₦airaland Forum

AIG07:
I was about taking this list serious not until I saw Isaac Success name.

TheGoodJoe:
Where did I write-off teams?

goldfish80:
The skillful players you listed there are just 3 in the persons of Victor Moses, Iwobi and Moses Simon out of a possible 24-26 players.
Kelechi is not skillful anymore. They have coached it out of him at Man City. Mikel is Mikel, he's an economic player.

pyrex23:
ooo thanks

kennysville:
I see folks talk about power vs skill. Hmmmm. I think we need a blend of both and here is how I look at it.
The three main aspects of a team is attack, midfield and the defence. In the attack department, we need both power and skill. We dont want players who get marked out or bullied relying only on skill. It also depends on the formation we are playing. A 4-2-3-1 will mean we have a bull with brains as 9 and foxes as the 3 players behind the lone striker. A 4-4-2 will imply having both a bull and a fox as strikers while we have speedsters with quality delivery on the wings. (Not ahmed musa kind of delivery please!)

In the midfield, we need a super midfielder to run things. one that is skilled in the art of threading killer passes and has absolute concentration at all times paired with an equally gifted but physical holding midfielder. The central defender is definitely power and not skill as they can be muscled off the ball easily if we play skill. It can be costly playing skill in the defence. Power too in the defence can be dangerous but at least all aerial balls are gonna be taken care of.the wing backs need to be a blend of both power and skill to make quality decisions when under pressure.

Therefore in view of up coming match, we shouldnt be too afraid of cameroon. More importantly, we should play our game and blend together as a team regardless of whatever formation is being employed. The objectives of the coaching crew need to have been met in training and executed to perfection on match day. End of story! Question is what is our game plan?

Icon4s:
It was sleek play and swift passes that we used to overcome Zambia in Ndola. Go watch some of the highlights again.

Go also watch Nigeria Vs Cameroon at the 2004 AFCON quarter final.

Go watch also Nigeria Vs Ivory Coast at the 2013 AFCON quarter finals.

As long as Mikel is in that AM position. I call him the orchestrator. He knows what to do with the ball and the attackers know how to play with him.

The Cameroon game would not be easy. But I am not loosing sleep over it.

TheGoodJoe:
I wonder who said we have arrived. One of the common term thrown here is that we are still building. Rohr is not long in the job.

The fact remains that we are more of a creative team than a physical one.

TheGoodJoe:
In the Rohr era, we are still a passing team over a long ball direct route. Unless you have not watched us play under Rohr.

goldfish80:
Obviously you know the drill here. We love making contributions based on platitudes. They want us to play like Arsenal against Cameroon and survive. When the buck that makes up our players don't play that system at their clubs not to talk of the national team.

We love living in denial in this country. That is why we are where we are politically and economically. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The same Nigerians you see in government are the same Nigerians you find on Nairaland. So what do you expect?

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.