Former Nigeria international Garba Lawal has called for fresh legs in the Super Eagles following their ouster in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying playoffs.
The Super Eagles missed the chance to be at next year’s tournament to be co-hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico after losing on penalties to DR Congo.
After both sides settled for a 1-1 draw the Congolese proceeded to secure a 4-3 win to advance to the Intercontinental playoffs in Mexico in March.
The defeat means the Super Eagles have now failed to qualify for back-to-back World Cups after also missing out of the Qatar 2022 edition.
Following the Super Eagles’ elimination in the race for the World Cup there were calls for some of the players to be replaced due to age and poor performance.
Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: ‘Super Eagles Lacked Tactical Discipline In DR Congo Defeat’ — Bonfrere
Commenting on calls for the injection of new faces Lawal, who featured at the France 1999 and Korea/Japan 2002 World Cups, stated that now is the time to bring in the new players into the team.
“Fresh legs should come into the Super Eagles because some of the current players are aging,” Lawal said on Brila FM. “And if you want to bring in the fresh legs it has to be now.”
After the disappointment of not making it to the World Cup, attention will now shift to next month’s African Cup of Nations.
The Super Eagles will take on World bound Tunisia, Tanzania and Uganda.
By James Agberebi
7 Comments
I agree with Garba Lawal completely. SE urgently needs younger, fitter and pacier players, 17-21 year old, same age as when the Iwobis, Simon, Ndidis started for the Eagles. There are too many tired and aging legs on the SE team.
The midfield need total overhaul- Ndidi is passed his sell by date- and very poor in progressive football always scared and doing dangerous lateral and backward passes; Moses Simon is suffering from ageing (forget about his “football age) and now slower and predictable in his play.
Even the Ajayi’s playing with his true age is much slower and we need the paring of young, fit and pacier full back in the mold of Benjamin Francis, with Bassey, while Frederick’s retain the right-back position- but for Frederick’s tenacity in virtually right back and centre back the Congolese would have ran away with a comfortable victory, without recourse to Extra time and Penalty Kicks.
Wholesome changes will ruin the team. Just a minor tweak and the team will be world class. So far the only area that needs upgrading is the midfield. Iwobi is a good dude . very committed and gives his all but unfortunately his best is not enough for the dreams and aspirations of SE football fans. Iwobi can be moved to the wins . because his ball retention in midfield is low. His marking is very poor. Cant recover possession. Also he covers
l ess ground. If the coaches and NFF scouting team can fix that no 10 row before nations cup there is hope we can win it. We need a combative no 10 who is comfortable on the ball with good creativity and vision. Ndidi is another weak link. He hardly shoots from outside the box on target like gundigan of mancity. Declin rice and other world class no4. Pls lets try onyedika going forward otherwise no hope
Only fools repeating same mistakes and expecting different results. Iwbe , Simon, lukoman, shekwisy, ziddo… etc. They are not national team level players in performance or winning sprites. Not adding any things. Also coaches failed in selecting startup lineups, akor Adam’s must play with osimhen in front he best partner with osimhen in front. When I saw that caoch mistakes I didn’t watch last match and predicted failure and loosing , because I saw matches for congo vs senagal they are as team better than super eagles. Please we need some players to be replaced forever they are not nigeria national team level Please focus on under ages good players and stop hunting multi national average players without Nigerian or African play mentality or quality… please
Players like: Iwobi, Moses Simon and Ndidi should be replaced immediately. They have done their best for us. We need fresh legs.
You guys should be your fresh legs and the NFF will turn them to old for you
You guy your think, how old are the DR Congo guys ? check their ages. When was the last time you played any meaningful friendly matches ?
Tunisia,Morocco,SA will be playing teams like Brazil, Argentina and France, however, Nigeria will be playing Mali twice in a week and you are talking about fresh legs, please go home.
You are focusing on the need for fresh legs. No matter how fresh those legs are, NFF ONIGBESE will still frustrate them. So in addition to fresh legs, what we need the most is fresh administrators. Fresh officials who are competent, transparent and ambitious.
NFF ONIGBESE MUST GO!!!
No be only fresh.
If the legs like, let them not only be fresh, let them be soft, sexy and sweet! NFF ONIGBESE will break those legs in the end. They will cripple those legs with their ineptitude and corruption!
How can you get clean water from a dirty well? Clean up the Glass House, then other good things will follow.