₦airaland Forum

BascoVanVeli:
Yes

Sadiq Umar underlying stats are wonderful. He will win penalties create 5 chances and complete 7 dribbles in a match.
He has 9 assists and has won 4 penalties this season. He has ball carrying which is fundamental.
No wonder Eguavon likes him. He is a very creative and effective forward.
His all round play is the real reason teams are after him

jasena:
The midfield was already weak with the absence of a creative midfielder which Ndidi doubled as both a defensive midfielder and a creative midfielder in the last afcon,. Now Ndidi is out. Check out any cup wining team they need a creative midfielder, they need someone like Luka modric, the reason Spain won the world cup and euro back then was the midfield. They didn't have outstanding strikers but with xavi and iniesta in the centre it was hard for the opponents to gain meaningful possession. Eguavon should look for a creative midfielder, when we won the afcon in 2013 Mikel made more decisive passes than any other player in that afcon edition. He was the livewire spearheading the attackers with incisive passes. We need a player like that, The absence of a creative midfielder was why we couldn't equalise against Tunisia, and eguavon tried to bring in Iwobi to fill that gap but he should have had planned his team around a playmaker from the onset and now we still lack one

Let us believe in Akinkunmi amoo. If pedri can do it for Barcelona and Spain as a teenager then amoo can be the creative force we need. Remember a 17 year old pele dazzled at the 1958 world cup.
Our /Nigerian messsi can do it

TheGoodJoe:

I believe Etebo took Nwakali's place and with Shehu returning to the team. Remember hemissed due to injury.

Men the team still needs nwakali.
He is like a constant decimal that does not disappear

drDoom3:
He has good shooting but his finishing from a CF perspective is poor though. Also needs to bulk up a bit the way Olayinka did too.

He is actually a winger who can play as a striker. He is like Emmanuel Dennis

andrewbaba44:
Samson Tijani comes in for Salzburg

So happy

Another Sunday oliseh, jorginho type player on the way.
I can remember how European clubs were chasing him when he was still in Nigeria.
He is in a club that will develop him.
Red bull Salzburg main aim is to develop young players and sell them to the top leagues of Europe.
I wish more of our young players were in Red bull. That team deserves an award for helping young players

komekn:
Look at Dessers goals this season , he had been a sub all season and scored 4 goals it's not good enough.

Akpoguma is not better than Calvin and Alhasssan has a long way to go to prove his quality.

Alhassan Yusuf does not have a long way to go. He is doing very well for Royal Antwerp and has 2 man of the match awards. The Belgian league is rated higher than the Scottish league and yet you rate players in rangers such as Calvin basset above him.
I repeat Alhassan Yusuf deserves to be in our midfield. In 2020 he was rated as one of the best ball distributors under the age of 21.
It's ridiculous he is not in the team

13large:
The first step is making it a priority. Our coaches hasn’t made the midfield a priority and they believe that having 10 inform forwards win you games. Nigeria as a whole do not improve aspire to become midfielders

Our coaches keep making the same mistake. They don't care about midfield and it is important. We should get more midfielders not forwards.
Other teams have noticed and capitalize on our weaknesses in midfield.
Ibinna nwobodo, alhassan Yusuf etc are needed than all these talented strikers we have

13large:
Eguavoen should better not select an imbalanced squad vs Ghana and he must ensure that his midfield selections are intact and valid

Alhassan yusuf of Royal Antwerp must be invited to beef up our midfield.
Also Anthony nwakaeme should be invited to help us in the wings.
Ahmed Musa needs to be dropped as he is wasting space other players should occupy

TheGoodJoe:
More pics from Dusan Vlahovic.

The last pic was the first goal, which shows him attacking space in the box and creating room for a pass. This is what Osimhen needs to make a part of him. Attacking spaces and being part of the build-up play.

They should have thought osimhen this kind of movement in his football academy in Nigeria.
We cheat our kids out if many things by training them badly. We don't know that a poor boy can go anywhere onlife and so we don't take coaching serious

We need to take coaching seriously in this country. It is the bane of our football.
Coaching is very fundamental and important to football.
Ronaldo da Lima was coached by Jarzinho who played in the 1970 world cup.
I'm tired maybe I will start my football academy one day with emphast on coaching for kids under 19
Osimhen is the product of poor coaching and a failed or limited football system

drDoom3:
Like I said earlier, he is our second best striker on the ball besides Iheanacho. Look at the way he was spraying the crosses and passes like prime De Bruyne.

A Sadiq with confidence and teammates on the same wavelength is deadly.

Sadiq will do well as a supporting striker or winger.
Eguavons should try and utilize his creativity so that osimhen and the other forwards can score goals. He is actually a creative or play making forward and this is rare.
This is probably why some top teams are after him. He is a very creative and technically astute forward.
He will reach double digits on assists again this season as he is already on 8 assists.
I hope he does it at the higher level as this is the only thing against him but strikers this good on the ball are not many. He is unique and brings something different

komekn:
The top five goal scorers in the best and most competitive league in the world the EPL are not strikers by definition.

Salah
Diogo
Sterling
Mane
Bruno

So what's your point exactly.

Your judgement on players is too momentarily. I mean 2 years ago you will not rate Emmanuel dennis but now you rate him. Stop been hasty to judge players. Time changes things and life is full of surprises.

TheLoneCitizen:
Yira Sor been immense for new club Slavia since his January signing.

Assist in first leg, now scores off the post in second leg.

I've been monitoring him. The boy is really good. He was even playing well in his former club and that is why slavia brought him. Will be in a better league soon

komekn:
You lack knowledge and you have no understanding.

In most EPL clubs they have different phases off development. I know a EPL club that contracted the former assistant manager at Sao Paulo FC Brazil to head up the u9-13 development phase.

To teach them skills, technical ability, touch, etc Because after that age it becomes difficult to teach those particular skill sets.

Now look at England youth footballers do you see any of the old kick and rush , footballers anymore. Look at Eze, Tega Abraham, Iwobi, Mount, Reece, etc

But we in Nigeria have remained stagnant we have not developed our football and movef ahead. Just like many of our academic lecturers still using notes of decades ago to teach today.

Years ago I looked at Victor O, when he was at Wolfsburg and l made it clear that he would not make it into a good academy. He was technically poor.

Physically outstanding and Fast a big YES and he has used his physical attributes to overcome inadequacies in his technical ability, to get ahead. I said he needed to drop league go to a lower league learn, develop and them move up.

Well he has done that and has left Lille and gone to Napoli. However, some of those handicaps are still there and they will prevent him from getting to the top if not addressed.

This is a problem with home grown players from local academies and leagues. This is why we quite a few cannot even cross the ball properly.

With the I agree but our football has actually regressed. The players we had in the 80s and 90s were actually better. Felix owolabi, Friday elaho etc.
The level of coaching has actually depreciated. I think coaching has to be taken seriously. Ronaldo da Lima was coached by Jarzinho (who played in the 1970 world cup for brazil)) when he was very young.
Maybe we should attach specialists in youth football to the kids in our academies. Now is the time to start it.
Its a serious issue. You see if Ibrahimovic was born in Nigeria, he could have been limited by the poor coaching he will get.
A 12 year old boy in a football academy in Europe has more knowledge of football tactics than a 17 year old boy in Nigeria and this is where the problem starts from

drDoom3:
His offside awareness was the worst I have seen in a game since I started watching football, including amateurs. Guy was 5 meters ahead of the last man in some cases and calling for the ball.

You see most homegrown Nigerian footballers are poorly coached. Our football system does not care about coaching and it is very important.
When they get to Europe it becomes obvious. You can't just survive on your raw talent alone. We need to declare a coaching emergency in Nigeria. Most Nigerian coaches probably don't teach their payers even the simple and basic things.

13large:
Honestly, I have no idea why a country can be producing quality strikers on a weekly basis but cannot produce enough Attacking or center Midfielders. The midfield position is the engine of a team and without a solid midfield, your team will remain imbalanced. For now, we only have Ndidi, aribo, etebo, frank, Nwakali and iwobi at our disposal

Alhassan Yusuf of Royal Antwerp is there. He should be integrated into the squad. Maybe made to play a friendly for 90 minutes.
Also our foreign botns can help in this department.

Watching chukwueze now. He is playing well. What happened to him at afcon I don't know.

ChrisKels:
What happened to our one time NPFL midfield generalissimo, Kingsley Sokari?

Omo this boy was so overhyped by the local media

He is doing well in North African football. Must all our players come from Europe? The Egyptian keeper in afcon is better than maduka okoye. North African league is good and a lot of players in afcon were from North African league.
We are too Euro scentric with our players.
Look Mohammed aboutrika was better than a lot of Europe based players.
I believe he should be given a chance as his career is not a failure.
In fact it is better to play for all shly or zamalek than to be in Latvia or Slovakian league

jihday:
Oliseh only played well for Ajax and maybe dortmund but was largely warming the bench for Juve. Taribo was a star at Inter but was already declining when he joined AC. The less said about Amunike the better. Fernanbache no be am

If not for injury amunike could have been the greatest winger or player to come from Nigeria. Unfortunately immediately he entered Barcelona he got injured

drDoom3:
Not true.

Kalu and Dennis have very similar talents. Dennis is slightly better because is like a Jota, can even play CF. He has like 3 headed goals this season.

Kalu can play as a wing back and is more of a midfielder than Dennis. They both have their strengths.
Anyway I doubt if kalu can play as a pure striker

do4luv14:
correct, that's what's on my mind, the slightest handball, even if it's ball to hand, especially in the 18yard box, issa PK and a redcard,

BTW make we dey watch shall, nah to sidon look go sure pass for this one

Beautiful morning my man

Actually fuzzy logic mathematics will be used by the robots. In this type of maths, probability will be applied to each classification. This an incident could be 40 percent penalty etc.
I'm a computer sciencitst so u have an idea of the maths behind it. Read up in fuzzy sets and it's application.
With fuzzy robots are not so rigid

Akinkunmi amoo should have waited until June. Ajax could then buy him and loan him to a club like heerenven in the Dutch league in order to continue his development.
In fact rangers wanted to develop him. Rryan Kent in rangers is a false 9 like him and he could learn from hi.
Any of Belgium, Holland or Scotland will be good for him.
Fc Copenhagen is too low for him.
However he may even be sold this summer or at least the summer of 2023 as the interest in him is huge.
His going to Denmark is a mistake. Copenhagen will overprice him and make things a little difficult but he can't spend more than 1,5 years there

TFLASHOGEE:
Omo Egypt vs morroco don turn war o but this ref go get ticket wey he Play and na morroco go dey inside to win because his officiating kinda favours morroco

Morocco is overrated. For the last 30 minutes of the match and the 30 minutes of extra time they struggled to create chances. They did nothing after Egypt winning goal. The Egyptian keeper had little to do. I thought they had a lot of good players

darkelf:
No Nigeria winger is brainy

It's just dribble and insha Allah

I repeat, none of them is brainy. Not not one

Try anayo iwuala

fabyom:
Kalu set to join Watford! Medical on going!
2022 is shaping up to be our year!

Samuel kalu is badly underrated. Watch Nigeria vs south Africa 2019 nation's cup qualifier to understand what a fine winger/wing back he is

Secondly ighalo is the player that kindled Watford interest in Nigerian players. In fact, ant club owned by the pozzo family will be interested in Nigerian players and that includes udinese and Granada. Maybe Watford can start a football academy in Nigeria

TheLoneCitizen:
I agree with everything you said here except the bolded.

Many don't realise how difficult it is to make good connection with the ball with your weaker foot.

Salah and Messi have two of the most useless right foots among top players.

So from his weaker foot, we have to manage the crosses coming from that left hand side.

Spraying the ball to the flanks is nwakali primary skill set. He has the passing range to release wingers.

JohnBullMySon:
Dennis might find it harder depending on his performance. As for lookman, he will give Chuks and Ejuke seatbelt on the bench

David okereke with his performances in Italy will make a strong claim.
Ejuke is uniquely creative and at least will be good as a supersub
While the best of chukwueze can be difficult to bench.
God I'm happy the quality of our players is increasing.
We have good wingers all over

Meliforme:
Yes, Ejuke is the third best dribbler in the world according to CIES football observatory, and the seventh fastest player according to fifa 22, but i tell you that if those are all he brings to his game, then i will not rate him.

I hope you know that no player in S.E is as technical as Ejuke. I am talking about a forward that drops deep to carry the ball. Ball carrying and holding on to the ball is one of his strong points. You can study his heat map to ascertain what i am saying.

Aside Olayinka no other forward is better than Ejuke at man marking, combined with his speed, Ejuke becomes a very good tool at the high pressing game.

Having you taken time to study Ejuke's passing accuracy and long balls. He passes with good accuracy.

As far as game tactics is concerned, tactically he is one of best, if not the best in the crop. I am still working on this aspect, i can tell you that he is better than Iwobi, Simon and Chukwueze, but i can't really say for Olayinka and Onyekuru, that's why i said that i am still working on this aspect.

Concerning Onyekuru, no winger in the current crop is better at finishing, he is very skillful, I don't really want to go into Onyekuru's style of play, but you might get it wrong many times if you continue to judge a player's quality by the club the player plays for, or by the woes he has been through at his club.

Ejuke is a secret weapon in Eguavons arsenal. He can be a game changer

samtol4:
Sierra Leone Vs Algeria 0-0 , Sierra Leone vs Ivory Coast 2-2. It is obvious they have a tactical coach couple with determined players. Great results against two heavyweight

Nff should contact him. He should be Nigerias next coach

TheSuperNerd:
Looolll... It is the other way round. Ndidi looked far better due to the entrance of Nwakali. His presence practically brought out the best in Ndidi for the final 25 mins of that game.

That is an eye-test truth.

To go far as a team we need play makers with nwakali style of play. That limitation was obvious if u remember Nigeria vs Algeria 2019 afcon semi final

TheSuperNerd:
Transfer update: Innocent Bonke to Lorient of France.

Fab thinks he is a striker though.

The thing with rohr is that he can get good layers but he does not know how to use them