₦airaland Forum

Clint02:
Please examples of games where a player that didn't score or assist in a game of goals won Man of the Match.

Goalkeepers, defensive midfielders etc.

Outside of goals and assists there are defensive actions like tackles, recoveries, duels won etc.

A player can win 10/10 duels, make 7 ball recoveries, win 8/8 tackles and not score a goal/give an assist

Samueltemi337:
Nathan Tella starts for Bayer Leverkusen
Victor Boniface on the bench

I’m glad Boniface is back, I really hopes this would be the season he’d stay injury free for the entire year.

Glad he’s back at the business end of the season. Leverkusen are in pole position to defend their Pokal title and are in touching distance of Bayern for the league.

charlesemeka85:
🚨 Brighton has made inquiries about Lazio midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, but their approach has been turned down.

#copied

I’d like Dele to go to Brighton if possible. He’s not getting enough play time at Lazio

Amedino99:
Osimhen Sha

This is another thing as well. Osimhen needs to be more clinical. Yes, he scores goals but some of the chances he misses baffles me.

Yes, all strikers miss chances but the closer he gets to being a one chance, one goal striker, the better.

I still have hope he will improve but he needs to leave Turkey ASAP and go to a club with better coaches that can help him refine and improve his game.

Setaleonoz:
Osimhen don dey try for pk

He has improved in this aspect but his biggest weakness he has not made much progress on and that is staying on side.

He’s been caught offside 11 times in his last four games (including this one).

If he wants succeed at the highest levels which we all know he can, he really has to work on this aspect of his gams, especially if he comes to the Prem where the speed of play is much faster.

BankyGee:
Sadiq Umar GOAL
🇳🇬🦅

This is a very good move for Sadiq. Valencia is at the bottom of the table in the league but they're not too far off safety (4pts). The team lacks a lot of goals but I think he'll get the minutes he needs to revive his career. Valencia is also a big club in Spain so he'll raise his profile.

Samueltemi337:
You would have simply asked me why I made that statement
APOTY will be done before AFCON
The next AFCON starts December 21st

Ahhh, really? I didn’t know they moved the AFCON. Nawa for CAF sha.

So then 6 months later we’ll now have a WC?

Samueltemi337:
Again 2025 AFCON will not affect 2025 APOTY

I strongly disagree. Continental trophies and a player’s performance in them weigh heavily in these individual awards. The year Haaland broke the EPL single season goal scoring record was the year he should have won the Balon Dor but Messi winning the WC tipped the scale in his favor.

TheSuperNerd:
Mo Salah is clearly the frontrunner for the 2025 APOTY. Man is not relenting one bit. He wants more than the APOTY. He wants the Ballon D'or/FIFA The Best.

Double figures for both goals and assists in the EPL before Christmas?? Insane numbers‼️‼️

Salah is on a different level. For Lookman to overtake him for 2025 APOTY, Atalanta will need yo win the league, go far in UCL and Naija will likely need to do much better than Egypt in 2025 AFCON.

Salah’s numbers are insane and Liverpool are nailed on to win the Prem.

TheSuperNerd:
Chelsea sit second yet for Maresca, they are not in the title race.

Maresca is just saying that so his players don’t feel the weight of expectation of being in the title race. Sometimes it’s better to not be favorite so you can fly under the radar and capitalize if the title leader slips up.

Goke7:
You’re very right including victor Moses but yaya toure was just too much in that era.

Salah with his crazy form now might just be the challenge for Lookman now. Mourinho some months ago said Salah and osihmen are African’s current best, he may have to update his info now with Lookman, such is life o!

Yaya was just too much when he was with City.

I think we can get back to the 90s where Nigerian ballers really strangled the APOTY year award.

I’m hoping Lookman can lead Atalanta to the Scudetto and a strong UCL showing. That’ll be how he can push off a challenge from Salah or Nico Jackson.

Goke7:
Omo so we were in the wilderness for twenty four good years. Later some folks will come and tell us the likes of Obafemi martins(who I like o) are far better than the current crop of players we are now having. aah we don try no be small

Mikel and Enyema were the only players that came close to ending our drought.

I think we can regain the form of the 90s with Naija players being at the top. Lookman is already on track for another CAF POTY.

If Atalanta win the Scudetto and make a deep run in UCL, I don’t see why he won’t be front runner especially if he keeps on putting up his current numbers.

I hope more innit boys will look at Lookman as an inspiration.

But more importantly, NFF needs to do its part to making sure the environment is nurturing for players. Get rid of all the godfatherism, pay to play, unpaid bonuses etc and you’ll see how players will run to play for Naija.

Nigeria has a lot of cultural capital in the diaspora due to afrobeats, movies, etc. We can capitalize on this within our football program.

Lookman balled but I will give Retegui some grace for his miss. The ball came to him at a lot of pace and was almost knee high. That is a difficult chance to keep below the cross bar

Abeg, may Atalanta win the league. May our Naija boy collect another trophy

viccy12:
Please, don't be deceived by Iwobi's recent form. He is not an attacking midfielder.

He’s better as an attacking mf than as a CM

This is why I keep saying Iwobi should be playing as an AMF for us and should stopped being deployed as a CM, that is not his forte.

I’m not watching the Gala match but is it true Oi missed 3 big chances?

Assist aside, I want him to bang more goals and stay onside. I see he had another 2 offsides…

Samueltemi337:
Watched the match and he didn't miss any clear cut chance
So where is this coming from?

There were half chances that someone of his ability put away on a different night

Osimhen should have had a hattrick if not 4 goals against AZ.

Kelechi has no business in this current SE setup. He’s just out of form. He and Sadiq.

I’d rather we called up some different attackers to try different personnel/ tactics

mekabuachi:
Osihmen and offside sha..

I’ve said time and time again. He MUST improve his run timing.

I still remember that Barca UCL tie where he was caught off 6 times across two legs.

He’s been caught 3 times already this match

Subzerooo:
For SE to be effective, Iwobi must always be in a position to create, we have gone against this many times and it has burned us many times, I hope Eguavoen realises his mistake and fixes up

Thank you my brother!

We must stop playing Iwobi as a CM. He should be an attacking MF freed from defensive duties.

This 343 no be am, let’s get 3 proper midfielders in.

Omo, Osi should have had at least 4 goals tonight. But glad he had a great performance against Spurs. EL is really where he needs to be banging in goals.

That and staying healthy.

Truidstarr:
Na Osimhen matter dey give you erection.

Lol, Im easily one of Osi’s biggest fans but facts are facts.

If you’re paying €100M for a striker, he has to be available for most matches. Osimhen has never played over 40+ games in all comps ever in his professional career.

Odunayaw:
Arsenal, Chelsea, PSG

I really don't understand why these clubs never went all out for Osimhen. At least the open states of the season has ruled out any benefit of doubt that those clubs have sense

I think they were put off by the high fee when he’s rather injury prone

Samueltemi337:
Victor Boniface starts for Bayer Leverkusen
Nathan Tella on the bench

Boniface should have scored one or two this game. His finishing needs work, especially on 1v1

BankyGee:
Bayer Leverkusen's admin is not professional, what kind of nonsense tweet is this supporting unprofessionalism? 😐

Unless I’m missing something, I’m not sure what’s wrong with the tweet…

lbrichman2:
The first Osimhen goal that VAR cancelled, wetin do the goal?
Them say na offside??

Yes, it was offsides. Osimhen really has to work on timing his runs better. I watched that goal and he needed to curl his run once the ball was played to him.

AndSunGorilla:
BBC dey report say Boniface wasted several chances before netting tbe winner, is it true?

Yep. Missed a PK and another good chance. Boniface is not an out and out striker.

kentebemoney:
Bros no vex ooo, wetin be d S.I unit or metric to determine a sound assistant?
Bcus I no understand una oooo. Black man must need help because him brain no dey work well?

All I’m saying is having an assistant manager that is better with tactics would help. One flaw from AE we had seen in the past was on his tactical nous. Not just AE, but many managers in the game.

The head manager is better at man management, but the asssitant manager is better at tactics/coaching.

Klopp and Pep Linjders
Carlo Ancelotti and his son

Southgate was a good man manager but his tactics were poor. He’d have benefitted from a tactical assistant manager.

So on and so forth. It’s nothing about race.

Hotepking:
Would you guys be comfortable with Eguavoen leading the team in the world cup qualifiers next year, and why? give your honest reasons

Great questions bros.

For me, we should keep AE for the remaining AFCONQ, AFCON 25 and the 2026 WCQ campaign.

Chopping and changing managers will not do the SE any good if we want to build stability going forward. Just look at England, for all the stick he got, Southgate is still one of the most successful England managers. The players took a liking to him and he had the backing of the English FA to build long term.

Our current players seem to take a liking to AE and we already know this current squad is capable of reaching an AFCON final. We need to build on the good work done in the last campaign and push on forward. There has to be some stability to build properly. Look at Cisse at Senegal, he was backed even after the 2019 AFCON loss in the final and it paid off well for them. We can do the same with AE.

AE was a bit unfortunate at the 2021 AFCON with the Iwobi red card and our GK issues. I think with the rise of Stanley, we have that solidity between the sticks to not have a repeat of 2021 AFCON.

With a win on Tuesday against Libya, we have all but secured our ticket to 2025 AFCON. I still think we can qualify for the WC as our group opponents will likely take points off each other.

I do think hiring a more sound assistant manager to help with the tactics would be a better approach but AE should remain.