₦airaland Forum

AFCON is very unpredictable to call who will win to be honest. We’ll have a better sense after the group stage.

Qualifiers is very different from tournament football.

AFCON is in less than 3 weeks and we’re still sending in a bloated pre-lim list. NFF is not serious

Riddle me this. We often say Player A, B or C is not fit for African football.

But African football always seems to falter at European or South American style football at the WC..why?

PDPGuy:
I still want Chelle to lead the team at the AFCON and for the foreseeable future. Yes, he bungled the substitutions, but his overall record with the team suggests that he is competent enough to handle the team….

Besides, let’s be completely honest with ourselves: if the SE can’t beat the likes of Gabon, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho, within 90 minutes, and somehow qualified for the WC, do you REASONABLY believe that this current team would advance to the knockout rounds from a hypothetical group also containing England, Norway, and Japan?

I, too, want Chelle to carry on. He bungled the Tolu sub but tried to make amends for it. Kudos to that.

Even if the team doesn’t advance from the group, the experience of playing in a world cup is good for the development of the players.

Arizoner:
thank you my sister and sombody is bringing winning afcon in 25, 27 and 29

These are the same players that went to the AFCOM 23 final. They should look to push on and take the final step.

Egypt went three in a row. Cameroon went back to back. Senegal lost in 2019 before then winning in 2021.

Arizoner:
abeg sheft. Everybody is angry and you are bringing this one. What is wrong with you

I’m angry as well but the fact of the matter is this: no 2026 WC for Nigeria.

There are three AFCONs before the next WC. Our players should target winning at least 2 of them. This is their time

AFCON 25, 27, 29.

These players should just look to capture 2 of those 3 titles. For their own legacies.

There is a habit of these players folding in big games. Playing with no urgency or desire…

2022 WCQ against Ghana
2023 AFCON final against CIV
2025 CAF playoff final against DRC

Let’s see what comes of this AFCON but some players will definitely need to be replaced after this cycle.

joelsteron:
If Chelle can't grow balls to replace Iwobi, Ndidi, Lookman and Moses then he is not serious yet.

I think it’s a bit rash to remove them with no replacement.

NFF needs to identify midfielders that can play the ball and can hold ball. Similar to how we found Fredrick.

Find 2-3 of them and start easing them into the squad. Start with friendlies and AFCON qualifiers then go from there.

We can’t just throw away the baby with the bath water with no plan in place

UncleHaba22:
When person talk about iwobi Una go rush person

Iwobi should focus on Fulham and his music career he's never a national team player

No P....who should we call up instead?

CapitalCee:
Why is availability a problem for Osihmen? I know he might be injured. But man can’t just be available for save his life. Look at Haaland for example he plays all matches. Salah and Mane in their prime plays all matches.

Availability is the best ability.

Osimhen is a top top striker but his availability in big matches leaves a lot to be desired. I think he missed like 4-5 games during our WCQ.

9JAMac10:
that coach is bang average. Osimhen has carried the team all along and masked this guys incompetence. Rather eguavoen take us to Afcon than this bald fraud

Chelle has done better than Eguavon let’s be factual

Chelle should be at the helm through the next WCQ cycle unless he has a terrible outing in the upcoming AFCONs.

NFF needs a rehaul on the nation’s football. From U17 upwards…

ThunderFireAgba:
He has never scored any goal against the Top 5 teams on the Continent.

And how many games has he actually played against them? Not a valid point.

If you want to bring up Osimhen’s availability, then that is valid.

codemaniacs:
Ask FIFA.

Fifa does not send auditors and forensic accountants to audit football associations so that they can sack a country's incompetent FA presidents.

Why can’t we do the needful and direct money to where it should be. Do we need FIFA to audit us?

LordTheus:
Chelle has done well to bring us this far. But let's not kid ourselves, he was totally trounced and outplayed here. Whatever happens next, I hope he takes this game as a lesson not to write off your midfield. Goals are important, but it's the midfield that brings stability to a game.

He wanted to win the game and not got into ET. If it worked, we’d hail him.

I’ll remind you he started with a 3 man midfield instead of our usual 2

GMBOFASIA:
If not for this coach nothing concern us with play off so give him his flowers

The way we are so quick to forget…

Tolu should have never come in this match to be honest. Coach realized his mistake and corrected it.

This Tolu sub no be am at all. We need another body in the midfield to stabilize things.

Right now na only PK I can see us winning this game.

Mybettingtips:
See Nwabali

Just boot it one time

Nwabili needs to be replaced

lloydtruth:
You had 3 midfielders and you lost the midfield battle, yet you removed one of the midfielders for a striker, how will the 2 strikers feed without midfielders.

I did not understand that sub at all. Especially Tolu of all strikers….

Next goal wins this.

I’m not a fan of the Tolu sub…he’s far too immobile

And some people thought we’d walk all over DRC. The game is not played on paper

Bassey in possession has been problematic.

ogbe88:
Everybody is now a coach, we Nigerians r too loud and boastful.

Make una calm down and watch the match.

As in, may we sub out the entire attack abi?

We were correct to bring Fredrick to RB. DRC have targeted that wing all game.

Osayi would have been under immense tension.

Joebie:
Blame Lookman. we should have been 2 ahead now

He played the right ball. Chuks and Ndidi messed it up

I don’t blame Bassey on that goal. I think Ndidi could have done better but it was originally Iwobi that got caught in possession

We need to replace Nwabili. One day his errors will cost us

Dannyxy:
benin match was the most important…

Infact this is one of our easiest…

This game won’t be easy, the stakes are higher. The game is not played on paper

Bossoflife25:
Chelle is good! Damn!

He saw our struggle when Gabon changed the formation in the second half.

He saw the importance of Onyeka in that extra time, and that Osimhen felt more comfortable manning the front line alone!

The DRC also saw what Gabon did in the second half and would have been licking their lips on how to dominate our midfield with their physicality and press earlier in the game, only for chelle to go with the formation that gave him the three extra-time goals. lol! I love this!

You get everything completely. Games are won and lost in the midfield. Osimhen can run the channels as a one man striker.

He get am

Tinneh:
Chelle is tactically sound, I'm impressed with how he regularly tweaks his team in respect of the opponent

I came to say this as well. I’ve been asking us to move to a more solid 433 or 4231 approach for a while now. Our midfield gets overrun in the 442.

With Onyeka in the midfield, it will actually allow Ndidi destroy and break up play higher up the pitch for quick counters.

Against Gabon, Ndidi created 2 chances after stepping in to win the ball from his opponent.

I really like this change, especially given the stakes.