₦airaland Forum

lbrichman2:
You sabi book

Thank you.

Napoleon55:
Finally, someone who seems to understand.

Having elite players in biggest club is not 100% guaranteed that you must win,but it gives you greater success rate against the countries with inferior players in weaker clubs.

Even in Africa today, Nigerian players are still among the best,what they lack is that hunger,drive and determination.
With what we have,they should be winning AFCON consistently under normal circumstances.

The reason I'm particularly concerned about having our elite players in bigger clubs is when you will take it to the global stage like WC,so that we could compete favorably against the very best.

So they should not continue to encourage our players to remain in places like Turkish league,they need to strive for higher.

What our team lack are:
Good coaching.
Good incentives.
Proper logistics.

These players play out their hearts and give to the national team much more than they give to their respective clubs. I am just stating the obvious. Watch all our matches in the just concluded AFCON especially the one against Algeria. These players put their club careers in jeopardy just to give their nation their all. These players are released by their clubs in good condition only to return with varying degrees of injuries.

In the match we lost against Guinea-Bissau. Ndidi played through pain because of an injury situation.

There are things that we are yet to get right in this country, the players are usually the ones to get the blame because they are the ones that play the actual football but what many fail to see is player selection, tactical plan and drilling, owed bonuses, etc.

Chidera Ejuke starts for Sevilla against Osasuna

Meliforme:
Technique is not enough in football.
These players are technical but lacks the spatial awareness and the tactical drilling of their elder brothers.

They fail to read spaces very well.
They are too clustered together to recover from a switch of play and to play expansive football ( even though I observed this particular flaw also in the big guys. This looks more like a coaching problem)

They cluster seem to have improve as they appear to be now well spaced out.

Technique is not enough in football.
These players are technical but lacks the spatial awareness and the tactical drilling of their elder brothers.

They fail to read spaces very well.
They are too clustered together to recover from a switch of play and to play expansive football ( even though I observed this particular flaw also in the big guys. This looks more like a coaching problem)

ChrisKels:
When you look at this, you can already tell the coach is out for the real business of talent discovering, not favouritism or tribalism. I don't care what anyone says, we all know the regions and states where our talents are in abundance.

Talents are in abundance everywhere.

Meliforme:
Alex Iwobi and Wilfred Ndidi made a combined 26 pass entries into the final third. Iwobi made 16 pass entries while Wilfred Ndidi made 10 pass entries.

I brought up this stats for those that thinks Wilfred Ndidi is all about defending, and does nothing in the middle.

Aside Iwobi, no other player made pass entries into the final third much more than Wilfred Ndidi.

Alex Iwobi and Wilfred Ndidi made a combined 26 pass entries into the final third. Iwobi made 16 pass entries while Wilfred Ndidi made 10 pass entries.

I brought up this stats for those that thinks Wilfred Ndidi is all about defending, and does nothing in the middle.

EElopa:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Owibi midfield failed to qualify Nigeria for the 2022 World Cup. Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi, midfield, barely qualified Nigeria for the 2023 Afcon. We only qualified because 3 points were awarded to us due to the fiasco in Libya Airport prior to the actual game, where we refused to play. If we actually played that game in and lost, we will not have qualified since Rwanda defeated us at home in our last qualifier. Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi's midfield did not qualify us for the 2026 World Cup. Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi midfield is currently in the process of failing to qualify for the 2027 Afcon. If we continue on this path as you are suggesting, Alex Iwobi and Wilfred Ndidi's midfield will not qualify us for the 2030 World Cup.

They swear for Una in that country. Why are you people over there so afraid of change? This is why you keep recycling the same old failed politicians to continue to sink the country deeper and deeper in mess. Try something new or fresh and let us see how it goes. They swear for una over there. Abegi.

The midfield of Alex Iwobi and Wilfred Ndidi is not the totality of the best that we can arrange, When we look at their performances we see that what they do individually, reveals them as good players. What we need is an additional creative force, who can also provide a defensive cover and provide good passes of the ball. Kelechi Nwakali is the most suitable fit out of all that is available. Ebenezer Akinsanmiro is another viable option.

mank1234:
Indeed stats can be deceptive. If I didn't watch the game, i would have marveled at this. Forget stats; the team player rubbish and GB could have scored up to 6 of they were clinical.

Stats are at least 90% of the time correct, and that is huge.
Anything that guarantees at least 90% accuracy can be trusted

Do you need a video compilation of Wilfred Ndidi's contributions to the games.
Would that convince you?
I tell you the truth you can't disprove stats 5% of the time.
If you like let us try.

I am not saying that the team did marvelously well, they were shambolic especially in the final third. In the game against Guinea-Bissau, We completed most of our passes in the opposition's half. We completed a total of 311 passes, 201 in the opposition's half and 110 in our own half and guess the duo that controlled most of those passes: Alex Iwobi and Wilfred Ndidi (the midfield) they contributed a total of 108 passes which is roughly one third of the total passes (311) that we stringed together Our problem was not the midfield this time.

SymphonyRad:
It's clear you're leaning on your emotions than logic, cause I don't see how your gaslighting and baseless prayers has anything to do with the simple facts of football. Nobody here least of all myself wished Ndidi bad, calling out a player for being washed isn't a death sentence on his person or career, Ndidi is already a fulfilled player who is probably doing well for himself already so I struggle to understand your rants. Every player will eventually get to a point when they are past their prime, right now Ndidi isn't that player anymore.

This is my last response to you.

A player who is so washed, still has it in him to deliver more contributions to defense more than defenders who are younger and in their prime. Why not bring out football commentaries and documentations to prove me wrong. Why not say Ndidi made 2 contributions instead of the 8 that i aforelisted. Instead you call me emotional and without logic, whille ndirectly refering to your self.

My stat sources are Fotmob, Sofascore.

Don't let your emotions get the best of you, don't let your emotions make you seem like you are unappreciative and intentionally wicked, because you are not.

SymphonyRad:
You're obviously living in lalaland, Ndidi is not only finished as a player, he is also arguably the most uncharismatic captain we've ever had. Go watch that game against Guinea Bissau again and observe how Ndidi showed absolutely no guts or leadership in gingering the players, Bassey was the one who was doing all the shouting, gesturing and pep talks to his team mates while your captain was busy cowering...ideally, the captains armband should have gone to either Bassey or Osimhen.

I have nothing against Ndidi, he used to be good as a DM when he was in his prime years at Leicester, now his legs are gone, and if your standards for a national team captain is warming the bench in Turkey, then I have nothing left to say to you.

As for Ndidi's replacement, we haven't seen the best of younger options like David Ozoh, Tim Iroegbunam, Nnadi, and the u23 prospect we will see against Russia...let the young ones grow into his role, nobody will die if we give youth a chance, na why Nigeria dey stagnant be that.

Even after stating the obvious and posting Wilfred Ndidi stats. You still have the effrontery to call him washed.

I pray for you, may people see your good works and give you due recognition. May they never allow their feelings and bias to get the best of them. May they never see your obvious good works and still call you washed.

What are you guys doing. This is wickedness in broad daylight. Ignorance can be very loud. This is why I do not gel with the crowd.
I wash my eyes with pure water and do my fact finding

EElopa:
My brother, please put a little bit of deeper thinking in your thoughts. Players like Ndidi and Onyeka probably can be argued that they will be more effective for Nigeria when we are playing a side that is better than us on paper that we will probably concede position to. When we are playing sides that are going to sit back and park the box, we need more creative midfielders who can do more with the ball. Defenses can be split with long range, mid range, drive-through close control technical dribbling skills and through passes. We need midfielders that can consistently do those. We need midfielders who can actually shoot the ball from outside the box. Ndidi and Oneka simply do not possess any of the mentioned qualities. They are simply runners and destroyers. We need ball carriers in that midfield.

We played 10 World Cup qualifiers, and in 6 or 7 of those games we never scored more than 1 goal, and that is because teams know our weakness. They know we are weak in the midfield and slow at the back, especially with Ajayi playing, so their game plans are always to sit back and invite us to break them down, knowing we simply do not have the personnel to do that, and then hit us on a counter with our weak midfielders and a slow defender. It is not rocket science. All the minors in Africa all know the receipt of beating Nigeria.

If we don't address this problem now, the script will repeat itself when the World Cup qualifiers start. Let us try something different, my brother. If we fail, at least we tried something different. Aren't you tired of the same script repeating itself?

Mention the players that should have featured, let's analyse them piece by piece.

Kog45:
The fact is this,any country that parades the same midfielders we're having will always having issues...yes Iwobi gives passes,apart from that nothing more,Ndidi was known for marking but now that marking is gone and Oyenka always busy and many times doing nothing...this midfield set up is a burden on the team, defenders would be over working and attackers would be wandering.....with this midfield we're not making it again to WC,unless Chelle do the needful

Even you, Elder Kog45.
Alex Iwobi made the highest ball recoveries of any outfield player, but more impressive is his participation and successes in defensive duels and tackles. Iwobi avoids making defensive duels and when he makes them he loses, but against Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau, the story was different.
Against Madagascar Iwobi won 1/2 i.e 50% of his tackles, won 2/4 i.e 50% of ground duels and won 1/1 i.e 100% of his aerial duels.
Against Guinea-Bissau, Iwobi won 2/3 i.e 67% of his ground duels. This is surely a step in the right direction for Iwobi.

You said and I quote " this midfield set up is a burden on the team, defenders would be over working ". Did it ever occur to you that in the match against Madagascar, Wilfred Ndidi made the highest contribution to defense more than any S.E defender. He made 8 contributions, Bruno Onyemaechi made 7, Ola Aina made 3, while Calvin Bassey and Semi Ajayi made 5 apiece, and Iwobi made 2.
In the match against Guinea-Bissau, Bassey stepped up and made 10 contributions to defense, Ndidi 7, Bruno Onyemaechi 7, Osayi 5, Frank Onyeka 3,

Looking at the stats above, you can see clearly that the midfield is doing its job.

Clearly, it seems like the sting of defeat is making a lot of people blind to the individual performances of these players. The problem with the national team has more to with the personnel at the helm of affairs.

SymphonyRad:
Interesting...so Ndidi getting benched in Turkey is for tactical reasons? abeg since you're privy to this tactical secret, do you mind telling what those reasons are?

Bros you can defend Ndidi all you like, that's your choice, but right now, every discerning fan knows Ndidi is done.

The fans are not just undiscerning but also very ignorant. Sorry I don't gel with the crowd because I have seen all kinds of foolishness with them, including this.

The call for Ndidi's drop is a very foolish one, especially when you don't have a better replacement. Who is his replacement? Ndidi is a destroyer and is world class at it. This he kept showing in the matches that he has featured. The stats are there to back it. You have only your emotions for an accomplice, error prone emotions at that.

The invitation of John Otomewo is a step in the right direction. We will see him for who he is.

TheSuperNerd:
Already done.

This is good news.

I have always wanted that lad's invitation.

SymphonyRad:
Ndidi is almost 30 and is a bench warmer in Turkey bro, Mikel Obi at 30 was still an active and far better player than Ndidi... so your comparison is baseless, save yourself the paragraph of epistle,Ndidi is done and should be phased out.

He should be phased out while still delivering stellar performances in his position. God forbid!

Mikel was not loved, always getting criticisms, the same with Ndidi.

Ndidi not starting games is for tactical reasons. Ndidi's game of passes has improved tremendously and it might be because of this.

I pray for you that no one demands for your drop, even when you keep improving.

If you have a better replacement for Ndidi, please bring it up. I want to hear the name.

TheSuperNerd:
Although not officially confirmed yet, John Otomewo of Reims is said to have been called up as Ndidi's replacement for the Russia Friendly.

Dear Lord Almighty let this come to pass..

SymphonyRad:
All this Ndidi image washing no be am my guy,the guys legs are gone...better get used to it cause the call for his retirement from even his fans are louder than ever.

Yes, the same call that was made for Mikel. Was Mikel ever appreciated. All kinds of complaints were made of Mikel, complaints like "He is sluggish, He slows down our game" and all kinds of uninformed takes.

We are yet to get a like for like replacement for Mikel The closest is Kelechi Nwakali, whom many of you detest for reasons that has nothing to do with his abilities.

When has Wilfred Ndidi ever been loved or appreciated, even during his early years in the EPL, you guys will find one thing or the other to criticise about him. Your criticisms of Wilfred Ndidi is that his legs are gone. When has Wilfred Ndidi ever had legs in the eyes of the likes of you. Has Wilfred Ndidi ever had legs?

The truth is never with the majority. All it takes to start a mob action is just one ill informed take and every other person blindly joins the procession without asking real questions or seeking facts.

You bring your feelings which are subjective, I table stats which are objective. The stats prove many of you wrong, but no, you must say out your feelings whether they are true or not.

Wilfred Ndidi is a much improved player. More improved than what I use to know about him. Take it or leave it, it doesn't change anything.

EElopa:
Get emotions out it mate. Michael Jordan despite being the greatest basketball to walk the surface of the earth cannot beat any current NBA basketball player today in a 1 v1 action. Father's time is undefeated. Wilfred Ndidi in his prime will get in to the starting lineup of 99 percent of national teams in the world. Intact i had him in my top 5 best defensive midfielders in the world. Leicester city ran him to the ground. Injuries took a toll on him and there are just too many miles in that body and body no be firewood. Ndidi
personally knows he is not the player he once was. It happens to everyone. Victor Osimhen will one day start slowing down. I am not a professional athlete but I used to play ball with these young kids at the gym but as am getting older myself now hanging with these young boys is becoming harder. Ndidi was a baller but the millage in that body of his has caught up with him.

Every player will one day face a decline in performance, including Wilfred Ndidi, but as it stands, I am yet to see a noticeable decline in Wilfred Ndidi's performances. Instead I see improvements, especially in his game of passes.
He wins his duels, and completes most of his passes.

imagine a player that in games contributes to defense more than any midfielder and sometimes even more than defenders including CB's. In the game against Madagascar he contributed to defense more than any player on the pitch (this includes defenders). In the game against Guinea-Bissau, only Calvin Bassey and Jefferson Encada who are both defenders had more contributions to defense.

Only Calvin Bassey completed more passes of the ball in the game against Madagascar, that tells you how much of the ball flows through Wilfred Ndidi, Against Guinea-Bissau only Alex Iwobi completed passes of the ball more than Wilfred Ndidi.

You guys can talk all you can, Wilfred Ndidi remains one of the most important players in the Super Eagles fold

benji93:
@Kog45, u self no try.We no fit blame person wey no come. We fit talk say him no serious, but that one self na opinion, fair though. I don't trust Okoye's goalkeeping abilities too, partly because he has a slow reaction time. But abeg no blame Okoye for this one. Nwabali's reaction time especially for that first goal was damn slow. He was rooted to the spot.

A goalkeeper who has a slow reaction time cannot pull double saves in the manner that Maduka Okoye does.

Maduka Okoye's ball distribution could have come handy against Guinea Bissau. Remember our goal vs Portugal

charlesemeka85:

This are some of the incredible saves of maduka Okoye.. Because of one game, people began to show hatred... I am saying it that he is our best goalkeeper now @BankyGee_ @addeolar @omaakatugba @pamelamodella pic.twitter.com/VWBKDCmnrH

— Ojedele Timilehin (@edwintimmy) September 29, 2026

/video/1?s=46

I have said it before that Maduka Okoye has a remarkable dynamic balance that enables him to make double saves of the ball.

Nigerian fans are not helping matters.
Imagine calling Wilfred Ndidi all kinds of names. Wilfred Ndidi is one of our standout performers. Which midfielder in those two games overshadowed him. He was not overshadowed playing against the likes of Vitinha and Neves, it is those players from Madagascar and Guines Bissau that will overshadow him.

You guys are not even grateful for the player: Wilfred Ndidi.

If Wilfred Ndidi happens to come upon some of the rubbish (which are even lies and distorted facts) the people he represents are saying about him, I hope he won't be crestfallen.

Our problem is the system. They get a lot of things wrong.

Blueelf:
Those Nigerian assistant coaches are crap

Those positions given to them were purely political and to probably suit aggrieved parties because Those guys are very poor mentally and tactically

Anything Nigerian and local just pisses me off at this point

So Fidelis Ilechukwu's appointment is pure politics.
Fidelis Ilechukwu is the most successful manager of the final stretch of this decade. Beyond his two league titles with Enugu Rangers, he built a massive reputation by guiding modest side MFM FC to a historic second-place finish in 2017 and replication of that feat with Plateau United in 2022.

Blueelf, you are just a talkative.

Blueelf:
Some of them are busy criticising me.here

But the truth still remains that technique and tactics beats raw physicality 99%

It's no wonder that Morocco who is the top african team ranked 5th worldwide have european-educated stars who learned the game well early on

They also have the money to get good coaches, and they have the infrastructure to attract FB players.
How many FB players would be motivated to play for Nigeria, seeing the kind of pitches they play on.

I hope the pitch quality and the quality of our football coverage won't affect our players self esteem when they get back to their respective clubs.

Franktom247:
What happened to the Nigerian assistant coaches to Chelle?

I still woke up pissed with yesterday's game Guinea Bissau beating Nigeria like Malawi beating Super Falcons

Football is going into comatose in this country

The former or chased Nff President will just be laughing at home

I wanted to ask this same question, because we did not look tactically drilled.

minsfelix2:
See ehhn abeg if Teslim Balogun in surulere has a good and excellent playing turf let them take Tanzania match to Lagos abeg..
If na to borrow all the LED display board in neighboring Ogun state(Remo stadium) and come install, no wahala🤣....na 5k capacity Uyo take pass Teslim Balogun and maybe the beautiful exterior stadium design of Uyo....But as for pitch/turf excellence I really don't like that Uyo's turf...maybe it's cos of the 1960 NFF streaming camera I may be wrong though...this new newly renovated Teslim looks cool abeg and I'm sure the 25k capacity will be filled to the brim

I love the colourful design of this stadium. It will be excellent for hosting secondary school inter-house sports

mank1234:
With all this contribution we lost 3nil.
It means their contribution wasn't enough. You can excuse a part from the whole. They all performed poorly. They win together; they loose together.

Most of you will get my gist when we finally land a sound coach.

Diavolo:
It didn't even take up to a week for me to get an instance. Didn't even bother going into the past cos I was sure this was going to happen very soon. Sometimes learn to analyze logically instead of with emotions.

You are the one with the emotions and completely devoid of sound analysis.
How do you even watch games.

Ndidi owned his midfield, and kept tracking back to help the defense.

How do you logically analyse a defensive midfielder.
First of all a midfielder is rated primarily on the number of passes of the ball he completes, because that reveals ball retention, progression, and domination of play. A defensive midfielder is rated by how much he protects the backline, destroys the opponent's play through tackles, duels, interception of passes etc.

In the game against Madagascar:
Ndidi completed more passes of the ball - 58/63 with an accuracy of 92% more than any midfielder that played that game (even more than Iwobi in both the number of passes completed and in accuracy)
Wilfred Ndidi made more defensive contributions than any midfielder, only a defender (Sandro Trémoulet) made the same number of defensive contributions.
Wilfred Ndidi made more tackles than any player on the pitch.
No midfielder or player on the pitch had more interceptions of the ball (2) than Wilfred Ndidi
No player won more duels than Wilfred Ndidi only a defender (Jean-Pierre Morgan) is tied with Ndidi in duels won.

In the game against Guinea-Bissau:
No player on the pitch completed more passess compared to Alex Iwobi and Wilfred Ndidi. This is a game that most of you touted the midfield as the problem. Alex Iwobi completed 61/71 (86%) of his passes of the ball while Wilfred Ndidi completed 47/52 (90%) of his passes.
Wilfred Ndidi made more defensive contributions than any midfielder that played the game. Only two defenders - Calvin Bassey (10) and Jefferson Encada ( made more contributions to defense.
Ndidi made the highest ball interception (4). No player made more interceptions of the ball.
No outfield player made more recoveries of the ball (9) compared to Ndidi only a goalkeeper (Fernando Embadjé) had more.

And someone had the guts to label my analysis as illogical and emotional.
God help you.

EEGA:
Alhassan Yusuf, Raphael Onyedika and Iwobi should've been the perfect mid-field for this game.

Chelle needs to know, Ndidi is already on the decline.He no longer starts for Besiktas.


We missed Osimhen,Femi Azeez and a fit Benjamin Fredrick.

There are certain things that don't just add up.
Nawa for all of you.

Ndidi is arguably the best player on the pitch.
Not starting for Besiktas has nothing to do with his quality being on the decline.

I have never resonated well with Eric Chelle because I keep seeing errors.
I still can't understand the rationale behind playing Awoniyi and Akor together. When I saw both names in the starting lineup, I hissed.

The midfield was not the problem. We were not coordinated in attack. We were poorly coached.
The match against Madagascar reveated the lapses we have in our defense. This is not a personnel (player) problem. It has more to do with organisation and communication.

I also think that this match was jinxed (I know what i am saying)

elyte89:
Onyedika has shown several times dt he’s far from been ready to dislodge a weak ndidi …as bad as ndidi is ,I will always start him over onyedika..dt morrocan match sealed onyedika s fate..dt was d perfect match to seal ndidi to permanent bench role but he failed woefully

Against the big names in midfield, Ndidi keeps shining and even brighter. His games of passes has improved tremendously.

In that high profile friendly against Poland) Ndidi outperformed the likes of Vitinha and Neves. Only Samu put up a performance that is comparable to Ndidi, even at that Ndidi outshone them all. Of course most of you will argue this, but stats across several documentations and commentaries consolidates my claim.
Playing Alex Iwobi and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru against a team that likes to keep the ball wasn't a good idea to me. You need player who are good at defensive duels, that was one of our blunders against Portugal.

Frank Onyeka and Tochukwu Nnadi are even closer to Ndidi's profile than Raphael Onyedika. I said exactly this before the match against Morocco, and I was again proven right.

Ndidi is not weak and has never been. His game keeps improving.

[quote author=elyte89 post=1407 Iwobi49443]Onyedika has shown several times dt he’s far from been ready to dislodge a weak ndidi …as bad as ndidi is ,I will always start him over onyedika..dt morrocan match sealed onyedika s fate..dt was d perfect match to seal ndidi to permanent bench role but he failed woefully[/quote]