Former England international Karen Carney has attributed Super Eagles midfielder Alex Iwobi’s impressive form in the Premier League to Fulham manager Marco Silva.
The Nigerian international grabbed a brace in Fulham’s 3-1 victory over Brighton on Thursday.
Reacting to his impressive display, Carney, in a chat with Premier League Productions, stated that Iwobi has matured into an experienced player for Fulham.
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“He has always been a worker, grafter in the team, but it’s that quality.
“I think tonight playing in that more central role, he had that responsibility.
“He’s matured now, he’s 28, he’s an experienced player under a manager that gets the best out of people. Marco is certainly getting the best out of Alex Iwobi there.”
10 Comments
If Nigerians can’t do without Iwobi, then there is only one solution, get Silva as the coach of the SE’s, because as I have always said, the coach is the most important element to any team, and with every player, the right coach is crucial, maybe get Silva as the substantive coach as he seems to know how to use Iwobi and bring out the best in him, (is this possible at this time or even at all?) furthermore, we must ask ourselves this question – Is Iwobi good enough to build our team around? or are we so bereft of talent that we must build around Iwobi rather than find a better fit? Either way, the options are very clear – to Iwobi or not to Iwobi? That is the question- In my view, a very basic set of options, which would depend on the manager/coach, Silva is the proof to my submission, that the coach is the crucial piece in any team’s jigsaw puzzle, one thing that is clear though is that Eguavoen is not it!
Let’s go!
My dear @Field Marshal Jboy, let’s take a moment to appreciate Marco Silva’s wizardry with Alex Iwobi at Fulham. The man has turned Iwobi into a midfield maestro. Or is this not the same Iwobinwho was a subject of memes at the AFCON? The same Iwobi social media hawks vilified after the loss against Ivory Coast in Abidjan so much so that that the then minister of sports had to invite him over for some placation or should I say “petting”? Silva saw what our national team coaches couldn’t—vision, passing, creativity—and unlocked it. Under Silva, Iwobi looks like a player reborn, bossing games with ease. But the moment he wears the Super Eagles jersey, it’s like someone hit the reset button. Why?
A good coach is the difference between a shining star and a struggling one. Maresca is doing that with Palmer and Sancho in Chelsea right now. Conte did it with Victor Moses at the sane club some years ago. I can go on and on. NFF, listen up: we need a tactician who can bring the best out of this team. Iwobi’s Fulham form shows what’s possible when players are deployed correctly. Give us a good coach, please
Papfem, though you do make some good points at times, I am sure that even you know that although we all support the same team and should (to all intents and purposes) all be pulling in the same direction, the fact of the matter is that however much we know or however good our intentions are, we all are not going to agree 100% of the time, and this is one of such times that I completely disagree with you and actually think that you have gone overboard with some of your choice of words in describing Marco Silva and indeed Alex Iwobi – I would not use wizardry to describe Silva’s abilities, if anything, he is an (upper) lower rung premiership manager and a middle to average one at best and as for calling Iwobi a midfield maestro? lol, dude are you even for real?? – I am not concerned about any AFCON memes of social media vilification, all those things had concrete reasons behind them, they just did not occur out of the blue or unfairly or for no reason, so I don’t see any need for bringing any of that up, but we all know the saying “there’s never smoke without fire”, nevertheless, I am also aware (and anyone knows the first thing about football should also be) that in football, you are only as good as your current form (your last/most recent game) and even very poor players have turned around to become exceptional players and vice-versa- exceptional players have turned around and became very poor, this is the nature of football, it is an ever evolving landscape in every aspect, but still having said all that, to call Iwobi a midfield maestro on current form (based on a recent couple of games) is either mischievous, disingenuous or outright ill-informed and to say that Silva is some sort of wizard is in that same ball park – I don’t know whether you were feeling some sort of euphoria when you posted your comment above or just unnecessarily hyped, but either way that is just plain wrong and potentially misleading to someone who doesn’t really understand the game enough and also potentially dangerous because some “undesirable elements” who’s only input to proceedings is to troll and insult and accuse others who are actually having intelligent convos of daft things like “hatred” will take that sort of talk as further ammunition and fuel to the fire of their dastardly, completely infuriating and off-putting deeds.
Suffice to say, that in case there was any misunderstanding, my comment above was not suggesting that we’ve seen anything fantastic from either Iwobi or Silva, It was just an objective analysis of the state of things as I saw them and in my submission, neither Iwobi nor Silva came out looking like some sort of heroes, I was only objectively setting out the scenario as I saw it and it does not conclude that Iwobi is what we need in the SE’s at all. It just needs to be re-read for clarity I would suggest if needed.
Abeg dey summarise your comment, Abi ewo ni eyinbo oran gan
Hahaha….”eyinbo oran gan.” So brother Orji understands Yoruba?
And please tell us exactly what Silva did that was remarkable. Did you even see the goals that he scored. Please come off whatever it is you on, the guy is not great for the national team, even with Fulham he is slow
Guess it’s a great coincidence then. I pray for such beautiful “coincidences” when our Pep Guardiolas are in charge of the Super Eagles.
If say iwobi was slow and there is nothing fantastic about him Mr Charlie is either you lie for leaving or you hate iwobi or you know nothing about football thank you
People like you who accuse others who are just smarter, brighter and understand the game more than them of hatred are just the most hated creatures trolling on football forums, oftentimes these morons don’t even really know the meaning or true implications of the word “hate” – This retard is attacking another person’s genuine opinion by accusing him of hatred or lying when in fact the person he is accusing most probably knows a lot more about the game than an irritant like himself – Mehn, I am sorry for some of you “Nigerians” you people are the biggest problem facing the country, we need to revoke you people’s nationality and send you packing to a place like Ghana where fools like you belong!
Charlie is right, Iwobi is slow, does not tackle at all or help the team defensively in anyway and yes he is no good for our national team – What I did above was present a set of improbable and frankly ridiculous scenarios, which anyone with half a brain would quickly realise and see that even though it looks as if some choices are being offered, the truth is that there is no choice in actual sense, Nigeria will not succeed in employing Marco Silva not now or not anytime soon for many reasons and it is not to say that Silva is anything too special as a coach anyway, he is a borderline middle peddler who falls more in the (upper) lower rung in the scale of managers, but more because Nigeria’s reputation as employers and it’s form in running football generally, including the basics like infrastructure and providing an atmosphere for excellence is shocking to put it mildly, and Silva himself is still in his career as a viable enough football manager for mid table premiership clubs and those who’s biggest target is survival, and so he will in no way be looking to shuffle off and become a national team coach and certainly not for a country like Nigeria, the way we currently run things, and even if (having said all the above) he was ready to do so and was looking at taking national team jobs at the moment, I would not even recommend him as among the top candidates for any seriously ambitious national team project – to put it bluntly, he ain’t winning the world cup with any national team that he decides to join- I mean it’s not impossible, as we know that one must never say never in football, but I would put his chances at between slim and very low but again, anything can happen in football, all that has to happen is that the stars align and anything is indeed possible.
I have done some serious digression in this comment, however it seems as if it was necessary and therefore unavoidable, nevertheless, my main point was to express my abject disgust and disappointment for this undesirable element telling someone else that they are showing hatred because they expressed an opinion that they probably firmly and fairly believe in and over and above that are very entitled to, and which actually makes a lot of sense!
Some “Nigerians” are just absolutely UNBIELEVABLE!!
Personally, i think playing Iwobi in the midfield is a waste of talent. Iwobi should be playing from d wings, he and Chukwueze should be competing for dat position. Same way Simon and Lookman should be battling for the left wing position. If we are to play 3 in d middle, it should always be Ndidi, Onyedika and Fisayo with Fisayo playing more advanced like Lampard, always arriving late to the box with an eye for goal. An alternative is giving Lookman d #10 role to accomodate Simon, so Fisayo drops to d bench.