TheGoodJoe:


Ironically, during the game yesterday I told someone if Aluko was in this team we would tear the South African's defence. Sad we have failed to use that man's talent in our team.

Humility017:


yes...even if it was impossible getting aluko to come play yesterday's game...someone like iwobi in the middle...would have done well with his creative passes

TheGoodJoe:


Ironically, during the game yesterday I told someone if Aluko was in this team we would tear the South African's defence. Sad we have failed to use that man's talent in our team.

ChrisKels:


Go home, u are drunk.

U Contradicted ur academy claim with Akanji suggestion (though he's been capped by the swiss)

Tiago Ilori? Are you for real? Do u even know how he has been faring ever since he left Sporting? Another academy player(at Liverpool) and now a bench warmer at Reading in the Championship.

Nedum Onuoha? Experienced CB? What international football experience does Nedum have? BTW, have u ever seen Nedum suited up as a CB? Nedum is average at best and his position is RB. Nedum isn't as good as what we already have, besides he ditched us when he was a bit above average, I would rather we brought back Ambrose than give Nedum a call up, lest for remain patient till Aina's case is sorted out. We also have Nura in the pipeline.

Ligali if throughly he is a Nigerian, check

Ideye the hustler, check

Aluko, check

Ajagun? I would go for Azu Okechukwu instead.

Icon4s:
Now the Seychelles game that we were supposed to use to cap some untested players has become do or die. We cannot go complaisant against Libya also.

All our remaining fixtures are now very important bc we are not likeky to finish top of our group anymore. In selecting of the 3 teams to scale through points and goals deference are used. -2 goals difference is already a big set bacj. We must beat Seychelles by a very wide margin to make up.

TheGoodJoe:


I am talking in respect of Ndidi. Ndidi has exceptional qualities and if he plays in a disciplined fashion and make the shielding responsibility his own, we would have a gem in our hands.

TheGoodJoe:


Ah ah. After Rantie nodded the ball, the ball was close to Akpeyi to save it. Akpeyi had a good chance to save it.

cromz:
u call a regular player for Basel an academy player?? if he isn't good will the swiss cap him
No matter where he is playing right now thiago ilori is a good right back.BTW mind you this is national football so club form doesn't necessarily matter abi ihenancho,musa,iwobi too no dey chop bench The squad that won the 2002 euros for Greece was full of bench warmers.
I wouldn't argue for onuoha all I know is that he is the most experienced defender of Nigerian descent who plays in England the dude no dey chop bench sef.

komekn:


This is the heart of the problem discarding tried, tested and proven quality experienced players. For assumed new emerging talent, Mbappe, Rashford, Dele, these are classed as new emerging talent not players who are on the bench or youth team players. We have a warped definition of new talent.

For young upstarts who play in youth teams in low level teams and leagues and or are confirmed bench warmers.

If you are not making waves in your club how on earth are you supposed to make waves in the SE.

There are exceptions if you are in Real Madrid, Chelsea, etc, with top world class players limiting your opportunities.

zicky:
. For the 2nd goal, we had cornerkick which our defenders went to contest which is normal, whose responsibility it is the stand with the SA player, Onazi, he's the shortest of our defenders had no business in the SA 18yard and as the most experienced player on thhe field, he couild not coordinate his team.

komekn:


GBAM !!! Or not even played at all.

TheGoodJoe:


When you watch the match again, watch Onazi and Echiejile's positioning. Then you can give your feed back.

TheGoodJoe:


Kelechi Iheanacho's positioning and runs were precise. Unfortunately we did not have the right personnel to deliver the right passes for him to tear the South Africans apart.

You can not blame an attacker when the midfield supplied little to no balls. Watch the match again and see how many times Iheanacho was through on goal. Unfortunately the final balls were wrong.

Humility017:


yes...even if it was impossible getting aluko to come play yesterday's game...someone like iwobi in the middle...would have done well with his creative passes

somehow:
Chai, too many sentimental comments on this thread, some people won't see anything wrong with the players they like.

What exactly was Iheanacho doing on that pitch after 45 mins? He was no where to be found and had no connection whatever either with his fellow striker or the midfield. If they don't feed you balls, why not come for the balls?

Even when he was subbed, he was walking off the pitch like we were 10 goals up and an SA player had to come remind him to hurry out. Yesterday was a sad day.

Ideye must not be discarded yet, he's been the best SS since 2012. We just need to conclude on a good 9 which we currently lack except for Osimen and Kayode who are still raw.

The midfield lacked creativity, the 3 midifielders played the same way! No one took charge of being creative.

For the defence, save for awaziem, the rest did well but then when you don't attack, you put pressure on your defence especially when you have a dead midfield.

joseph1013:

I'm not worried. With our big boys back, we will beat SA away.

Many factors led to the shock SA win.

Our major problem yesterday was that we did not have players willing to run at their defenders. I knew we were going to concede. We must concede with Akpeyi starting, a new CB pairing, first time Onazi-Ndidi defensive pairing. But I felt we would outscore them. And we should have. Alas, Iwobi didn't come to the party, Musa was fasting and Kelechi became starved of the ball, plus he didn't have the drive to track to the middle to get the balls himself, thereby pulling the defenders out of position.

In the return leg, with Victor Moses back, we will have our best dribbler back. That will open the spaces and with Mikel's leadership in the middle, we will be able to carve spaces for someone like Kelechi to bury the chances.

Balogun should also be back, therefore we should have the usual fine CB pairing. Echiejile and Shehu were fine in yesterday's game.

Things like this happen. We will be fine. We will be at Russia and Cameroun.

somehow:
Chai, too many sentimental comments on this thread, some people won't see anything wrong with the players they like.

What exactly was Iheanacho doing on that pitch after 45 mins? He was no where to be found and had no connection whatever either with his fellow striker or the midfield. If they don't feed you balls, why not come for the balls?

Even when he was subbed, he was walking off the pitch like we were 10 goals up and an SA player had to come remind him to hurry out. Yesterday was a sad day.

Ideye must not be discarded yet, he's been the best SS since 2012. We just need to conclude on a good 9 which we currently lack except for Osimen and Kayode who are still raw.

The midfield lacked creativity, the 3 midifielders played the same way! No one took charge of being creative.

For the defence, save for awaziem, the rest did well but then when you don't attack, you put pressure on your defence especially when you have a dead midfield.

cromz:
Good players dey rohr no go invite na academy players baba dey find here are some players I think should have been invited to the national team.
Manuel akanji (it's so sad we lost these one)
igali
sone aluko
ajagun
ideye(hasn't been invited in recent times)
Thiago ilori (dude would play the RB role better than the players we have)
nedum onuoha (experienced CB)

Mickael2:


Ok first of all, he was still in that pitch after 45 mins because we were looking for a goal, he had no business getting subbed in that game except if we were ahead.

Second I thought we played a 4-5-1 hybrid formation? Which fellow striker is he supposed to connect with? I doubt if you even know the formation we played, but of course you have the right to criticise.

Finally, Ideye our best SS since 2012? SS actually means support striker and not shadow striker and that is definetly not Ideye. Can't really see why we want to bring back Ideye when Fanendo Adi is exactly the same type of player and quite frankly he scores more goals than Ideye

komekn:


GBAM !!! Or not even played at all.

somehow:
Please give me 2 activities iheanacho contributed to yesterday.

Secondly, you know little about the SE if you don't know the role and contributions of Ideye as a support striker. I employ you go watch out clips from when we won the nations cup against Burkina down to the last competitive game we played before yesterday.