Former Super Eagles head coach Samson Siasia believes the team is still lacking a midfielder in the mould of Austine Jay Jay Okocha.
Okocha was one of the highly celebrated midfielders during his time with the Super Eagles.
Nigeria have struggled to produce another playmaker since his exit from the national team.
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Siasia in his assessment of the current Super Eagles said the team is well equipped in other areas but is lacking a playmaker.
“We don’t have an offensive midfield player that can give the last pass to the strikers. We have great strikers, but we need someone that is missing,” Siasia told Lagos Talks.
“Iwobi can not play that position. He’s a good player, but he’s not doing as much as he’s supposed to as an offensive player. We have to look for that person in the center of the field, who can give the last passes and score goals.
“In the defence and other parts, right and left midfield, we are good. We need someone like Jay-Jay Okocha, but it has to be somebody that can score more than him.”
27 Comments
What’s this man saying.. Mr. Siasia, go get yourself occupied with a job. Afterall, your other friends with similar mindset, Amuneke and Finidi are with NPL clubs.
The team is making plays and has been having many scoring chances with Pesseiro’s 352 formation.
The only issue is bias selection of players. Boniface and Chukwueze failed the team as they were the main culprits. Both players should not have started the match against Rwanda when there are better options in Awo, Kele, Simon, and Osi.
Siasia said the team needs a playmaker. You didn’t address his opinion, instead you castigated him. Now, you went ahead to point out the obvious flays in the super eagles team that played against Rwanda. Now don’t you think the team actually needs a playmaker? Or don’t you even think that if there was a player like Friday Ekpo, Austin Okocha, or Mikel Obi, players like Boniface and Chukwueze would have had better input in the match against Rwanda?
Josh Men! Always on point brotherman. You are one of the few people who make me come here to comment on Nigerian football these days. Well said.
What is the essence of a playmaker? It’s a no brainer to see the impact Fisayo has had on the playmaking of the team. In the match against Kenya, he combined well with Onyedika to unleash a foray of forwardly directionlast pattern that changed the tempo resulting in two goals.
In the match against Rwanda, the Super Eagles was in control of the game with a commanding display of midfield artistry by Ndidi and Fisayo to the delight of the football lovers. Our attackers had more than 5time clear attempts than thr Rwandas.
At the moment, Fisayo has showed enough talents to own the playmaker position and will definitely improve with more matches. I’ve watched Fisayo in the national team and at Lazio and i can vouch that the guy is a modern day playmaker. he can attack, track back, shoot, dribble, pass, shield the ball, control the tempo.
Therefore, Mr. Siasia should appreciate and motivate talents If he knows of a better playmaker, let him name one for the team and we compare with the ones we have. Otherwise, he should go get a coaching job with NFL club.
Yoruba man see your Amala reasoning. Lol
Disgusting tribalist
Sharap there! Ewu mbilibili lmaoo
Nor be only larry, nah barry mtchieew!
We need to be more reasonable as adults than this tribalism, that’s disgusting. Every tribe has equally good people, learn to see good in people, not seeing them as other tribe.
Why do we have this habit of insulting all our ex-internationals just because they air their views on the national team? Some of them genuinely mean well! Sure, a few haven’t exactly bathed themselves in glory with their comments about the Super Eagles, but many of them are actually speaking with good intentions. Take what Siasia said about the national team, for instance—it’s spot on. We’ve discussed the exact same issue on this platform multiple times. And if I were the coach right now, I’d take his advice seriously because we’re covered in every area *except* for the specific position he mentioned.
Siasia is one of the few Nigerian coaches I respect deeply—not just because of how well his teams play, but because of his passion for the game and for the country. I don’t think there was anything wrong with what he said. Instead of making a joke out of these legends, we should be giving them their due respect. Let’s not turn our football heroes into punchlines just because we don’t always agree with them.
Well scripted,being what we are as Nigerians with our Oliver twist mentality it is a known fact that we never appreciate our own.
Has Siasia said anything wrong? Capital NO but why all these backlash?
However we are open to constructive criticism but not to the point casting assertions on Nigerians who over the years have meritoriously excelled in their chosen careers or endeavor,mind you SiaSia is honored with Member of the order of the Niger(MON)of which none of us on this platform has.
Why do we have this habit of insulting all our ex-internationals just because they air their views on the national team? Some of them genuinely mean well! Sure, a few haven’t exactly bathed themselves in glory with their comments about the Super Eagles, but many of them are actually speaking with good intentions. Take what Siasia said about the national team, for instance—it’s spot on. We’ve discussed the exact same issue on this platform multiple times. And if I were the coach right now, I’d take his advice seriously because we’re covered in every area *except* for the specific position he mentioned.
Siasia is one of the few Nigerian coaches I respect deeply—not just because of how well his teams play, but because of his passion for the game and for the country. I don’t think there was anything wrong with what he said. Instead of making a joke out of these legends, we should be giving them their due respect. Let’s not turn our football heroes into punchlines just because we don’t always agree with them. On this Baba was right, no matter how wrong you wanna prove him to be. Players like Osimhen, Lookman and Boniface have better access to great midfield services, their goals will be in tons.
This is the man who knows his job well.
They called him a failure, but we patriotic Nigerians called him World Cup. The best Indigenous coach of our time.
If we all want to see a beautiful football from our Super Eagles, let’s support Sia1.
Say no to a foreign coach. We have shown that we have what it takes to deliver.
Of recent, Eguavoen dismantled Oga Rohr the former world class brown coach. What else do we want? Think about it Nigerians. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Haahahaha…..Siasia is match rusty.
Being away from all football related activities for years is taking a toll on the man.
He should go and rewatch clips of all the goals we scored under Rohr and come back here to tell us ‘there is nobody to deliver the final pass’.
I wonder how he is meant to deliver final passes from defensive midfield.
The much I know about football is that if you need to get goals, your playmaker must be closer to you strikers than to the defenders. The latter is what 343 is turning Iwobi into – a water carrier from deep into his own defence.
The moment he was pushed a bit higher up by Finidi the boy assisted 2 out of 4 goals we scored…..actually, 3 assists, if we consider the fact that the final pass to iheanacho b4 iheanacho’s blocked shot earned us a penalty vs Ghana also came from Iwobi.
When Iwobi is forced to play closer to Ekong than to our CFs, does it make sense to demand ‘final passes’ from him….?
Haahahaha….Siasia is match rusty.
Being away from all football related activities for years is taking a toll on the man.
He should go and rewatch clips of all the goals we scored under Rohr and come back here to tell us ‘there is nobody to deliver the final pass’.
I wonder how he is meant to deliver final passes from defensive midfield.
The much I know about football is that if you need to get goals, your playmaker must be closer to you strikers than to the defenders. The latter is what 343 is turning Iwobi into – a water carrier from deep into his own defence.
The moment he was pushed a bit higher up by Finidi the boy assisted 2 out of 4 goals we scored….actually, 3 assists, if we consider the fact that the final pass to iheanacho b4 iheanacho’s blocked shot earned us a penalty vs Ghana also came from Iwobi.
When Iwobi is forced to play closer to Ekong than to our CFs, does it make sense to demand ‘final passes’ from him….?
I don’t being banned for five years has prevented him from adding to his knowledge. This is just likened to a researcher who went underground to perform many research works. Iam sure he knows he is coming back to coaching after the ban and so won’t just eat and sleep through the five years. One thing I like this man for is his humility! He knows what he’s doing.
As a matter of fact, not many teams still has something related to the likes of zinedane, okocha, pirlo, folan, seedof revaldo, Xavi, scoles ballack, deci e.t.c.that’s why Real Madrid is still holding on to Modeic and klose too has retired.
The playmakers I see in world football today are not so many, the likes of Declan rice, benaldo are the few ones left, then Alonso help bought the best out of this guy that moved to leverkuson from arsenal which I’ve forgotten his name. These are the creative midfielders that I still see in world football today.
Lool – this one is calling Declan Iresi a playmaker…I mean what more can I add to that? If that does not tell you this dude’s level of football knowledge then nothing ever will teehehehe! Kai Nigerians!! lol
Abeg who be benaldo again o? lool!
Revaldo, you guys will want to oppose a statement but you won’t say what you feel is the right thing then what’s the essence. I feel doing such means you’re not sure of what you’re saying. What position is he playing o. I’ve not really watch him but the little time I watched him, I saw him in a creative role or Revaldo too is not a playmaker
Haa! so in your own mind ehn, Declan Iresi na playmaker?? Kai! Nigerians ehn lool!
I don’t think being banned for five years has prevented him from adding to his knowledge. This is just likened to a researcher who went underground to perform many research works. Iam sure he knows he is coming back to coaching after the ban and so won’t just eat and sleep through the five years. One thing I like this man for is his humility! He knows what He is doing.
Someone FIFA banned for 5 yrs is now likened to researcher going underground. Why don’t u liken him to criminal sentenced to jail for 5 yrs? Only in Nigeria where criminals wld come out of jail and still lobby to go back to the same org/coy/institution where they committed the crimes, and the masses wld still support them. Abeg Sia1 shld rest…maybe do football analyst of something.
Siasia is correct .We need a player .Iwobi is not a play maker and will never be.
SE need their bonuses more than they need a playmaker.
NFF, oya shake body.
Sia1 – you are highly carried, but then that is not a new realisation, we’ve known for the longest time that you are among Nigeria’s brightest football minds, so again there is nothing new however credit must always be given where it is due. Well done for trying to help these planks with some truth!
It is not only the leaders of Nigeria that are it’s main problems, our country is also plagued variously by a high percentage of it’s population.
Some escaped asylum convicts here aka lunatics will be running their filthy mouths vomiting bile that those amongst us who are seeing the wood for the trees and speaking facts and truths which are hopefully only meant for the betterment of our country are the lunatics SMH
While others (clearly mindless tools of the lowest order), lower even than the simple Amoeba in that at least Amoeba has one functional cell which is highly efficient and thus allows it to develop and fulfil the purpose for which it was created, but these “characters” are just simply consuming oxygen and wasting scarce resources, because they are clearly thicker than even mud eg that moron calling itself tayo (a bombastic piece of the brown stuff) along with that incongruous and very obtuse collins id – a total nonentity hehe – will be calling people who are way out of their hapless leagues “fools” and raining disrespectful abuse on people who they wouldn’t dare even look in the eye were all this in “the real world” – absolute tossing retarded keyboard warriors – I cannot blame you weapons, I can only blame development and advances in tech which now allows imbeciles like all the above, access to a civilised “commonplace” and suddenly the upstanding folk of sound mind, who can at least be located somewhere on the human intelligence spectrum are now having to deal with such low-life and essentially have to swim through mud a lot of the times, just to try and find maybe one like-minded force for advancement and the greater good!
Anyway, I know that a lot of what I have written above will fly right over many of you primates heads but still, I must not digress too much and just return to the main matter at hand and suffice to simply say that it’s true that “great minds think alike”
I have been banging on about Iwobi’s shortcomings for donkeys and trying to educate you mongrels that far from it being personal, they have simply been very equitable and merit based observations and summations on his suitability for our national team and the fact that he is a short-one in the SE’s, but some retards will rather die and go to their graves failing to see the logic behind that observation and some twats will crawl out from under their rocks and be claiming that it is because of ridiculous, completely insane theories like “hatred” lool – One wonders if these tools have ever stopped to engage their brains and ask themselves what hatred is and how it works? Is it possible to hate someone who you’ve never met? has never done you or anyone you know personally any harm? plays and represents the country that you call your own, is living a blessed and extremely rich and privileged life? is not depriving one of anything and just like parallel lines, there is absolutely nothing linking them to one? Is there even any way that one could really hate another under those circumstances?? LOOL!
They will come and say it is because you hate so and so teehehehe, bunch of complete numpties! and others who are living in cloud cuckoo land and have zero lives or validation for their lives in “the real world” will come on CSN to be able to count themselves as important pmsl! and start chatting shit everywhere lool about Iwobi is a playmaker, Iwobi is giving passes hehehehehehehe friggin morons!
The last time your Iwobi was on the wings for the SE’s in the game against Benin (go back and watch the game if you can lol) and see what happened to him on the wing and how easily the Beninese player was able to shake him of the ball and completely dispossess him lol.
Also go and ask the various managers even before Egu who had unceremoniously dumped him because of his lack of any physicality and infuriating lack of any presence in games ranging from his old managers at Arsenal or Everton.
I like Iwobi as much as the next man and even unlike many of you dogheads, I have even actually met him and got him to sign the little-uns shirts before, I have absolutely nothing against him as a person, he is actually a very nice, generous and blessed young man, but when we are talking about building a team to represent us (Nigeria), I refuse to be like all you fools who cannot see the wood for the tress – So I finish this like I started it off – you lot are a huge part of the problems that our great country is facing and which is holding it back in so many ways and with friends like you lot, trust me, a person would prefer to have enemies!
Well done again Sia1, it is truly true that “GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE!
Some of these tools on CSN are talking as if they are fit to even open their stinking breaths where Samson Siasia is holding court and some lunatics are saying he has lost touch bru hahahaha Lost Touch ke? Abi it is you lot who have lost your damn minds! Idiots! KMT!
Sia1 – you are highly carried, but then that is not a new realisation, we’ve known for the longest time that you are among Nigeria’s brightest football minds, so again there is nothing new however credit must always be given where it is due. Well done for trying to help these planks with some truth!
It is not only the leaders of Nigeria that are it’s main problems, our country is also plagued variously by a high percentage of it’s population.
Some escaped asylum convicts here aka lunatics will be running their filthy mouths vomiting bile that those amongst us who are seeing the wood for the trees and speaking facts and truths which are hopefully only meant for the betterment of our country are the lunatics SMH
While others (clearly mindless tools of the lowest order), lower even than the simple Amoeba in that at least Amoeba has one functional cell which is highly efficient and thus allows it to develop and fulfil the purpose for which it was created, but these “characters” are just simply consuming oxygen and wasting scarce resources, because they are clearly thicker than even mud eg that moron calling itself tayo (a bombastic piece of the brown stuff) along with that incongruous and very obtuse collins id – a total nonentity hehe – will be calling people who are way out of their hapless leagues “fools” and raining disrespectful abuse on people who they wouldn’t dare even look in the eye were all this in “the real world” – absolute tossing retarded keyboard warriors – I cannot blame you weapons, I can only blame development and advances in tech which now allows imbeciles like all the above, access to a civilised “commonplace” and suddenly the upstanding folk of sound mind, who can at least be located somewhere on the human intelligence spectrum are now having to deal with such low-life and essentially have to swim through mud a lot of the times, just to try and find maybe one like-minded force for advancement and the greater good!
Anyway, I know that a lot of what I have written above will fly right over many of you primates heads but still, I must not digress too much and just return to the main matter at hand and suffice to simply say that it’s true that “great minds think alike”
I have been banging on about Iwobi’s shortcomings for donkeys and trying to educate you mongrels that far from it being personal, they have simply been very equitable and merit based observations and summations on his suitability for our national team and the fact that he is a short-one in the SE’s, but some retards will rather die and go to their graves failing to see the logic behind that observation and some twats will crawl out from under their rocks and be claiming that it is because of ridiculous, completely insane theories like “hatred” lool – One wonders if these tools have ever stopped to engage their brains and ask themselves what hatred is and how it works? Is it possible to hate someone who you’ve never met? has never done you or anyone you know personally any harm? plays and represents the country that you call your own, is living a blessed and extremely rich and privileged life? is not depriving one of anything and just like parallel lines, there is absolutely nothing linking them to one? Is there even any way that one could really hate another under those circumstances?? LOOL!
They will come and say it is because you hate so and so teehehehe, bunch of complete numpties! and others who are living in cloud cuckoo land and have zero lives or validation for their lives in “the real world” will come on CSN to be able to count themselves as important pmsl! and start chatting shit everywhere lool about Iwobi is a playmaker, Iwobi is giving passes hehehehehehehe friggin morons!
The last time your Iwobi was on the wings for the SE’s in the game against Benin (go back and watch the game if you can lol) and see what happened to him on the wing and how easily the Beninese player was able to shake him of the ball and completely dispossess him lol.
Also go and ask the various managers even before Egu who had unceremoniously dumped him because of his lack of any physicality and infuriating lack of any presence in games ranging from his old managers at Arsenal or Everton.
I like Iwobi as much as the next man and even unlike many of you dogheads, I have even actually met him and got him to sign the little-uns shirts before, I have absolutely nothing against him as a person, he is actually a very nice, generous and blessed young man, but when we are talking about building a team to represent us (Nigeria), I refuse to be like all you fools who cannot see the wood for the tress – So I finish this like I started it off – you lot are a huge part of the problems that our great country is facing and which is holding it back in so many ways and with friends like you lot, trust me, a person would prefer to have enemies!
Well done again Sia1, it is truly true that “GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE!
Some of these tools on CSN are talking as if they are fit to even open their stinking breaths where Samson Siasia is holding court and some lunatics are saying he has lost touch bru hahahaha Lost Touch ke? Abi it is you lot who have lost your damn minds! Idiots! KMT!
Also, go and listen to all the others that have spoken up about a playmaker for the SE’s lately and see what the have all had to say sengbo? hahaha
Absolute effing geniuses loool!
Nigeria needs players like Thomas Partey. This kind of player will make our midfield stronger. Y’all can thank me later.
Who has time to be reading senseless epistle. Abi you said you have Fisayo. How many assist does he have against both Benin and Rwanda? Or was it because of that goal against which opponent then before he got injured? Why you are you people castigating this Iwobi too much. All this mouth that this Siasia is making now give him the job I want to tell you he will never produce a player better than this Fisayo or Iwobi. Did I hear talking about not doing well in Everton. His effort is not being appreciated and till today some Everton fans are still talking about how they missed him. In fact the season he left he was voted their player of the season and his effort was one of the reason they avoid relegation that season. Me I’m not saying they should not bench this guy in fact if they like they should not invite him again but the truth is that he is not our problem. During Mikel time we were complaining of not having a playmaker like Okocha and that is how Nigeria will continue to complain for a long time. Was it not the same Mikel tagged Mr back passer,slowb,snail,bench warmer etc then?