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Eric Chelle has explained why more young players are being invited to the Super Eagles.
Invitation To Young Players For Unity Cup, Poland Matches
Chelle invited lots of young players – both home-based and foreign-based – especially for the Unity Cup which the Super Eagles won.
He also paraded some of the young players in the 2-2 draw against Poland on Wednesday.
Speaking of the Super Eagles high-profile international friendly with Portugal next Wednesday, Chelle posited that young players in the team bring something different.
“We analyse our game and we try to put some players who can make the team improve because for me and for everybody it takes one detail to win a trophy,” Chelle told the Super Eagles media team.
“So we have to improve because I think we have to put some young players who can bring a new mentality, something new and it’s not only about a question of mentality because the group has the mentality to win but we need to put something fresh.
Also Read: 2026 World Cup: Portugal Humble, But More Ambitious Than Ever — Dias
“Some players will come with lots of energy, they will bring something like they want to win, to improve and the national team can be this for them.”
Portugal Test
Up next for Chelle and the Suoer Eagles is the second of their two friendly game, which is against Portugal.
The Super Eagles would hope to put up a better performance this time around against the Cristiano Ronaldo-led side as both teams clash for the second time.
In their first encounter in 2022 – which was also a friendly – Portugal hammered the Eagles 4-0.
Preparation For AFCON 2027 Qualifiers
The Super Eagles are using the two friendlies to prepare for September’s 2027 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.
They will take on AFCON 2027 hosts Tanzania, Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar in the qualifiers.
By James Agberebi
6 Comments
Chelle, the Unity cup has provided you with great insights and solution to the problematic midfield that has denied the team many opportunities.
The explosive and relentless midfield trio of Nnadi, Tijani and Yusuf is the best i’ve seen in a decade.
Also, I don’t understand your reasoning for not playing Bashiru in his best position (CAM) but chose to continue playing inconsistent midfielders in their preferred position.
Bashiru has performed greatly as a CAM ifor Lazio and SE.
This dude has the best goal and assist contribution among the midfielders and some attackers in the WCQ.
Ndidi/Nnadi, Bashiru, and Iwobi in the midfield against Portugal.
Chelle against portugal, let the experienced legs start and the young boys watch from the bench till a little bit into the second half then you start bringing in the young boys in the likes of azeez, nnadi, moffi, yusuf etc…..
That is how you mentor young ones against an experienced team like portugal….
And hey! Remember its portugal! (world ranking : 5th)
Even if its a friendly we must take it serious..we still want to win….
And finally coachy the team should always learn to play to the strength of onuachu….
With his iroko height Onuachu is more efficient on aerial balls, crosses into the penalty box than ground balls or passes….
The team should also watch out as onuachu can be used to win second balls in the opposition box…
Also his hold up play is amazing…we can build up attack from it….
Onuachu is not a presser…
Strikers are different….
They can not all be the same….
He is a box man….
He is a old fashioned traditional proper number 9 like their muller, Alan Shearer etc …
In the box is where he exercises his dominance and clinical finishing ability…
Thanks…..
Monki brain – You cannot be a Nigerian and I keep telling pipo, yuh har jaeloust ghanain who don’t want anyting good for Nigeria imagine telling Nigeria to play Onuashoe in SE, dat says it all, yuh are an enemies and a haters. Remember dat de more yuh ghanains wish bad on Nigeria, de more bad happen to yuh, so continue hehehe
Even in the box,he has exercised zero dominance for the super eagles!Apparently,he had an opportunity to score with his head against Poland,instead he headed wild off the post.
He can’t press for Nigeria,neither can he head,because he was ball watching gave the Polish defender all the space he needed to release the thunderous shot that beat our aje butter goalkeeper!
He keeps getting invited on the back of playing in a shite Turkish league!
Look @greenturf onuachu is a good baller if only the super eagles can play to his strenght whenever he is on the pitch just like I stated…
If they can follow those strategies and principles I listed above then we can reap the reward of having him on the pitch just like tranzospor followed this same strategy and he rewarded them with a massive 22 league goals…
Out of the 22 goals, 21 of them came from inside the box….
8 out of the 22 were headers from crosses…
6 were penaty kicks…
7 tap ins/poacher while just one was a little bit outside the box…..
Lets not forget genk too played to his strenght and he dominated the league….
It was just so unfortunate that southampton coundn’t play to his strenght so things went south over there….
The se too have not been able to do so perfectly…..
And like I said onuachu is not a presser….
Never has he been…
This is where he differs from osimhen…
And that header was it that very bad? Lol…
Cos this is the second time you are talking about it…
Na attempt na….lol
Any good header of the ball can miss header or send it wide….
Just like good penalty takers can one day miss…
And it is just one attempt that he received and sent it wild…
Did he receive any after that??
That is where our wild players(wingers) come in….
No more Onuashoe or Okoye for the SE, it must be Osimhen, Adams, Azeez, Awoniyi and Moffi going forward, choose from among them and vary tactically according to the opponent, and in the goalkeeping dept, let it be Nwabal, Okonkwo and a other, but not Okoye, sorry to say it, but where he is good with presense and close contact goalkeeping, he cannot be trusted with long range shots and that Polish player knew that already based on Okoye’s very publicly known weaknesses in Italy, the Polish player also plays in Italy and knows about Okoye, and he is not the only one, it’s is the same situation that it was when we used Uzoho, players already knew his weakness and because of that they would always try long range efforts when playing Nigeria -mark my words, if Okoye ever plays again, opponents will be trying many shots from long range because they know he will flop and not save them. No more Onyedika or Onyeka, leave those guys on the subs bench, lets bring in the trio of Nnadi, Tijani and Yusuf as the default midfield trio and use likes of Ndidi, and Iwobi as the subs to mix things up in the middle, when things need a different tactical angle from time to time or just to mix it all up and let the best and most effective 3 emerge to hold down the midfield going forward.
.
Also pls pls pls – No more Oshoala for the Falcons! Enough is enough already
Ah ah abi kilode ke?