₦airaland Forum

TheGoodJoe:

I agree with most but I disagree on Iheanacho. Among the forwards, Chukwueze, Osimhen, Simon and Iheanacho, Iheanacho was the only one working with the midfield.

He was the only one dropping deep to help build play, keep possession and give us numerical strength in the midfield. I value these over most attacking qualities because it ties with the basic principle of keeping the ball.

Also, Iheanacho is the only forward we have that can keep his head up to see a team mate in space and he also had the passing ability.

What affected Iheanacho yesterday was our poor to non existent possessive play but from that angle he did a good job.

On Iheanacho, we'll never agree so let's just leave it like that

I am disappointed.

The 0 - 0 scoreline feels like a loss to me and it's advantage Ghana on Tuesday in Abuja.

Observations / random thoughts

1. Eguavoen as a coach is below par.

2. Eguavoen's formation, tactical set up and reading of matches is poor.

3. Eguaveon doesn't know his best players and the roles best suited for them

4. Despite the good performance of Leon Balogun today, he's lost some inches of pace, has poor balance, is leggy and uncomfortable with the ball at his feet.

Seriously, he shouldn't be starting our games. Semi Ajayi, Chidozie Awaziem & Olisah Ndah (both not in the squad) are better ball playing defenders.

5. Innocent Bonke is a carpenter. He may play regularly for Lorient but in no planet is he a good defensive midfielder.

6. Iheanacho brings only clinical finishing to the table but he'll only score if he gets the chance. His clinicality is not enough for midfield solidity, work rate, mobility upfront & channel runnings to be sacrificed in our game. Aribo should be playing the advanced midfield/support striker role behind Osimhen.

7. Chukwueze is not it. He's too predictable, is easily shoved off the ball, misplaces passes and losses possession a lot. Furthermore, playing him puts a huge burden on his wing back. Dennis or Lookman should be starting ahead of him.

8. Frank Onyeka is a baller. He and Etebo's inclusion brought some steel & solidity, better ball rotation and retention to the team. He also appears to be comfortable with ball at feet and driving forward.

He won the free kick taken by Iheanacho and also sold that dummy that took out two ghanaian players towards the end of the game. For me, Frank has cemented a starting shirt with his performance.

13large:
It’s not even about being world class but football basics. The guy a clinical finisher and can occasionally assist. But, his football basics is atrocious

100% fact!

Joebie:
You people should stop talking about draw in Abuja.. We will win there.. There is no way our forwards will have no answers over two legs. Tufiakwa, with Amuneke in the coaching crew?

Amuneke is in the same whatsapp group with Eguavoen.

safarigirl:
Semid4lyfe, where you dey? People don dey run mad for this thread, bring rope come tie them abeg, before dem enter market.

I've dealt with the disturbances.

Just returning from EaglesTracker live on IG.

Despite the 0 - 0 scoreline, Eguavoen is a carpenter coach.

Not impressed at all

Goal dey smell for Naija net

For the umpteenth time, what is Iheanacho still doing on the pitch?

What is Iheanacho still doing on the pitch after two substitutions?

Eguavoen is a dolt

Eguavoen ia a carpenter. Na breeze full him head

Curtisaxel10:
Balogun is an expired product please. Dude can hardly stay balanced on the ball. Semi Ajayi is ten times better.

I agree

EgusiShankly:
Chukwueze and iheanacho in the same eleven is a burden to the rest players

Gbamsolutely

Philosopher1979:
Frank onyeks should be in midfield while atibo will play 10 in front of onyeks and bonke. Dennis can replace chukwueze.

Eguavon is getting his tactics wrong.
Nigeria has a serious coaching problem since westerhoof left.
Maybe the present coach of Ajax yrn hag can help.
There is no difference between Eguavon and rohr. Good players but bad coaches. I am tired. Our football administrators should work on our coaches.

Exactly.

Iheanacho's clinicality and finishing is not enough to keep him on the pitch. Na when he see chance him go score.

Remove Iheanacho for Onyeka. Push Aribo forward to play behind Osimhen. He's making the runs into the Ghanaian box, what Iheanacho should be doing but isn't.

This substitution has the benefit of adding an additional player in midfield and solidifying the midfield and defence too.

Remove Chukwueze, bring in Dennis.

Is Eguavoen tactically astute to read the game and make these changes?

I doubt it. Eguaveon no be am

Aribo is not a box to box midfielder.

He should be playing Iheanacho's role in this game.

Our goalkeeper has poor ball distribution and is dtawing pressure to the defence

Balogun and Ekong seem. shaky

andrewbaba44:
This my brother must Dey vex

I dey vex pass am.

I repeat Ghana is playing a 3-5-1-1 which means they'll have numbers in midfield and on the wings to double mark Chukwueze and Moses Simon to render them ineffective.

Also, the best personnel have not been selected for our formation.

Dennis should be starting ahead of Chukwueze.

Iheanacho is not the best fit for the support striker role and with his selection we're playing short-one.

If we don't qualify, Eguaveon should be sacked and given a life time ban from Nigerian football.

safarigirl:
He thinks we are using that midfield.

Wingers go finish their lives today, if Partey see ball, make I know wetin happen

Ghana is lining up in a 3-5-1-1 and will be double marking our wingers.

Don't be surprised if our wingers are as ineffective as they were against Tunisia.

Joebie:
Seems it's a 4-2-3-1/4-2-4

modified
A very attack-minded formation.. hmm let's see how this goes

Eguaveon is a blockhead.

If this is indeed the formation, Iheanacho is minus one in that support striker role.

So Eguavoen wants to play 4-4-2 again with Iheanacho as Support Striker?

No be na wa, na real wa...

Odunayaw:
If Italy had Nigerian fans, coaches and analysts will have sprung from the depths of all social media

That's exactly what's haopening.

Their own worse pass Nigeria and Donnaruma in particular is getting a lot of criticism for the conceded goal.

Conceding this goal just after his error against Madrid is not a good look.

North Macedonia 1 - 0 Italy

Italy don ja

It's an away game and Austin Eguavoen needs to be pragmatic in his approach. He needs numbers in midfield as Ghana will definitely adopt Tunisia's template.

I hope he does not play 4-4-2. He must also not start Iheanacho as that will leave us thin in mdfield, distort the shape & affect the solidity of the team.

That being said, I hope he opts for a 4-3-3 or a variation of it.

My preferred starting line-up is

Goalkeeper - Francis Uzoho

Defenders - Ola Aina (Right back), Leon Balogun (Central Defence), Semi Ajayi (Central Defence), Zaidu Sanusi (Left back)

Midfielders - Innocent Bonke (Defensive Midfield), Frank Onyeka (Central Defensive Midfield/Box-to-Box Midfielder), Joe Aribo (Attacking Midfielder/Support Striker)

Forwards - Bonaventure Dennis (Right Wing Forward), Moses Simon (Left Wing Forward), Victor Osimhen (Centre Forward).

Like someone posited earlier, the future of our indigenous coaches as Super Eagles coaches will be determined by the outcome of this WCQ.

If we don't qualify, indigenous coaches should not be appointed to coach the team for the next 10 years.

Punch is reporting that Ghana plans to destabilize our team with off-field tactics especially Covid-19.

According to the report they plan to reject the Covid-19 certificates of some of our key players, insist on running their own tests which will return positive results and rule out the players.

Question:

How possible is this? I thought CAF has an independent healthcare company from Europe conducting the covid tests because of this kind of shenanigans from host countries?

Pls stop quoting Grozny aka PurpleHouse's vile post.

If you do, your post will be hidden. Thanks as you comply

codemaniacs:
Saka was one of their best players in the Euros and contributed a lot to them been in the final..

don't compare Maduka to Saka ever again especially a GK and a Winger..

Zouma still gets booed just because he spanked a Cat.. they haven't created a fresh slate for Zouma.. so stop deceiving yourself..

Akpeyi's main issue is he was and probably the only S.E goalkeeper to intent:ionally throw the ball into the net in a friendly match... so if Akpeyi makes a mistake people will be suspicious and I don't understand why he still gets invited after such event...

Europ:ean fans are worse than Africans

That was Austin Ejide and not Daniel Akpeyi

PurpleHouse has been "laid off"

He has been ruled out of the Ghana-Nigeria match on Friday.

It's also uncertain if he will be available for the return leg on Tuesday.



Fingers crossed

caprikon:
Aside Eguavoen talking about his team, tactics and so on .....he needs to show some level of innovation and flexibility in his tactical approach.

The Ghanaians are most likely going to adopt the Tunisian template at AFCON against us because it suits them perfectly as the underdog. Wouldn't be surprised if Ghana lines up in a 4-5-1 formation, defending deep and relying on counters.

That's exactly how they'll play.

Playing an open all out attacking formation against us will be suicidal for them cos of our fast & skillful forward players.

...... and I am not sure Eguavoen knows how to counter that formation.

TheGoodJoe:
I am still trying to understand what is wrong in a coach looking for players that suit his philosophy.

It should impress people to note that the coach believes the team can improve and is still searching for the right players to suit what he has in mind.

The Brazilians still rave about the squad that had Socrates and Zico. A lot of Brazilian coaches use that pattern of play as a template for their teams.

So I wonder why Eguavoen looking for midfielders with the quality of Oliha and Adepoju bothers people.

For me, I find it interesting and would like to look into what made these players special.

1.That's the problem, Eguavoen is hung up on the past and is too player centric.

A good coach harnesses the talents at his disposal and adopts tactics suited to their strengths and to neutralize the opponents.

For example, Tunisia was depleted and without 12 players (some of them key players) when they played us at the AFCON. The coach did not whine. Instead, he adopted a tactical formation that overloaded the midfield, played close & compact, cut off our wingplay by double marking our wingers and got the win.

2. Eguavoen is misyarning and making gaffes all over the place.

➡️Admitting some players were invited to pacify certain people & interests

➡️Saying he has not traveled to watch some players play live and that's why they were not invited.

That's a nonsensical statement. This is 2022 for crying out loud and with the internet one can comfortably watch matches in the comfort of his/her living room and assess players.

➡️Hyping a retired player with questionable commitment and trying to bring him back into the fold

➡️Saying he knows his starting 11 against Ghana when the players have not reported to camp and had any training.

➡️Saying he cannot play through the middle (midfield) because he lacks players like Mutiu Adepoju and the late Thompson Oliha.

When you juxtapose the last two statements, you'll realize Eguavoen has already given away his formation and tactics for the game against ghana

Eguavoen no try abeg.


By the way, there was nothing special in Thompson Oliha and Mutiu Adepoju. It's just Eguavoen and his nostalgia for the past.

NFF should barr Eguavoen from granting press interviews.

His utterances leave much to be desired.

drDoom3:
Iheanacho is so dangerous from the right edge of the 18 yard box. Most of his goals this and last season have been from there. Bottom corner, top corner, left, right, he just needs one touch to control and before you know it the ball is in the back of the net.

Most times, he fails to control the ball with that one touch and is quickly crowded out or dispossessed.

Also his pressing, closing space, work rate, ball playing ability, link/hold-up play, speed, physicality & strength etc leaves much to be desired.

His strengths - shooting & clinical finishing.

He's presents a conundrum of sort as he's not the best for the role of an attacking midfielder, support striker or a 9.

Good enough to be a squad player and making substitute appearances but shouldn't be starting games for the Super Eagles as his minuses outweighs what he brings to the team.

Pochettino is a bottler

Benzema.... what a baller!