Nigeria play a back to back two-legged tie against Sierra Leone and have all 23 invited players already in the Benin camp as they gear up for the first leg which kick offs by 17:00 WAT on Friday. The Super Eagles will all but guarantee their qualification for next year's Africa Cup Of Nations Championships if they come out of both fixtures with maximum points as they are currently 2/2 in Group L, three points more than second placed Benin Republic.

We have setup the best eleven players according to performance this season only that should assemble against the Leone stars. Utilising the modern 4-1-2-3 formation, these are the most suitable candidates for starting places.

Goalkeeper
Daniel Akpeyi vs Francis Uzoho vs Maduka Okoye vs Sebastian Osigwe


At 1.97m, Maduka is the tallest goalkeeper available for Nigeria, just 1cm taller than Francis Uzoho. He is also the youngest at 21 years and recently made a summer move to Dutch side, Sparta Rotterdam.

But youth is not enough criteria for game time as Maduka has made just two league appearances, both starts, in his senior career, with both coming in the last two weeks and on paper shouldn't be starting for the Eagles ahead of new invitee Sebastian Osigwe who has made two more apps with four starts, while Uzoho on the other hand has made no appearance for his club, Apoel Nicosia and Daniel Akpeyi has featured just twice in the lowest ranked league of all four. This leaves only Osigwe and Maduka as realistic contenders for the number  one spot.

Although there isn't a wide gap between the four apps of Osigwe and  the two of Maduka, as the season is still young,  Maduka Okoye slightly edges 26-year-old Sebastian in the number of saves made per game. But Osigwe saves 70% of the shots he faces, compared to Maduka's 60%. Osigwe has also conceded less goals per game than Maduka; but the latter has kept 1 clean sheet in his 2 games compared to Osigwe's 0 in 4.

Maduka's biggest call to fame is the quality of the league he plays in. The Dutch Eredivisie is ranked 10th in Europe by UEFA, seven places higher than the Swiss Super League. Although, Osigwe's club, Lugano is almost a hundred places above Maduka's in the rankings, the placement of the league as a whole tips the balance in the 21-year-old's favour.

Best Performer: Maduka Okoye

Defenders
Right-Back

Ola Aina vs Tyronne Ebuehi



Moving from Italian side, Torino, to Premier League newcomers, Fulham, was a very shrewd move from Ola Aina, it was a huge leap from the fourth best league in Europe to the best league in the world for 2019/20. He has adapted like duck to water, starting his side's last five league games and helping them to their first league win in almost two years, a game in which he scored an early goal of the season contender.

His closest contender is Tyronne Ebuehi who recently made a return from a series of injury and now appear to be getting back to the form that saw Portuguese giants, Benfica, sign him from Ado Den Haag in 2018. These injury setbacks caused the player to miss his first season with a rupture ligament and half of the next season. He was loaned this season back to the Eredivisie, this time to Twente and has not looked backed since then. He was included in the Eredivisie Team Of The Month for October after getting an assist and helping Twente to 5th, just two points from Europa League places.

Ebuehi has kept two league clean sheets compared to Ola Aina's one, but Ola Aina has performed a little better all-round than Ebuehi this year. He makes more tackles, interceptions and clearances than Ebuehi, but Ebuehi has is just 4 percent more successful in overall duels than Aina.

Aina makes more accurate crosses per game than Ebuehi, but Ebuehi has a higher success rate. Aina is a better dribbler than Ebuehi by far but Ebuehi is almost impossible to dribble past, as he has been dribbled past four times less than Aina.

Both players have no significant advantage over the other and that brings it down to the quality of the league. The English Premier League is eight places better than the Dutch Eredivisie which gives Ola Aina exposure to more quality opponents.

Best Performer: Ola Aina

Centre-backs

Chidozie Awaziem vs Kenneth Omeruo vs Kevin Akpoguma vs Leon Balogun vs Semi Ajayi vs William Troost-Ekong






Super Eagles vice captain, Troost-Ekong and Leganes defender, Kenneth Omeruo, don't play in the top tier of any league making them ineligible in terms of quality of league.

That leaves the tussle for starting places between West Brom defender, Semi Ajayi, Leon Balogun of Rangers, Chidozie Awaziem of Boavista and Kevin Akpoguma of Hoffenheim. Excluding centre-backs not in topflight leagues, Leon Balogun plays in the lowest ranked league, the Scottish Premiership which is ranked  14th by UEFA, while Semi Ajayi plays in the 2nd best league in the world, the English Premier League.

Balogun outperforms every other Nigerian defender in goals conceded as he has conceded only 1 goal in 7 games keeping 6 clean sheets although 2 of those shutouts were as a substitute, while Kevin concedes 1.57 goals per game in 7 games with at least a goal conceded in every game this campaign. Ajayi on the other hand has conceded the most goal this season, an average of 2.43 per game with no clean sheet while Awaziem, the youngest of the four, has kept one clean sheet and concedes at the third lowest rate of 1.67 per game.

Kevin is the best player when it comes to one on one duels as he as won almost two times more than any other defender, followed by Chidozie Awaziem. Awaziem also makes the most interceptions but is also the most dribbled past out of the four with Kevin and Balogun tied for defenders hard to dribble past. Both players are also tied for percentage of their total duels won with Awaziem having the lowest success.

For aerial ability, Leon Balogun takes to the air like an eagle as he wins the highest number of aerial duels per game with also the highest success rate, followed closely by the second tallest player in the squad, Ajayi while Kevin is surprisingly the worst of the four.

Balogun looks very good on paper but would have found it hard to break into the squad due to the low quality of the Scottish League, but the 32-year-old plays in one of the highest competition in European football, the Europa League, where he has not conceded a single goal in every game  played. Kevin also plays in the Europa, keeping two clean sheets in three games and also top ten for tackles made among defenders.

Best Performer: Leon Balgun, Kevin Akpoguma

Left-back

Jamilu Collins vs Zaidu Sanusi




Playing in the second division of Germany does a lot of disservice to Jamilu as his competition, Zaidu, not only plays for the 16th best team in the world (the highest ranked team of any Super Eagles player), but has also started 100 percent of their games in Europe's most elite competition, the UEFA Champions League, having moved just over one month ago.

Zaidu has kept two clean sheets in three champions league games, making more clearances than any fullback in the competition. In the Portuguese league, only 8 defenders deliver more accurate crosses per game than the 23-year-old.

Best Performer: Zaidu Sanusi

http://forestgist.com/no-troost-ekong-musa-based-on-stats-this-is-super-eagles-best-eleven/

So we don't have any new young players around us... just try to qualify with them. peace

Nice . But they need to get new upcoming players from our local leagues.. so at least they too , can get international recognition

ekesoft:
Nice . But they need to get new upcoming players from our local leagues.. so at least they too , can get international recognition

My guy, our best players are in Europe. Even the best in the local league aspire to move to Europe. The home based guys should focus on CHAN. I'm sure if you are made the coach today, you will invite only the best. No sentiments.

Millimann:


My guy, our best players are in Europe. Even the best in the local league aspire to move to Europe. The home based guys should focus on CHAN. I'm sure if you are made the coach today, you will invite only the best. No sentiments.

True bro .