For the second time in a space of four days, the Super Eagles played the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon in an international friendly game on Tuesday, June 8 2021, at the Wiener Neustadt Stadium in Austria.
Completsports.com‘s AUGUSTINE AKHILOMEN highlights five significant lessons from the Nigeria game against the Indomitable Lions which ended goalless. They are the important factors that Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, must work with ahead of the subsequent games.
1. Stability In Super Eagles Defence Without Troost-Ekong
For the first time in a long while, the Super Eagles defence played without the duo of William Troost-Ekong and Leon Balogun against an opposition. Troost-Ekong was missing due to an injury he copped in the first meeting against Cameroon last week Friday. In his absence, Chidozie Awaziem marshaled the defence superbly alongside, debutant, Valentine Ozornwafor to prevent the Cameroonians from making any serious threat.
It was as though the pair had been playing together for a very long time with the level of understanding between them. Good one or Awaziem and Ozornwafor.
2. Eagles Still Lack The ‘Killer’ Passes
In the two games played against Cameroon in Austria, the Super Eagles midfielders failed to create any meaningful killer-passes to set up the strikers.
In Austria, Alex Iwobi and Wilfred Ndidi didn’t seem to connect well in the midfield. No real creativity in the midfield.
Ndidi is known for his robust style of play which has been vital for the team. However, Super Eagles still need a creative player that will help the strikers to score goals.
3. Kelechi, Onuachu Partnership Yet To Jell
The partnership between Iheanacho and Onuachu seemed not to match as they both struggled to combine perfectly in the attack against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon on Tuesday. It was the second time both players were paired by Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr and it appeared they were way apart compared to when the coach paired Osimhen and Iheanacho.
Read Also: Rohr: Super Eagles Will Be Ready For 2022 World Cup Qualifiers
4. Time For Musa To Play Cameo Roles
It was quite obvious that Super Eagles captain, Ahmed Musa’s effectiveness was totally missing against Cameroon. Known for his usual pace, and trickery, the Kano Pillars’ star failed to make any meaningful impact in that game, and it’s high time Rohr made him watch from the bench, then play cameo roles where necessary in subsequent games.
5. Rohr’s Inability To Utilise Full Substitutions
The purpose of an international friendly game is for the coach to access more players in a bid to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses ahead of future competitive games. However, Rohr remained thrifty with his substitution in the second game against Cameroon. It is high time the German tactician mastered how to fully utilize his substitutions in order to give other players opportunities to showcase what they can contribute to the team.
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COMMENTS
Oga Rhor lacks creativity; he has been with Super Eagles for five years,then he could have made incredible team ,he lacks good playmaker who plays proper throug balls for strikers,he lacks orgnized,pressing football,he lacks defensive style that can protect SE goal fron lapses that SE defence committ all the times(look the match between Eagles versus Sierra Leon) you can persuade that Eagles havn’t any defensive creativity; this is the responsibility of Oga Rhor to make a new pattern or style of playing depends on defensive pattern and style; good omen for SE that appeared new couple in center defence (Awziem,Ozornwarfor) as subistitue for William Troost,Balogun or Omeruo; I think Oga Rhor must begin with them from up to now the next matches espcially versus Mexico;Oga Rhor must bring new playmaker like Billing or Ejaria instead of Iwobi who lacks creativity; also Oga must not blend Iheanchu, Onuchu as couple forward,so I think if Oga takes this recommendation, he will make anew incredible SE which can lift or hold next Afrco Cup in Cameroon,then he can qualify to the World Cup in Qatar…
These 5 take aways from the match are on point.
The combination between the two centre defenders was ok mainly due to fact that awaziem has been playing regularly in his club as a central defender so he should be getting used to the role by now and Valentine is a left footed central defender which brings balance to the teams defense. I remember calling for a left footed central defender in the team and now we have one. I only hope he can improve by getting a club where he will play regularly in a challenging league.
For creativity, its not ndidi’s responsibility to create chances for the strikers even though he is adding that skill set to his game. He is basically a defensive midfielder who covers the defense and wins the ball back for the team. Its the job of iwobi, aribo, etebo and the wingers to create goal scoring opportunities for the strikers and I think iwobi did that in this second game. What the team really needs now is another creative player who can create and score goals from midfield. Hopefully what the papers are saying about the clearance of ejaria and lookman being complete will be a fact and ejaria can take that spot or we call in players like alhassan, nwobodo, nwakaili and see if any of them can do the job.
Ahmed musa should be on the bench, when he came in the second half of the first match, the Cameroonian players were already tired so he could do his little runs and moves but when playing against a well rested team he stood no chance. He hasnt been one of my favorite players in the team because he had so much talent but could not rise to the level expected of him in his prime but now that he is older I don’t think he can offer more than moral support to the team.
Paul and kelechi combination wasn’t going to work and its so obvious that im surprised the coach even considered it. Paul thrives on aerial balls and not through balls. Between 10-13 of his league goals were headers, I think. He isnt fast so he cant chase through balls.
Kelechi plays more as a second striker, behind a strong and fast attacker. We saw his combination with success and taiwo at the U-17, vardy at Leicester, osimhen recently and we think he can do same with onuachu!!?
I dont think so. Onuachu could score goals when we play a lesser side but when it comes to big teams he will be found wanting not because he is too bad but because we wont play to his strengths.
Coach rohr doesn’t make changes on time because I think he knows that some of the players on his bench are not good enough for the team and if he puts them on everyone will see it. So he allows the game drag on for a long period and when its almost over he makes a few changes. Its really sad.
All in all the coach can say the result of the game was as a result of most of our regular players withdrawal due to injuries. So what happens if similar withdrawal occurs during the qualifiers or competition, is this what we will expect. I thought I heard something about the team handlers having a wide net of players being monitored, and I wonder if these are the players they are monitoring. We have better players than this. Some are unknown, some are in modest leagues and clubs. Lets search for these players are let us get the right person to be their coach.
Brilliant comment, I dont buy this lame excuse from Nigerians talking of their failure due to injuries, Cameroon also had 7 keys players such as fabrice on do a, Vincent aboubakar Christian bassogog among others, its not fair to fail coz of injuries, but for Cameroon they proved their worth in those games despite using 3 goalkeeper’s and they were impressive, most Nigerians should simply accept that the super eagles of 2 yes ago is on the decline, the double contest if sierre Leone can aslo be a good case in point
Super eagles finally going against another top African team, which is a really good time to rate them. In my opinion the top African teams in no order are Senegal, Cameroon, Ivory Cost, Algeria and Morocco, which Nigeria is last out of the group.
A lot of these countries are colonized by France. In which these players are already playing in the top 5 league, ligue 1 or French ligue being 5 in the uefa ranking. A Lot of those players are starters too. Crazy thing is half of the players are born in France and choose to play for their French colonized country. To me the reason being is that they have enough top tier players with experience to actually compete and win things. Where is Nigerian people are always begging and pleading for foreign born Nigerians to play for them. But I always say they will easily outgrow the team, knowing few are actually good enough to compete and might get tired of carrying the team.
Nigeria only chance to stay in competition is through friendlies where the coach stay experimenting, so many one, two or three capped players. The lineups are never consistent. But people here eat anything. There was an article where a bunch of players dropped out because they were injured, I don’t know if that was true or if the players even pull through. But I saw the lineup and found at it was true. I read somewhere else that the reason players dropped out was because of unpaid wages, like always. It was no coincidence that a bunch a players decided that they were injured. Now tell me, why would a foreign born Nigerian would come play for Nigeria when you might not get your money, but in Europe you are most certain. Same thing with the women’s team, the women were protesting.
Back to my point, another way for Nigerians to compete is through the fifa youth competition, its how Osimhen and Chuckweze got recognized. Nigeria has the most u-17 world cup, but that doesn’t translate well for the final team they cant even make it past the second round. Lastly is through relegated or under 1 tier teams and or out of the top 4 uefa leagues and work your way up. Ngolo kante played in French third tier league, then worked his way up. Sadio Mane worked his way up. Edouard Mendy was unemployed, was constantly trying to make a team, then he got noticed by chelsea goal keeper Peter. The thing is outside of foreign born players in France they are players born in Senegal, Ivory Cost, Cameroon and etc that are being scouted by French people and others, and they get to play for top tier teams. While in Nigeria Taiwo Awoniyi was scouted by Liverpool, but he didn’t get his papers in order which put him on a whole bunch of loan spells, he got his papers late and now he might get sold to a mediocre team, that’s on him.
When I watch Senegal, Cameroon, Morocco, Algeria and Ivory Cost, I’m like I know most of these players. While super eagles I know few by heart like Osimhen, Chuckweze, sadly Iwobi, Kelechi and Ndidi. All people do here is post new players that should play for super eagles every other day, which relates to my point how there’re so many players with less than 5 caps for the team. Which disrupts the synergy and partnerships with players.
For a team to win something the whole foundation has to be good. I know Nigerians here are corrupted by heart by promoting a bunch of players to be slaves, working for free, imagine that. I just don’t see the super eagles being successful where the federation cant even pay its players, its just not gonna happen. And I dont care about what a past player said about should of played of Nigeria because I would have played more, even for free than playing a few time for England because they will actually pay me, thats the stupidest comment I ever heard. Yall really have no jobs to keep talking about Eze, Lookman, Aridibayo, Nmecha etc every other day. Why would a European born Nigerian getting paid come play for Nigeria and not get paid? Spamming their social media is not gonna help either. These players will have great club careers, but not national team careers. People keep dreaming and hoping, hope is irrational. All this team is gonna do is rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. People reject a call up and or not playing because thy are not getting paid then they look for another sucker. Just a bunch of poor players who been relegated or dropped down from a league. From poor Collins to Awaziem.
But how was that first game? It was bad when they were playing with the sprinklers on, in Austria. my gosh. Andre Aguissa shot could of been saved, but the keeper was late. Like I said there are numerous goal keepers from French colonized African countries that play first ligue in France, even democratic Congo players. While people here desperate hanging on to Okoye. Cameroon, Senegal, Congo producing great goal keepers able to play in top leagues. Onana play for ajax that almost made it to the champions league finals. I guess Iwobi poor performance from Everton carried on to the team. Carlo Ancelotti left, I want to see if his performance change with a new coach, because I was not feeling him. But nice to see Olayinka
For the second game Marcus Abraham had energy, was seeing him up and down. Olayinka needs more chances. The game was still poor, Rorh ain’t getting paid so he hitting it where it hurts.