Former Nigeria midfielder, Etim Esin in this exclusive interview with Complete Sports reporter, SULAIMAN ALAO, gives his candid assessment of the Super Eagles performances during the friendly matches against Algeria and Tunisia, and advises coach Gernot Rohr on the way forward.
Complete Sports: The Super Eagles’ return to football action in the international break saw them lose 1-0 to Algeria and drew 1-1 with Tunisia in the friendlies played in Austria. What is your assessment of the team’s performance?
Etim Esin: To be candid, the Super Eagles put up an average performances in the two international friendlies, and I’m sure Nigerian fans were also disappointed with the team’s performance.
We played two games and did not win any, it meant we picked up just one point out of six and that’s well below average to put it mildly. We conceded goals in both games and managed just one goal. We could have had our pride intact if we drew the two games at the least.
Etim Esin
The Eagles were average in the defense, lacked creativity in the midfield and struggled in attack. They lacked leadership and did not play with cohesion. It was not encouraging seeing such performances by the Eagles at this point with AFCON and World Cup qualifiers coming up soon. I do hope all these will be corrected in
due course.
A number of new players were invited and tried during the friendlies. Are you saying none of them impressed you?
The new players invited didn’t really come up during the friendlies. None of them put up a commanding performance worthy of note. The national team is not meant for upcoming players, you know. It is meant for established and proven players who are playing regularly for good clubs and who also know what it means to put on the national team jersey.
Also Read – Adepoju: ‘Why I Won’t Give Eagles Pass Mark After Friendlies Vs Algeria And Tunisia’
I expected them to grab the chance with both hands and give their very best performance to show they deserved their invitations. I was expecting a new player to score for us but it was Iheanacho that scored our only goal in the two games. We don’t have all the time in the world to keep trying new players.
We already have a team on ground and new players are not expected to just come in and make up the numbers. Their mentality should be to out-play the already established players in the team or at least play up to par with them.
But sometimes, agents influence invitation to the national team just to get their players to wear the national colours for marketable purposes. National team scouts must ensure that the players they want to bring into the Eagles measure up to certain standards.
However, I want to believe the coach has noted one or two to help beef up his team ahead of coming competitive games.
Some key players were missing for the Eagles against Algeria and Tunisia. Is that enough reason for such poor performances?
What we saw during these friendlies showed that the Eagles lacked depth. It is obvious we don’t have a solid bench because if we had, we would not feel the absence of those missing too much.
In the past, the Eagles bench is almost as good as the starting eleven and that’s what made the team very strong. Those playing know they have to give their very best because they know that those on the bench are just waiting to grab the shirt if they don’t measure up – that is the hallmark of any good team.
It’s not good enough if we can’t play good football in the absence of Ndidi and Osimhen. As a former player, I know that friendly games are to assess players, solidify the team’s playing pattern and tactics as well as to identify the team’s weaknesses in order to improve on them. But you don’t expect all the fans to know that because they are looking for good football and good results from their team. When new players fail to prove themselves, fans will be calling for older players with the experience to come back into the team.
I would have been happier if the new players Rohr tried out had put up solid performances that would have helped us to forget the likes of Mikel, Victor Moses and Odion Ighalo who recently retired from the national team. I do hope when players like Ndidi and Osimhen are back in the team, we will be able to play better.
As a midfielder, you were known as the African Maradona during your days in the national team. What do you think is wrong with the Eagles midfield as it is presently constituted?
The current Super Eagles team lack a creative player in the midfield who can make things happen. A player that can direct the team’s play and create fear in the opposing team.
I don’t even know who is playing the number 10 role for us anymore, it’s like the number 10 jersey is too heavy for them. If other teams look at you as ordinary, they will come all out against you because the fear factor is not there. So, we now lack a player with creative impact in the middle of the pack. A playmaker with commanding presence that even if he can’t score, can make assist and generally help dictate the team’s play and put panic in the opponent.
I think it is something coach Rohr will have to work on in the team, look for that player with flair that can create something out of nothing from corner kicks, free kicks and so on to get
the results we need.
Who do you think can fit into the playmaking role for the Eagles among the current players?
For now, I don’t think we have a natural player’ for the position, you know. Somebody with that uncommon natural ability and skill to unlock opposing defense. I know Alex Iwobi has been trying his best to play the role for us in recent times with relative success. I think [Joe] Aribo can also play the role. I remembered he combined well with Iwobi in the midfield when we played against Brazil last year. That
game was our best outing in recent times. Maybe Rohr already has his playmaking role solved by the combination of these two players, you know.
Samuel Kalu and Samuel Chukwueze also has the skills, but they are more used to playing wide. Maybe a natural person may come in along the line, but I think Rohr can take a cue from the midfield combination he used against Brazil the last time.
Finally, what advice do you have for Gernot Rohr ahead the upcoming AFCON and World Cup qualifiers?
My advice for the coach is to ensure the Eagles has depth on the bench. That’s what the team is lacking now and that need to be corrected. We have to start getting results because that’s what football is all about.
When games are tight, the coach can look to the bench and bring on a replacement that can make the difference. I remember Emmanuel Amuneke coming from the bench to score two goals in the final at Tunisia ’94 Nations
Cup.
A situation where players on the bench can’t spark the team back to life in difficult situation is not good. Even at club level as we have seen
recently, teams with quality bench will always excel over a side that has good starting eleven but lacks a good bench.
The Eagles currently have a relatively good starting eleven, so Rohr must build depth into the team’s bench to make the Eagles very competitive. When we have that, the absence of any player will not be greatly felt because adequate replacement will be readily available. I think that is the way forward for the Eagles.
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COMMENTS
Some will accuse Rohr for not trying new players, some accuse Rohr for trying new players even why contradicting themselves by saying he has to fortify the bench, then I ask, how do strengthen the bench without trying new players? Some will accuse Rohr, when he tries new players and the team struggle, some will accuse Rohr he should have given more minutes to the new players he tries. Everyone fighting for their own deep lying interest. If I were to be Rohr, I will go Westerhof way, call the bluff of everyone and work only with my technical crew. All others can go to blazes. That attitude is what fits nigerians cos YOU CAN NEVER SATISFY NIGERIANS. THE ONE YOU GIVE A HOUSE FOR SHELTER WILL COME BACK TO COMPLAIN THAT THE OTHER PERSON YOU GAVE A HOUSE HAS THE HOUSE FENCED ROUND WHILE HIS HAS GOT NO FENCE. So Rohr let this message reach you, just crack on with what you know is best for SE and the fans that support you n the team while using all negative criticism to build an hippopotamus skin to what ever these lots say.
Spot on @glory. It baffles me how people speak from both sides of their mouth. He berates the team for not having depth, criticizes the coach for inviting new players every now and then but expects the bench to have depth. How does he expect our bench to have depth if new players aren’t given a chance???? . For instance, nobody would have known how good ejuke was in national team colors if he wasn’t invited and given a chance. We could see how creditalbly well akpkoguma performed at the center back after he was switched from the right back position, giving the coach a viable option in that area (the center back position). Everybody has got his own opinion shaa. All these people gallivanting everywhere like mear cats should just relax and watch the movie until 2023.
In my view, these are fair and honest comments from a knowledgeable football person without an iota of prejudice.
Etim drove home the points and hit the hammer on the head.
We truly need a creative midfielder who is supremely skilful that can make something out of nothing.such a person should be able to dribble in tight spaces against stubbornly compact playing teams and draw defenders out of positions and create chances for strikers to score.we sorely missed that against the algerians and Maybe the boy Ejuke should be groomed for that role given his natural dribbling abilities .But he must learn to dribble forward and with purpose..
The bench makes a very good team.Let us be honest, can anyone come in from our bench in those two matches and makes a difference?
@ Toni. Please how do you get a solid bench without trying new players?
He’s yet to answer this question…………….???????? Toni, pls, answer us. We need to know.
… I keep saying it but some will shut me up here. If you have played some level of organized football you will never hide feelings just to remain politically correct. There are honest assessments from Etim Esin and Mutiu Adepoju… What we showed against Algeria and Tunisia is at best a drab performance… Our major problem right now is a real playmaker who knows how to regulate the tempo of a game… Super Eagles do well when we play it simple using our strengths. Without talent formation don’t play football by itself… Again Rohr will invite players and give them 15minutes… 10minutes, it’s frustrating and never enough to access a player.
Remember he gave you 10mins or 15mins for you to see the player, but he saw them for 9days and played several test game with them, And he is the one that will decide who is fitting to his playing style. So why are we complaining.
The friendly match is the final look he gives to the player in a competitive environment after a long week of accessment. So it is you that needs 90 mins, he has already seen what he wants to see.
Nigerians are never patient with their coach. It is clear we need a good first 11 and a good bench, so how does he get there without testing players. But he is the one testing the players not the fans. So when he finish we can see the outcome in the Competitive matches.
This Coach is meticulously building the team and we can see him making progress. But we want fire brigade where we win Afcon in one year and the next year fail to qualify like we saw between 2013 and 2014.
Lets not forget that 2 keys players of immense quality, Mikel and Ighalo just retired, so he is carefully picking their replacement. Nothing solid is built over night we have to follow through the process. And one thing is certain, with Rohr in this building process by next year Afcon and the coming world cup the Eagles that will emerge will be a joy to watch.
He cannot manufacture players, he is committed to scouting new ones, testing, picking the good ones and dropping in-active or old ones that looses form, this he is doing meticulously. In addition, he already has a playing style which you have to adapt to and he is not willing to change the style, not even for a 8goal Onuachu. That is how strict he can be.
If he was desperate for a win in the friendlies, he would have simply told the other attackers to play to Onuachu’s strength, he told them to play the ball on the ground and wanted the giant to adapt to his style but he failed. Not because he is bad player but simply he does not fit into Rohr’s pattern.
So, in conclusion, the man knows what he is doing and can easily sacrifice a friendly, or a dead rubber match to get some vital information that will benefit his team in future. I stand with Rohr.
@Ikeben ..God bless you.
Thank you @sean
… @Ikeben. We don’t need a clear-cut playmaker but the whole country of Nigeria championed by our NFF president has been chasing and harassing Eberechi Eze like a Peacock that lays golden eggs! Despite having Iwobi… Why is there a deafening cry to recruit Eze? Hahaha… Have we recovered from retirement of Jay-Jay Okocha?
@Jimmy, have been watching the Eagles from the 80’s and i can tell you the current squad is not fun to watch. Sometimes you find there games to be boring. What happened to the Eagles of yester years. There is absolutely no creative midfielder. we keep hearing of Aribo, the last time he played, he was below average. National team game is different from club games. The current eagles in my view should be representing the flying Eagles. There is no hunger in the team.
Nawa for this people o!
Suddenly you have jumped to play maker role and not Indidi and Etebo role again!
Pls… Who’s playing 10 for Belgium?
Who’s playing number 10 for France?
What of Germany? England nko? Barca and Liverpool?
Football has gone beyond 4 – 4 – 2, where we use four and 10.
I’m glad he mentioned the Combo of Aribo and Iwobi I.e A central midfielder/ Launcher and the Offensive.
Ejaria will join them soon biko.
… Etim Esin is old school shey? The old school that current generations have not been able to match their level… We don’t need a clear-cut playmaker yet the whole country has been chasing Eberechi Eze like a peacock with golden eggs… hahaha! Nigerians… We never cease to pretend to ourselves!
Dear Etim thank you very for ur honest Observation and comments. However ur contribution is old school football. No one players no 10 now. Everyone is involved in game construction these days and dont hang on too much to the ball. I have many epirical evidence to support my postulations. Can u pointout any no 10 in the france national that won the last world cup? Can u pointout no 10 in Barcelona which is a top team in laliga? Who is playing no10 for liverpool , manu Arsenal to mention but a few. Pls allow the coach to do his job . The essence of friendliss is to fortify the bench with good players and Rohr is already doing that.
@Gowek..thank you.
Even Bible said Old things has passed away and all things has become NEW!
For the first time I saw iwobi going to the deep midfield to start the play it got to a stage against Algeria, he decided to be moving alone when Ajayi, Onyeka even Agu decided to stay back.
Dear Gowek& Co.What an insult calling Etim old school.This shows your knowledge of the beautiful game,and the kind of Nigerian players you’ve seen play-Maybe again old school to you. How can you ask for the No 10 player of these teams you mentioned. All these teams is kind of a picture of what Nigerian teams used to be in the past.We started using wing backs even when it was not popular in modern football-Listen to Olise talk more on this during their speech when the ’94 team was recently honoured. Tell me, which is more superb to you? The third goal scored by the French right back in the Victory over Agentina (2018 W.C),or the goal scored by the Nigerian Left back in their Victory over Cote’Devor at the ’94 Nations Cup? Nigerian Teams formally are made up of ball joggers from The goalkepper to the last man in attack.But our No 10 must have it in him,it must be natural with him,no coach
teaches him or can teach it to him,He’s our skill workshop, to him other player copy and improve,because he’s natural.We had them in abundance before.Ask any of your so called old school guys,our present S.E with their present display,is just School Sports football of our days,if not better,with the kind of Sports Masters we had as coaches. Check out the Eaglets of ’85,these where guys just out of secondary school. My favourite is the ’89 squard,that so impressed Pele that he predicted Africa will win the senior world cup before the end of that century.From Chinedu Anazonwu to Oguntuwase and Ikpeba,they were all ballers.I know Nigeria is rotten and dacaying in every sphere of life and so did not see good football in you Secondary School days, if you had, you would agree with me and not call Etim “Maradona”Essien old School.
Football has evolved. Modern midefielders are of the BOX TO BOX variety. DMs like Busquets, Henderson, Goretzka, Kroos, Casemiro, Wijnaldum, etc perform there defensive duties, but are also very much involved in offensive play. They are comfortable on the ball, know how to pass and make assists, and can score goals. Iwobi is evolving his game. He used to be just an out and out offensive winger/midfielder, but now he tracks back to help the defense. This is what we need from all our midfielders. The emphasis is no longer on PLAYMAKERS in modern football. If we find a playmaker like Jay Jay, that is great. But even that midfielder is expected to develop his game so he becomes a BOX TO BOX midfielder. This requirement is expected of all our midfielders ideally.
The need for a great bench can’t be over emphasized. Great benches win tournaments. We should never be satisfied until we have two or three world class players for every position.
I am expecting Oga Rohr fans to say something about what Mr. Etim Esin have said.
Almost five years in charge of this team yet, no freekicks specialists, penalty specialists, no game charger and no game plans.
No direction and no clue. I am very sorry for this team.
NFF and Oga Rohr should be blamed for this. Can you imagine, putting Azeez on standby and Ebuehi tells a lot about the coach.
Now that Mr. Mutiu Adepoju and Mr. Etim Esin have spoken, don’t tell me that both men hates Oga Rohr. We have to face the truth. We can not continue like this. The current Nigerian team can only compete with the lowest teams in Africa and in the world. We want to watch good football. God bless Nigeria!!!
Coach Rohr and this team with “no direction and no clue, no penalty and freekick specialists, no game changer and no plans” played 1-1 draw with Brazil, almost beat Ukraine at home, beat Lewandowski and Poland at home, qualified us with games to spare for the 2018 Afcon and world cups.
This same clueless, useless coach and team are about to qualify for the 2021 Afcon with games to spare.
The REGRESSIVES are not being fair and objective in their analysis and opinions. All they want to see is the failures and shortcomings. They will never acknowledge the progress that has been made! NEVER!
Rohr must go. Rohr must be sacked. If Rohr leaves, are we going back to the African Guardiolas who failed to qualify us for Afcon for two consecutive years?
Are we going back to the days when no team of repute wanted to play friendlies with us? Days when qualifying for tournaments required use of calculator to determine where we stand? We played great football, had dribblers who could dribble everybody on the pitch, including themselves and their team mates, and yet consecutively failed to qualify for major tournaments.
The objective and fair thing to say about this team is first and foremost, Rohr has done an unbelievable job getting us where we are today. No ifs, ands or buts.
Having said that, there is always room for improvement. Rohr has transformed this team into a defensively solid, compact unit. What Rohr now needs to work on is the offensive side of our game. And this is not to say we have been poor at scoring goals, because this team has scored plenty of goals when it matters, in competitive games. What we now need is for the team to do better. Be more ruthless and efficient in converting chances to goals, create more chances by playing better, more fluid football, eliminate waste that comes from unnecessary dribbling and poor passing.
We should constructively criticize Rohr and the players, to motivate them to do better. As for the HARD CORE REGRESSIVES, they will continue to cry wolf when there is no wolf. When Rohr does well, they disappear like the mist on a hot day. When Rohr falters, they come out of their holes like rabid rats! They charge at Rohr like hungry flesh-eating zombies rushing towards a victim!
For how long are the regressives going to continue on their path of destruction?
What more does Rohr have to accomplish to gain their trust and goodwill?
Which way Nigeria?
Yes o, we will be glad with our african guardiolas, at least we will see a more fancier style of play. Please spare us all this news about he did this he did that. So why didn’t he win the Afcon or get to the 2nd round of the world cup. Last time i checked an african guardiola did. Please tell us the team of repute that didn’t want to play with us. Fake news as usual. be fair with your comments, the treatment Rohr is getting was it extended to the african guardiola’s . The last time i checked they tried meddling into there affairs. So please your coach needs better approach to games. If he like let him qualify us with 10 games to spare, he is not fit to be our coach
It is mathematically impossible for Rohr to qualify us with 10 games to spare. That expectation, along with your other demands, are outside the realm of reasonableness.
Rohr is not fit to be our coach because he did not win the Afcon and because he did not qualify for the world cup second round. What utter balderdash!
Na fancier style of play we go chop? Fancy style of play leading to failure to qualify for two consecutive Afcons? Hehehehe, na wa for some pipo oooo! You are intolerant of failure by Rohr, but you embrace it whole heartedly if it is from a wannabe Guardiola? Sums up your situation, really.
Then maybe you can bring back the African Guardiolas that failed to qualify for two consecutive AFCONS. African Guardiolas who had foreign assistants paid for by the NFF. The last time I checked Rohr was the one paying his assistant from his salary/pocket. An African Guardiola that won the AFCON and failed to qualify for the next. Lmao!! Did he inherit the team at 16th in Africa and 70th in the world??? A coach that inherited such a team qualified for the WorldCup with games to spare and on pace to qualify for another tournament with games to spare. If the team is boring to you it’s not by force to watch them. We prefer a pragmatic approach to a flamboyant fantasy that leads us in circles. I’m sure the coach knows his preferred first 11 in a tournament situation. All we need as fans is a solid bench to compliment the main team. We are not going to win the WorldCup anyway and we should stop feeling like we have players playing for top clubs in major leagues. Potentials??? Yes we do have them under this coach, but the players themselves need to improve themselves to be able to achieve some success over the next two years.
“We prefer a pragmatic approach to a flamboyant fantasy that leads us in circles”.
Ayphilly, thanks so much for this comment!
A cook prepared a pot of soup. It turned out to be a bit too salty.
Another cook was tasked to prepare the same pot of soup. This cook could not even find his way to the market to purchase the ingredients.
Which cook will you hire? Which cook is likely to deliver in the short term?
Rohr is not perfect. Not at all. However, he has done well, enough to earn our trust. He is great at attracting quality foreign born players, because they respect him and want to play for him. This ability to attract foreign talent is huge. This is something that Rohr does with relative ease that regressives and other haters do not appreciate. They will not appreciate it, until it is no longer available.
Rohr is getting the team closer and closer to where we want. New players are switching allegiance, making the team even stronger. Competition for places in the squad is heating up. The team is solid, difficult to score against, difficult to beat. Our ranking is back up to a reputable place.
What we now need to do is keep Rohr on his toes with constructive criticism and suggestions. He is already showing improvements. Hopefully, he will come good. I will rather have a cook who prepares soup that is not perfect, but that is close enough to what is needed, than have a cook who struggles to source the required ingredients, and after all said and done, prepares soup that is unfit for consumption!
Good talk @ Ayphillydgreat and others. These lots attacking Rohr have got no point. They have all along being going about in circles and will continue in circles why Rohr will continue to be appreciated by the majority. Truth is MARKET DON FALL PRESS THEM. NO MORE BUSINESS AS BEFORE, WHEREBY THEY USE SUPER EAGLES AS PLATFORM TO SELL PLAYERS. I AM SOOO OVER JOYED COS I ENJOY BRINGING PAIN TO SUCH EVIL DOERS. THEY DONT CARE ABOUT NIGERIA/SE. ALL THEY THINK ABOUT IS THEIR POCKET; ALIAS WETIN WE GO CHOP PEOPLE.
When addressing those you called regressives or evil men you should be bold enough to mention names abeg.
Not everyone here that complained about how things is currently done in super eagles is an enemy.
Can you tell me the reason why aina didn’t play in any of the friendly?
Why playing two CB as our right back?
Ebuehi is back and aina is about to be discarded just like in the World Cup.
There are so many things going wrong of which if one didn’t have a say such will continue that way.
Rohr is Kind of conservative that making decision sometimes is difficult for him, in such situation we can’t keep quiet.
With the coming of Akpoguma and ebuehi back to fitness the likes of Omeruo and awaziem’s time in super eagles are over But don’t be surprised if one of them made it in the next list and aina dropped.
Some of us commenting here are not doing it to be relevant but out of concern, Super Eagles belongs to all of us.
As for Ola Aina, he is already an integral part of SE. His quality is not what any manager will ignore. And his not playing only emphasized the the main objective of those friendlies. You don’t wanna sacrifice your best players in a friendly, when you will be having some important matches few weeks to come. I believe Rohr just tried to balance the team with players to test and some few already tested ones. So we wait for when the November list comes out.
.Collins hasn’t played this season and Awaziem just switched club..so there’s need to try them. Aina played our las 3 games before the friendlies.
Goal, I wish he would be man enough to name those he is referring to so this can be thrashed out. Evil people who think they can bully everyone every time their brain reaches the limit of its capabilities. I AM SO OVERJOYED WHEN I CALL OUT SUCH LILLY LIVERED FOOLS WHO HAVE TO MAKE OTHERS SUFFER FOR THEIR COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT. I WILL ALWAYS RESPECT MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS HERE BUT PEOPLE WHO BULLY AND HARRASS OTHERS ARE NO BROTHERS OF MINE. THEY WILL ALWAYS DRAW MY IRE AND WILL SHOW THEM THAT I AM WILLING, ABLE AND READY TO STAND UP TO THEM.
@Glory @Pompei @Ikeben @AYphilly and the rest….please leave those town criers. When wise people talk you will know. When the other people too talk…you will wouldnt need rocket science to tell you its them by the time you want to puke. They will continue to cry till 2022 and beyond. The funny thing is that when the team is doing well, they will come and tell us it was their advice the coach is following…as if the coach doesnt have his own brains, he doesnt read the internet and doesnt know how to watch youtube too, but when the team falters, they disown the coach…..LMAO. Its even ridiculous that they want to compare their own baseless criticisms to the objectivity of sane people like Esin and Adepoju.
They’ve been watching super eagles playing sexy tiki taka football since the 80’s….LMAO…maybe it was Amodu’s SE that was playing the sexy football, or Keshi or Siasia’ & Oliseh’s SE that was playing the tiki taka.
If will go with @Glory’s advice to Rohr to go the Westerhof way, call the bluff of everyone and work only with my technical crew. All others can go to blazes. It is trying to please everyone that is derailing him till today. If he does A, they will cry that he should have done B. If he does B they will cry that he should have done A. They even blame him for not having a freekick specialist or a playmaker…as if he is the one that will teach SE players how to bend it like beckham or manufacture playmakers from europe to play for nigeria….maybe it was Westerhoff or Christian Chukwu that taught Okocha how to be a playmaker and play freekicks…LMAO.
Rohr should go the Westerhof way and call the bluff of everyone and focus on meeting his deliverables as SE coach. He is the one that will get rewarded with a new contract if he succeeds and the one that will be fired if the team fails. He should stop trying to get people to like him….he will only fail the more. Westerhoff was NEVER liked…and that is a fact…he only lasted till 1994 because of his close relationship with VP Aikhomu. Himself and Akinyele the NSC DG werent even seeing eye-to-eye. Nigerians started liking him only after he qualified for world cup. It was after then everybody wanted to start associating with him leading up to the AFCON win. Keshi too was NEVER liked….infact people like omo9ja who will today praise him to the heavens was always raining curses on him, calling him ‘gather and play’ coach. There was never a time in the history of SE where the NFF had already booked their flight back home from a tournament even before a knockout game was played…it happened under keshi when the team played aimlessly all thorough his reign, save for that miraculous turn around in the last 3 matches in the lead up to the AFCON trophy. Even at the world cup we barely managed a shot at goal against Iran and had only 1 shot at goal vs Bosnia, Argentina was just pegging us back with ease each time we equalized…unlike 2018 when they all had to shed blood (and thanks to an absent minded V.Moses) before they could sweat out a win….we only had Enyeama to thank for reaching the 2nd round. Even the blindest critic knows that if we had an Enyeama class of goalkeeper in 2018 we definitely would have made it. But keshi never gave a damn about anyone and was just hell bent on getting the job done…the end product was that he left us with an AFCON trophy but without a team. Amodu too was never liked…the 2 times he was sacked was because of the press and public outcry from fans, claiming that he plays boring football. Let me not even talk about the ones that could not qualify for ordinary AFCON.
So Rohr should just focus on his plan and do his job the way he deems fit…..by God’s grace when we qualify four our 3rd straight major tournament with games to spare, let’s see what the big mouth regressives will come up with again….maybe this time their criticism will be that the the coach is always starting XI players in a game instead of 9 because he is desperate to win…or maybe it will be that the team does not score 4 goals in every match.
Dr Drey, na before before be BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM ooooo. That time don pass.
Now, na BEND IT LIKE EJUKE, na em dey reign. Ejuke bending bu ebeano!
Hahahahaha @pompei…O di egwu…! LMAO
Enough is Enough people wey get sense stop arguing with @Dr Drey and his Cohorts they are clueless and live on past glories which if the were to be honest are not really anything to write home about considering standards set by Okocha, Kanu and co’s Class of 1990’s and Early 2000’s.
They hate change and they hate progress, and Constructive criticism even when it is something that can benefit Rohr and help him improve. If Rohr just improves his decision making slightly we can achieve greater things but the FOOLS don’t want to hear anything directed to Rohr because they feel loving someone should be done Blindly even if you are watching the person you love Go a stray. Read below piece from Solace Chukwu a much more renowned football expert Than GR Fanbase on CSN Forum.
Rohr decision-making heaps pressure on Super Eagles ahead of Sierra Leone double-header
Solace Chukwu
Correspondent
Gernot Rohr
Getty Images
FEATURES & OPINIONS
OPINION
TUNISIA
NIGERIA V TUNISIA
FRIENDLIES
NIGERIA
The German coach made a number of puzzling choices that left more questions than answers ahead of November’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers
Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw with Tunisia drew the curtain on a deeply underwhelming international break for Nigeria and her fans.
Kelechi Iheanacho’s first-half goal, his first for the national team for three years, seemed to presage a much-improved performance from the humbling defeat at the hands of Algeria four days earlier. However, by the end of the opening period, a penalty had been missed, and some all-too-familiar foibles had, once again, arisen.
Even against a Tunisia side given to playing on the break, the Super Eagles were unable to assert themselves upon proceedings.
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When faced with the might of (a second-string) Algeria, it was somewhat palatable to be outplayed for periods of the game; Djamel Belmadi’s side are, after all, reigning African champions, and showed their depth and fortitude in holding Concacaf champions Mexico to a 2-2 draw despite being down a man for 40 minutes.
To be so easily manacled by the Carthage Eagles is an altogether tougher pill to swallow.
Some of that was to do with the withdrawals of Wilfred Ndidi, Joe Aribo and Oghenekaro Etebo thinning out the midfield pool. Aribo has enjoyed a strong start to life on the international stage, seeming especially to relish friendlies, and has brought much-needed dynamism to middle of the park; Ndidi and Etebo made up, almost in entirety, Gernot Rohr’s defensive midfield rota. So yes, there were mitigating factors.
Joe Aribo, Wilfred Ndidi – Nigeria
However, it was also Rohr’s call to eschew calling up proper replacements, especially when he had Ramon Azeez on the standby list.
That directly played into Semi Ajayi, on whom the jury is still out in his natural position in central defence, deputising in front of the back four for these two matches.
The inability of the West Bromwich Albion man to adapt to the demands of the role were apparent by how often he abdicated his post, and made the decision to discard Frank Onyeka, a natural in the position, even more difficult to understand.
That really is the overwhelming theme from this international window: increasingly, it is difficult to understand Rohr’s decision-making process as far as selection goes.
What was the rationale behind his decision to give Maduka Okoye two starts in the one position where clarity has been difficult to find?
The Sparta Rotterdam goalkeeper was impressive on debut against Brazil in 2019, and looked assured in the Algeria defeat. Surely, Tunisia offered the optimum chance to blood either Matthew Yakubu – who had been earning rave reviews in traning – or former youth international Dele Alampasu.
Maduka Okoye
With Francis Uzoho still working his way back to fitness, and Daniel Akpeyi wildly fluctuating in terms of his output, surely deepening the pool by assessing another option in the second friendly should have been a priority.
Remaining on the subject of odd decisions, how to compute Cyriel Dessers and Chidera Ejuke, two attackers who shone in the Eredivisie last season and earned moves on the back of their showings, receiving a paltry 30-minute window (combined) to stake their claims?
The case of the former, in particular, is a proper head-scratcher; following Paul Onuachu’s fish-out-of-water outing against Algeria, it seemed certain Dessers would get a start against Tunisia. Instead, Ahmed Musa was selected upfront as a lone centre-forward, and despite being predictably ineffectual, he remained on the pitch for 70 minutes.
It was a snub that seemed almost pointed, and it was in that wise that the wonderfully slippery Ejuke took it. Upon coming on, he proceeded to play like he simply did not care, going on a series of dribbles and ducking in and out of cul-de-sacs, the equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burnt or, more appropriately, Jay-Jay Okocha japing about at the corner flag at the 1998 World Cup while Denmark cut swathes through Nigeria’s midfield.
Why did Kevin Akpoguma and Chidozie Awaziem get spells – out of position – at right-back while Ola Aina cooled his heels on the bench for all 180 minutes over the course of both matches?
Why did Zaidu Sanusi emerge for the second half against Tunisia at all, seeing that he had made his point already?
Zaidu Sanusi of Nigeria
Only upon appearing to tweak his groin after the hour-mark was he replaced by Jamilu Collins; a serious injury at this point would be a huge blow, not only to the player, but to FC Porto, who sold first-choice left-back Alex Telles to Manchester United on transfer deadline day.
Rohr’s many idiosyncrasies lent an air of farce to the October international window, and have almost completely wiped out the optimism that had previously haloed the national team.
He will rightly point to these as friendlies: unimportant in the wider scheme, and therefore only useful for experimentation. He would be right, except for the fact that, by his aversion to risk, he managed to defeat the latter purpose, while also giving the lie to the former.
It was a window for trying new things and recapturing the imagination ahead of November’s double-header against Sierra Leone.
While nothing less than six points over those two matches was going to do, by failing to freshen the pot, there is now added pressure on those outcomes, and none of the excitement that new discovery can bring to mitigate it.
Rohr’s decision making has won him close to 60% of the matches he has played as SE coach despite inheriting the worst SE team of all time ranked 16th in Africa…..no coach in the history of the Nigerian National team has won 60% of his matches as coach. A poor man cannot teach a rich man how to spend his money. Shove your pieces of advice down your throats. If Rohr likes he should field handicapped players in the SE starting XI…SO FAR HE WINS THE IMPORTANT MATCHES THAT COME HIS WAY HE WILL BE JUSTIFIED. He is the one that will get rewarded with a new contract if he succeeds and meets his deliverables and the one that will be fired if the team fails. If he fields all your favorite players and loses even in an ordinary friendly match, its still you big mouths that will come out and cast stones. A SENSELESS FOOL (who cannot even read and understand simple English in an article written in black and white) CAN NEVER TEACH A WISE MAN HOW TO RUN HIS BUSINESS.
@Dr Drey
Why I share a lot of your assertions; you would agree with me that knowledge is a continuous process and that , the one who thinks he have learned it all,has just started learning. Every good teacher is a great student.
The point is; even if some see otherwise and would never agree; the majority (me included) believes Rohr has done fantastically well,from where we were coming from.He is still doing an amazing job, that much,he has been appreciated and that’s why he was rewarded with a new contract; deservedly so.
But the issue is,Like every human,Rohr do still make some errors; knowingly or nonchalantly ; some of his decision making leaves room for bewilderment,it is only proper for people ( most do so from the side of fidelity) to call out this errors and question the rational for such to take place. Such could lead to correction and thereby the required improvement might just occur.
I have always stated here that some of coach Rohr’s critic are his supporters but more of a Nigeria supporter , so their patriotic stand would always be guided by objectivity rather than blinded by sentiments.
Myself, have made some critical suggestions and citing of what I feel is a flaw of the gaffer as regard a given match and what I expect to change, in most cases,the coach , in his wisdom,has made some corrections.That always gives me the feeling that Rohr is one that is prone to learning and making adjustment,hence my continuous support. The more reason I believe we should continue to express our thoughts and be critical when there is a flaw seen; more for unbais objectivity and the support of Rohr but mostly for being a patriot,a keen fan who wants the best for the Eagles.
So you would definitely agree with me; even though,it is Rohr’s job to do the tinkering, we should be able to lay out observations that could come in handy to the team. Remember,the Super Eagles is all ours. We all share in the joy and we all feel the pain.
@Mr Hush. Well said.
But I hope you know Rohr is not my in-law, nor is he in anyway related to me. I’ve never met him and and will probably never will, so I gain absolutely nothing from him, as a person and as the coach of the national team. But the issue is if you must kill a dog, do you have to give it a bad name to do so. Nobody has said the man is flawless, neither as anyone said he is the best, but the one whom the success and failure of the SE affects the most is him and his immediate assistants. People who have no business with the team should learn to keep their mouths shut, and let the man do his damn job if they cant be objective. If he wins, he gets insulted, if he draws same, he shouldn’t even dare to lose a game. He made 3 subs b4 algeria coach made 1…same thing vs tunisia, yet ‘his subs are late'( a notion which has clearly been laid to rest thanks to the good work of @Deo earlier in the year)…..does that even make sense. A lot, A WHOLE LOT of the accusations leveled against the coach cannot even be backed up by facts and figures. But even as “POOR” as his decisions are, how does a 60% win ratio justify that. How many coaches can boast of such a high win ratio. If he does his thing and it works for him, whom am I to tell him he didn’t do it well. Or do you think he doesn’t have the senses to know what went wrong when things go wrong…? There are far so many things to celebrate about the man than the few unprintable things about him. So if anybody likes…let them keep crying their eyes out over that…their pains have just begun, while we celebrate that which is worth celebrating. Till the day the man decides to take a walk or is asked to go, I will continue to stand by him so far his ‘poor decision making’ continues to significantly moved our football from the pit of mediocrity to very close to the pinnacle of the continent. If we can play the best 2 teams on the continent in not-so-friendly friendlies and with little to separate us in both games, then why the hue and cry, considering where we are coming from.
Just like I have said before, Rohr should just call the bluff of everyone and focus on his plans, his job and on meeting his deliverables as SE coach focus the way he deems fit…God-willing we qualify for our 3rd straight major tournament after the double-header with games to spare, let’s see really knows what he is doing and what the big mouth regressives will come up with again by then. And if he doesnt meet then let his rightfully be given the boot. At least after then we can go and get that coach who never looses games to coach the team, then there will be peace on earth.
@Dr Drey
Aptly stated.
I do understand your stand point.
As it relates to humanity,there are always going to be those that don’t fancy you,not for anything tangible but for reasons that can never be interpreted. So I can sincerely relate to that as it correlates to those always throwing tantrums at Rohr no matter what. It is what it is.
The fact is, as you stated, we are down for Rohr given breathing space to do his job, he would take the brunt if he fails or succeed ( the trajectory swings to the latter) .
One would never stand for those always criticising for the sake of criticising or calling out from the path of hate; we shall always be on hand to “give back” to them objectively and comprehensively with facts as brought by positive results on the path of The national team.
BUT
My stance is that, it is ok to constructively criticize when necessary especially when there are honest questions to be asked and objective thoughts to be passed. It is for our good.
Yes, Rohr might not even care about this criticism or listen to the ideas brought but at least it was stated from a place of honesty, loyalty and objectivity. It is out there. As fans and patriot, we sometimes want to air our honest opinion as relates to issues. Time would smile on us that we didn’t keep quiet when things weren’t as smooth as we want it to be.cause things should be smooth , that’s our desire.
That said,I am in unison with you that Rohr should be given time to do his job and at the suppose time he doesn’t meet up, then we take action accordingly; but right now,we continue to support.
I love @ Mr Hush. You’re very balance in your analysis. Thank you sir.
@ much appreciated Amazing
… @Dr. Drey… You should be barred from commenting on this civilized forum. Your comments are never devoid of insults. As you keep insulting fellow forumites who share this space with you I can bet you that if we all leave this forum for the likes of you and others who jump fast to hurl invective on others for simply sharing a different opinion you all will begin to reckon it is the diverse views that sustains the buzz of interaction here. Please tone down the foul language… I know it’s hard for you but just try… thanks as you comply!
Mr Jimmybal…listen…before I will be banned on this forum…many people will be banned 1st…I repeat, before Dr.Drey will be banned on this forum….many will be banned first…including you. You know why, because I dont insult anyone unless they’ve insult me first. So if I have insulted you….go back and check where you threw the first punch. So to you and other hypocrites calling for my ban….remove the log in your eyes 1st before looking out for the spec in another’s.
… @Dr.Drey! Hahahaha. You can’t stop. Kai… You even call us hypocrites again because we see through Rohrs shortfalls and state them objectively. This means by extension… Mutiu Adepoju and Etim Esin are hypocrites also… I am no longer perturbed in that case! Clearly Etim and Mutiu are in our camp… No shaking!
Hehehehe….What a shame! you can’t even comprehend simple english…..Mutiu Adepoju and Etim Esin are among those calling for my ban from CSN right…? or Mutiu Adepoju and Etin Esin are among those who 1st throw insults on CSN but now start complaining when the favour is returned to them in equal measure….? LMAO.
Maybe you should start heeding your own advice of reading and understanding simple English properly before responding.
Liarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. You the first person to call people names, with your under parrots that speak on your behalf. abeg shut the hell up
Hahahahha…..
“…with your UNDER PARROTS that speak on your behalf…”
We never consult oracle, winch don dey confess….LMAO
The world knows who the real lairs are on this forum.
Well said my brother, i don’t respond to fools, or over sabi people. And there ring leader would come here and lie about not being an instigator. Like i posted before. Reply to sensible comments. We don’t need to be reading literature or bible verses. Let his cohorts be doing that
@ Goal, you may not know where I m coming from. So I continuously remain a big puzzle. I quite agree with you that some people criticize out of genuine concerns but you may want to agree with me that there are loads out there constantly working to just derail every effort Rohr is putting to make SE real quality, just for the sake that they are no longer benefiting on personal terms. These are the ones I refer to. They have direct and indirect agents working hard for them. Even some of the undeserved SE players go as far as pay media men to discredit their rival players in camp. There are all sort of dirty stuff going about that I won’t wanna bring out in public forum. All evil stuff. Reason I will swim n sink with Rohr, I care less about anything being said about him and what he is doing. I hate evil doers with passion and enjoy causing them pain. Even if SE happens to lose outta d world cup, but as long as it causes evil doers pain, I am satisfied.
It really baffles me, how most of the regressive think. Have you guys ever asked why every National team manager, whether local or foreign finds it hard to work harmoniously in Nigeria? Do you think it’s just the NFF problem? I tell you it’s because of these faceless evil people, who use all kinds of machinations to frustrate every manager that refuse to play their script. You think people like Drey, Oakfield, Pompeii, Sean, Hush, myself and many beautiful minds here on this forum, we don’t know Rohr like every other person on earth has his shortcomings. We all know but we and especially I, I will never opened the door of a good person for evil doers to go in and have their way. ROHR IS NOT PERFECT BUT I HONESTLY CANT FIND A BETTER OPTION THAT CAN GIVE A BETTER RESULT THAN HE IS DOING AT THE MOMENT WHEN WE CONSIDER THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT NIGERIAN FACTOR. Those homebased coaches will either compromise or easily get kicked out if they refuse to play these EVILDOERS script but it is hard for them to do that to Rohr because he is foreign, as FIFA will definitely take interest in such matter but for our local coaches, FIFA will always see it as “FAMILY MATTER” so our local coaches are always going to be at the mercy of these SATANIC LOTS.
… @GLORY you have a point about detractors in Nigeria sports circles. Infact lots of them abound. Look at what Imama Amapakabo did with the Olympic team… we crashed out because he collected money from junk players and agents to fields their interests… Just like Paul Aigbogun did! I don’t even trust NFF presidio Amaju Pinnick himself… Imposing players at U-17, U-20 and U-23 all to the detriment of the country’s only real beloved sport…
Some of you that come out in public to sincerely criticize Rohr, you must understand that you are only becoming unconsciously, a tool in the hands of those criminals. These lots feed on whatever good intentions your criticism might be. They are EVIL,they don’t care about Nigeria and our football. All they care about is ” WETIN WE GO CHOP. ALWAYS WETIN WE GO CHOP, WITH THEIR FAT POTTY POT BELLE.
GR may have won about 58% of matches but the fact is that his record against strong opposition remains abysmal.
Nobody disputes his past record but recent performance does not indicate progression. Just a personal opinion, unless drastic measures are taken, It is unlikely that GR surpasses his ANC bronze record or WC appearance…
Here are my observations.
His tactical approach to matches against strong oppositions is wrong. He needs to understand that fearless approach is what brought global recognition to SE. Too much respect for opponents cost him the ANC, and WC second round.
Besides,, his recent performances showed that he needs to upgrade his tactics. His rigid approach makes me think that he has achieved his best. I don’t want to say GE is regressing but it is what it seems like : Lost 1-2 to algeria in 2019, and 0-1 in 2020, won 1-0 against Tunisia in 2019 and drew 1-1 in 2020.
Second, over-reliance on size of players and not ability is a dumb mentality. Size without stamina, skills and speed leads to redundancy. Another GR supporter mentioned that GR would have asked the team to play to Onwuachu strength if he wanted to win which is a fat lie. Rather than praise Belmadi’s technical superiority over GRs’, they start looking for same excuses that apply to the other team. The lack-lustre performance in the two matches points to the fact that SE don’t have a team yet. The cases of Aina and Azeez come to mind, why would a coach decide not to use two of our best performers in the last official match before the friendlies. Azeez plays in the best league in the world and has proved himself against the best teams in the World. The only time he was given the opportunity, he took it an impressive display rather than continue with him GR chose to recycle underperforming midfielders. Same applies to Aina, a player that has never disappointed in his recent matches. GR made us to understand that Aina was not good for WC but Torino went all the way to prove him wrong and showed us how go good the guy is. Aina is not only the costliest SE defender but he is the most skillful and has most assist (more assist than SE wingers in recent matches).
Another GR blind supporter said he is already aware of Aina’s capabilities hence his bench roles,another wrong assumptions, Is GR not aware of the capabilities of Ekong, Chukzy, Balo, and Kalu, why didn’t he bench them for the two matches. Like someone said GR may be planning to drop Aina again from future tournament.
Recycling of underperforming players, wrong tactics, inability to explore SE DNA (strength, speed and fearlessness) and late substitutions are GR major deficiencies.
The next list of invited players will soon be out.
… @Larry. Good and objective talk! Original freshly tapped palmwine for you there!
@JimmyBall, much appreciated.
Let’s check the facts,
Rohr score card on
African & foreign Strong Oppositions which we hardly win or struggle to win.
Cameroon. He played 3, won 2, drew 1
Egypt, played 1, won 1
Senegal, played 2, drew 2
Algeria, played 4, won1, drew1, lost2
Argentina, played 2, won1, lost1
Poland, played 1, won1,
Ukraine, played 1, drew 1
Brazil, played 1, drew 1
So my first question is how is this Rohr’s record on strong opposition abysmal?
Second question, before coach Rohr came, how many times have you won these teams?
Okay forget to add
Croatia played 1 lost1
Iceland played 1 won 1
Remember both teams are well above us in Fog ranking at that time.
Lol! @Ikeben. They think they can just come and lie to us all in the name of discrediting the work of the gaffer. I wonder how those records against top oppositions are abysmal only in his opinion. Lmao!! Bunch of confused fellows. Don’t worry Rohr will leave one day and we will the world class Guardiolas that will take over. Before then you have to accept this abysmal results for another two years.
@Ikeben, good job but you need to complete your analysis by adding England and Serbia.
GR’s win ratio against strong opposition is about 40%.
This is the fact..
So, it is no more winning ratio. Some people think that they are smarter than the rest. A decent and smart person applies same principle to same topic.
Some people need to stop dancing soapy..
When facts are brought before them, they start twisting and dancing soapy just to tilt honest narratives to favor their illogical reasonings.
The last time it was winning ratio now it is points. Based on real statistics GR’s winning ratio against top 35 teams is less than 30%.
It is no more 40% it is now 30%. Lmao!! Please show us the data instead of just speculating. You failed to answer any of the questions Ikeben asked you. Prior to GR tenure how many big teams have we defeated with your world class coaches in the past?
24 games against ‘strong opposition’ 10 wins 6 draws 8 losses = 36 points out of a possible 72. That is what is abysmal.
They should show us the score-card of their ‘world best’ coaches against even ‘weak opposition’ before Rohr came…..LMAO
Hmm…there was a time that we will finish watching Naija match and won’t feel like reading any sport news the next day.
Here we are giving names of different players, coming to CSN cos we see improvements.
They should also show us the score-card of the likes of former bosses like Egypt’s Hector Cuper, Cameroon’s Clarence Seedorf, Morocco’s Herve Renhard, SA’s Staurt Baxter as well as Sengal’s Aliou Cisse and Algeria’s Djamel Belmadi plus those of former SE managers against ‘strong opposition’…lets us really see how abysmal this “dumb” Rohr of a coach is. LMAO
Hahahaha…Win ratio….points per game….points earned, are they not all performance indices…? LMAO If only some people were ‘decent and smart’, they would have known that the win ratio of 58% we have used all these while even was being conservative in rating this ‘dumb and abysmal’ coach and wouldn’t bother bringing up this argument, otherwise…let me annoy them more by stating his overall;
51 games 29 wins 12 draws and 10 losses; 99 points out of a possible 153.
In their desperate bid to water-down his performance indices you talk about top 35 teams…top 35 teams of 2016-2020 or top 35 teams of September 2020 alone…LMAO. Is it not baseless to judge matches played since 2016 with the rankings of just 1 month in 2020 knowing that teams rise and fall on monthly basis. But desperation has turned their thought processes upside down. Why not narrow it down to top 5 teams so that his win ratio will be 0% and then they will be satisfied…..LMAO ‘Decent and Smart’ persons.
As a matter of fact it is simply fair and just to say EVERY TEAM ABOVE US IN THE FIFA RANKINGS since 2016 when we were 70th in the world was a ‘strong opposition’ as at that time and hence should be regarded as one…LMAO
From total games played…they narrowed it down to ‘strong opposition’…when they couldnt prove their lies of abysmall performance they narrowed it down to top 35 teams of 2020…. LMAO
We are still waiting for them to show us the dossier of their ‘world-class’ coaches let us see how abysmal this dumd coach has really been.
51 games 29 wins 12 draws and 10 losses; 99 points out of a possible 153. That is his overall score card…..if it pains anybody, they should look for eraser and clean his stats and write their own there in the record books…otherwise they should seal their mouths till 2022.
‘Decent and Smart’ persons.
@ Larry so your problem now is the coach not playing Aina nor inviting Azeez.? Did you remembered that same Awaziem and Aina played as right and left right back at the nation’s cup respectively? were they not played out of position? What is your problem with the coach playing a certain player outside position. It’s know fact everywhere that coaches this day played players out side position as long they do what the coach want. Why we Nigerians like to create issues where there is non. Now to your complain on not inviting Azeez, don’t know if u av been following Azeez have early feature in his club this season. I think he has only played one matches as substitute. All these attack on the coach is just he has refused to call or use your favourite players and this are not what our football need at this particular time. Yes Mutiu Adepoju and the other talked abut the team not playing well in the 2 matches which are fair critism we are all talking about. Nobody has ever said it was a best performance but still room for improvement. U even heard Etim said the performance against Brazil was one of best performance in recent games was it not this same coach the assembled and coached the team in that match? could vividly remembered some of you came here then still criticized the coach that the match should have been won. So pls what do u really want? U sha want to return us to the era of oh my God or using calculators. Just as dr drey said nobody here is related to coach Rohr but to me i think we should be fair in our judgement the man has done well and he deserve a pact on the back plus our positive critism. God bless us.
@tayo, first learn to be decent and professional in your response.
I do not think that the invitation of players was based on club activities since mosr leagues just kicked off.
Otherwise players like Kalu, Nacho, Ekong, Agu, Awaziem, and Omeruo would not have been invited.
The only reason could have been performance in past matches for SE and if you ask me, Azeez deserved the invitation.
@tayo…dont mind ‘Decent and Smart’ people. When Rohr played Awaziem and Ajayi out of position in crucial qualifiers and competitive matches, it was Ok, because they are the players they wanted to see….but when he does it in friendly matches which are there for experimentation he becomes dumb, abysmal and all kinds of unprintable names. All of a sudden Onyeka who won his club’s best player of the season award and still scored in the UCL the week b4 the Intl break is now inferior to Azeez who barely gets game-time in Granada. Yet they will be weeping all over the place if Rohr didnt invite players like Onyeka.
Abeg forget about these ‘Decent and Smart’ persons. The coach must always dance to their tune….when he doesnt he becomes dumb and abysmal. Forget about them…. They are inconsequential to our rise to the top o jare. If the fire too burn them for head make dem chook their TVs inside water so dem nor go even dey tempted to they watch SE under Rohr again.
Here are some facts people need to know .
– GR doesn’t need to play to any player strength or pattern , Rather the player need to adjust to the team strength .
– Pep Guadorlia didn’t play to Zlatan ibrahimovic strength at barcelona nor did Roberto Mancini play to Balotelli strength at Man-city and many other players / Coach .
I repeat no coach play to any player strength expect you’re MESSI or RONALDO ( I stand to be corrected ) .
Nelson Semedo , Arthur are sold by Barcelona because he didn’t fit into Keoman pattern .
Most SE players are not improving and that is why the poor display on the recent match shows how average the SE team .
Salah , De-bruyne , PIQUE , Sterling and many other players are sold to other teams becauase the failed to improve . After many years of improvement , You can now call them top-players .
Failure for Players to improve , will continue to show poor team effort by the SE team .
GR is certainly not the best coach in the world and has his own flaws BUT i repeat both the PLAYERS and COACH are to be blamed for the SE poor display in recent match .
Everyone seems to blame the COACH for the team poor display , BUT none is blaming the players for being predictable and not improving in every aspect of their game .
Everyone keep saying the coach should play to some certain players strength BUT i repeat , WHY SHOULD THE COACH PLAY TO A PLAYER STRENGTH WHEN SUCH PLAYER IS NEITHER MESSI OR RONALDO .
EVEN MADRID DOESN’T PLAY TO HAZARD STRENGTH OR ANY OF THEIR SUPER-STAR . SO THE WHOLE TALK ABOUT GR PLAYING TO A PLAYER STRENGTH IS BASELESS .
EXPECT MESSI AND RONALDO , CAN ANYONE NAME JUST ONE PLAYER THAT A WORLD CLASS COACH OR AN AVERAGE COACH PLAYS TO HIS STRENGTH ?
UNTIL FANS AND MEDIA START ATTACKING THE SE PLAYERS JUST LIKE THEY CRITIZE THE COACH , THE TEAM WON’T IMPROVE .
BOTH THE PLAYERS AND COACH NEEDS TO IMPROVE IN EVERY ASPECT . FAILURE TO IMPROVE BY EITHER OR NEITHER , IMPLIES THE TEAM WILL CONTINUE TO BE POOR .
IF GR IMPROVES AND THE PLAYERS CHOOSE NOT TO IMPROVE , THE TEAM WILL STILL REMAIN AVERAGE AND POOR . IT’S CERTAINLY VICE VERSA
GOD BLESS NIGERIA
@Na me talk am, I do agree with some of your submissions but you have to agree that players invitation and selection for matches is the job of the coach. It is the duty of the coach to select the right set of players that can translate his instructions into actions on the field accordingly.
How can a team improve, when the coach keeps recycling underperforming players..
When you recycle failures, you lose. A good coach would never try to play players out of position when reliable options are available. Akpo vs Aina, Awaziem vs Aina..
A good coach will not place good players on stand-by for underperforming ones. Azeez vs Agu/Onyeka.
A good coach will understand when a player is having a rough day and acts by replacing him on time. Chukzy vs Ejike or Kalu vs Moses/Ejike, Onwuachu vs Desser..
@Larry .. As you can see , i made it clear that the coach has his own flaws and heck he has alot of flaws BUT then people and old footballers act like this PLAYERS don’t have flaws aswell . Example of recycling under-performing players like ONAUCHU , YOU CAN TESTIFY TO IT THAT HAD GR FAILED TO INVITE HIM FOR THE FRIENDLY MATCH , ALOT OF FANS WOULD HAVE ASKED FOR HIM TO BE SACKED . HECK ALOT OF PEOPLE ARE ALREADY CLAMORING FOR HIS INVITE AND SAYING HE’S RED HOT ( OMO9JA ET OTHERS ) . YET HE FLOPPED AGAIN AND THEIR EXCUSE REMAINS THE COACH IS NOT PLAYING TO HIS STRENGTH . MY QUESTION REMAIN , IS ONAUCHU MESSI OR RONALDO , THAT A COACH NEED TO PLAY TO HIS STRENGTH COS NO AVERAGE COACH PLAYS TO ANY PLAYERS STRENGTH E.G LUKAKU AT MAN-UNITED .
PEOPLE NEED TO REALIZE THAT THEY NEED TO CRITICIZE BOTH THE PLAYERS AND COACH . MOST SE PLAYERS ARE NOT IMPROVING AND ARE EXTREMELY PREDICTABLE .
SOME PEOPLE COMPLAINS ABOUT CORNER-KICK AND FREE-KICK SPECIALIST BUT NONE IS ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION , WHY ARE THIS PLAYERS NOT DOING THAT AT THEIR OWN FREE TIME . MESSI / NEYMAR / RONALDO ARE SPECIALIST TODAY BECAUSE THEY TRAINED ON THEIR OWN .
ANOTHER THING PEOPLE FAIL TO CONSIDER IS HOW MANY MATCHES DOES THE NATIONAL TEAM PLAY IN A CALENDAR YEAR COMPARE TO THEIR CLUB ?
IF THE TEAM DOESN’T HAVE ANY SPECIALIST IN FREE KICK OR CORNER KICK THAT SHOWS HOW BAD THE PLAYERS ARE IN TERMS OF SELF AND PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT . SIR ALEX FERGUSON DIDN’T TEACH
BECKHAM HOW TO PLAY FREE KICK OR CORNER KICK NEITHER DID ANYONE TEAM RONALDO OR MESSI , THEY LEARNT THAT ON THEIR OWN .
SO IT SHOWS HOW LAZY THE WHOLE SQUAD ARE AND HOW THEY ARE NOT IMPROVING AND DEVELOPING ON THEIR OWN .
DON’T FORGET PLAYERS SPEND MORE TIME WITH THE CLUB COACH THAN THEIR NATIONAL TEAM COACH .
NEVERTHELESS I STILL REMAIN ON THE OPINION THAT BOTH THE COACH AND PLAYERS DESERVE TO BE CRITICIZE AND PEOPLE NEED TO STOP BLAMING THE COACH ALONE FOR THE TEAM POOR PERFORMANCE .
GOD BLESS NIGERIA
@Omo9ja, jimmyball, own goal..sorry goal and others …its like I’m beginning to love your squad I want to join this progressive group but first, let’s bring out a name of whom to campaign for I mean the best coach with good pattern,coach that will give the likes of Belgium,France 3-0 each.
Pls…what name do we have in mind?
Pls…I’m also tired of this Rohr.
The question to ask is if the NFF is ready to be serious and hire competent coach instead of a Physical education teachers. can they afford a good and sound coach. There are many out there. Will there budget afford such coach
… @Sean. Join the winning team and be objective. We will praise Rohr and the team if we begin to see positive progress. We don’t hate anyone… We want the best for the Super Eagles… and if we must be labelled town-criers to help improve the team we will do it. The clear message is that Ex-Internatiols are not all detractors… With the history of football in Nigeria we are suppose to be on the same level as South American Nations and Most elite teams in Europe now if not for our dysfunctional league… Nigeria cannot accept mediocrity in football. @Sean… We are still signing members for Super Eagles Obejective Fans… So you are free to hop on the train as we begin to draw into proper football seasons again… We criticize does not mean we are right always though… but we make our assessments as objective in reality as it should be…
@jimmyball…in that case, Rohr should continue but he must do what we want abi? Lol.
Most Nigerians are very funny. They want Rohr to test new players and at the same time insist, that Rohr must win the match. The truth is that when you are testing players, it is just an experiment that could backfire because those new players are still unknown quantities. I’m sure if we don’t mount pressure on Rohr to make sure he wins, he could conveniently test the new players. But with the pressure, the man will tend to be more conservative by relying more on his reliables than the new players.
Exactly.
The result of a friendly match is important, but even more important is the separating of the wheat from the chaff. The primary purpose of friendlies is to help us identify new talents, and help existing players gel together.
Rohr should be judged based on the outcome of matches that matter, not friendlies or dead rubber games.
I think larry have alot points in his analisis, what have worked for rohr in the past four matches was 4 3 3 formation abi? Now why is he stressing himself by trying to move a mountain without faith? Its verry simple if i was to be in his shoes. In absent of regular midfielders like etebo aribo and ndidi, he should simply invite the obvious well known azubuike and azeez, along onyeka who was recently inform. Play azubuike azeez and iwobi in the midfield and that would have guarateed him balance and stability in the middle then if the wings remains the problem immediately remove kalu for ejuke simple as abc instead of bringing in a moses simon that we have seen 1 million times, bring in ola aina for ebuehi instead of akpoguma( why akpoguma wen the team is loosing? to do wat ? Defend a loosing team in a friendly match? That was teknicaly poor nomatter wat reason) if our midfield had azeez and azuz to support iwobi with aina and ejuke coming in second half to replace ebuehi and kalu i am sure rohr wouldhv gotten his equalizer against algeria. Secondly i didnt expect to see musa at all, not bcos he is not supose to be in the team but bcos we know him already and playing him and simon was boring to be honest these guys cannot do morethan we know already, its like movie watched allover and over again and no latest in them.(though i expect them to remain in the main team) I expected dessers to take unuacho place from start in tunisia game and aina in rightback ejuke ahead of simon then iheanacho as sub. For me rohr formation or tacktiks are not the problem, the problem is his selections in addition to some funny invitations. Rohr knows azubuike at list he saw him in u23 eagles and had also played for eagles in the past, he knows azeez and kelech nwakali. Simply invite these guys to intigrate them on time to mentain balance and have a solid back up that could even offer more than the regulars can do, instead of repeatedly inviting learners like Agu and abdulahi or trying to convert ajayi, na the man they stress himself. Imagine a coach that have azubuike and azeez at his dosposal playing agu and ajayi ahead of them mr Rohr how far? Lets call a spade a spade Nff needs to interfer in some cases bcos it was their interferance that force keshi to the drawing board that finally led to 2013 afcon trophy. Rohr regular midfielders should be. Iwobi, ndidi aribo etebo, ejiara azeez azub and kelech nwankali. At list this guys are close to each other in terms of quality, not agu abdulahi or ajayi , ajayi is best in center back. Any succesfull team must have skillfull and gifted midfielders not armatuers, when keshi was incharge in absent of mikel obi. He will combine henry kalu former enyimba midfield maestro alongside sunday mba, nosa igiebor, fegor egude, these guys are not superstars then but they posses the charachter that is needed to win the midfield, he gradualy blended it up with onazi and mikel obi befor ogu, now cech out these names they can and have all delivered without each other, that is bcos they posses thesame charachters, mandela cup we won 2 0 with only onazi and ogu without mikel, confidration cup was not bad in terms of creativity in the middle without onazi, so on and so fort. Iwobi ogu and etebo in algeria 1 1 draw was also a perfect game by rohr without mikel and ndidi and onazi but ogu etebo and iwobi made things to happen. Thats bcos they posseses the right eagle midfield charachters, but agu, ajayi in the middle or abdulahi converted or the era of moses simon to defend against average teams will lead him and his team to failure, Nff should not accept such medrecre in their table even if rohr is world best coach it thosent make Nigerians total novice in the game, he should get things right on time befor nest afcon time nor dey,
@Colins ID you made some valid points regarding Agu and Shehu, but I thought you said in one of your earlier post that Agu did well in that game against Algeria? Playing Zubby and Azeez behind Iwobi will limit our aerial presence in the middle of the park hence the need for the coach to play Ajayi in that role. I was also not happy that Azeez should at least made the list in this last window. However, words coming from his camp is that he took a knock in one of the games he played for his club before the break. I think in the game against Atletico which if I’m not mistaken is the only game he has featured in so far this season. The coach must have seen a thing or two and draw some valuable lessons from this window. How the team can rally to get maximum results in the next double header is the most important going forward. The fact that if the SuperEagles win home and away next month they’re already in Cameroon with games to spare. Thereby giving more opportunities to other players against Lesotho and Benin. Of which at that point I will even implore him to focus more on trusted hands so as to blend the team to a solid, more compact unit before the AFCON.
I still agree that he agu did improved but his best cannot be compared to azubuike, talking about air dominance you and I knows it has always been 50 50 against big teams, rohr team performed better on the ground play, against Ukraine etebo did cover well, etebo onazi mikel in rohr early team won big games against Algeria. I don’t think height is the issue there, azubuike is almost like jayjay in a defensive formular, verry confident with the ball he can build from deep and can also drive into the box almost ngolo kante in making, can cover well to give iwobi more freedom . I am only waiting to see what ejiara will bring in becos he is the only midfielder in rohr list that have the character etim is talking about, if not, azubuike and azeez should be in the team possibly if nwakali is in form can also come in, we need creativity since Mikel and onazi era something have been missing especially in African games, aribo is very skillfull and direct but he seems not to be very effective in the DM or CM, position I will prefer him play 10 or 8. talking about DM and CM position if rohr wants to dominate and dictate the midfield he needs to think of Ndidi and ejiara, or Ndidi and azubuike, azubuike ejiara or etebo ejiara also etebo azubuike, all can work. the likes of iwobi,nwakali, aribo,azeez can be option to play AM position, aribo Ndidi iwobi is not too balanced for me, they struggled against Brazil and Lesotho, if not for osihmen creativity, i even prefer ndidi etebo iwobi to the former. there is no time to waste anymore we hope to win Afcon 2022, this names are good enough he needs to start calling them together from now on so that they can blend on time, thank God there are alot options upfront and our defence is solidly ready. he shouldn’t stress about josh unoma and ebere eze, they will only distract him, the above midfielders can deliver he should just trust them.
… @Ayphillydegreat. It is well documented Coach Rohr is affiliated to DMW Sports Management Agency… That sports management company is responsible for managing no less than 5 current regulars in Super Eagles including Samuel Kalu, Mikel Agu and a few others… This is the reason why Rohr keeps railroading average Mikel Agu on Super Eagles… Always extending callups to that guy once he is able to string two good performances for his Portuguese club. It’s just painful how the career of Musa Yahaya went with FC Porto… that guy would have been one of the midfield anchors doing us proud today… Mikel Agu and Frank Onyeka don’t cut for now… If they improve in the future fine… but for now they should focus on their club.
my question is (in goodwill and honesty) : does Rohr believe in the abilities or not?
Rohr dropped him ahead of world cup and rarely used him during afcon. this is the most creative fullback at SE (in my opinion and fact)
and I don’t think Rohr should build SE around any player as along he is not Ronaldo or Messi, not even victor osimhen
@ Larry , you are always at your best with your articulated precise breathtaking analysis devoid of foul languages ; you are definitely part of what makes this forums to be very robust and interesting just like Mr Hush , @Goal ,@ Omo9ja etc not forgetting the likes of Dr. Drey, @Apyillidegreat and his strong team members ( how I wish they can also be tolerant of other opinion without having to result to uses of fouls languages on ourselves)
@ Mr Hush , kudos how I wished others Supporters of GR can be objectives for once and put interest of Nigeria as ultimate over love for an individual, you came out with strong points for GR and never failed to point out GR glaring flaws which are clear even to the blinds and neophytes in the football world , but as usual , GR’s lovers never brook constructive criticism, thank God some of the GR’s noted deficiencies were pointed out by your humble self not forgetting his strong points from your perception ( if the GR’s deficiencies were to be brought out by any other person , trust , the response of GR‘a supporters would have been rewarded with many uncomplimentary, ugly foul languages as “fool , stupid , idiot etc that are not expected of a civilized forum members as ours ) . That you always balance your thoughts even though not without showing where you bend to but then , you do say fact and above all very civilized in all your comment. Kudos once again .
Mutiu Adepoju- Head Master and African Maradona Etim Esim who are not novice in the art of football particularly having in-depth knowledge of Nigerian football as they have played it to the highest level from Nigeria to the outside world aside working under different great coaches in Nigeria and Europe , they have spoken , and the common fact is the team remain average that is below expectation of an an expatriate on a job for more than 4 years and it is double embarrassment that Algerian local coach had to tutored our imported coach on two occasion that we met ( thunder they say never strikes twice, but in our case I hope it would not have to strike 3rd time before we agreed that GR needs to improve ) . After 4 years of uninterrupted on the job , by now GR should have known Nigerian strength that may not necessarily be what others are doing ( wing plays plus free kick takers with creative midfielder players are always Nigerian teams strength any day ) , but today there is no penalty taker in the team let alone a reliable free kick specialist that can change the game . Seems GR don’t have flair for skillful player hence the choice of benching Ola Aina for the two games as he was dropped too in WC .
In any case , thank God , the friendly also brought a positive in the goalkeeping department which has been the weakest link for the past 5 years running , now we have hope in that area even though it is not yet at the level of Peter Rufai , Ike Shorumi, Enyama , Carl Ikpeme ( but there is glaring diamond seen).
It is high time we should let GR know that , the team needs improvement, no more excuses as Buhari lead APC would blames PDP past Administration for his glaring inefficiencies. In the first instance, he was given the job of what cannot be done successfully in the past , with required uninterrupted steady salary , so there should be no longer complain of the past , just imagine if Algerian local coach had continue to blamed the past failure of Algeria team without improving his team particularly with the strong technical input ( his team was so bad that it lost to lowly Republic of Benin and since then never lost any match since then ) .For goodness sake why continue to invite players like Onauchu and Agu who have proved in the past of not adding value to the team , if he were to be Nigeria local coaches, they would have accused him of taking bribe from some of these players .
God bless you all , God bless Super eagles
De Star ⭐️ My brother long time, I hope you are ok.
Your comments above is spot on.
@ De Star
My appreciations and salutations.
And always nice to read your view.
Well articulated. Nothing more to add to this
@De- star, thanks for the recognition. Your analysis is highly articulated.
@De Star. Good points. But I want you guys to know that nobody claims that Rohr is a perfect coach by every stretch. Of course he does have his flaws, but one thing is certain he will always select players on merit. It is now left to his players to raise their games and play to their strength. The good thing now is that we’ve been able to see other options. Chukwueze now know that he’s got other players breathing down his neck. Ejuke, Dessers and Iheanacho have shown they can be viable options in the attack going forward. Omeruo now know that Akpoguma can take his place in a back three or CB if he can’t improve beyond his current capacity. Despite the fact that the two friendlies are underwhelming in the eyes of many fans we’ve still been able to identify some positives. People should understand that he inherited a SuperEagles in transition. Losing our best goalkeeper of all time In Enyeama and subsequent losing three key players in Mikel, Moses and Ighalo to retirements. Yet SuperEagles have been steadily progressing over the last 4 years. Obviously, there will be some growing pains, but I’m absolutely certain that this SuperEagles are ready to step up and be counted over the next two years which will be really decisive. We’re not winning the WorldCup even with klopp, Pep, Maurinho combined. That notion that Nigeria can win the WorldCup with this set of players should be put aside. Hopefully we qualify and present an exciting team that will capture the world imagination.
Some people are funny sha. They sha want their favourite players to feature even if such player is not ready. Imagine someone mentioning Nwakali, Azubuike, Azeez. These are players that have not play complete 90 minutes for their clubs this season.. when the coach did not invite new player they will say he is too conservative that he doesn’t want to take risk. When he invited and doesn’t use, they will complain that why does he invited them and doesn’t use now the man invited and used yet they are still wailing the he had to bench Ola Aina that Azeez should have been invited instead of onyeka. Haba! terrible peoples everywhere.
@tayo Azeez is a starting player for his club he got injured against Atletico Madrid.. Please guys only Facts!!!
The link below is for the ‘decent and smart’ persons who have been running their mouths over Agu and Onyeka’s invitation ahead of Azeez. They think the coach is stupid and dumb and does not communicate with his players. In their ‘smartness’ a player who is injured since turning up for Granada vs Athletico should have been in camp.
https://www.granadacf.es/noticia/actualidad-e-imagenes-del-dia-14-de-octubre
Socrates says “Ask why to know why”…..but these ‘decent and smart’ ones in their minds know more than the coach who communicates and spends time in camp with these players. When we tell them to keep their mandibles shut and let the coach do his job they take offence.
Mr. Know it all of complete sports.
May be you should ask your World class coach GR aka Belmadi’s student why he placed an injured player on standby. Smart people read between the lines ” Ndidi and Aribo were not placed on stand-by”
Osihmen is of the mark folks! Superb take for his first goal and the celebrations said it all!!!!
Minus the goal sef you can see what a player he is
Am happy for him… But they wan injure am o, he just got subbed off after a bad tackle…
Just check out the technique in bringing the ball down with his chest and the awareness in taking aim at goal from range. But some “wait & get” strikers will be moaning about not getting crosses from the wingers. I no know how person go tall nor fit use am do anything meaningful for pitch. Dem go tey for bench if at all they will ever get anywhere close to the SE camp. I
…@Dr. Drey… Did Osimhen just became good overnight? No! This is the same Victor Osimhen who despite scoring about 20goals for Chaleroi in Belgium and making the AFCON squad… Arigo-Sacchi-Gernot-Rigid-Rohr said he was not ready for games at AFCON from his body language in training, meanwhile Chukwueze who was not half as efficient as Osimhen is in his own role, was getting valuable game time. I have never seen a coach as unintelligently-rigid as “Old-School-Physical-Education-Coach-Rohr… The young man (Osimhen) was so disappointed after the loss to Algeria when Pinnick visited them in their locker room from not being even in the bit trusted… all of a sudden, Victor Osimhen just became a classic striker over night… when you tell them to give hungry youngsters opportunity… they will say he has no experience… left Ighalo in games even when production is not taking off for Odion Ighalo… We would not have lost that game to Algeria if Ighalo had twice squared balls for clearly open Ahmed Musa… I can bet if Ighalo had not retired after AFCON… Rohr will still be playing him ahead of Victor Osimhen!
But you forgot that the same Osimhen at the time came on for Ighalo in the third place match and couldn’t even get a single shot on target in 45 minutes. What will he have done better against Algeria when in his first 3 or so games for the SuperEagles prior to the AFCON he couldn’t sniff the oppositions goal area. It takes gradual integration for a young player to be integrated into the national team. Even at at that the boy is still learning his trade at 21. Gradually he has shown he’s the undisputed number 9.
…@Ayphillydegreat. Lame! Osimhen is not learning any trade at Napoli now. He is just showing what he can do… Ighalo who has finished learning is not even rated as good enough for league games at Manchested United… My point is that Rohr hardly trust people showing that he is just always hunting results… good one which has most recently since world cup eluded him. Samson Siasia gave Osimhen opportunity for U-23 as way back as 2015 in U-23 AFCON in Algeria which we won… that is how a coach should go.
I understand your point. U23 is totally different from SuperEagles. The same Rohr gave him Osimhen is SuperEagles debut and didn’t even score from open play after how many matches. Ighalo has since retired from national team duty so comparing them now is irrelevant. He has learned his trade understudying Ighalo in the National team and the rest is left to him to keep getting better. Meanwhile Osimhen is miles better than the stoic Onuachu who couldn’t hold up play to save his life. We are glad to have a striker in Osimhens caliber that can take our darling SuperEagles to the glory days. And I hope if he makes a mistake in a crucial game people like you will not change to another tone. Lmao!!!
Hahahaha@AYphilly…pls help me ask him how many games it took the same Osimhen who scored 20 goals in the Belgian league (and would have destroyed Algeria within 15-30 mins he would have come on for Ighalo) to score his 1st goal in open play for the SE…..help me ask him how many goals he scored in the 45 mins he came on for Ighalo vs Tunisia. Help me ask him how many goals he scored for the u23s in 2015 (when he wasn’t yet mature for u23 football) and how many he scored in 2019 when he had become fully mature for that level of football. Help me ask him why Siasia did not take him along to the olympics but rather took experienced and more mature ones of the likes of Imoh Ezekiel, Umar, Junior Ajayi and Etebo instead.
Only God knows when these noise makers will understand that no be size of orange for on top tree naim go make am ripe. When in time to ripe reach e go ripe. Osimhen has simply ripened at the right time (devoid of unnecessary pressure) after learning from Ighalo and Rohr at AFCON and by listening to the candid advise that he needs to learn to be very strong on the ball. The same coach played another teenager in almost allthe matches at the same AFCON. He know what he saw that made him say A sit down, B go out there and play. The Osimhen we see today is not the osimhen that played vs Uganda before AFCON or vs Tunisia at AFCON. This Osimhen is a 4.0 version of those ones. If dem like, let them continue to live in the past. I am sure if Onuachu too was not given enough chances at AFCON, this is how they will come here ranting a year later that Onuachu would have scored a hattrick vs Algeria in the semi-finals…LMAO
Once again anytime they see the rigid-old-school-physical education-coach who gave Osimhen his debut and believed in him even when wolsfburg was not treating him well, the rigid-old-school-physical education-coach who has the highest win ratio of any SE coach in history so far, leading out the SE for a match, they should smash their tvs on the ground….or better still if it is raining, they should throw the TV into the flood waters so that the run-off waters can help them dispose it.
This was Dr. Banks reply on another thread, but kindly help us transmit it to your super “wait & get” striker anytime you meet with him.
Dr Banks 2 hours ago
“…If you watch this match you will see that Osinmhen created the goal by himself, it was a kick from goalkeeper which he cheated (chested) down nicely,2nd touch excellent and finished aplomb with the 3rd touch from 30 yards out. He’s not getting any good service yet from teammates. Great thing about Osimhen is that he works his socks out for the team unlike your Paul Longus that is a short 1 in the team. Guys really need to stop mentioning that useless striker in this forum, 3 penalties goal and 3 headers is not a great return for a striker in club either…”
Maybe Dr. Banks too has never kicked an orange before in his life….LMAO. He too must be a video game analyst…..LMAO
… @Dr.Drey… My comment was about how good Victor Osimhen is and how Coach Rohr is always too rigid to try things new inclusive of new young players. So thanks very much for helping me buttress my point.
Hahahaha…..continue consoling yoursef oh….LMAO. Keep it up. One day you will finally be able to pass a comprehension passage. But at least if you cant read and comprehend, you should be able to deliver message…so pls help us deliver Dr. Banks’ message to your tall for nothing “wait & get” striker
@Dr.Drey… PAUL Onuachu a.k.a “our own Jan Koeller” is here to stay… tell your fake showboating wingers to cross our ball… See us go mad with goals. Paul Onuachu is another saviour like Mazi Nnamdi Kanu… We are going no where! Hahahaha… Paulo carry go… I dey your back! Rohr must change to positive attack oriented and ball distribution tactics…
If Onuachu is our savior like Maxi Nwankwo Kanu, why is he at 26 not playing at Arsenal or Milan?? Not even playing for a mid table club in a top five European league at that age is quite ridiculous. It is now a 21 year old who is teaching him out to hold up play at that age Lmao!!! Bro don’t give yourself stress about Onuachu he’s not a SuperEagles material period. There are other tall strikers Nigeria can chose from in Europe doing reasonably well. Simy is holding his own for a below average club in the Serie A. At least he’s scoring goals in the Scudetto. Sadiq is another, I will pick those two ahead of Onuachu in this present squad. Everything boils down to how well they can utilize their chances when given which your boy Onuachu had on numerous occasions but faltered.
Victor Osimhen na machine
@Charles yrs ooo. its very good to see
@Charles YES!!! ooo. its very good to see
Common sense should have told ignoramuses that as at 6 or more weeks ago when the list was being compiled, Azeez was not injured then, likewise Etebo and Ndidi, hence the decision to include him in the shortlist of invitees but that as a fringe player, him having the least minutes per game so far of all the listed DMs in the season warranted his position on the standby list.
How they expected him to replace the injured regulars and late withdrawals when he himself was on the treatment table beats imagination.
But common sense isnt as common as it sounds, that is why the dumb abysmal coach who has the highest win ratio ever in the history of SE coaches is to blame for circumstances beyond his control….including wen they cant get it up at night.
In their minds, they know more than the man who is managing the team. Empty barrels they say make the loudest noise.
The common sense that I know is only common to intelligent people. We complained about the disrespect shown to Azeez by placing him on standby for underperforming players, Mr. Knkw it all claimed that he was injured..
We ask why other injured players were not kn the list like Azeeez, Mr. Know it all gave another lame excuse “he was injured after the release of list”
It all boils down to the fact that GR did not rate Azeez highly but prefer underperforming Agu or overhyped Onyeka. Same reason why he left the most creative defender in his squad on the bench.
Only World class GR will coach a team for more than 4yrs and a team will still be begging for starting 11 and playing pattern.
Again, smart people will know that World class GR aka Belmadi’s student is a confused coach..
Common sense is only common to smart people.
We asked why Azeez was placed on standby for underperforming players, Mr. Know it all claimed “he was injured”
We asked why other injured players were not placed on standby “he said Azeez got injured after the release of the list..
Mr. Know it all of CS, your excuses don’t add-up.
Great coaches don’t recycle underperforming players, great coaches don’t spend more than 4yrs without identifying starting 11 and best tactics, great coaches will not go from 50 to 30..
It all boils down to the fact that World class GR aka Belmadi’s student is a confused or fraudulent coach..(DFW )
Oga abeg no dey waste time to reply that moron that feels he knows it all. Reply to decent arguments not the one he will not respect others views.
@Keneth, okay thanks.
Common sense is indeed uncommon, that is why ‘decent and smart’ people cannot read and comprehend simple English, but can open their wide mouths to call someone else ‘abysmal’.
If
“… but that as a fringe player, HIM HAVING THE LEAST MINUTES PER GAME so far of all the listed DMs in the season warranted his position on the standby list…”
is not the reason why Azeez was placed on standby list….I wonder what else is, and I wonder if they went to arabic schools while growing up so they cant read english properly.
If
“…as at 6 or more weeks ago when the list was being compiled, Azeez was not injured then, likewise Etebo and Ndidi…”
is not the reason why other injured players were not on the standby list….I wonder what else is and I also wonder if ‘the over-sabi pass coach’ went to school on credit and hence was not allowed to graduate with the full package.
But like I said earlier, common sense isnt as common as it sounds, its so ironic that people who cannot read and understand what is written in black and white, call someone else whose score-card is reading a high pass (close to 60%) ‘dumb’ ‘abysmal’. Its not surprising though, they were the ones who calculated 4/5 to be 90%. Even the win ratio they can calculate today, they were taught by the ‘know it all of CSN’, otherwise they have tried to fool us before by telling us their African Guadiola Oliseh had a higher win ratio.
‘Decent and smart’ people still dont know today that those who were in the SE 4 years ago are not the same set of people today….infact i dont know which national teams in the world currently has the same starting XI they had in 2016….LMAO…..players retire, players loose form and hence need to be replaced by first testing the ones on the fringes and the ones who have emerged within the period, which is what great coaches do. Even people with special needs can understand this…LMAO. But ‘decent and smart people cannot’ yet they open their wide mouths to call someone else ‘Dumb’….LMAO. They should humble themselves and first remove the logs in their eyes before looking out for the spec in another man’s eyes.
Let me quickly place an order on amazon for some common sense to be delivered to their doorsteps….LMAO
“He should have replaced injured Nidid and Etebo with Azeez yen yen yen yen yen……”LMAO. Over-sabi-pass-the-coach….LMAO. Simple internet searches for information, they cannot do. Ignoramuses
Dr Drey. You can tell that frustration has beclouded his illogical reasoning that’s why he has nothing else to say than to call GR a fraud. Lmao!! It’s just a pity that he will have to deal with the fraud for another two years while the SuperEagles continue to progress to the next level. While they will progress into still claiming and ranting that Rohr is a fraud. Lmao!! That is the most myopic word I’ve ever heard particularly on a coach whose selection criteria is glaring for even the blind to see.
Hahahahahaha….’decent and smart’ persons who cannot read and understand simple grammar but can open their wide mouths to call someone with close to 60% win ratio ‘Dumb’ have run out of ‘what-abouteries’ to say. LMAO.
They will be talking wah wah wah wah like radios that fell inside water about things they know nothing about….”Rohr should have replaced Etebo and Ndidi with Azeez…yen yen yen yen yen”….LMAO. They know the team and the players more than the coach himself. LMAO
He whom the gods want to punish they first strike with confusion. The same set of people who have used their mouths to confess the sincerity and openness of selections under this same Dumb coach have sudden realized he is fraudulent. Im sure he collects bribe from the likes of Balogun, Ndidi, Iwobi, Aribo, Osimhen, Iheanacho, Musa, Ekong, Omeruo, Ejuke, Akpoguma, Aina, Zaidu, Chukweze, Simon and all the players who are always listed week in week out for their clubs in top 7 leagues in Europe.
If that is the case biko let the “fraud” continue….we are loving it. LMAO
This forum would’ve been the best had it been we are of the same mind, direction, vision & goal.
The drive for selfish interest, favouratism, seggregation, hatred, envy, racism, nepotism, tribalism et all is the cause of all this divisions.
We all know this things but bcos of the above listed traits in us we can’t say the truth.
I use to wonder why most of our players don’t go far untill i see the evil going on in this forum.
Hyping below average players to the heavens….
This AZUBUIKE of a guy, i think he was in U23 when they failed to qualify.
I’ve seen on diferent occasion where a player influence a game, why didn’t he show his prowees as good as he is?
As good as he is, ever since he move to europe how many times has he grab the headlines?
As good as he is, why is he still in TURKEY, come to EPL let see.
U pple keep singing the praise of a below average player as if he’s PARTEY, GUEYE, NDIDI, KEITA, KESSIE or even NAKAMBA &NWAYAMA…
Abeg spare me this CRABS joooor.
Who’s is he in the world of soccer that everybody should be advocating for his invitation?
I think something is wrong with most of u pple.
U pple said u hate celebrating mediocratic result yet this guy(AZUBUIKE) is a below average player that can’t even be mention among the first top 20 DMs in africa talk more of the world and yet u pple are busy singing his praise….
How did he give to u pple?
Abeg all of una si eba puor there….