₦airaland Forum

nelszx:
If I were a coach, Onazi will come in 3-5 minutes before game ends. He leaves his position and creates space for opposition to deal with the defence. The reason I prefer Ogu ahead of him in that regard (go for ball when necessary) so the defence is well shielded.
Onazi follows every ball and the room he creates is terrible. We should leave sentiment and captainship aside, that guy shouldn't be starting games at all. Although some days he comes good but often times he's disastrous.

Sir you said we should leave sentiment but your comment is full of sentiments.

Onazi is disastrous? how sir,pls can you point out one of his disastrous outing for eagles.

Oh you prefer Ogu,well accepted,your opinion which i must respect but i will pick Onazi over Ogu anytime any day,my opinion.

Bolowolowo:
For those who seriously unimpressed with our showing in the last 2 friendlies, I'd like for you to consider how different we look as a team this time around. We play a definitely more organized and composed style football nowadays. Now compare this to WC 2010 and 2014 when our players would run around playing like headless chickens.

A team that won Afcon and reached WC 2nd round playing like headless chickens.

Sir evaluating this team has nothing to do with 2010 and 2014 team

Pls are you satisfied with what you saw in the friendlies cos not impressed does not mean hate or trying to write the team off

We all love super eagles so better to point out the grey area for better performance.

tbaba1234:
Another thing that was obvious to me was that Rohr was testing out different strategies... Against Poland, we were pressing.. Against Serbia we were not. Double pivot vs single pivot...etc...

Yes good to have different strategies just like our opponents were doing similar things but one thing is important we must see a team that is growing even in defeat.

US 94 lost all their friendlies except a match against Georgia played in Ibadan but they went to WC and had good tournament cos Westerhoff was able to identify his shortcomings and fixed it with Chidi Nwanu and Mike Emenalo inclusion and dropped Isaac Semitoje and Nduka Ugbade.

I will not deceive you am not really impressed with our performance in the friendlies especially our attack and midfield,so something need to be done,you can't be playing 90 minutes football leaving the burden on your defenders.

Hope to see better eagles in more friendlies and WC.

Kalapizim:
I understand you but only rohr and his crew knew why they did so.

Thank you my brother am not questioning Rohr decision but i will never take it that Ebuehi wasn't fit for that match and played whole 90 minutes with Aina,Omeruo and Echiejile on the bench.

Aina can come in cos that's natural position, also Omeruo can do it based on his experience and Echiejile can come in by moving Idowu to RB cos he does it often for his club.

When Ebuehi came in for injured Shehu nobody talks about fitness,they are even saying he was better but why sudden changed that the guy was not fit.

Mind you i rate Ebuehi cos i see him as a great option but sometimes we need to talk football.

Did you know some were saying Ebuehi is better cos he is more suitable for non African football.

Pls is that not sentiment and emotive football analysis.

Kalapizim:
have you also thought why conte has morata injured with giroud on the bench but choose to play harzard at number 9 ? coaches do these things for reasons best known to them. I don't know why we are blaming players . They didn't have a good game period ! Uche Agbo didn't play yet again how about that.

Sir you are not getting the point,pls was Harzard not fit for that match cos the bone of contention here is Ebuehi fit or not?

No need to bring Morata and Giroud to it cos a fit Harzard replaced injured Morata and leaving Giroud out was Conte tactical decision.

On Uche Agbo something is fishing and only Rohr can explain.

Martz101:
Idowu was not that wonderful, Aina same too

...but they are keeping Echiejile on the bench or do you think Echiejile would have done better than Idowu.

Goke7:
The CB and RB seems to be sorted but the LB is yet to be sorted, this is my point, whether Echiejile is bad or not, neither idowu nor aina has been convincing so far and this is what Rohr who is their coach seems to be saying with his body language though he is commending them publicly so as not to cause panic. Another position is the AM position, if you can watch that interview, it surely gives more insight to the present state of things, Joel obi was invited because of the need for more left footers in the team, whether he has impressed rohr so far remains to be seen. I think you need to watch that interview. If I get the link, I will post it

Sir we are not having any issue with our LB except we have three players competing for two slots and with more friendlies things will take shape.

Martz101:
They are making it easy for Echiejile, I wont be surprised to see him in Russia

Sir honestly they are making it difficult for Echiejile to be in Russia.

We played two international match and Echiejile was not used,meaning what?he is behind.

Truth be told he need to tell us he is ready again,first by getting playing time with his club cos very nauseating for experience player like him not having playing time in Belgium division two league.

Joebie:
I think we need to sort out our midfield combinations.. I think he did well against Poland though.

Definitely it must be sorted out.

Goke7:
they are all inexperienced Sir and it showed in our last two games, it's left to the coach to decide what's best. I watched a Rohr's interview shortly after our game with Poland and he admitted he has options for the LB to pick from and from his body language, that position is still a concern for him. He even went on to admit that the SE no longer have quality these days like in the nineties which is a fact no one can contest. He said he is laying more emphasis on collective team work rather than individual efforts. Finally he admitted that only moses and mikel are the game changers in the team with support from iwobi, nacho and Ighalo. The man surely knows the degree of quality in the squad.

They are inexperience?but do we have any experience LB better than the trio.

I'm a great apostle of experience but when experience lacks the required quality then is meaningless.

Elderson for now lack the quality despite his experience.

If we want to base it on experience Omeruo should be our number one CB but is number four behind Balogun, Ekong and Awaziem.

Joebie:
Good.. so that was my point.. we had very high expectations of him.. and a C is not a flop.

Sir am not really impress with Joel Obi though i don't have any high expectation on him cos i watched him closely this season and i said it here that Joel of today is not the same Joel of Inter,funny enough some even rate him than Mikel.

Goke7:
we've seen aina in two games and he was not impressive, For Rohr to admit that Echiejile is still in competition, it says a lot that the LB is still not sorted despite the all the names that have been called.

we seem to forget that aina, idowu and ebuehi are still very young players that if not the lack in depth we have in the squad, they stand no chance in our senior side, that's how bad things are currently

Sir,it's simple,when Shehu got injured who replaced him?Ebuehi and when Idowu was substituted who came in for him?Aina,this is to tell you Echiejele is behind,so making the team look dicey for him.

Sir,what do you mean by lack of depth in our team,are you saying Idowu,Ebuehi and Aina are not good enough for the team.

TheSuperNerd:
But you can try to deny your dollopheaded-inspired ignorance and the ambiguity in your comment on Okocha-Mikel abi...



Asking why Mikel's absence is one of the reasons we lost.... you really are lost fella. Smh.. run along aiit.. and read the latest article I just posted to help school you before you make such ridiculous "faux pas" again.

Pls TheSuperNerd and Matz101 let's making it cool here.God bless you guys.

Martz101:
I'm not actually here for English essay, I'm here to talk football, you can't hide your confusion behind your English lecture

Pls Martz101 and TheSuperNerd let us be civic here and talk football.God bless you guys.

TheSuperNerd:
Uzoho Is Not The Reason Why We Lost – Rohr Reveals Why Eagles Lost To Serbia

https://i0.wp.com/owngoalnigeria.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/IMG_4370.jpg


Francis Odinaka Uzoho is not to be blamed for the 0-2 defeat Nigeria suffered in the hands of Serbia yesterday in a pre World Cup friendly game according to coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr.
Many Nigerians blamed the young stopper after the loss, with many even suggesting that he isn’t quite ready to make the step up as the number one of the team ahead of Ikechukwu Ezenwa, who was first choice before the latest round of games.

Although Rohr admitted that Uzoho wasn’t at his best as he is still learning his trade. The Franco-German coach however refused to blame him for any of the goals conceded as well as the loss, which came four days after Nigeria defeated Poland 1-0 in another friendly game.

” We don’t blame any individual over our loss. As a team we are collectively responsible for whatever result we get. Win, lose or draw. Serbia did very well to win the game. Congratulations to them”, Rohr said after the game.


” There are areas we need to work on in our team, and we have seen them over the two games. Hopefully we will have them sorted our before we play in the World Cup later in the year. You expect to see mistakes in friendly games, and make corrections in competitive games”.


**Michael James

Source: http://owngoalnigeria.com/2018/03/28/uzoho-is-not-the-reason-why-we-lost-rohr-reveals-why-eagles-lost-to-serbia/


Russia 2018 WC Countdown: 78 days 1 hour 25 mins to go

Good coach don't blame his players but work on the team for better performance.Kudos to Rohr.

Mujtahida:
In this instance there is no double standard. We are not measuring accurately if you want to use the performance of Shehu in matches he was fully fit to compare with Ebuehi in a match Ebuehi was not fully fit. Drawing your attention to that has now become double standard? How? Tbaba1234 calls it false equivalency.

Compare a fit Shehu with a fit Ebuehi. Whoever comes on top takes the spot. Not that for the sake of critiquing the boy you totally overlook his fitness issues. That's why I said that one can say he underperformed but if that person ignores his fitness issues then I don't think that's balanced criticism.

If the boy was fully fit and his performance was below par then you can talk of double standards. You are still overlooking a crucial point which is that he lacked full fitness. Yes, He played for 90 minutes. How does that change the fact that he lacked full fitness? Who would have subbed him? Shehu who had injury? Aina who was already subbed for Idowu? I like looking at things from broad angles.

This can easily be misread as defence of the young man but to close one's eyes to the glaring fact that he was not fully fit is to level criticism that - in my opinion - is unfair.

He didn't play well. He was not fully fit. That is balanced criticism in the context of the match.

OK sir accepted he was not fit,hope to see fit Ebuehi again then we talk.

kennysville:
@ bolded is untrue. He was not even dressed for the match. Oliseh said so himself. (Watch his interview on youtube.... something with a caption Captain Fantastic)

OK Sir i think have made my point cleared to Sir Mujtahida.

darkelf:
Abi. Even on the radio today, all people kept saying was "when Mikel comes back...bla bla bla...if Mikel was there......bla bla bla"

Mikel won't defend for you or score twenty goals a game. He's not even known to score so much goals.

Haba

Normal for people to say Mikel Mikel.......they know he is not a goalkeeper or defender neither attacker but his presence will uplift the team more but the team still need to do it without him cos with that we talk of a balance team.

Mujtahida:
Declaration of fitness does not mean a player is fit in actuality or that a player just recovering from injuries and declared fit will play at his optimal level. That's my point. I am not one to give points to a player when he's not merited it. The boy underperformed but you cannot take away his recent fitness issues regardless of the declaration.

Sir did you know what brought up the discussion,Ebuehi is the best RB and i said NO with performance so far i will give it to Shehu but another point he is not fit and i said he had 90 minutes.

Sir why always double standard in analysing our players, some can defend FB to a fault and some see nothing good in homegrown.

Am not for Shehu or Ebuehi cos have past the mediocre analysis based on love for players,have seen different generations of eagles,so nothing new again than to relax and enjoy the game.

Mujtahida:
Sir Kog45 you are old in this game. Please don't say what you know is not true. Even footballers themselves will tell you they have played many matches not fully fit.
What happened to France in 2002?was Zidane fully fit, what of Beckham? Didn't Keshi play many matches with his niggling knee injuries. Haba, just because you want to make a point you shouldn't deny facts. John Terry played matches for Mourinho when fully fit.

As for Oliseh I have told you what is. You are free to doubt it. Oliseh had malaria, his name was not supposed to be on the list.

I have given you many examples even beyond Oliseh. Players play matches even with less than 100% fitness.

Sir you should know that am not here to win arguments but to talk football.

Did i argued with you that Oliseh wasn't sick but said he was declared fit for the match.

mazimee:
Look at you, you are quite unsincere. Many people still make reference to that incident even till tomorrow if the need arise. Oliseh was not fully fit, I remember Ifeanyi Udeze saying so on Brilla recently.

Unsincere?pls read my comment very well and try to grab it and if you cannot let end it.Thanks

mazimee:
Wasn't on this thread that someone posted a comment of Rohr saying that we all can see what Ebuehi do even when he is not fully fit.


Ebuehi is still work in progres just like most players in the team, you can't rate him with one bad match.

Sir did i say Ebuehi a bad player?NO

tbaba1234 said Ebuehi is the best RB and I said No Shehu is still the best based on their performance so far.

If Ebuehi come good tomorrow no issue,am a fan that always base his analysis on football reasoning with nothing attached to it.

Mujtahida:
No coach used unfit player for a match? This is simply not true. I can give you so many instances even in Nigeria football where unfit players were used. Keshi played some of our matches unfit, Oliseh came from hospital to come and play our Afcon 2000 semi final match with Senegal. Maradona played lots of matches unfit. I can go on and on.

The human body is not a machine. I do not agree with you at all that just because he passed fitness test he was fully fit. I ask didn't you see him wince in pain at one point in the match?

Even before the goals when some monikers were saying Ebuehi na baller I just sighed. He didn't ball cos I was watching him keenly. Yes I will not deny that he didn't play well but you cannot take away the fact that for the last two weeks the boy has been struggling with fitness issues. I repeat the human body is not a machine.

No be human body wey even somebody that is certified as fit will just slump and die?

Sir i still repeat it no coach will throw unfit player to the field of play.

How can a player from hospital made a match day squad,Oliseh passed last minute fitness test and was named on the bench against Senegal.

Icon4s:
Shey you are seeing what I have been talking about here?

They chose certain players to defend and some others to slaughter at every slight opportunity.

I have been reading and have not seen anyone here mention the poor positioning of Uzoho for that second goal. What was he doing at that corner of the post when he already had players covering? Very poor anticipation from him. That and that ruled out goal in the first half were the only low points of his game IMO. He had a better game than against Poland. But I Must say I am still worried.

Love of country over individual players should be paramount.

Sir on Uzoho i know Rohr w do the needful cos i don't want to say anything regards our goalkeepers cos no quality options.

Oh our double standard for players here abi,sir am beginning to differentiate real football analysis from personal,sentiment and emotive analysis.

Mujtahida:
This are not excuses. That boy was not fit. Didn't you see him wince in pain at one point, didn't you see how gingerly his movement was?

Sir no coach used unfit player for a match.

Balogun Leon failed late fitness test and what happened,replaced by Awaziem ASAP.

Ebuehi was fully fit for him to pass fitness test and played 90 minutes,but had average game.

OK Sir,wll you pick Ebuehi as our best RB with his performance against Serbia

Icon4s:
First off, can the NFF please change those lemon jerseys we played with today?
1. They were very offensive to the eyes
2. They make the team look uncoordinated and unbusiness like
3. They make the team look childish and so ordinary
4. That jersey does not make a bold statement.

Can the NFF please make a white copy of the darker green as our away jersey while the darker green becomes the home jersey.

Peeps may wonder why I take this jersey issue this seriously. I take branding and image making seriously. Your national team jersey is your first medium of branding. I always make reference to the bigger brands in football and what their jerseys say about them. Nuff said on that.

Today's game, though we lost but we learnt some additional things that will help strengthen the team.

Some observations from our last 2 friendlies. I will drop more as discussions proceed:
1. This team has lost its passing and ball possessive abilities all in a bid to play more of counter attacking football. Rohr needs to do something about this as this has been a major strength for us especially when we play against European teams. Poland and Serbia totally dominated us.

2. Mikel is the heart and soul of this team

3. The oyinbo wall is the best CB pairing

4. We are going to the WC without cutting edge strikers.

5. Idowu's performance over the two games may have given Rohr reasons to take another look at Echiejile

6. Ebuehi is second choice to Shehu. Ola Aina: I fear for that lad. He may be the sacrificial lamb.

7. Uzoho had a better performance today but we are still in a crisis situation in that department. We may be watching the WC with our hearts in our mouths each time there is enemies incursion.

8. Alex Iwobi is the closest replacement for Mikel in that AM role. But when Mikel is in the team he may operate from the wings.

9. Onazi clawed his way back into a vantage position in the team. Presence of Joel Obi could be responsible.

9. Ndidi is the engine room of that midfield and should be handed the CM role while Ogu and Onazi should battle for the DM position.

10. Joel Obi's inclusion into the team, contrary to remarks on here, is value added. He has brought more steel to the midfield as he combines his skills with physicality. He may not make the first 11, though, with Ndidi as the CM and Mikel as AM.

11. We don't have business like wingers. Simon is not imposing enough, Musa never makes one perfect cross. Moses stands out but often plays to the gallery.
Iwobi some times does one trick too many and may occasionally get lost in the game

12. Odion Ighalo. I think we need to tell ourselves the truth. Once Mikel is back Iheanacho should take up that CF position. What do you call a CF that could not even test any goalkeeper over the two games?

13. We are most comfortable with the 4-2-3-1 formation with which we qualified for the WC. The other formations may just be back-up options that may be employed depending on the dynamics of the game.

14. One major positive: We have a better bench than that of the 2014 WC.

I am not shaken by this defeat even though I had wanted a 100% record in our build up process.
The team building is continuous even after the WC.

Over all, quality friendlies and quality oppositions. Yes we were tested.
Let's see what the team offers us in the May and June friendlies.

Nice post and good observation.

Hmmmm the jersey,nothing to say

Goalkeeping department,Uzoho is our number one but not ready for WC,his quality is questionable,hope Rohr psyche him up. He just remind me of early days of Austin Ejide until Enyeama came in with confidence.

Defence, good to see Ekong and Awaziem but truth be told Leon experience is very vital and i think Rohr should know for now that Ekong and Awaziem lacks the require experience, it happened against South Africa and now Serbia, next time he should try Omeruo and Ekong,that partnership worked against Zambia and Chad.

Good to see Ebuehi but Shehu still a player to beat but happy that we are having quality at RB.

Idowu had a good game cos Elderson couldn't have done better but am seeing Aina looking calmed and read the game very well,good to have three LB competing.

Our midfield is our unique selling point but still our headache. Mikel has been the missing link and something need to be done.Rohr should realised that too many DMs cannot help his team,this finished Brazil at 2014 WC against Germany and Holland.

We have Ndidi, Onazi,Agu,Agbo,Joel,Ogu and Etebo,these seven players almost shared the same attributes, need for us to search for alternatives,may be one or two players who can bring fluidity to our games or we move Iwobi to the middle to complement Mikel.

And now time for Rohr to explain continuous invitation of Uche Agbo to Nigerians cos am suspecting fowl play and with your experience Sir in politics of the game you should know better.

icon4s our attacks looked so blunt in the two friendlies and there is need for urgency in our approach to this,something is missing cos apart from Moses who sometimes is erratic i don't see anyone to bank on again,Musa not really convincing,Moses Simeon look so average,Ighalo and Iheanacho promising but of recent not really convincing.

In a nutshell is a team in progress and i believe before WC we should have a strong team that would bring smiles to our faces at WC.

tbaba1234:
Iwobi was poor against Poland but was great against Serbia.. One below par game does not make a bad player.

Pls is Iwobi a consistent player?but am not talking about Iwobi but Ebuehi.

Pls did i say Ebuehi is bad?NO but am not impressed with his performance against Serbia,so Shehu is still the man for that position.

tbaba1234:
Fortunately, We will see more games.... He might not have been 100% but i have seen enough to be convinced about his ability.

Ebuehi not fully fit but played 90 minutes with Aina on the bench and Balogun was declared not fit for the match and replaced by Awaziem.

So Ebuehi is highly rated to the extent that Rohr need to force him to play when he knew is not 100% fit and Balogun was replaced some minutes to the match due to fitness.

Pls why all this excuses for Ebuehi performance,for God sake i know how some are bashing Shehu performance just cos of Ebuehi.

tbaba1234:
Ebuehi was not that bad... He is still our best right back....

Chairman Ebuehi is not the best with what i saw yesterday,no sentiment.

MetalJigsaw:
Abeg, make we forget story. He's overhyped

MetalJigsaw i told you that we need to see Joel first and good we have seen him now left for fans to judge but Joel Obi not impressive so far.

Martz101:
Mikel is replaceable only when the fans realise, every player is different, we had this issue when Okocha retired, even the glorified Mikel struggled because we wanted to see another okocha.

I remember Siasia did it without Mikel at 2008 Olympics and had a good tournament.

Martz101:
There is only hope for those people you listed to be added to the team not replace ighalo or Nacho, for obvious reason... I still maintain that we already have 95% of our team

Yes you are right but i based my assessment on Musa leading the attack instead of Ighalo,is a signal that he wasn't satisfied with their performance especially Ighalo against Poland or what do you think.