₦airaland Forum

Kog45:
Mikel is the captain and Onazi is the vice captain, nothing like Musa-3 or Echiejele-4,so Ekong and any of the players can get the captain band in the absence of Mikel and Onazi.

If musa or Echiejile start the game they will be the captain, even Rohr admitted in the press conference with Onazi that they have other captains

Martz101:
Allnigeriasoccer.com understands that Bursaspor central defender William Troost-Ekong has been appointed to captain the Super Eagles in their friendly against Poland on Friday night, only in the event that Eddy Onazi is omitted from the starting line-up.

Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr has kept everyone guessing on who will partner Leicester City ace Wilfred Ndidi in defensive midfield and will only announce his decision at a team meeting few hours before the squad heads to the Municipal Stadium.

Torino's Joel Obi caught the eye during training on Wednesday afternoon and could be rewarded with a place in the starting lineup ahead of Onazi.

It means the two other senior players in the squad who would have worn the armband, Ahmed Musa and Elderson Echiejile, are unlikely to make the starting line-up .

Rohr's decision to go for Troost-Ekong instead of Balogun as captain was a straightforward one.

The former Tottenham Hotspur youth-teamer has started and completed every single match played by the Super Eagles since the German was appointed coach, eleven games in total if the forfeited match vs Algeria is added, more than all the players named in the current squad.

Joel is not sure a starter yet and ekong not confirmed to captain for now everything na speculation

Allnigeriasoccer.com understands that Bursaspor central defender William Troost-Ekong has been appointed to captain the Super Eagles in their friendly against Poland on Friday night, only in the event that Eddy Onazi is omitted from the starting line-up.

Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr has kept everyone guessing on who will partner Leicester City ace Wilfred Ndidi in defensive midfield and will only announce his decision at a team meeting few hours before the squad heads to the Municipal Stadium.

Torino's Joel Obi caught the eye during training on Wednesday afternoon and could be rewarded with a place in the starting lineup ahead of Onazi.

It means the two other senior players in the squad who would have worn the armband, Ahmed Musa and Elderson Echiejile, are unlikely to make the starting line-up .

Rohr's decision to go for Troost-Ekong instead of Balogun as captain was a straightforward one.

The former Tottenham Hotspur youth-teamer has started and completed every single match played by the Super Eagles since the German was appointed coach, eleven games in total if the forfeited match vs Algeria is added, more than all the players named in the current squad.

TheLoneCitizen:
I understand the reason for the aggression, but I see it unnecessary.

X Factor: a special ability, talent or quality.

Mikel Is THE X factor(quality) of the Eagles, i.e, Mikel is the focal point of the Eagles, the most important player.

Onyekuru brings AN X factor(ability) to the Eagles, ie, Henry brings a spark which the Eagles is deficient of.


You are just beating dead wood, mate, let it lie.

Mike and Moses bring a Y Factor I guess to the team

Magink:
But why would Ekong be the Captain when there's Balogun and Victor moses on the line up? i hope it won't be an issue cos it's quite strange, even thought it's only a friendly.

For me is not a bad decision, captains should not be based on who is older or has more cap, Rohr is looking at the future, Moses don't give that captain vibe, we all complained about his attitude in camp.

everything is all speculations until 8:45

TheLoneCitizen:
Mikel is a playmaker only, he doesn't hold play, he thrives on teammates making runs, he doesn't beat players. He is like a Cesc Fabregas.


Moses is not a natural dribbler he doesn't beat player, just a good runner. Moses causes more harm than good to the Eagles due to overconfidence, he would be willing to shoot when passing is key.

When Arsenal played Chelsea, Moses failed to beat Iwobi on take-out three times, talk less renowned defenders. On the other hand, Henry left veteran defender, Dani Alves on his back in the UCL.

My point is not on dribbling ability or tendency but on the ability of a player to attract at least two opposition to himself, opening room for a fellow teammate.

oga X factor in a team don't mean the team best dribbler, x factor could be the goal keeper, the team x factor could be the coach

x factor means special talent, Mikel is different from all his team mate , his obviously the xfactor

forgiveness:
If we truly reward performance? Why was Sone Aluko not invited to the team even when he was nominated for Football league best player of the season?

https://www.completesportsnigeria.com/iwobi-lookman-aluko-nominated-london-football-awards/amp/
was Nwakali's performance wow before he was invited?

There is no format for inviting players, as fans we can only clamour for our preferred players to be invited, but the responsibility is on the coach.

Zola Chelsea legend and Eric catona Manchester legend were never there national team favourite

Icon79:
It's funny you'd say that because on last few occasions Joel Obi had played for the Super Eagles, he played in a double pivot with Mikel. And based on my personal assessment and in the assessment of those who know better than I do (and I am talking about the legends of the game, such as Mathematical Segun Odegbami), Joel outshined Mikel each time. This isn't to say that Mikel didn't play well in those games, but it tells you how good Joel Chukwuma Obi can be when he's at his best.

But is he gonna outshine Mikel on current form, I doubt it. Why ... because injuries have affected his speed and impacted his game in other ways, but he's still a quality player.


O pari

we dont need any oushiner, all we need is 2 of them to compliment each other... every player is different and each bring different quality to the team

forgiveness:
That is not true. Onyekuru never scored hand full of goals in the CF position. In short, his coach emphatically said Onyekuru can't play as a striker.

Onyekuru is not a striker.

The first snapshot is the stats for Eupen and there is nothing like hand full goals. How many times did he play as striker there? How many 'hand full' goals did he score?

In Anderlecht, he failed woefully as a striker.

Let him fight for the LW slot with Iwobi, Musa and Simon.

Oga relying on a that graphic or picture don't hold water, yes he mostly play from the flank but also play upfront too

Daejoyoung:
Onyekuru is also not a striker.

He played there for his former Belgium team Eupen and scored hand full of goals, he started in that position when he left for Anderlecht, before the coach pushed him to the left.

Onyekuru is Thierry Henry and Anthony martial kinda striker, he can play in all position forward but prefer to cut from the left

joseph1013:
I would not use this formation.
Mine:
Ebuehi Ekong Balogun Awaziem Idowu Ndidi Ogu Obi Moses Iwobi Kelechi
Let's try the 5-3-2 pattern a second time.

playing with 10 outfield players is not allowed in the game of football

tbaba1234:
Big game for Uzoho to seal his WC ticket.

Not just his WC spot, the game might seal his starting spot in the worldcup and even in the next decade

Icon4s:
Even now, his making the final team irrespective of his performance in the friendlies is still in doubt.

Some times coaches can drop a player because of this kind of uncertainty.
He may make the final team now and sustain an injury 5minutes into the tournament and remain ruled out for the rest of the tournament, thereby making the team in short of one player.

If a Player like Joel Obi is in a team you must be sure to have at least 2 back-up players for his position while other positions may have 1 back-up. That can be a headache for the coach.

so true, talent is not enough

Mujtahida:
One friendly? I doubt it was even against Kenya. We played friendlies against Paraguay where Ogbeche forever etched himself in our minds as the flower that bloomed too soon. We played Scotland and then Jamaica.

yea I remember now, you are right, we played Kenya too, enyeama made his debut in the match

tbaba1234:
For the DM role, Onazi is better than most of the others including Ogu in my opinion..

Rewatch Onazi vs Cameroon, home and Away.. totally unplayable...

Exactly; Nigerians like to use and dump, Ogu is a fantastic play with a very strong shot and he deserve to be in the squad, but Onazi has been consistent for the eagles since he made his debut.

why fix wetin no spoil?

DrKlever:
Forgiveness is right. Alot of people kicked against Joel Obi's call up.. some citing injury while others maintained that his inclusion might affect the high team spirit and bonding.

people were against him starting the match, nobody was against his callup

Icon4s:
Good. I was expecting this example to come up.

The 98 team was just coming back together after a long time of inactivity. Remember we were banned from the 1998 AFCON. The friendlies reveled lots of holes in that team.

But... that team had quality. We all knew that. Expectations were still high despite the friendly loses.

Remember Rufai and Eguavoen were called back. Oparaku was dropped but recalled due to injury to Jero Shakpoke. These were some of the shake-ups that took place after those humiliating defeats in the friendlies.

That team could play and we knew it.

Then also whether you perform well in friendlies or not does not completely imply you will have a good tournament or not.

But one thing is sure, any team that is not well grounded, if they start well in a tournament even if they were poor in friendlies , they will come crashing when it matters most.

So it is vital that you do well in your preparations and still transfer it into the tournament. This will ensure the team stays on top even beyond the tournament.

is good to do well in your preparation but does not translate to success in the main event, I remember before 2002 worldcup, NFA led by Ibrahim Galadima and our Coach Onigbinde "sitdown look" organised just one friendly for the eagles against kenya, just because they want us to look wonderful.

I will love Poland to show us our weakness, I want lewandowski to bully our oyibo wall, all I'm clamouring for is the fans to reduce there expectation during this friendly, I will be very happy for us to win but i wont be sad if we lose

MetalJigsaw:
Not as Iwobi...

Anyway Somehow sabi ball oo I meet am for here and you meet both of me and him. The guy sabi na you no know am.

Bros I'm not here to validate my football knowledge, we are here to discuss Nigeria football. Nobody has the monopoly of knowledge

MetalJigsaw:
If we lose it a big blow for the team's confidence and psychology

It wont be a big blow, we better lose now than in the worldcup, we still have time to fix our self.

back to history books, our best worldcup in 1994, we lost all but one of our friendly game against lesser teams, it was even worst in 1998, when teams were disgracing us in friendly, Holland beat us 5-1, I remember watching that game, our keeper baruwo "omo Alhaja" was so poor, I'm not sure he made the worldcup team.

Win or lose nothing spoil

Allnigeriasoccer.com understands that Chelsea right-wing back Victor Moses was one of the top performers for the Team A during Wednesday afternoon's training session at the old Śląsk Wrocław stadium, Oporowska street.
After the routine exercises, manager Gernot Rohr divided the twenty two fit players in camp into two groups for a practice game which Team A won 3-1.
Moses only appeared for official activities on Wednesday morning, however, he performed well during the workout and is really showing in training that Rohr can count on him to carry the team.
Rohr hinted that the Blues number fifteen is the designated penalty taker for the team in the absence of influential midfielder John Obi Mikel.
Moses opened the scoring for Team A when he converted a spot kick, before Leicester City loanee Ahmed Musa scored the pick of the goals with a shot from outside the box to restore parity for Team B.
Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi added their names on the score-sheet for Team A.
The Super Eagles will have their final training session at the Municipal Stadium on Thursday evening, starting from 1900 hours.

This report is actually different from the first one we saw, more reason why we need to be careful with written reports, according to this report Moses from Team A scored the first goal.

That said, I notice Rohr already assign our penaltys to mikel with Moses his assistant, i thought it was Nacho

MetalJigsaw:
Take it easy bro... The fact that he mentioned Iwobi playing "rubbish" ATTIMES ( which is a fact) doesn't mean he knows nothing about football.

And he's not implying that Iwobi is a bad player either. But go and re- watch Iwobis previous games in the green shirt especially against Argentina.

Iwobi is a very talented footballer but he's the kind that gives away possesion in an awful manner sometimes.

Fabregas one of the best passers of the ball, looses possession too, he cant be perfect

nelszx:
If you have been following my response on this thread you'd know I've never been a fan of Onazi style of football. I'm happy when he performs but his style of DM/CM is the Jack of all trade style. Football no be gragra again but a science you calculate every move.
I have followed his football but never liked his style. Anyway like I've always said I'll pick Ogu over Onazi anytime anyday.

In football you have to maximize your strength, we dont have pretty playing midfielders like Spain or Germany, but we have tough tacklers, we have to use them well, our strength is those tough tacklers

somehow:
Ok sir, i never knew Iwobi has played or plays the Mikel role for the SE and also Arsenal.
And yes, i don't know football.

Those i was conversing with got my point, sorry you didn't.

Thank you.

there is nothing like Mikel role, the role is attacking midfield, or rather the number 10 role...mikel against Zambia first leg played a deeper role with onazi, yours truly iwobi played that attacking role

And yes iwobi was groom to be an attacking midfielder due to so much attacking talent in the arsenal team like Ozil his shifted wide sometimes, even almighty Mikel experience same thing while at Chelsea.

always open your mind to know new things

Humility017:
good one....
something tells...me...kelechi nwakali will be a perfect replacement when mikel eventually retires...
pray that boy live up to his dreams..

the report was about his elder brother Chidi

forgiveness:
Hehehehe!

There was alot of resistance here at the mention of Joel Obi by my humble self and notable Mickael2 and distinguish Komekn.

Now, who takes the glory?

Don't forget we are still saying bring back Sone Aluko and Obafemi Martins.

then we will bring back kanu, Okocha and taribo west

nelszx:
This has always been my problem with Onazi, quite decent a player but his over working creates spaces and his passes aren't always top notch

Nigerians can complain for africa, so how do you know about this details you just said from a written report

somehow:
It seems some of us here don't read to understand, rather we just type what's on our mind.

Did you even understand what you quoted? If you did, can you tell me what I meant before typing this?

Bros you dont know me and I don't know you, don't let discussions like this get to you.

you said iwobi tends to play rubbish when the ball is with him for long, and without more argument from me I said his rubbish got us to the world cup and I pray he continue the rubbish that will bring goals in russia, I said that because is obvious you have little knowledge about football.

In super eagles iwobi is one of our best in terms of ball retaining and keeping possession, he was train by arsenal youth academy; they are thought to retain the ball...

AIG07:
FINALLY!

Joel after seeing all the paparazzi going on in camp and the new kits, e go be like- are you sure this SEs? The kain vibe the young lads get no be here. Idowu and Ebuehi(the presumed introvert don join bad gang) are testament to that.

On the other hand make una all leave V. Moses alone. I'm sure he'll grow into the team and become one of the leaders in the nearest future(remember Mikel).

When will that be? this is his second world cup, his been around for more than 5years, he was there before onazi

MetalJigsaw:
Joel short small sha

Big things comes in small package

zuchyblink:
Eze is going to break into this team

Only injury to some player can make that happen

komekn:
There is no, 'I think' in this matter.

The comparison was made in direct comparison to the supposed obsessive reliance of France on ZZ Zidane in the world cup. And our similar reliance on Mikel.

That comparison is simply not tenable. France had a team with a number of World class tried and tested top level players. For instance Deschamp, Thuram, Trezeguet, Vieira, Thierry, Pires, etc This team was star studded.

We are not on that level individually speaking. Our strength is in team cohesion, spirit and determination not on individual exceptional world beating talent.

have big names don't stop a team from relying on a player, Barcelona team is a very good example....ask your self why were they do bad with there big names

tbaba1234:
There is a great spirit in this Super Eagles team.. Maybe that will be the key in Russia... Onazi is the obvious leader of the team after Mikel.

I noticed Victor Moses was not really into all the fun, the other players were having.

I notice Onazi positive personality from the 2013 nations cup