Rangers midfielder Joe Aribo is the latest players to arrive the Super Eagles camp ahead of the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon.
This brings the number of players currently in their Abuja camp to 24.
With Aribo’s arrival which was on Tuesday night four players are still being expected. The players are Samuel Chukwueze, Tyronne Ebuehi, Jamilu Collins and Odion Ighalo.
This will be Aribo’s first appearance for Nigeria at a major tournament.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development hosted the Eagles to a send forth party.
The three-time African champions will kickoff this year’s AFCON against Egypt on Tuesday.
24 players currently in camp:
Goalkeepers:
Francis Uzoho (AC Omonia, Cyprus); John Noble (Enyimba FC); Daniel Akpeyi (Kaizer Chiefs, South Africa); Maduka Okoye (Sparta Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Defenders:
Chidozie Awaziem (Alanyaspor FC, Turkey); Kenneth Omeruo (CD Leganes, Spain); Oluwasemilogo Ajayi (West Bromwich Albion, England); William Ekong (Watford FC, England); Olaoluwa Aina (Torino FC, Italy); Zaidu Sanusi (FC Porto, Portugal); Olisa Ndah (Orlando Pirates, South Africa)
Midfielders:
Frank Onyeka (Brentford FC, England); Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City, England); Chidera Ejuke (CSKA Moscow, Russia); Kelechi Nwakali (SD Huesca, Spain); Joseph Ayodele-Aribo (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland)
Forwards:
Ahmed Musa (Fatih Karagumruk, Turkey); Henry Onyekuru (Olympiacos FC, Greece); Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City, England); Moses Simon (FC Nantes, France); Sadiq Umar (UD Almeria, Spain); Taiwo Awoniyi (Union Berlin, Germany); Alex Iwobi (Everton FC, England); Peter Olayinka (SK Slavia Praha, Czech Republic)
Expected:
Jamilu Collins (SC Padeborn 07, Germany); Tyrone Ebuehi (Venezia FC, Italy); Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal FC, Spain); Odion Jude Ighalo (Al-Shabab Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
22 Comments
Nice jersey color out there. We are glad to have you in the fold Aribo, go there are do us proud. God bless Nigeria!
If you guys must succeed with your own(Eguavon), Aribo needs to be given the no 8 role. While Ejuke must handle the no 10 position..
Lol…So, let me ask you. When will you start supporting this team? I was also a Rohr supporter, but at least we are Nigerians first, we can let that go and just support this team. At least let’s see if NFF and the Omonaija crews are right (i don’t think so either but lets see). Afcon 2021 is just days away, we will all see what this team is capable of doing.
Aribo, ensure you bring those masterstroke you displayed in your club to bare. Go for the cup, good luck.
The green white green is enchanting. Welcome home Aribobo!
I can now sleep well since Aribo is in the team. A BIG game player whom on his debut played and scored an incredible goal against Brazil.
Since Rohr is gone, we can now enjoy your true quality but with dangerous agents around the team, we only pray MERIT and not MONEY will prevail in squad selection. Welcome the English Yaya Toure
I truly hope eguavon listen. Aribo should go forward, now I want to see chukwueze and ebuehi in the team then I could sleep wella …al shabab, make una no allow ighalo come oooo, make una kidnap am for me. Eguavon just invite dessers of feyernood and Bassey of rangers plsss
Aribo one of the best Midfield players in Europe currently welcome home…… Eguaveon please give Aribo more liberty to go forward on the pitch……. whenever he goes close to the opponents goal post something happens.
I hope eguavon listens to advice.
AM or right winger na em fit am pass. That is where he is at his best. Hope Egu will use him in the right way.
Punch reported that the coach is planning to start Ejuke as 10 and that may be just the joker we need. My starting 11 will be as follows
Keeper (Uzoho)
Aina Ekong Omuero Sanusi
Ndidi Ejuke Frank Moses Simon
Aribi (8) Sadiq (9)
Nwakali should come in for Ejuke, Ihenancho for Aribo, Chukwueze for Simon and Peter or Awoniyi for Sadiq
Ejuke is more of a winger than a central midfielder. Watch his video clips, he moves either to the right or left of midfield when he has the ball. He likes to run a lot. So playing him as a number 10 is a waste of his talents. He should be deployed as a left or right winger and not a number 10 which is the creative midfield role.
We have iwobi, aribo and nwakali who can play in the creative midfield role so lets use either of them. But personally I would use Aribo as a right sided inverted winger so he can join the attackers in the box and do what he is good at from that position. Plus he is a bit taller than other wingers in the team which makes him able to compete for aerial balls.
The team needs goal threats and not just players who know how to dazzle.
So I would like to see a team made up of :
OKOYE
AWAZIEM. EKONG. OMERUA. ZAIDU
NDIDI. FRANK.
ARIBO. IWOBI. EJUKE
SADIQ.U
A lot of people would like chukwueze on the right but he isn’t very good defensively like aribo and ejuke. He can come in during the second half.
Iwobi starts in the number 10 role. His through passes are second to none in the Super Eagles team. The only thing I think nwakali has over him is taking of set piece. But iwobi starts for me.
Sadiq also leads the attack. His height, acceleration, skill and finishing puts him ahead of others. Some may want ighalo to start due to his experience but he isn’t in the team at the moment (he hasn’t reported to camp). So sadiq gets the nod for me.
Ndidi and frank balances the holding and defensive midfield roles.
And in defence I selected players based on experience and relevance.
The team looks good on paper but will it perform on the field?
Gbam you nail it bro. I second your lineup and with this lineup, any team that will win us will really dig deep.
Now we have about 86% of the players in camp, it is full steam ahead. For me, I am expecting no less than 5 meaningful and memorable matches from the Super Eagles in this tournament. Anything beyond that is Dreamland for me.
The other teams in the tournament are no pushovers. When you have an outfit like Guinea having a player from Liverpool with Senegal boasting of mongul Mane and Morocco parading a classy collection of players, then you know the Super Eagles have their work cut out to lift the trophy.
_ What Are The Odds? _
If we qualify as second from our group, we face the huge task of overcoming Algeria or Ivory Coast in the second round. With “Belmadi’s Boy” no longer in the helm, will Eguavoen become “Belmadi’s Bully” if we were to meet Algeria?
As if that wasn’t worse enough, we will then potentially have Morocco in wait in the quarter final if Eguavoen manages to banish the ghost of Belmadi to the afterlife in the second round.
All tantalising stuff.
However, if we manage to win our group, then a potentially favourable path awaits us in the knock out phases. We have any of Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe or Gambia in the second round and then have any of Ghana or Cameroon in the quarter final (what a match that would be eh?)
Men I can’t wait for hostilities to erupt next week! It promises to be a bumpy yet fascinating ride with the Super Eagles.
Rather counterintuitively, the upheavals and chaos that engulfed the Super Eagles preparations for this tournament has somewhat made it a far more intriguing and interesting competition for me to look forward to.
THE ANTICIPATION IS KILLING ME!!!
On an international radio programme I monitored yesterday, foreign observers, whilst acknowledging the wealth of promising players at our disposal, have already written off the Super Eagles as genuine title contenders. This is based on a number of factors including: sacking a coach so close to the tournament, potential distraction to the interim coaching crew caused by having the new foreign coach “observe” and perhaps interfere with the team, the absence of stalwarts like Osihmen and Balogun, and Nigeria’s overall shoddy management of football.
I LOVE IT!
The Super Eagles have, in the past, paid such prognosis the ultimate compliment by simply brushing it aside to produce some truly fascinating, scintillating and memorable moments in tournaments.
It doesn’t mean we have gone on to particularly win those tournament – we didn’t win the world cup in France ’98. It only means we went on to produce some truly spectacular moments that left its mark in the sands of time – the shock 3:2 capitulation of Spain in France ’98 has gone down the football folklore as one of Africa’s finest hour in world cup history (despite Nigeria’s negative pre-tournament predictions).
Where is Ejuke?
Where is Umar?
Where is Ndidi?
Where is Aribo?
And where is Okoye?
It is time to get up and be counted. It is time to take your place in the annals of Afcon cultural history.
If you don’t bring home the cup, then please give us some truly memorable moments that will live very long and stand the test of time. Moments that will make us revisit highlights of some matches over and over again with easily quotable sequences of action.
Come on Super Eagles!
Come on Super Eagles!
Coach Eguavoen should closely evaluate the goal tenders available:I would go for a more experienced & reliable Uzoho than Akpeyi and Okoye (in that order).
Secondly, Omeruo should not start at the centre against fast & skillful opposition like M.Salah: Let Awaziem pair Ekong while Aina and Zaidu flank them.
The No 10 role and wingers should equally be thoroughly evaluated in line with the rudiments of such positions.
Sadiq is my first choice striker (unless the Coach sees otherwise).
Good luck Super Eagles!!!
Me I have given my candid opinion..So if una like make una play Ejuke as right back…E conceen una…All we Rohr supporters know is that you guys now have the players you all clamored for.. players with so much potentials and talents ready to do more.. And since there might be no Ighalo and musa will just be there for motivation.. we don’t expect any excuse…What ever it is, you guys should just try and bring the cup home… Thank you!
Samuel chuks has arrived so we have just jamilu Collins, ebuehi and igahalo.. I understand ebuehi is waiting to play a seria a fixture before coming and igahalo is trying to convince his club to release him, but pls I don’t understand what is keeping Collins.. he played his last game for his club before Christmas so why is he not with the boys.. this is not the Collins we use to know always one of the first to arrive camp.. I’m suspecting something!
You can’t tell a player’s preferred position when you have refuse to try him in other positions…. Ejuke is blessed with so much potentials and might just bring that Okocha vibes playing the No 10.. Chukweze, moses and co should help us find answers to the puzzles at the wings…
Let go super eagles
If Eguavon wants to try Ejuke for the No 10 role, then fine he got my support.. I like coaches that like trying new things.. I mean coaches that want to be innovative..
That is why Mourinho is no longer at the top of his game as a coach for over half a decade now bcos he is still stuck to his old ways..not wanting to try something new with players…
my people, so am thinking in the midfield the coach can use nwakali in the no: 10 role koz hes got long range passes and nice shooting capability, then joe aribo and ndidi mount the deffensive midfield. on the right hand should be chukwueze and left simon/ejuke.. attack should be awoniyi…what do you guys think?