₦airaland Forum

Goke7:
Mr controversy, let's not be in a hurry, the world cup is already here, cos we have played matches after the Poland game

nelszx:
He's too slow yes but better at positional play and good pass rate than Joel and Onazi workaholic that runs tirelessly creating space for opposition to punish and plays long passes to no one in particular as well as creating assist for opponents and marking team mates.
Oga I prefer Ogus' one leg to both legs from both players

ChrisKels:
Morocco looks threatening. The boys dey ball. The way they interchange passes. The way a free player opens up space for the man with the ball to pass the ball freely is delightful. I saw their game against Serbia and Slovakia, I was wowed.

But we showed something better than that against Argentina with the right players and formation.

Martz101:
yes it happens too, you double up with the right back, they were playing from the wings and there full backs(trippier and walker? were very fast and there wingers were equally fast too, he needed to help our full backs out.

did you see moses in that picture?? he was suppose to come back to help Bryan, iwobi was already deep. open your mind to understand this better

ChrisKels:
I wanna see how our Centre back contains Patrick Schick of Roma. That guy singlehandedly tore Liverpool midfield apart but he plays upfront for Czech.

Humility017:
shehu and Ighalo again....
it is becoming obvious that rohr may just orchestrate his own failure...

forgiveness:
I thought you said Victor Moses na pass glory?

You are confusing and contradicting yourself. Professsor controversy.

nelszx:
He's too slow yes but better at positional play and good pass rate than Joel and Onazi workaholic that runs tirelessly creating space for opposition to punish and plays long passes to no one in particular as well as creating assist for opponents and marking team mates.
Oga I prefer Ogus' one leg to both legs from both players

safarigirl:
did Neymar start the game against Croatia?

tbaba1234:
Morocco has been very impressive.

safarigirl:
they are talking as if we are trying to remove Victor Moses from the team when some of us are only saying he should start from the bench

Is Moses too big to start from the bench? If Mikel can be benched in some matches, mbok, who is Moses?

TheSuperNerd:
Uhmmmm... I think we should cut Victor Moses some slack guys please. Please and please, let us throw our support behind him. England was his first game for us after he only rejoined the team in London. I believe he will step things up later today against Czech republic. Biko make una sheath your swords and lower your clubs on Victor Moses okay... Niko my people... Hon.Chriskels, Sir Kennysville, Sir DaveP, Sir Goke7 and any other I missed out on... Biko.... Spare Moses. He loves this team. He will only get better for the team. Abegake una free am. We get match today abeg. Thank you...



Meanwhile, to answer Chriskels' observation on that one touch passing... I have this to say.

It is very simple really... That day on November 17th (abi?) Late last year against the Argentine Juggernauts that team had most of our pass masters in the team present.... This was why we produced passing magic in that game.

Onazi is no pass master. He is a midfield warrior, a destroyer and battle stopper.

Victor Moses, well, is more about skills, flicks, power dribblings runs and some one-two give and take passing approach... He is a player who loves to take on the opposition instead of passing rings around them.

Now enter the team we paraded that day from midfield to the attack...

[color=#660000]Mikel Obi....[/color] He is the passing lord of the team. Knows how to keep things simple even though he is a very capable dribbler himself. Some don't even know he dribbles better than Victor Moses... (We saw his dribbling on show again against England) Lol.
Mikel is that super blessed with skills but he is much more effective when he keeps things simple. His passing and Excellent vision is key to our passing game and one touch football... With just one pass, Mikel can wreck havoc even more than a dribble of one player or two players can.


[color=#660000]Alex Iwobi....[/color] Another very capable dribbling wizard. Yet again he too knows how to keep things simple utilising more of his excellent vision and passing skills.With one pass he beat about four English players to locate Ighalo before finishing the chance himself... A chance he created with just one genius of a pass. Most times what it take dribbling 10-20 seconds to do... An ingenious pass will just take one second to do same thing. WRECK HAVOC. He is the other passing lord of the team. Against Argentina he was on song in the presence of other passing kings in the team.



[color=#660000]Kelechi Iheanacho.....[/color] A forward he is but his style is more brains than brawn. A player who possesses very fine skills in his locker some of which he unleashed when necessary this past season for Leicester. Recall how he beat two players with just one skillful move with the ball to find Vardy easily who slotted in for a goal.

Nacho thrives much better too when he utilises his vision and passing accuracy to keep our moves flowing. He is also another passing lord and the only one among our forwards going to Russia who can pass with the intelligence of a midfield player even though he got the instincts of a striker. His passing was on shoe against Argentina and his Vision combined with that will also produce magic. See how easily he found Iwobi in the box for that equaliser against Argentina. Just accurate.

Even for the third goal, his passing is so good that even a mistake of a touch from him resulted in Idowu's goal. Against DRC where he did nothing much, but it was his vision and quick thinking again that made him pick out Ekong for that goal after Onazi rolled it in cheekily from that freekick. He beat the keeper and defenders to get to the ball first and rolled it into Ekong's path for the easiest goal Ekong may ever score.
In a nutshell, Nacho's passing intelligence is never in doubt. It is one of his top attributes.


[color=#660000]Wilfred Ndidi.....[/color] The midfield anchor famed for his tackling and ball winning prowess is also growing into a very capable passer. He wins the ball with admirable ease and knows how to use his vision to locate a team mate in the forward areas who can begin an attack and that again is another hallmark of a pass master. He is still not perfected in the passing art but for the Super Eagles he plays a vital role in this regards... Ndidi has beautiful skills also and apart from his ball winning intelligence, he has a good range of passing both long and short. How he found Nacho down that right channel leading up to that second goal against Argentina was class. He did this after winning the ball so easily off two opponents.
Also against Cameroun, in jersey no.4, Ndidi was on the right channel and waltzed his way passed one or two players with simple step overseas and found Mikel in space with a fine pass.. That move also involved Simon Moses... The intricate passing among Simon, Ndidi and Mikel was beautiful to see... So beautiful in fact that a goal to seal it was all it cried for... But alas it was blasted over from Victor Moses I believe. But again that was a glimpse into what our passing game can produce.

Passing rings around our opponents will always see us create gaps for ourselves in opposition areas that we can exploit with purposeful movements as we saw for that third goal against Argentina...

And it involved all the best passers in the Super Eagles (Mikel, Iwobi, Iheanacho and Ndidi).......

It was from Ndidi to Nacho to Mikel to Iwobi to Nacho again and then to Idowu who finished superbly.


Fact is when we have our finest ball players and pass masters on the field, we get to see more of that third goal movement often... It is the simple truth.



[color=#660000]John C. Ogu....[/color] John Ogu may be more known for his calm midfield plays and his long range shots but look again... Even in Isreal, he is renowned for his passing range. Ogu possesses some very very good passing sense coupled with his positional discipline. Which makes him able to cover and win balls before locating a Mikel who then goes on to find the others in the final third... Ogu's passing may have gone unnoticed in that game against Argentina because he was doing his thing more deeper in midfield... But he was the one to bring out the ball from defence to find Mikel or Ndidi ]most times... His simple and calm way of doing things as regards passing makes him almost invisible to guys watching on TV but very very valuable to the team's passing game. He is one of the finest/top passers in the team too. Always calm and assured in his passing to locate the nearest man.





Conclusion:

Against Argentina, we paraded most of the team's finest pass masters... Four of them being undisputed pass kings in the team... Mikel, Iwobi, Iheanacho, Ndidi... And the fifth , Ogu being one of top passers from outside the top four passers in the team currently.

Other fine passers in the team include Balogun, Simon Moses (missing due to injury), Uzoho (yep, his passing from the back has been very good.. Very assured), Ebuehi, Ekong, Awaziem.


The others are between basic and good. Yes even an Etebo that came in against England is not that much of an excellent passer. He just sticks to the basics and can come good when he is on his good day. Onazi has more in his passing locker compared to Etebo. But Onazi is also not among our top or finest ball passers/ball players.




This is my humble submission. All players have important roles to play in the team. We need the warriors (Onazi, Etebo), the orchestra maestros (Mikel, Iwobi), the dazzlers and game shakers (Victor moses), the die hards (Ndidi), the intelligent marauders (Iheanacho), the rocks (Balogun, Ekong) and much more...

I only just focused on our passing game seen against Argentina just to highlight the players and role players that particularly bear that strength of the team.

Just like how Simy and Ighalo offer more in a top big target man set-up compared to Nacho.

TheSuperNerd:
I rate Morocco as Africa's strongest team going to Russia only just behind Nigeria's Super Eagles. Senegal is third in my books.

Morocco with Karim El-Ahmadi, Hakim Ziyech, Boussoufa and even Sofyan Amrabat and Amine Hadit are quite beautiful to watch in the middle of the pack leading up to their final third... But they have never produced magic like Nigeria's passing game as seen in this short video below...

Look at the super quick, delightfully delightful and beautiful one touch passing chain for that Nigeria's third goal again... Just Awesome. I can watch it a million times...

Ndidi = Nacho = Mikel = Iwobi = Back to Nacho= Idowu = Goal!

All with quick movements.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPTsufkJfKw

comodo:
Still remembers when Obi Mikel was called SLOWBIE, the slowest thing after snail.
Omeruo was called a disaster waiting to happen.
Shehu was hailed as a rock of RB.
The heroes have turned to villains & vice versa.
Please pipu, we should always stand with our team. Enough of this pull him down thing.

safarigirl:
you must be confusing forgiveness with humility

You really get time

kennysville:
While i tend to love ur analysis, I wanna set the records straight as I have said before. Unfortunately the truth of the matter doesnt sit well with some folks in here. And that is the fact that Moses is untouchable no matter what kind of formation we play. Lemme say I notice we play 2major formations with one of them bein variations of 4-3-3. However as we all have noticed, a particular formation suits VicMo very well but as we all noticed, has not been productive against formidable opposition. 3-5-2 on the other hand thrives on sleek passing and good movement of the ball which quite frankly, our dearest WMD doesnt do well with owing to his ball hogging. A lot of people have noticed this a long time ago and they voiced it out.

Well, I dont have any slack to cut him cos he is in a good fit. Super eagles have been before MOSES and will surely still be after him. There will always be life after Moses! You dont believe me, ask Enyeama!

That said, no one hates or dislikes moses. But what I would really detest is a woulda been , shoulda been , coulda been a goal chances which we get to lose because somebody wants to be super star. I dont doubt his abilities. I am for the well being of the team. We are not the Argentine team that cant do anything without Messi. We are the Super 'freakin' Eagles of Nigeria dammit!!!

Shikena!

TheSuperNerd:
Patrick Schick is a true giant of a forward. And pretty quick too. A good test for us. They called him the new Dzeko when Roma went after him before they finally landed him. At a point, even Dortmund wanted him but Roma beat them to him.

Goke7:
It's not how important, but what he will play as if it's not the same moses that disappeared against Iran in 2014. We all await the croatia match

JoebieII:
The statement is vague. That means it's not clear enough. Besides, Shehu came to the Turkish Super Lig on MatchDay 19.. Abi you no know wetin vague mean?
I have rendered you the liar but you are still looking for ways to score cheap points

JoebieII:
Shehu was the preferred choice after Er took over as coach [ b]is far different from saying Shehu benched Agu in the Turkish league.[/b] [i]The latter could be misleading because it is is pretty vague[/i].

The point is Shehu has been the preferred choice since Er took over.. gat it?

JoebieII:
a true saint would go do his research again and return to admit that he was wrong.. this guy you would have to keep arguing with him and catch him by the wrist first. Even then he would not still admit.. now, who likes the truth? he said he is humble. yes indeed!!

ChrisKels:
The Atlanta 96 you cited had a team and formation, Rohr doesnt have either, hence, our worries are justified. He has tried so many combinations to fashion out a suitable winning team, and among those combinations, the only one that came out top is the combination and formation against Argentina, why not stick with it so that the players understand and get used to it better before our first game?

Can you tell me Rohr's first eleven and formation?

kennysville:
While i tend to love ur analysis, I wanna set the records straight as I have said before. Unfortunately the truth of the matter doesnt sit well with some folks in here. And that is the fact that Moses is untouchable no matter what kind of formation we play. Lemme say I notice we play 2major formations with one of them bein variations of 4-3-3. However as we all have noticed, a particular formation suits VicMo very well but as we all noticed, has not been productive against formidable opposition. 3-5-2 on the other hand thrives on sleek passing and good movement of the ball which quite frankly, our dearest WMD doesnt do well with owing to his ball hogging. A lot of people have noticed this a long time ago and they voiced it out.

Well, I dont have any slack to cut him cos he is in a good fit. Super eagles have been before MOSES and will surely still be after him. There will always be life after Moses! You dont believe me, ask Enyeama!

That said, no one hates or dislikes moses. But what I would really detest is a woulda been , shoulda been , coulda been a goal chances which we get to lose because somebody wants to be super star. I dont doubt his abilities. I am for the well being of the team. We are not the Argentine team that cant do anything without Messi. We are the Super 'freakin' Eagles of Nigeria dammit!!!

Shikena!

andrew444:
Abeg my people which dstv station go show the game

SuperSport 3 and 9.
On GoTv, SuperSport Select will air the game.


Go Eagles! The Land is Green.

Icon79:
I think he'll have his hands full today. I heard that the defensive two are going to be Wilfred Ndidi and John Ogu, to start. So I will expect a more disciplined and solid game from our DMs. And they might be the starting duo in Russia, if they work today. Ndidi is already a sure banker to start in Russia but his partner is still up for grabs between: Joel, Onazi, and Ogu.

On paper, I would prefer a Ndidi - Joel Obi combo but the England friendly changed all that, right now I would prefer to have Ogu with Ndidi.



You no nice oo... joel obi and ndidi you want make two of them receive sharp booking, no nonsense players i prefer someone soft with ndidi or joel obi


O pari

forgiveness:
No, he didn't and we know the reason.

Does that mean Neymar is not going to start for Brazil in the world cup?

tbaba1234:
Rohr's starting line up is actually quite smart as he can easily switch from 4-3-3 to 3-5-2 during a game. You do not need to wait till half time if a system is not working.