and Ndidi should never play together again,we saw what Ogu and Ndidi brought in the Senegal game and now i can`t wait to see what Ndidi and Joel Obi will bring to the team.The player i see close to Mikel right now is Joel Obi,dude offers you stabiliy in your midfield as he always keeps it simple,top notch pinpoint passing accuracy,pushing the team forward by starting attacks with the ball at his feet,excellent reading of the game,good positioning and a natural CM who also defensively does a job.However, he is still no where near Mikel`s leadership skills and experience but we can expect him to effectively replace Mikel on the football part while Balogun and co provides the team with experience and the leadership part.

junnyjake:
Thank you.

I wanted to respond to that, but then I laughed it off.

Nigeria is too big a team to allow just a single player determine how well the play. We all saw how Onazi's injury affected us against France in the 2014 WC.

We've been blessed with depth in our team, with numerous options in one position.

John Ogu can deputize for Mikel, and that can provide ndidi the opportunity to move upfront as much as he would love to.

TheGoodJoe:
Sentiments aside, we do not have any player in the class of Mikel in our team. Maybe in the future our young lads will carve their separate niches to excel but for now he is the only one who can bring that exceptional touch to the midfield.

His attributes of reading the game, both offensively and defensively, his simple but highly intelligent connective passes, his positioning and through passes is one of the assets of our team.

For now, no one from Esiti, Ndidi, Onazi, Ogu, Aluko, Ajagun, Ifeanyi Matthew, Nwobodo, C. Nwakali, K. Nwakali, J. Obi etc.

From the whole pack, we lack a player close to Mikel in intelligence and touches. I agree with safarigirl on this. We stand a better chance with sixty minutes of Mikel than none at all. He is a special player.

junnyjake:
I don't know what you mean by "arrogance"

Before our loss to SA, we've been unbeaten in all competitive encounters against them spanning a period well over two decades.

Tell me we had no edge going into that game. We had no right to feel confident when facing an inferior team.

SA no be our mate, and when we follow them go their house, na better flogging them go collect.

Danielnino00:
He should leave England,it could help..

safarigirl:
call it what you want, but virtually everyone knows that Mikel is indispensable in our team.Saying Mikel is 'good' is an insult to his immense contribution to the NT, so immense that our midfield crashed and burned against SA in his absence

Like I said, even if he can only play sixty minutes, he will be in that starting lineup, you can take that to the bank

OMANBALA1:
Its apparent that the purported golden generation has almost failed to live up to their expectations. Iheanacho who is the the most promising is almost lost in the mix,Awoniyi is playing in what is barely a tier higher than NPFL,Isaac Success is languishing on the bench ,Nwakali is no where near his the pitch etc. Something is fundamentally wrong with our football development....Iheanacho is still struggling with his first touch which is grim. Our boys don't get the basics.

mumemma:
What is happeninng to Musa.....Even bench for Liecester her nor dey make.

Is he so unfit?

safarigirl:
a half fit Mikel will walk on that pitch against Cameroon before anyone else

If we want to use fitness level to judge other players, there are exceptions. If Mikel can play, even if for sixty minutes, he will do more damage than many others for the whole ninety

do4luv14:
Y nobody talking about V.MOSES



abi him no play today

Danielnino00:
The south African league is modelled after the European league (u know how they like to copy oyinbo). They just started the new season yesterday and most clubs refused to release players for the CHAN qualifier since it's not in FIFA calendar.

tbaba1234:
Red Card for Awaziem for dangerous tackle

maidaboi:
spot on sir
peter is more ready than denis

safarigirl:
haba, oga!

Who on this thread has ever considered Omeruo world class or even top class? Biko, sofri sofri with this kain talk.

And I wholly agree with icon4s, you only rate players who are English-born, even the German-born guys have been ridiculed by you just because they are not from the UK

Of course, you can defend and deny this all you want, but the facts speak for itself.

BascoVanVeli:
Nigeria V Benin will be on Supersports 4pm naija time.

tbaba1234:
Owngoalnigeria brought the false news of his non-invitation.

Now that Feirense has confirmed that he was invited, they say, Rohr made a 'u-turn' . Trying to save face.

PDPGuy:
It's on startimes. But I'm watching it on fiba's livestream

AndreTAyodeji:
Success would be called up if not injured but Osimhen wont make the cut because of Nwaekeme`s invitation.Nwaekeme,Nacho,Ighalo and Kayode might be the invited strikers and there is also a possibility of Rohr dropping one out of the 4 strikers.

PDPGuy:
Off topic
Is anyone watching the Women's Afrobasket?
Nigeria is currently leading Mozambique 41-32 at half time

komekn:
When you say, take the world by storm What it means is that we have some world class U21 players who should be making big waves in football.

I am not trying to burst the bubble but when I think of World class U21 players I can talk about Mbappe, Dembele, Bamidele Alli, Gabriel J., Martial, Asensio,
as in top 10 players.

Within the top 50 I would include KC, Iwobi, but apart from these two who else do we have that is currently cutting it at the moment