₦airaland Forum

yinkeys:
Ekong ain’t going anywhere till summer 2026
You mean player of the tournament of the recently concluded Afcon who made only one error throughout.
People will beg that guy to stay for a little while

That’s why I said “need an understudy”.

Ekong isn’t getting as much game time at the club as we’d want. Good to have some younger talent in the pipeline for when he steps down.

yinkeys:
Awaziem at this point of his career provides experience to the team when called upon
Has Ahmed Musa retired ?
Is Musa going for 200 caps ?
What does he want to win again, the World Cup ?

Ekong will need to be replaced / need an understudy by the next AFCON.

Our current squad now has the experience of playing an AFCON tourney and an AFCON final.

We need to start embedding in the next generation especially in key roles like CM and CB

Some of my general observations on our Naija players around the world.

1. Chukwueze has been poor at Milan so far, facts. He hasn't been able to displace Pulisic from the RW even when Pulisic’s preferred position is on the left. Even in yesterday’s game where Chuks started, he was pulled at HT and his replacement, Pulisic, came on to score one goal and assist another. That is not a good look.

2. We need all our players to feel their spots are always in contention. No one should feel they have a guaranteed spot on the team. You may be first choice but if you don’t perform after a while, there should be new blood coming in.

Sadiq’s move to La Real has been a disaster.

Also, this Nigerian squad is two balling playing midfielders and another solid CB from being a perennial threat.

Bannedlargedx2:
Even if he lost 20-0 at the final, I will still keep him simply because I’m a man of Integrity. The man met his required target, which was a semi-final and you’re suggesting that he should be terminated. As for NFF, they need to start setting higher contractual obligations I.e Win or be fired

I agree with you here.

Marjoribanks:
I do hope they extend his contract! 343/352 is a good formation for our team. Without that formation we won't get to the final. That is the simple truth.

We just need to find an energetic and skillful player to play the Iwobi role and we will be fine.

The Iwobi guy killed us in that final.
He just allowed Kossonou to walk into our territory to take a shot that resulted in the corner kick the Ivorians scored from. Such a lazy player!

Iwobi is not a holding MF oooo. That was the fault of the coach playing him in that role.

A 3-5-2 where Iwobi plays in front of a midfield pairing of Ndidi/Onyeka or Onyeka/Yusuf would be fine.

It’s like putting Osimhen at RB and expecting him to perform like Ola Aina.

Different profile of player than what is needed in the role

I’m divided about JP. Yes, he took us to a final, but his in game management is still a tad lacking to me and the time he takes to switch up things is too long.

It shouldn’t have take until the AFCON to move to a back three and stabilize our defense.

I also worry he sets the team up too defensively. Playing Iwobi as a holding midfielder will never work. If you do a 3-4-2-1, play him as one of the two supporting strikers.

typicalgamer:
If only ndidi was healthy both him and onyenka work while iwobi breathes and focus only on forward plays

You see am. This should be our midfield base moving forward until we scout better ball playing midfielders.

Ndidi and Onyeka in a double pivot to cover the hard yards. Iwobi as a 10 to relive him of defensive duties and just focus on playing in our strikers.

Omanambala:
There is also a problem with playing him near the 18yd box. He cant play long balls, he can't shoot, hi aerial abilities are very poor. I don't care what Iwobi does but I don't need him in SE. He is very weak as a man

Fair enough, question then: who should we call up instead?

charlesemeka85:
Okoye needs to be recalled to the national team by all means

This guy wey I Dey watch against juve is too good to not be in the current super eagles set up

Maybe we should not have dropped him to begin with. He made 1 high profile mistake and people wanted his head, like other players don’t make mistakes.

We burn our bridges prematurely.

Omanambala:
So , if Iwobi stops playing soccer today we will close Super Eagles. What is going on in your heads ?

By the way, I am not one of those who said he "isn't good" BUT I don't want Iwobi near our midfield. He gets very jittery, overwhelmed and lost in that position. He doesn't have to intelligence, stamina and vision to play there.

I don’t think anyone here will disagree with you about Iwobi not being a proper CM. To play Iwobi, you need two actual midfielders behind him so he can be freed from defensive responsibilities.

Omanambala:
I hope he gets mad and quit the national team. That nigga has nothing to offer Nigeria. Very lazy, weak and uninspiring. Make Iwobi go siddon

Why would we want a MF that has taken us to an AFCON final that is still very young to quit the SE? That is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

If anything we should be happy to know we have an experienced head that can charge us in the next AFCON. We bring back Ndidi and scout for other creative players as well.

It’s good to analyze our performance now that the dust has settled with a clear head.

People saying Iwobi isn’t good enough should answer me this: who can we call up in place?

While scouting for a proper no 10 we should continue to utilize what we have now. When we have an adequate replacement, then you can phase him out. You don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

Our success at this tourney was on being defensively solid, but our weakness was our midfield was thin and could control the game when needed/create enough.

The midfield issue has been something many have spoken about pre-tournament. No point rehashing it.

Once we got to the finals, it was about making the necessary adjustments to overcome our weaknesses with the personal that we had. Onyedika and Yusuf to add more MF steel instead of Chukwueze.

Our boys overperformed given how we were playing before hand. We need to commend them for their effort and look on how we’ll build forward.

Odunayaw:
Next Afcon is just next year!

Nice, we'd still have a majority of the guys in the team

That’s what I’m saying. That is the beauty of AFCON being biennial. You can have a 3-4 tournaments in an 8 yr cycle. If you keep a competitive team, you can get a run at 2-3 finals/SFs

Cameroon - 2000, 2002 winners
Egypt - 2006, 2008, 2010 winners
CIV - 2012 finalist, 2015 winners
Senegal - 2019 finalist, 2021 winners

We have the attackers, GK, defenders (but will want to add one more CB), wingers and full backs. It’s just the midfield we need to improve

I don’t think we need to disband the team, some players need to be phased out, yes, but the biggest place we have to plug is the midfield.

You’ll notice with AFCON, being that its a biennial competition, nations tend to have a 4-6 year period where they make b2b finals / have deep runs in the tournament.

We had a successful tournament, loss in the final aside. We have to build on it.

Look at Senegal. Runner up in 2019, winner in 2021.

2025 AFCON is in 18 months. We just need to start integrating the next generation of midfielders and defenders.

Omanambala:
All I am saying is we need ball playing midfielders.

End of story. We get 2-3 proper midfielders and our defense doesn’t have to do as much work.

I mentioned it. Bring in another midfielder to hold ball. If you have to keep defending all game eventually you’ll concede chances.

The boys will regroup from this. I think we have to address our midfield issues.

There’s talent but we need a new coach and more focus on the MF. Proper ball playing MFs

Our midfield needs to be worked on big time. We lost this game because we couldn’t hold the ball.

Too passive from us today. This score 1 and defend is not good enough. CIV was pressuring the whole game.

We were too passive this game. Simple

Kessie shouldnt even be on the pitch tbh

Bassey has been a bit careless this match.

StraightGaay:
Yoi don't play well in finals, you win it.

GBAM!!

The officiating in this tourney has been very good but this match the ref and VAR has missed some big calls.

That elbow by Kessie should have been checked for a red card.

Nemesis0147:
yusuf?

It would be better to go to a 3-5-2 and have an additional midfielder. Let Lookman play alongside Osimhen. Samu has been MIA

That could be violent conduct on Kessie. Got away with one

ThierryJay:
I don't understand this our BOOM the ball to Osimhen football style o.

Surely we can do better than this.

We no really get midfielders wey sabi hold ball. Regardless of the outcome of this match, we need to scout for at least 2 proper ball playing midfielders.

We need some midfield control. Take off Samuel for Yusuf

aljharem:
We no get midfield

At all at all. We no dey hold ball

Wotowotoman:
Amokachi don dey misyearn haha. He say coach has to be careful with a female ref as they may not tolerate what male refs can tolerate. Rule 1 in modern day life, never get involved in any gender comparisons especially when you are being heard by millions of people..

Although he’s correct, he should have kept it to himself.

This is also one reason I don’t care for female refs in the mens game. The aggression is different

forgiveness:
No. He was subbbed after the defender catchup with him and kick the ball away. The same scenario Moffi utilized if not for the foul.

Semantics. The Osimhen header I’m referring to was in the 105/106’ and he was subbed off at 110’.

“ because a bit after he missed the chance Moffi was subbed in for him ”.

The point still remains. Lookman buries his chance and we end the game at 90. That is the key point.