Super Eagles defender William Troost-Ekong has been ruled out of Monday’s 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Sao Tome and Principe , reports Completesports.com.
Troost-Ekong suffered a muscle injury in Super Eagles’ 2-1 win against the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone on Thursday.
The Watford centre-back picked up the injury while intercepting a pass from Sierra Leone winger Kamil Conteh in the 80th minute.
He was later replaced by Kenneth Omeruo, who also took the captain’s armband from him.
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Troost-Ekong, Completesports.com’s learnt has travelled back to London to have further test on the injury.
Omeruo will be expected to be the former Udinese star direct replacement against Sao Tome.and Principe.
The Super Eagles will fly out from Abuja to Morocco Saturday on a special flight.
They will return to the country Tuesday.
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COMMENTS
Blessing in disguise. He has caused eagles to concede goals carelessly in many marches. Not really good for the eagles first team.
Anyway I wish you speedy recovery.
Someone gets injured and you call it a “blessing”?
Would the Christ you claim to be following approve of your utterance?
You have not spoken well, comrade.
@ Pompei, the guy is not a Christian. Note the name he is using on this platform.
He is one of the antichrists that always want to spoil Christian’s name not knowing that Christianity is Love.
The word of God says that out of abundance of heart the mouth speaketh. The guy is evil and speaking from his evil mind.
I wish Ekong a quick recovery.
I wish Troost Ekong speedy recovery. Though he has inescapable flaws, his overall passion, patriotism and stature mean it will be difficult to overlook Ekong.
Nigeria has exciting players no doubt. But most of them suffer from the following flaws:
– inadequate response time
– questionable decision making
– drop in level of concentration
– error prone
– inconsistent end product
– Speedy drop in productivity
As a result, Peseiro has to factor these when considering the formation he deploys. I think we fans overestimate the capacity and capabilities of our players.
In our last 2 games, the Portuguese gaffer started with the 4-4-2 formation. This formation is truly exciting but the flaws in its design are apparent which Eguavoen found out the hard way against Tunisia.
When you have defenders like Balogun, Ekong, Omeruo and Aina who can crack easily under pressure, not giving them adequate defensive midfield cover for me amounts to suicide.
Yesterday, we had Iwobi as the box to box center midfielder and Aribo as the attacking midfielder. With no recognised defined defensive midfield, there is this fallow land between our defence and midfield for any team playing 4-3-3 or particularly 4-2-“3”-1 to exploit with gusto.
I know Chukwueze on the right and Simon on the left are set up to drop back and support with defensive duties when required. But with the tendency of the formation to morph into 4-2-4 when we are attacking, Moses and Chukwueze and even overlapping Aina would be too high up the pitch to funnel back and help when a swift counter-attack is swiftly initiated against us. They would not be able to act as swiftly as the severity of that situation requires.
That somewhat led to Sierra Leone’s solo goal yesterday. Pressure was placed on Ekong and there was no DM running back to support Bassey and Ajayi. In fact, the corridor of opportunity created by absence of a DM was exploited severally by Sierra Leone yesterday.
The 4-4-2 flat formation is not bad. But I don’t think our players have the level of concentration and the technical abilities to address the flaws inherent in its design (chief of which is the gap it creates in midfield and the need for more players to cover more grounds).
For me, I will still recommend his 3-5-2 formation. It is a most unprepossessing and un-Nigerian formation to some fans but for me it makes up for the lapses in concentration of our players and helps mitigate some of their weaknesses.
When defending, we have 3 center backs and 2 wingbacks in close proximity. Ekong, Balogun and Omeruo will have less propensity for errors and if they err, they have adequate support.
The 3 centre backs are then scaffolded with 2 defensive midfielders and the 2 strikers have a centre attacking midfielder in tow and wing backs to provide width and crosses.
It is not as porous as the 4-4-2 and it doesn’t expose our players’ weaknesses that much which is why Rohr elected for the 3-5-2 when all else had failed.
But, if Peseiro can attend to the glaring shortcomings of the 4-4-2, then maybe he can make it work. In this formation, one of our two strikers should readily drop into attacking midfield to create openings. The yarning gap between the defence and midfield has to be plugged somehow and the full backs have to possess incredible recovery rate when overlapping.
With the right personnel, 4-4-2 can get you goals aplenty. With the wrong work force, their frailties will be exposed and you will concede a basket load of goals.
Taiwo Awoniyi can always fit in as the second striker that can assit the midfielders, create space for the main striker and at the same time function as striker. He has all these qualities which he manifested during the last afcon in Cameroon.
God bless Nigeria
The 4-4-2 has not worked well so far because of the “soft center” that results from the Aribo/Iwobi combo in the middle. Both have performed well individually, but collectively, they fall short because both are not skilled in the DM role. Their shortcomings puts pressure on the defense, pressure that a competent DM would help to avoid.
Iwobi is developing into a capable box-to-box midfielder, but he needs a substantive DM alongside him for better midfield control.
Ndidi would have been the answer, but in his absence, we should be looking at others. I thought Etebo brought some much needed stability to the game when he came on against S/L. Whether he is the best man for the role is another matter.
I don’t subscribe to using Aribo in a DM capacity. He works hard, covers a lot of ground, but that is just not his best position. If he does half the work in his best position, which I believe to be on the right wing, based on his Ibrox performances, he will do much better. The right wing is where he seems to be most at home. He can compete with Chukwueze for the starting jersey. Aribo can also play the AM role, but the right wing is where he can add real value to the SE.
In a 3-5-2 formation, we have 2 wing backs, no wingers, and 2 forwards. So instead of on the right wing, Aribo can be deployed in the middle. Aribo, Iwobi and a competent DM will be ideal in the midfield, with Bassey/Sanusi on the left and Aina on the right.
In a 4-4-2 formation, I would play Simon/Lookman on the left, Iwobi and the DM in the middle, and Aribo/Chukwueze on the right. When Amoo returns, he like Aribo can also play as a right winger or an AM. Interesting selection headache for Peseiro. In addition to Etebo, Onyeka and Bonke, guys like Kingsley Michael, Alhassan Yusuf, Raphael Nwadike and others can be looked at for the DM role, and a merit-based selection can be made out of these players.
I also want to see Osimhen paired with Dessers in the attack. And I want us to give Onuachu another try, because of Bassey’s crosses. Onuachu would thrive greatly with crosses coming in aplenty from the flanks, and Bassey and Aina have both shown that they are skilled at delivering the ball into the box. Peseiro would just have to pick 2 out of Osimhen, Dessers, Sadiq and Onuachu to start.
So yes, I concur with Deo. With the right personnel, the 4-4-2 can work. However, I also think the 3-5-2, 3-4-3, 4-3-3 and 4-5-1 formations can also work. It’s up to Peseiro to pick the formation that best fulfills our objectives for each game.