With the Qatar 2022 World Cup Qualifiers beckoning, Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr has ruled out any chances of introducing new players to the team.
Rohr who spoke with a Lagos-based radio station said it will be difficult to try new players for the World Cup Qualifiers, insisting that he will stick to the team that qualified Nigeria for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations and went unbeaten home and away in achieving the feat.
“We cannot try new players now, it’s too late now it is becoming serious world cup qualifications.”
“The record of our result is very good and I know that we are unbeaten in away games in the qualifiers which is wonderful, it’s a record and we will like to continue and we want to be always the best but some time the other ones also can make a result, you can’t always win your matches.” He said.
Nigeria are grouped alongside Central Africa Republic, Liberia, and Cape Verde with only one team expected to qualify for the final play-off stage before the biggest soccer event holding in the oil-rich Qatar next year.
By Augustine Akhilomen
2022 World Cup Qualifiers: No Room For New Players- Rohr Insists
Austin Akhilomen
Augustine Akhilomen is a passionate sports content writer. A fan of the Super Eagles and Chelsea. My aim is to promote the game of sports globally.
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12 Comments
It a lie. A good coach can’t say this… and if he had said this. Then his mentality shud be questioned. Some players will weakened out .some injury some bad times. In fact a good coach will want to make his team competitive. ..on behalf of new guys scoring week in week out. This is fake headlines. Continue scoring even if u are in Czech or belguim or smartbank liga or eyimba.
I think you misunderstood Rohr….what he means is this is not time for tryouts…you cant use world cup qualifiers to test new players and yes knowing Rohr he will still invite one or two new faces but don’t expect him to start shuffling the squad all over again because you want your favorite player to get invited.
This man olu . U Don come again. U said Madagascar will beat eagles. U said dream team u 23 will not go Olympic. I can remember. Wat are u using. Are u babalawo.
what do we really want, a formidable team or anybody can come in. this was how we clamour for Akpoguma, but today some persons are saying different thing. who do u want the coach to drop and replace with who. hope u are not talking those players they fifa have not yet cleared, there is an adage that says a bird at hand worth two in the bush. i hope this is not how u hire and fire people the way you want in your workplace. if you don’t like the coach management method wait until his contract expired then u can apply and invite new set of players in every match u want to play
He may likely not invite totally unknown players, but for the likes of Lukman, moffi, Ejaria adarabioyo, Azubuike and Olise, don’t forget that Rohr is a fan of Nathan Tella.
GERNOT ROHR took up super eagles job from scratch,he brought the team to life after missing back to back qualifications for afcons,hence according to him he restored the TEAM’s CONFIDENCE which has disappeared as result of perpetual failures nd since 2016 has won over 64 percent of all matches played nd qualified for every AVAILABLE COMPETIONS.Yet some unscrupulous people keep shouting for his sack claiming he has reached his wits end…….BUT WITH GERNOT ROHR,SUPER EAGLES IS A PROJECT THAT MUST SUCCEED nd God knows
A good coach does not place an embargo on players making his team and chase away talent. It is the job of Rohr to blend the best available healthy players at any point in time.
@Ako Amadi, I totally agree with u in an ideal situation, however d situation we find ourselves in not ideal since its may and June are a couple of months away and the amount of training sessions the coach has with the players won’t be enough to blend new players in the team. Remember this is wirldcup qualifiers where its winner take all unlike the AFCON qualifiers were the best 2 of each group qualifies where u could drop points and still qualify. With worldcup qualifiers only the group leader qualifies and plays the playoffs like u already know. I think what GR meant by his comment is that he doesn’t intent on inviting any new players from those 24 players he used to execute the last 2 AFCON qualifiers, those on the standby list for the last AFCON qualifiers, and those he had used b4 the were injured and couldn’t make the trip for the last afcon qualifiers and those who were part of the team b4 like ejuke and simmy. That’s just what I think and I may be completely off the mark.
GR and the SE missed a huge opportunity to try out new players due to several reasons in my view
1. Nigeria’s insatiable need for winning even for games that are irrelevant like friendlies. GR tried out several new players against Algeria and Tunisia where the team lost and drew respectively. He and the SE were given a stick for not winning those games. The coach was then tagged Belmadi boy lol. GR learnt his lesson here, that 9ja fans are all about winning even at the expense of trying new players.
2. The two games against Sierra Leone, I believe if we had won those 2 games or won 1 and drew the other ensuring our qualification, GR would have used the remaining 2 games against Benin and Lesotho to try new players out. This was a missed opportunity. Since that didn’t happen and knowing how 9ja fans are, he didn’t want to take any chances hence fielded his best 11. He knew if he lost any of those games, there would have been a public outcry for his resignation or sack.
3. FIFA ranking and worldcup qualifier seeding pressures. Knowing fully well the potential dangers of not being top 5 in africa to get a favorable opposition, he knew he had to win to boost our fifa ranking and potentially not getting teams like Senegal, Algeria, morro or, Tunisia in the playoff round assuming we qualify as group leaders from our group. Hence the reason for his strongest line up and no trying of new players.
4. Strengthening the understanding of his starting 11 as there is not much time for blending since there won’t be any FIFA free window for friendlies b4 the worldcup qualifier starts in May.
I think most likely tge 23 would be
Goalies
Uzoho, Okoye, Noble (just to have a homebased player in the team as I team Apjeyi, Jakubu and Osigwe might be better)
Defenders
Ebuehi, Aina, Ekong, Balogun, Awaziem, Sanusi, Collins
Midfielders
Ndidi, Aribo, Etebo, Shehu, Iwobi
Forwards
Samu, Kalu, Osimen, Onuachu, Iheabacho, Onyekuru, Sadiq
I could be very wrong.
However, if we have our full house of players with the switches completed for olise, ejaria and lookman. My fantasy team of 26 players would be
Goalies
Uzoho, Okoye, Jakubu but I can take any 3rd choice
Defenders
Aina, Ebuehi, Ekong, Balogun, Awaziem, Sanusi. The reason for 5 defenders is the fact that Aina and Awazuem could play multiple positions both can play the LB and RB roles. They can also be deployed in a 3 man backline.
Midfielders
Ndidi, Shehu, Aribo, Etebo, Ejaria, Iwobi, Olise. This is the most difficult area as I’m not sure who to take out. Shehu is extremely important as he could play as DM and RB which the other midfielders can’t.
Wingers/wingbacks
Samu, Kalu, Simon, Olayinka
Simon and Kalu are key here as they can both play as wingbacjs in a 352 same way odoi abd pulisic are deployed for Chelsea and I believe they are capable
Support strikers
Iheanacho, Lookman and Onyekuru. Although Lookman and Onyekuru plays on the wing for clubs I think they would do better closer to the striker.
Strikers
Osimen, Sadiq, Onuachu
I don’t envy GR at all, there are many quality players that missed out like ejuke, Musa, simmy, moffi, but this is the best I could come up with. 3 still needs to be replaced from the above list, GR your wahala plenty ooo.
Just my take, aveg forumites help me with which players to add or subtract fir tge final 23 biko
You see my broda. It’s not about adding or removing players. It will all come down to which player can fit into his system. As a team we need a cohesive unit that will not concede cheap goals and can also score against any opposition irrespective of their class in world football. During Westerhoff era we had arguably the greatest SuperEagles of all time, but we still fell short against Italy. I put that to inexperience because that was our first WorldCup. Now we’ve been there done that, I’m expecting a SuperEagles team that can fight through adversity. That will be mostly tested in Cameroon. As for the WorldCup if we qualify, I’m only hoping we can make it to the Quaterfinals. Anything better than that will be a bonus. So far the gaffer had done great for the SupetEagles considering where we’re at when he took over the team.
In my own opinion, If what Rohr means is that he won’t be inviting new players. That will be could be counter-productive in our quest to get players of dual nationality to switch to represent Nigeria. It also doesn’t speak well of his ambitions because every good coach will always want to improve the team, so if better players(Olise, Ejaria and Ademola Lookman) are available are we going to stick with Clubless Ahmed Musa, Shehu and Semi Ajayi’s continued use as midfielders? I have always maintained that our Best players should be used. Replying Proudly9ja, Here are my Best 23. Goal keepers-Okoye, Uzoho, Osigwe. Defenders- Ekong, Balogun,Aina, Ebuehi,Sanusi,Semi Ajayi,Omeruo, Collins Midfielders-Ndidi,Etebo,Olise,Ejaria,Aribo,Iwobi. Attackers-Osimhen,Onuachu,Iheanocho, Chukwueze, Lookman, Kalu Samuel
There’s no IDEAL SITUATION or fertile ground in football.The successful coaches are men who have remained alert and made cutting-edge decisions in quick time. Gernot Rohr is somewhat sleepy and over-cautious. Perhaps that has to do with his backlog of unpaid salaries
You’re absolutely wrong in that aspect. Gernot Rohr has never been sleepy on his choice of players. He knows all the available players who are willing to play for Nigeria. For now I think he has already created a very good Nigerian side that every pundit are already tipping to win the next AFCON. Obviously, maybe 1 or 2 new names will surface on the next list depending on form and availability. However, I envy him because he’s got an abundance of talented players to choose from.