₦airaland Forum

Good play from the boys, but should really hit the target from there Osayi

Samunique:
Boniface is not even in the lineup. The dude has to learn to be disciplined, he came for very important matches but was busy granting interviews with every Tom and Jerry blogger, no coach would be happy with that. He has to change bcs I see an attitudinal problem in him.

How do we know it’s an attitude issue that’s he’s not starting and not a fitness issue?

We like to assume when we only have a small picture of what’s happening.

joelsteron:
Good one, but I don't think Iwobi and Dele should play at the same time. ONYEDIKA is fine where he is though.

I think you could actually move Dele to a RF role similar to Lookman on the other wing. Have Iwobi just in front of Yusuf and Onyedika. You get a lot of midfield control that way. Lookman, Dele and the strikers would need to shoot sha

hatakekakashi:
Nwabali's performance went under the radar, he was solid. We now have a reliable goal keeper at last.

I saw it as well. He came off his line well, made saves when needed and was calm on the ball.

His distribution isn’t the best but I’d rather my keeper make saves first and foremost

I thought Ndidi at CB was a better option than when he was in the midfield. It allowed us more progressive passing from the back.

Nice work from Dele. Took the initiative with the goal.

kennysville:
I think the starting 11 should now be the team that played the 2nd half to the end. There was purpose and a bit of seriousness as we took over the midfield from the bafana boys. Kudos to the boys. Gap no far too much. The group is now very open

My brother abeg chop knuckle! You see am.

It’s not that we lack players, but the set up is very crucial.

Iwobi played much better when he was freed of defensive work. Chuks is a natural winger and combined better with the midfield than KC.

We created enough in the 2nd half to have gotten a 2nd goal.

If we approach the Benin match with the same setup and style of play as we did in the 2nd half, we can get all 3pts.

We are not in an ideal position but only 2pts off the top. This is the kind of group where anyone can beat/draw with anyone. Team A beats team B, team B beats team C, team C beats team A etc.

It’s not like we are 6pts off the top like in some other groups.

There was enough from us in the 2nd half to score 1 or 2 in this match.

Benin has to be a must win or we are in real jeopardy

Boniface may not be fully fit but if that, let’s bring on Moffi. Paul moves in slow motion

KC missed lookman on that return pass…KC should come off. His lack of match sharpness is showing

Nice one! Play as a team, keep it up

zhike:
The problem of Nigeria is that they are using more overseas players, while south africa is using local based players

This is not why. Our coaching and set-up just isn’t up to standard. We aren’t calling up the right profile of players and our play isn’t coherent.

Argentina won the WC in 2022 with mostly foreigners even through the Argentinian league is a good league

Our midfield is beyond non-existent. See when Lookman picked up the ball. No one in the hole for him to play 1-2s with.

Joebie:
if we no careful south africa go run with a large margin win today.. the Onuachu strategy no dey work at all. we are lacking bite in attack

Get in Moffi or Boniface. Paul can’t hold ball and bring in other attackers.

SA is slicing us open with ease!

That was a big goal for SA. Very well worked, too

SA is growing in this match.

Perhaps we want Paul to be more of a hold up man to allow Lookman and KC cut in and score from the wing.

I still would rather see Boniface get more minutes as I think he’s a longer term prospect to build with than Onuachu.

I’d rather Ndidi push to MF with Onyeka. Let Iwobi play as a 10 so he’s freed from defensive duties.

Not sure about KC though. He’s been bang out of form.

Truidstarr:
👍🏾This is the first post I really like you have posted on here. No Osimhen bashing today? 😂😂

If constructive criticism is bashing then he will never improve

With Benin beating Rwanda, the impetus for us to beat SA is even greater. We need 6pts from 6 in this round of WCQ. Do that and we are in pole position to qualify for the 26 WC

Marjoribanks:
Definitely! The injuries history is why clubs are hesitant! He needs to find a way to stay fit. If he is getting this injured in Italy, in England it will be worse with the amount of games played there. Osimhen needs to hire a personal physician to look after him!

GBAM! Osimhen’s biggest weakness right now is his injury record. If he was fit for 30-32 league games this season I’m sure he’d have been challenging Martinez for golden boot again.

I do think his absence in this round of WCQ matches might be a slight blessing in disguise as it might mean Boniface will play as a 9. It’s something I’ve wanted to see for a while and the chance is here.

Goke7:
Great to see two Nigerians in the europa final

Na who I go support to win now? This one hard o

It’s three.

Boniface and Tella for Bayer
Lookman for Atalanta

I’m supporting Bayer for EL but want Atalanta to win the Coppa Italia against Juve

Marjoribanks:
The decision he made today was foolish! No matter how it eventually turned out!

It goes to show he is still a rookie on the job!
I would prefer Atlanta approach. Use your stars to start not the other way round! Peace!

You are right to an extent. Before the start of the 2nd leg vs Roma, Bayer had 5 more games to complete an undefeated treble, at that point in time, you play your best team until you finish the job.

However, Bayer’s 2nd team did more than enough to have even won this game in the first half. If they were clinical, none of us would have said anything. Xabi clearly thought they were good enough to if not win, at least not lose at home.

CornOak:
Osimhen with the second!

...yanked off by VAR.

Rightfully called back as Osi was offsides.

I keep saying it but Osi really has to improve his offside awareness if he wants to take his game to the next level. If you tally his offsides for the season they might around 1.2 offsides per match. Really needs to improve that stat next season.

Nwamazi8:
With Boniface, Onyedika, Onyeka, Gift Orban, Bassey, Nathan Tella, Yusuf, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and the hopeful additions of Ifeanyi Matthew, Ibrahim Olawoyin etc the future of Nigerian football is in safe hands as these guys will be the new generation of super stars for is.

The likes of Iwobi, Osimhen, Ekong and Ndidi are already senior men so they give us the experience and leadership.

Agreed, we just have to sort out our midfield and continuity.

Boniface with the goal that could win Bayer the title. I hope they go undefeated in all comps and win the treble.

Also, Nathan Tella should be looked at as our starting RW. He actually delivers good balls into the box.

Osimhen has these games where he scores one when, had he been more clinical, could have scored 2-3.

If Boniface improves his finishing, he’ll have a much higher ceiling than Osimhen. I also like that Boniface is also a fan of the game and banters fans and players alike.

The professional game can be a bit stale with players having these pre-coached media interviews.

By this Sunday another of our Naija boys should be lifting a major league title.

It’s just a shame Boniface was injured for the past 4 months if not he could have been vying for one of Bayer Leverkusen’s best players or even one of the BuLi’s best players this season.

Still, his return should give them more ginger to go undefeated in Germany this season (BuLi and DfB Pokal) and possibly even pull off an invincible season in the EL as well. Schick and Iglesias don’t bring the same threat that Boniface does.

Last year it was Osimhen, this year Boniface, I wonder who it will be next year

Marjoribanks:
Offside is part of the game, Oga. Every player is different. Martinez doesn't play in a 433. A player like Osimhen needs midfielders to release him on time. How many times was he offside last calendar year?

Yes offsides is part of the game and yes, Martinez playing in a 352 mitigates his chances of being offsides compared to a 433 where VO leads the line by himself, but VO still needs to work on timing his runs. 39 times in 26 games is a lot no matter how you look at it. Only a single game of 90 mins where he did not get called offside.

I’m a big fan of his and I want him to do well but that is one part of his game he needs to work on (along with his 1v1 finishing, PKs and placed shots)

Even Haaland in his record breaking year admitted he needs to improve his heading. You’ll never see me say VO should work on heading.

There is nothing wrong with objective feedback, especially when it’s for our fellow country men’s improvement

Samueltemi337:
As osimhen score yesterday we nor hear anything about offside or dribble
See as all of them quiet


komekn, TheLoneCitizen, COOL10, mrwilliams9 what do you have to say about his goal yesterday?

I went and looked at the numbers so people will not say I’m doing bad belle.

Osimhen has played 26 games for Napoli across all comps this season and has been caught offside 39 times, averaging about 1.5 offsides per match. He has only failed to be caught offside in 5 clubs matches.

1. Against Udinese when he was subbed in at the 63’ min
2. Against Leece where he was subbed in at HT
3. Against Frosinone when he was subbed in at the 63’ min
4. The first leg against Real Madrid in UCL
5. Against Roma where he received a red card.

It’s only the game against Real Madrid that he played a full 90 min without straying offside.

Osimhen played 7 matches during AFCON and was caught offside 10 times, averaging 1.43 offsides per match. The only game he did not stray offside was the GS match against CIV.

If I compare against Martinez who is current top scorer in Serie A. He has played 38 matches for Inter in all comps and has been caught offside 10 times, averaging 0.26 offsides per match.

I know offsides is partially dependent on the intelligence of your teammates to make the pass early/on-time but the numbers are there for all to see. Osimhen gets caught offsides far too often.

komekn:
Good goal 🥅 for VO but shambolic defending by Monza.

The defending from Monza is not good, yes, but VO’s leap and accurate header as still great. Let’s give credit where it’s due.