₦airaland Forum

Kog45:
Hmmm i read your beautiful post and that of Supernerd,but my submission is this,we already have a team that beat Zambia and Algeria but due to injuries,players like Ikeme,Mikel,Balogun were out,also Moses was un available,Omeruo couldn't make d starting lineup

The South Africa match have come and gone but we learnt a lot but d technical crew learnt more than us,there should be no emotions or sentiments in their own analysis of things,is either they performed or kick out.

Whether we like it or not Cameroon game we be decisive coz of age rivalry,being Africa champion is a plus for them,also being a leader in our group is a great advantage to us,all we need is to go back to basics coz we started well under Rohr but something went wronged against south Africa and must be addressed without sentiments.

Rohr first assignment was Tanzania match and later Zambia but against Algeria he brought out his XI team,namely Ikeme but injured,Akpeyi came as a replacement,Omeruo as RB,Echiejele as LB,Onazi as DM,Balogun and Ekong as CB,Iwobi at d right midfield,Victor Moses at d left side,Mikel and Etebor doing it at central midfield and Nacho doing it upfront.

The match against South Africa saw lot of changes especially due to injuries to some players and this brought imbalanced to d team and Rohr failed in this aspect,for instance d pairing of Onazi and Ndidi was an eyesore,it is not compulsory for d two to make starting lineup,despite Kante of Chelsea rise,he is still a second fiddle in French national team,Benzema despite wearing Real shirt,find it difficult to break into French national team of late.

Despite the presence of Onazi,Ndidi which i believe is enough for now,some are clamouring for Esiti,whereas Agu is in d waiting,do we need to invite all this guys coz i realized they are all DM.Instead of inviting Agu and Esiti we need to give room for attacking midfielder like Ajagun or put Iwobi in his right place so that absence of Mikel w not be felt.

If care is not taking Rohr we still get it wrong against Cameroon coz looking for a striker at this time to prosecute Cameroon match is out of it,we already have Nacho,Kayode,he should just add Ideye who is already part of d team and move on.

Rohr should just revisit his XI against Algeria with omission of Akpeyi and probably Iwobi with Ideye coming to d line up to give Nacho chance to do his things.

My line up against Cameroon is Ikeme in goal and 4-3-3 formation with Omeruo, Echiejele,Balogun,Ekong in d defence,Onazi,Etebor,Mikel in d midfield,Moses,Ideye,Iheanacho in d attacks,just hope no injury set in,this team we do it against Cameroon.

ok you want us to play a 4-3-3? then either Nacho or Ideye has to sit on the bench. Nacho is not a LWF at all, the pace isn't there and the trickery isn't well developed. honestly we have Etebo who performs best as LWF yet you want to put Nacho who has never played there just because you don't want him to sit on the bench?

now here is my own analysis. I can cry from now till August but Onazi will start so I have to put that into consideration. the CB pairing will be Balogun and Ekong, in the full back roles we have a problem. Echejile and Omeruo will be totally murdered with pace if they venture forward at all, So we are in a tough situation, either we play with sitting fullbacks (the way Abidal used to be a sitting full back for barca) and sacrifice their offensive output or we may be needing honest replacements. The reason is simple, Onazi will start and like we saw in the last game he is not going to cover for these guys when they go forward and these guys do not have enough pace to cover that entire wing in less than 10 seconds so they should just sit back or attack timidly so that they will never be caught out of position. in that case we need true wingers that can work virtually alone I would even recommend playing inverted wingers so that we won't even be crossing the ball at all thereby reducing the number of times we utilise the wings. the wing forwards will cut in and either look for a passing option in the middle of the pitch or look to shoot, in that case the starting wingers have to be Moses and Etebo, that's their natural position and they are very good there. If Victor Moses isn't available then we should look for anybody beside Simon because all he does is put in senseless crosses again and again, no offence.

then the middle is where the problem is. given the opportunity I would say don't even start Onazi but barring any injury he will start, call it sentiments or whatever. in that case Mikel has to drop into the CMF role, he has a football sense so when Onazi moves forward or gets caught out of position like we know he will, Mikel will either sit for him or instruct him to fall back, that's the work of a true captain. now since we already have a CMF who can thread brilliant passes through to the forwards we need a route one AMF, that's the type of AMF that will look to beat opponents and score not the type that will be passing and passing in the middle without the ability to shoot, outwit opponents or even score long rangers, if I am to choose between Ajagun, Aluko and Iwobi it will have to be Aluko preferably or Ajagun in that order. No offence to Iwobi but 1) we need an AMF that can also cover for Mikel in the cmf role because Mikel isn't the fastest player in the world so the AMF needs to drop really deep at times and cover a lot of grounds too, Iwobi won't last twenty minutes
2) we need an AMF who can also get into goalscoring opportunities. Mikel is there to create the chances we need someone who can put them away. if we have another creator in the team with only one true finisher it's going to be another problem.

then for the striker. if we are playing a 4-3-3 and not a 4-5-1 I don't really see why Nacho can't be the main striker. in this case he won't get isolated. playing Ideye will not work because he isn't going to put away those chances, and from the look of things we aren't going to invite any other striker so it's rather simple. if we can put out something like this I don't really think we should have any problem against the cameroonians and if we can get Enyeama back that would be a big plus. Ikeme is coming back from an injury, he will be risky

TheGoodJoe:
We must not attack the Camerounians all out in that game. Instead we frustrate them by keeping possession and moving the ball continuously. With time, the Camerounians will lose organization and we can deal them decisive blows with incisive passing and clinical finishing.

nice point, but you know playing a possession based game requires a lot of mobility, on other words it means our fullback have to be moving constantly to provide passing options, now what happens when we have a misplaced pass? those Cameroonians are seriously fast, at some point against Chile I thought their feet weren't touching the ground when they started running. there was this particular incident that I want to highlight, I think it was that defender wearing a long hand that misplaced a pass before three seconds Aboubakar was already in front of the goalkeeper and if not for a lucky leg from the goalkeeper and sheer utter luck it would have either been a goal or an own goal. now this affects us because we don't really have possession based guys in our team. we all know Onazi will start, I don't really trust Echejile's ability to maintain possession, if he receives twenty balls I almost expect him to lose five and against those quick guys any misplaced pass is surely going to create an imbalance. So I don't really think we should approach the game with a Barcelona-style possession based game rather with a Van-Gaal style possession based game, that is one were we retain possession in our own half mainly so that we are never caught out of position because we lack pace to deal with them

TheGoodJoe:
You must not hold up play with body strength. When a striker who is light in weight gets the ball, he can drop deeper with the ball or evade his opponents with evasive skills, drawing the defenders off position.

I am talking about Suarez here, Suarez does not have body strength? a player who weighs 85kg does not have body strength? just admit that you didn't know that Suarez can shield the ball not this lame excuse you want to cook up

for all those who want Tammy Abraham so bad just watch this U21 championship, first match and the second match that us currently on going, the boy still has a long way to go, almost exactly like Nacho, he is not more talented than Nacho

Humility017:
please stop these permutations..

I don't expect any Nigerian to do these mathematics during these WCQ
mind you...we're beating the Cameroonians in Nigeria and also beat them away...
you can report me to FIFA
the loss against RSA...will spur the eagles to surprise every Nigerian
just watch out....

Oga arrogance is not the way to go. I remember before we met SA it was 5-0, going into the second half of that game we started saying 2-0, by 70 mins we were singing ' he is a miracle working God '

TheGoodJoe:
Read what you quoted again. (HOLD UP PLAY WITH BODY STRENGTH).

How the heck does that mean does not hold up play beats my imagination.

what does he use to hold up play? this is pure blasphemy

TheGoodJoe:
Iheanacho beat the highline and offside trap repeatedly with acres of space to cause damage. Unfortunately the keeper did not need to do any thing but wait for the overweight passes to come to him. Simply put, if Mikel was there, we would have destroyed him. So talking all these are storyland.

Sterling has played against a highline and played fantastically. Suarez plays the nine role and does not need to hold up play with body strength. Instead he uses intelligence and trickery.

I guess you have not heard of Giuseppe Rossi who despite his small stature and lightweight can play as a lethal lone striker.

wait wait wait, did you just say Suarez does not hold up play? that is plain ridiculous

TheGoodJoe:
Please, the runs came. Looking at the above, you say the runs never came. Maybe you watched another game. If Nacho dropped deep, what happens. Let me explain to you.

The striker drops deep to help buildup plays. (this was not a problem because we got the ball to the point of given the final ball repeatedly) after dropping deep and exchanging passes, the next thing is for the striker to make piercing runs right. As he makes those piercing runs, we still need someone to make the right final balls.

We are back to square one. We did not have someone in midfield making accurate final balls. The runs made after the build-up will prove ineffective because no accurate final balls.

There was no need dropping to help build-up because Iheanacho was already making the right runs. Just get someone in the right position to make the right balls. With Mikel Obi, we would have slaughtered the South Africans in that set up.

So talking playing organized football does not change anything. You guys are also calling for the same wrong call Rohr made. An attacking change was not the solution. We needed to sort the midfield.

you missed the point. I said he was making runs for passes that never came against an organized defence, you are acting as if Nacho is a clone, doesn't he know how to think outside the box? you have been saying X=2 since why don't you try X=-2 and see if it works?!

goldfish80:
R
2 balls where the balls coming?

If the midfield had someone to aim at, they would have played the ball into the the big striker who will flick the balls to unrushing midfielders and wide men to the gaps left by the offside trap.

I saw them launch countless balls up to Kelechi which the South Africans didn't have problems dealing with. Kelechi never won a single ariel ball in the game. The CBs didn't even have to jump too high to deal with those balls.

Let me even add something else. You correctly pointed out that theGoodJoe hasn't played organise football and I think you may be right.

When I was small we had a system we used to call 'forward press', I think it's in computer games. In that system if the opponents defence is tight then the striker falls back into almost a midfield position so that instead of him to be looking for runs in behind the defence which will never come, he will come into midfield and join forces with the attacking midfielder so the defenders will not know who to look out for since there will be two players attacking their backline once we move forward but Iheanacho just remained stagnant like a tree trying to make runs in behind a water-tight defence, that never works.

A target man would have been the perfect fit for that game. The SA adopted a highline, the target man does not need to start running in behind the defence. Let's use a scenario, a defender clears the ball(the AMF has started running slowly gathering pace), the defence line of the opponents is almost close to the center circle so the target man wins the ball and holds it up(by now the Amf has gathered pace and is running in behind the two defenders already occupied by the target man and he is still in an onside position), all the target man needs to do is flick the ball behind the defenders and the Amf will have enough space to race on to the ball because he has already accelerated before the defenders even start to accelerate. I mean a person who plays football will know that a target man works wonders against high-pressing defence lines na, that's why Drogba used to murder Barca with Chelsea

Humility017:
how about the assist omeruo gave....the Zambian in Ndola...?
was that not an aerial ball
I don't hate omeruo....but everyone is making it look....as if omeruo playing that day would have make any difference....
same omeruo that gave rantie an assist few years ago and same RSA played same pattern they played few days ago
no difference...
I don't hate omeruo....but the truth be told...his inclusion on that day won't have make any difference.....

oga the goal against Zambia was a grounder, that's a cross that was on the ground, nowhere close to an aerial ball na, fear God. with Omeruo we wouldn't have conceded that first goal at least and Omeruo is a great defensive leader. he is outspoken unlike Troost. So Ramos has never had a bad day before?

Humility017:
nice one...
to be true....awaziem wasn't too poor that day
presently I will put him and omeruo on same class....
moreover he is even more better on aerial balls.
talking about echiejie....we are not looking for experienced players to replace him but a young pacy player that can link up join the attack when the need arises...Kingsley madu comes to mind but the dude really need to top up his game to get SE call ups...
no doubt ideye is one player that have been used to Africa football.... we may need him should V. Moses be absent

I know you hate Omeruo but let's try to be reasonable here. Awaziem better than Omeruo in aerial duels? Come on bro, isn't it Awaziem's lack of aerial awareness that led to the goal on Saturday? or you think aerial ability is just to jump up and head, it also includes your positioning to actually head the ball and if you think Awaziem is better in that aspect then you just need to ask yourself the last time we conceded a headed goal with Omeruo in the team.

forgiveness:
Professor Segun Odegbami the tactical mathematician, the first Nigerian to be nominated as the African footballer of the year, the game changer, etc you have spoken very very very very very reasonably, intelligently,plainly etc wella.

I know many will not agree for one reason, and it's where you said 'he didn't play the young and inform forwards at the start of the game'. Bhuhahahaha!

You should have been bold and plain enough to say forward instead of forwards o -ha! and nothing go do you.

Who doesn't know you're referring to the only infomed striker in the team called Kayode. chaiiiii!

Some people go get heart attack oooo,


Can you imagine that out of the 11 players that started the match on the disastrous day only Shehu (image Cyprus player), Moses, Ndidi, Onazi, and Etebor are starters and regulars in their various clubs while the remaining 6 players are first class, second class and third class bench warmers. Meanwhile, Rohr was expecting American wander in that game jampacked with unfit players and expected to win soundly.

That's is what I call mumunism coach.

the problem is that some just don't want to agree that fielding a team of bench warmers isn't going to make any sense going forward. I know I have defended some players but the simple truth is that the next match is in August, our players would not have done anything special, the season would still be young or even yet to start therefore we need to utilise players that are in active leagues at that time especially the Chinese based players. Or we can just start our regular bench warming players and the same thing will happen all over again

Kog45:
Michael2 and Onazi?

the guy used to be my best player between 2013 and 2014, his complete capitulation is the reason why I just can't trust him again

Dedebanky85:
Has it ever occur3d to anyone that Onazi could be a great LB/RB. Apart from the "wayo" PK they awarded against him in 2013 ANC, Onazi excelled greatly in the RB position against Zambia. Alaba was converted from MF to one of the best FBs. There are many more players like this. I say this cos I think Onazi could excel very well in thr problematic LB position. He has the energy to pace up and down all game, he tackles very firmly, we can manage his passings if he's in the opponents box.
Also, we seem to underrate Ideye a lot in Naija. Ideye is one attacker that makes a nonsense attack lime look like they have swag due to his link up play. Although, he misses a lot but his movement is a source of concern to most opposing defences. He worked perfectly with Emenike, Iheanacho and to some extent with Musa. One of my regrets watching SE is that I never got to see Ideye and Martins play together. To me these are the best linkup attackers that Naija have had in recent times.
With that being said, my ideal teamexcluding injuries would be:

Ikeme; Shehu RB, Balogun & Troost CBs, Onazi LB; Mikel and Ndidi MFs; Etebo LM/LW, Moses LM/LW; Iheanacho SS, Ideye FW

Onazi of 2013 is not the same as Onazi of 2017. If you try that stuff then we will end up having a 3 man backline or the chances are that he will continue conceding dangerous freekicks. The criticism we have of his game is his lack of positional discipline and you want to play him at LB?

Icon4s:
Haha haha.

Seems the only Eagles he credits is his 1980 winning class.

Ask him to pick 5 best Nigerian players ever and 4 will come from his set.

He said Akpeyi is the worst Eagles goalie ever. He forgot there was one Chigozie Agbim. Hahahaha.

what's the difference between Agbim and Akpeyi?

do4luv14:
I don't said he is of poi,t, but are you telling me that even after watching the match, you don't pin point it,

1. Onezi is always dis-organized, he dose not stay in his position, he like going here and dia, and wen the player who was supposed to be covering that area, see onazi doing it, he joins the attack thinking onazi will cover, but you already know he wo,t

Not to mention that Onazi was running from the ball. I watched that match and never for once did he fall in between the two CBs which is the main position of any good DMF when the ball is in our side of the pitch....but just let it go

do4luv14:
and you won't understand, if you watch IGHALO games under FLORE you will see what he can offer,



one thing that had been missing in our games lately, is that our coaches had not been watching and monitoring their club forms, to know why they play very well and score goals,

and they won't still utilized them according to their potential, so as to do maximum damage to our opponents

Ok so we will play a formation that suits Ighalo. We will also play a formation that suits Iheanacho, we will also play a formation that brings the best out of Iwobi and all three players favour different formations from the one the coach wants, how many formations will we now be playing? 5? You think football is like that?

TheGoodJoe:

It helps with a ball playing conscious defensive midfielder but under pressure (against a pressing attack), those defenders will look to clear the ball than find their ball playing defensive midfielder. That is why the team needs a balance in defenders/defensive midfielder selection.

I agree a very mobile ball playing defender who sticks close to the defenders will make a world of difference for physical playing defenders. Also the wing backs need to also fall back to give the defenders passing options.

the problem is that I don't really think Rohr will be tactical enough to think of something like this. we are probably going to see the same approach we had against Algeria with the same starting eleven

TheGoodJoe:
Most times, physical sides employ the direct route of long balls and set pieces. The solution lies in keeping the ball for a long time and prevent the opposing team getting a chance to win the ball in dangerous positions.

Anyone trying to play in artistic way will be the point of target. Most especially Victor Moses. They will rely on fouling, counter attacking with pace and power. Whipping the ball into dangerous areas.

The central back positions are key and I agree in selecting players who are strong and good in the air. But it could be detrimental to build up play because physical defenders prefer to hurl the ball out instead of passing. That entails giving back possession.

We should aim at keeping the ball and hitting them with off the ball mobility.

you can still play a possession based game with bullish defenders, just that you need a very mobile DMF who will not shy away from the ball, who will fall in between the two CBS collect the passes directly from their feet and feed the next line of midfield. this just shows that our main area right now has to be the DMF

For the life of me I cannot understand why they want to invite Ighalo again. When he was in top form he was maximum crap for us, now that he isn't even in form we want to invite him? That his spot could be taken up by another chinese based striker who is in better form, Martins or Adi, why is Ighalo getting invited again?!

BascoVanVeli:
What makes u doubt I watched the match? Because I am not agreeing with u? Malaga caught barca on a counter attack after a corner and Jeremy Mathieu was the man on duty. Normally it is Mascherano that falls back, I don't know where u got Busquets from.

Normally? In the match where Masch scored his first goal, he already hit the bar from a corner kick. Masch always moves forward for every corner, it's Alba and Busquets that stays back.

I ask again, do you know why Mathieu was blamed?

maidaboi:
this is too much na
you keep mentioning defoe, ibrahamovic and the likes who still play in top european leagues while these nigerian players play in the lowest leagues
and you are comparing them
this is like comparing secondary and primary school students

Gyan nko?

forgiveness:
Who told you he found it difficult to score in the Eredivisie?

If he was that poor, why did Chelsea recall him and made him the third choice striker?

It is high time we start spotting talent. That is the wise man's life.

A third choice striker that did not play a single minute all season long?? How reassuring.

How many goals did he score in the dutch league??

I repeat if you give me Nacho, Oshimen and Solanke and I am asked to choose talent wise, Oshimen first, then Nacho. I will even reject Solanke

forgiveness:
We can't generalize all the players abroad because of one or two bad sheeps. It's not wise.

Lookman was part of team Nigeria in England for some time but nobody invited him to the national team. They sounded Amuneke but he was not interested.


Dominic Solanke showed interest but NFF refused to act. Period.

so when the going gets tough they come to us but when it starts getting better they ditch us? Which sane coach will invite a lad who was finding it difficult to score in the dutch league? You make sense sometimes then at other times I just can't grab what your problem is

sontoly:
bros one Legged?, really?? are u trying to be impressive or u just want make us laff?, all those players u mentioned are playing for their retirement, dey may not even bother playing for us.
if u don't give young players opportunities to get experience there won't be experienced players na.

nobody said stop inviting the young players, where I have a problem is inviting someone like Oshimen telling me he is a player for the future when all our players are for the future as well. Nacho isn't more than 3 years older than Oshimen, Kayode is also less than 23 or so, these guys will still be here 7 years from now so when is this future for Oshimen?

The point we are making is that if a slot should be given to any wild card, then it should be given to an experienced wild card not a 'player for the future'. Martins in top form is 1000 times better than Nacho in top form as a striker, and Martins is still 32 or so and playing well for his club, so he is still in top form. Odewinge in top form offers a lot more than Etebo playing as a SS and a lot more than Moses Simon playing as a winger and Odewinge is still playing well. Both players have reaffirmed their desire to play for us so what the hell? The young guys too can learn a lot from them so I think everybody wins, in 2 years they newbies like Nacho would have learnt enough and we will have a smooth transition

Humility017:
what' does dalung know about football? if we were in a sane country... he should have been fired before now... he is a serious problem that needs to be solved I never expect much from these government anyway.....

he is the sports minister, not the football minister

do4luv14:
yes you get it, but that guy is a goalie ooo

unfortunately he is a nigerian. If he was a white guy he would have been in one top club and he wouldn't even need to study anymore, or he can study while playing. Here in Nigeria football takes all your time

Icon4s:
But at that point in time where was the 'organized defense ' that he was left one on one with Rantie. And he did the 'right thing' by allowing Rantie to dribble him like an amateur keeper right?

are you not getting the difference? Enyeama's incident occured in the box, that would have been a red card and a penalty, 2 goals down. Akpeyi's incident occured outside the box, red card and minor freekick, we are still in the game

Daninya11:
Some of the technical committee members include the likes of Christian Chukwu,Chris Green, Garba Lawal etc

Chris Green and Garba Lawal are the technical guys? OMG!!! Christian Chukwu I can understand

Icon4s:
And you feel the way Enyeama handled it and got dribbled like an Amerture was 'fantastic' as you put it.

Y E S!!! The point is that you don't even see Enyeama in such conditions most times because he organises his defence well. But he did the right thing in that situation

Icon4s:
Femi Thomas, Ajiboye.
Wait. Which clumsy mistake?

the one that led to them hitting the first bar

Icon4s:
Femi Thomas?
Chai na wa.

yes, even Ajiboye wouldn't make such clumsy mistake