₦airaland Forum

BascoVanVeli:
If u are not going to pass it at least tell me where to get some. What else does a keeper at barca do? Anyone can win at barca but when u beat Messi and co twice on penalties u should get respected.

you should have stopped discussing with the guy when he said that mignolet is better with his feet than Bravo. that's the most ridiculously insane thing I have ever heard

TheGoodJoe:

After Fernandinho's dismissal, winning was no more an easy task. Before the dismissal, we were running Burnley down. So, Guardiola could not leave Silva on the bench but make sure he gets a win with his top available forwards.

exactly! So why didn't he sub in Silva alone?

TheGoodJoe:

Mention one person who thinks that. Or, you are being sarcastic.

theSuperNerd definetly thinks so, by the way where is he?

BascoVanVeli:
No no no Obinna is more their Messi. Their best moments always had his stamp. He scored some of the best goals last year.

funny enough you all are ignoring the busquets if the team, So who is the bouquets?

joseph1013:
He said English football. I took it to mean from EPL to League 2, may be further, since he seem quite vast in the lower divisions.

my bad, I thought he meant the EPL alone

Kog45:
Agreed,let iheanacho continue developing at man city and player like Iwobi continue having a playing time under a coach who is far better than Guardiola when it comes to player development.

This is d mistake Mikel made at chelsea developing under a wrong but world class coach Mourinho,anytime i watched Mikel i always shaking my head why should a talent be wasting like this(Nig vs Spain)but thank God he was still able to achieve but not at his potential coz he found himself at cross road,a DM at chelsea and AM/CM at S/E.

We are going towards that line again regards Iheanaho and i said time w tell may be d guy is developing or not.If not for Mikel talent that keeps him on which i don't think any Nigeria player have for now,w should have forget about him.

you are there. I remember in 2006 my brother said that move was a bad move, I was laughing at him because he is a Manu fan but he had the last laugh. he said the same thing when Iheanacho moved to city and last season I thought it was going to backfire but now if Iheanacho decides to stay there then 5 years from now we will be looking at exactly the same scenario.

by the way, can I just point out that you are making a lot if sense today, what did you have for breakfast?

Icon4s:
Have I ever told you Ighalo was "there'? Go back and read up all my comments about Ighalo.

As for comparison of Iheanacho with other players. I recall u guys said there was no room for comparison that he was on a class of his own. Your expectation on that boy is just too much.

They think he us in the same league with Ronaldo and Messi, yeah right

Icon4s:
So you sincerely think at this critical stage in the league title chase that Pep would purposefully put 3 points on the line just in a bid to disarm Iheanacho? He simply did a squad rotation. Silva has been playing in almost all of City's recent games which included the hectic xmas fixtures. Una wan kill Silva? You have a Navas in the team so why not use him against Burnley. Not as if they were to play any of the top 6 teams.

As for Iheanacho going on a loan move, me no agree o. He should still compete at City. Not just bc I want Nigerian players in big teams but because I want him to compete with the best. That would bring out the best in him.

when you are playing against Burney you know a win is there for you. that match was already a win, the thing is that Man city do not lose against minnows, you can slaughter them for losing against top teams but they always dispatch lower teams. you did not even address the question I asked, why didn't he bring in Aguero alone? you said Silva won't die. fine I agree, So why did he bring in the half dead Silva at halftime with Aguero? normally he should have left Silva on the bench until he had no other choice but he brought him in at halftime although he was almost injured, how does that pan out for you?

Kog45:
I always love pundits that are precise in their analysis and u are one of them here on nairaland.My question is this,is success better than Ideye when w talk of national team,club football,experience and injury history.

Firstly,national team d two should not be compared.Ideye has made is mark in d national team(afcon 2013)his contributions in that tournament was superb and enormous,though he lost his place in d team but later earned a recalled due to his current form but national team experience nothing can be said of Success.

Club football,i know a lot w said Ideye couldn't make it in EPL but forgetting w have a lot of super stars like de Maria,Baloteli,veron,Shevchenko that failed woefully in Premiership.Apart from being flopped at west brom,Ideye has been a good striker in his various club sides.He had a better club goal ratios than success,though injuries did not help success.

I don't know why w are clamouring for injury prone striker as d answer to eagles striking position.No doubt Success has d talent,d skill,d strength and pace but goal ratio is not d solution and to make matter worst very prone to injury and no coach w bank on injury prone player.Pls ask Anichebe,if not for injuries that hampered his football career and still hampering it,i w rate him than any other present Eagles strikers but i cannot pick him coz is injury prone.

I w never forget what happened during u17 that Awoniyi needs to come in for injured Success and salvaged d situation,success injury nearly ruined our chances at d tournament and till today d guy is still battling with injuries.

The question is this do w need to bank on injury prone player and to make d matter worst w are even rating him higher than players who have showed us what they can do in d national team.

Iheanacho rise in d national team doesn't gives player like success an automatic shirt in d national team coz in this thread w have been hearing Nwakili,Osimihen,Nwobodo,pls national team are not for kids but super kids like Iheanacho,Iwobi,Ndidi who proved to us they have it all to slug it out with big boys.

I remember against Algeria d big boys raised to d occasion to save us namely Mikel,Moses and Musa when he came in

A free injury Success should prove himself at Watford first b4 national team.

exactly! Ha! you see people telling me that Nwakali and Osumihen should.be included in our team, I am left wondering where does Nwakali play exactly? is he better than the ones playing there now?! Ndidi is heads and shoulders above the guy or is he going to displace Mikel? if Mikel steps out we still have a ton of other guys who are better than Nwakali and who are all below 23 who can cover that position in the long term. once they like someone here they get totally biased

Icon4s:
You must always remember that Iheanacho is a second choice striker to Aguero.

You mentioned in your last paragraph that he is not the finished article, which is what I have been saying since last year and almost got my head chopped off for it.

Even when Aguero is injured Pep still did not have this high level of confidence on the boy. Pep knows Iheanacho more than even the most fanatic Iheanacho fan here. Pep knows the ability of every single player in the squad. He knows when and when not to play each player. The nature of the opposing defense also plays a part here. When Aguero is injured, he may chose to play De' Bruyne, Nolito or Iheanacho depending on the tactics he wants to adopt to unlock the opposing defense. I am sure you know by now that if Iheanacho plays as CF the best way of stopping Iheanacho is by cut-off the ball supplies to him.

I laugh when I see comments like "Pep purposefully played Navas with Iheanacho so he won't attain his full game level. Why didn't he start Silva with Iheanacho?". Do you think Pep would want to put 3 vital points at stake just bc he is trying disarm Iheanacho? At this critical stage when every win is vital for the title race?

Iheanacho should not go on any loan spell in my Opinion. He should stay at City and fight for his place in the starting line-up. That competition would make himbetter. Besides, age is not on Aguero's side any more. This and maybe next season may jst mark his "crescendo". Iheanacho may just have a fantastic future ahead of him at City.

So you'd rather have Iheanacho as a second striker at City? crouch was once the first choice striker for England when he was at lowly Portsmouth, Alcacer was the main striker for Spain when he was at lowly Valencia. Iheanacho should move out, even if it means getting out of England. telling me that you want iheanacho to stay as a second striker at City just because you want a Nigerian in a top club is pure BS, no offence.

let me ask you a simple question, why did pep bring in Silva with Aguero? why didn't he bring in Aguero alone let's see him work his magic. or why didn't he bring in Silva alone with Iheanacho up top? I am abysmally shocked that you didn't reason that. he brought in Aguero and also provided a provider for him which Iheancho was lacking! do you think I just woke up and typed that? I watched it closely. which you obviously didn't.

komekn:
I'm not sure what your point is

Wanyama is Kenyan I know, I talked of African athleticism in general not specifically Nigerian.

you said the two strongest players in the EPL are Nigerians, but Wanyama isn't a Nigerian

joseph1013:
Sometimes ehn...I will read some comments and will have typed a response only for me to delete it. Na to laugh throw away face for some comments. There is none greater than Lord Pep!

In fact it was Lord pep that thought Iheanacho how to trap a round ball

goldfish80:
To be honest, there is no straight forward answer to this question.
Depending on how I want my team to set up.
If I want my team to set up as a strong counter attacking unity, I would go for Rashford. If I want my team to play possession based game, I will play Kelechi as a second striker.

In a counter attacking team, Nacho would still perform better than Rashford. all of Nacho's goals this season have come from quick counter attacks, In fact that's his strong point

krattoss:
truth be told there is no room for comparism in iheanacho and rashford....


although they play different positions but bringing out the two for a non sentimental soccer fan or coach to choose... rashford will beat nacho hands down...

skills, runs, pace, versatility... common name it..

Guy did you just type this?! Rashfraud is better than Nacho?! do you know why Rashfraud is no longer playing at Manchester? because he isn't as versatile as people said, his output as a midfielder is poor, his favoured position is as a top striker and when it comes to choosing between Nacho and Rasford as a striker oga there is no comparison there. if you were to choose between Nacho and Rashford as a support striker, no comparison there too, Nacho hands down. apart from that LMF position where else is Rashford better than Nacho?!

komekn:
Now you want to bring another dimension that is known but not necessarily openly acknowledged.

Remember that film " White men can't Jump" then add to that African natural athleticism. Then you see there are exceptions most Africans go chop EPL for fun if they have the right attitude, read the game and understand the team philosophy.

The two strongest players in English football if not the World are from Nigeria.

Wanyama is not a Nigerian. meanwhile I can name others, people are different, I moved to Abia state for my Christmas holiday and I got sick because of the.change in weather but my elder brother didn't even catch a slight cold and we both live in Anambra though not the same LGA. if you are health inclined you'd never say what you just said

komekn:
It's very simple the EPL is the toughest and most physically demanding league in the world. Nearly every player who has come from the other continental leagues has to spend some time to beef up and be physically resilient.

like yaya toure right? Isaac's injury issues started when he was under 17 not because he came to the premier league. how many games did he play for Granada?

TheGoodJoe:

Understand the message before running in. From the game against Leicester City to Iheanacho's game yesterday. His leap has improved. He is more comfortable going for the ball in the air. I commented once that Iheanacho replicates what Guardiola wants. Try and jump. Try and press. Try and track back. You see the young man exemplifying this on the field.

In the last two games against Liverpool, he is showing much improvement. So, why drag us back to Huth. Please, can you tell me what I am defending?

I am explaining improvements and you are talking defending.

what is the name of the defenders that Burnley paraded yesterday and their heights as well, let's start from their.

TheGoodJoe:


Iheanacho is no more rated based on his U17 exploits. We are way past that. Iheanacho's rep came from his first pre-season game under Pellegrini against Sporting Kansas. Iheanacho was the best players among the City players on tour in America. Scored a spectacular goal.

The Goal commentator ended his comment with something like, Pellegrini should sign Iheanacho in the stadium before he leaves.

Iheanacho's rise also in the EDS was also meteoric. Among the bright talents in the academy, he was the one picked as the top promising player. In a short time, Kelechi Iheanacho stood out as a potential bright star.

If you take into context that the City scouts monitored Iheanacho before the U17 World Cup, his EDS exploits already confirmed their belief.

Iheanacho followed that up with another brilliant pre-season and an explosive debut season. He is clearly one of the standout players of the Super Eagles at such a young age. Two CNN goals of the week playing for Nigeria.

I do not think or see how Iheanacho is riding on the U17 conquering exploits.

remind me how he got a work permit to play for city? his arrival at city was because of his exploits at the U17 which granted him a work permit. you keep on mentioning last season, at 20 Messi, Ronaldo and. the rest were already regulars for their clubs which Iheanacho has not managed, my point is that my expectations from Nacho will remain low until he can manage to play 30 games a season then we will see how good he is, not because of a few starts and other substitute appearances.

joseph1013:
Right now...I take Ideye over Success. Success seems to have a problem with injuries. I saw some Watford fans lamenting his injuries. I wonder how it seems to be like that.

When he gets over his injuries and proves himself, then I will take him over Ideye.

not to mention that Ideye's link up play is far better than his own. if we are to play a possession based game we do not need to play a striker that likes taking on players. Benzema does not take on players but his link up play is exceptional and I would easily take him ahead of Aguero who turns selfish most of the time.

TheGoodJoe:

Aguero, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mikel (who Alex Ferguson watched when Eguavoen camped the U17 team at Old Trafford) were tipped for Greatness before they turned 17. When Aguero played the U20 with Messi, Mikel and Fabregas in 2005, he was within the age of 17/18.

That was why Aguero could play in the 2007 U20.

Ronaldinho was tipped for Greatness in the 1997 period when he was U17.

you do not understand, he meant they were rated not because of their performance at the U17 world cup but because of their performances for their clubs, he wasn't talking about age just the occasion

TheGoodJoe:
It is not about height alone but leap. Among all of them, none of them can leap like Iheanacho. That was not a part of his game but under Guardiola he keeps improving on it.

I applauded him yesterday when he lifted up and headed the ball to Yaya. That was not an easy skill to deal with a clearance with such touch. None of the City forwards can pull that off.

So he learnt how to jump under pep? Lawd!!!!! is there anything that you won't say to defend this guy? If he has improved so much why wasn't he winning any aerial duel against Huth and Morgan? you gave another flimsy excuse then which I can't even remember again, now because he won a couple of headers against....what is the name of the defenders that Burnley paraded that day? you are now tagging him an aerial beast because of that? Nna eh

I did not want to say this but after watching today's game I think it just might be true. pep wants Nacho to fail! every single game that he plays Nacho he always leaves out an integral part of his team so that the quality of the supply to nacho will be reduced eventually denying him of the possibility to show his talents. he is obviously doing this because the owners of man city love Nacho but they live trophies more, come January when Jesus comes he will point at Nacho's Ned games and crucify him because of that, because I cannot see why Silva did not start this match

Icon4s:
Look at the list of countries you are rolling out: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador (6 already). Tell me why teams like Peru, Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela would not find it difficult qualifying when only 5 would qualify from that group.

if you can't qualify ahead of Ecuador then you are not good enough

Icon4s:
Peru's last 6 matches starting from most recent:

Peru 0:2 Brazil
Paraguay 1:4 Peru
Chile 2:1 Peru
Peru 2:2 Argentina
Peru 2:1 Ecuador
Bolivia 0:3 Peru

They only lost to Brazil and Chile. Even drew Argentina. Which African team can beat Brazil or Chile in a competitive game?

Nigeria has even lost to Argentina all the 4 times we have faced them at the World Cup.

Peru is ranked 19th in the World. CIV, Africa's best Ranked team is 34th.

The South American WC qualifiers IMO is the most difficult.
Teams like Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela would have done better if they were part of African, North & Central American or Asian Federation.

why don't you compare Argentina's last six matches too? the lost to Brazil and Chile, they only top teams you mentioned, they lost to Uruguay and Colombia too, the other top teams. Ecuador lost to squarely to a French team that defeated us by eliminating our engine room.

Icon4s:
I repeat, you have not followed South American football well enough.

Do you know Peru is ranked higher than all the African Teams?

there you go with FIFA rankings again. do you think that Peru will stand a chance against Nigeria? or Algeria?

Icon4s:
You obviously do not follow much of South American football. What about Paraguay?

I didn't include Paraguay as you may have noticed because they are good though not.great either, but Peru and Bolivia?! no nah, Bolivia?! please no

TheGoodJoe:

LOL. Constant game time. No part was played by the constant daily practices MSN made for months on the training pitch. Just game time.

As I said, it is baffling you guys attribute development more to the ninety minutes game time than the hours spent daily on the training pitch.

Has Rafinha at Barcelona not improved drastically, is it down to game time?

No, Rafinha hasn't, except if you didn't watch his games at Celta. he still plays exactly the same way. game time is important, besides Rafinha plays well enough for Barcelona over the course of a full season

safarigirl:
Even the fact that countries like Algeria, Cameroon and Senegal could miss Russia, even Ghana if they're not careful would dim it a bit accepted.

I mean, seriously, who will rep Africa if those guys miss out? All this wahala is the fault of FIFA's flawed ranking and seeding

I prefer this your 4 best second placed teams to the 16 group ish

the teams that will rep Africa will be the same teams that eliminated them which means they were better. the last time Cameroon came to the world cup what happened? Senegal won't miss Russia trust me, and even if they do(probably to South Africa) it still isn't that bad for me. Ghana will.miss out to an Egyptian team trying to prove a point, not bad either

Icon4s:
My sister it is still a proposal.

I understand your fear. Just imagine having a group like: Argentina, Nigeria and whoever. Or Germany, Nigeria and whoever, or even Brazil, Nigeria and whoever. Na die be that na.

If they want to make it 48 teams I would prefer 12 groups of 4 teams each. Here the 1st placed teams qualify automatically and the 4 best 2nd placed teams join.
With this format even if Brazil or Germany dey your group you still stand a chance of finishing among the 4 second best teams plus also you are sure to play 3 World cup matches.


People believe making 48 teams would dilute the glamour and standards of which I dnt completely agree. For eg, the following nations missed out in the last world cup: Holland, Sweden, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Serbia, Czech, Egypt, Senegal, S.Korea, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Morocco, Tunisia most of which are traditional world cup teams. The inclusion of any 16 from this list would even add more competition.

However, I would still personally prefer we stay put with the 32 Team format.

that's the beauty of it for me. you included Senegal, Tunisia and Morrocco, do you think these teams are better than the ones Africa presented? they were not good enough so the natural order of selection eliminated them. what positive impact would Peru and Bolivia add to the world cup if not to give the English team an easy opposition so that they can maintain their second round consensus? the idea makes me sick and we should not even consider it, unfortunately if everything goes according to plan, it will be Amaju Picnick who will be voting for Nigeria and I am not looking forward to that one bit

safarigirl:
Please, I want us to analyze this 48-team World Cup plans very well because it's starting to look like some grand plan to keep the big boys at the top.

So, this morning, I came across some news on it saying the plan is to have 16 groups of 3 teams.

So, it's one team makes it out of the group.

Now, let's imagine these teams are brought about by seeding. So the top seeded 16 teams will each make it into one of the 16 groups each.

So let's imagine the top16 qualified teams on the World Cup are:

Brazil
Chile
Belgium
Italy
England
Spain
Germany
Argentina
Uruguay
France
Netherlands
Japan
Colombia
Mexico
Portugal
Ivory Coast.....

Just imagine these 16 teams in each group, at least 10 of them are sure to qualify from their groups, so why should the other teams bother? why should analysts bother? Save for England, Ivory Coast,Portugal, Japan and maybe Mexico, which other teams will any lower seeded team say with confidence that they can beat to qualify?

Where is the fairness in such a plan?

I mean, they can flood the World Cup with quantity, but by extension, they'll be ridding it of quality

cc Icon4s, Joseph1013, tbaba1234, terzurum5, lakesidepapa, thegoodjoe, cfcman, mickael2, kog45, thesupernerd, goldfish80, forgiveness

as in eh, it is just ridiculous and that's an understatement. I don't like that Infantino guy, he was among those that suggested that nonsensical alternative to the UCL(I can't recall the name of that idea again), where the top teams qualify for the champions league every season without even playing well in their domestic leagues and teams like Leicester will be left out no matter their output in their league. that's more like modern day diplomatic suppression of the lesser teams, and that's what he is trying to introduce here. the beneficiaries will definitely be the Europeans and the south Americans to a certain extent. the problem here is that if it comes down to a vote, you will still see some stupid African representatives who will vote for this system of.suppression because their own personal pockets will be enlarged. we tried to rid FIFA of corruption by electing another European, wrong decision, this is why I was supporting that Prince Ali guy.

meanwhile, do you think that they will include Ivory coast? I can almost bet my life that if this method is to be adopted, they will find a means to eliminate all the African teams from the top 16 teams before the tournament proper

AIG07:
*laughing*
there u miss t again.

After rigorous study y do d same students go on to cheat(giraffing, copying n all those stuffs) during exam.

Confidence is not all about preparation... No matter how prepared u maybe if u step on d stage n d confidence is gone, man forget t. Ur hours of training n prep will just be a waste.

As familiar ppl u may b wit large crowds. D first thing u'll always do is to get ur self composed(confidence) before dispatching anything u wanna pass across...

Well, it's been fun conversing wit u Sir.

Sir Joseph1013 once said some in this line 'It seems u share a bed wit Pep Guardiola'-I can't really remember d way he put t.

oga, you are trying to convince a guy that does not believe that Pep ever goes to the toilet talk more of soiling his hands? big mistake, you no see as people just sitdon dey look una? anyways, it took MSN more than half a season before they got going, and they going not because of the coach's input but because of constant game time because Messi saw that Suarez performed better in and around the box whenever he got the chance to play a central position and that was how it happened. team chemistry does not even come with training and all that, it comes with constant game time simple

vingeophysicist:
vc list legally back up. Irrespective of whether the admission seeker didn't meet up the cut off. if USA was ran like that do you think they will be where they are today. young man stop breeding corruption.

I am not saying it's good, just that that's how the system works in Nigeria.