Former Nigeria international Yakubu Aiyegbeni has said the current Super Eagles team is made up of too many defensive midfielders, positing that’s why they struggle to dominate matches.
Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle called up eight midfielders in his final 28-man squad for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
The midfielders selected are Alex Iwobi, Frank Onyeka, Wilfred Ndidi, Raphael Onyedika, Tochukwu Nnadi, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, Ebenezer Akinsanmiro and Usman Muhammed.
Commenting on the lack of creativity in the team’s midfield Aiyegbeni, speaking on Home Turf podcast said:”We need a proper midfielder who can pass the ball because we have too many defensive midfielders. We have Ndidi and Onyeka, they can only pass the ball sideways. We are lucky Ndidi passed one to Ejuke (against Gabon).”
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“I don’t want to go back in our days. We had Oliseh who can pass the ball, switch the play. We need a creative midfielder who can pass the ball very well, so we are lacking that.
“That’s the most important thing for us, we don’t have it. We don’t dominate games. We need a proper midfielder who can change and dominate the game.”
Meanwhile, 22 players are currently in the Super Eagles squad in their Cairo, Egypt camp ahead of the AFCON.
As part of preparation for the AFCON, the Super Eagles will take on Egypt in an international friendly today (Tuesday).
There are reports in Egypt that Liverpool star Mohamed Salah could miss the friendly with Super Eagles as he could be rested.
By James Agberebi
2 Comments
Yes, I agree with Yaks on this. Too many ineffectual Defensive Midfielders, lacking in ball progression, creativity and goals scoring shots/ability. Ndidi has been there for about 10 years now and can’t score a single goal- even defenders that have played that long have atleast 3 international goals to their credit.
Ndidi has deteriorated in form, always doing backward and sideways passes. Even Frank Onyeka- a full-time Bench warmer in Brentford has recently started scoring international goals, even though he is never in the mold of Sunday Oliseh, who by the way is also a Defensive midfielder, but an array of defense splitting long range passes and hot shots at goals.
What we definitely need is a creative/Attacking midfielder in the mold of JJ Okocha, who is not afraid to dribble opposition defenders, pacy and aggressive, with progressive movement of the Ball to our strikers and score goals of their own, including from Set-pieces. I hear that newbies Usman Mohammed and Tochukwu Nnadi are capable of such roles, but at 31+ I doubt the former have enough energy to play that role. Perhaps Nnadi should be groomed and given the confidence to thrive in that role. Another option for the future, in that role, is Sani Suleiman.
Fans u can watch usman Mohammed through this link. If he can click then our crestive midfield headache are over.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq1L7XvLhhE