safarigirl:
E never too tey wey the boy dey injured. Haba!

Everton got Rooney to score goals as well, how far that one?

Drinkwater that is in Chelsea now, how far?

Kelechi has not played a full game for Leicester this season, but you just want to tank him because it makes you feel good and right.

Leicester worked well under Ranieri, Shakespeare is steering the team wrong, just like Koeman is steering Everton wrong.... Maybe it's just that, or maybe the whole team want to change the manager.

We can not tell, but stop slating Kelechi thinking you are coming at thegoodjoe, leave the boy alone.

Am not against Kelechi neither am I against the Goodjoe.

This is how the world works"people complement you when you do well and speak against you when you are not doing well.That's the world.

Am just against the Idea of having Kelechi as a starter,I mean as a no 9 because it will make us look average.

Rooney is not a Nigerian likewise D.Drinkwater if they were,I'll also be against the idea of starting them for their national teams which has nothing to do with rubbishing the player.

Modified:

Let's face reality, leave preference for a particular player or players aside because a coach and a scout starts and scouts the best.

Lastly,to me after Icon4s,Goodjoe follows we are all learning from the both.

femianski:
kelechi would have buried the chance lukaku just missed

Forget that stuff,against Senegal how many did he bury.We better face reality.

TheGoodJoe:


Under a different manager who created the system and had the formula of getting the best of the players in that system. Even their genius Mahrez is suffering in the current state. Shakespeare is just not it.

We also hated Guardiola and wished he didn't make the top four last season for benching Nacho.

Modified:Mahrez's heart is no longer with the club.So you can't expect him to give his best.

D.Drinkwater also left for Chelsea.

The club needed Nacho to boost their morale by scoring goals but that's not the case.

Joebie:
we were talking about Onyekuru.

He said they are both wingers.

TheGoodJoe:


I Pointed to you that the problem is that Leicester play forward by directing their balls to Vardy. It is not only Iheanacho suffering. Albrighton, Gray, Mahrez, Slimani.

The same Leicester won the league last two season with the same system.

Iheanacho should adapt or pick a new role.

komekn:


What league do they play in

What teams do they play in

Best players eventually play in the best leagues and in the best teams.

Is Anderlecht not better than Chanchung Yatai?Is the Belgian league not better than the Chinese league?

TheGoodJoe:


The game was too physical. It might not be appreciated but going with a physical option was the best choice. Deschamps turned those guys to monsters. Remember, Onazi and Ambrose attacks were not single attacks. Unless a change in system. The physicality was too much.

Blame the referee for not protecting players with his cards.

Keep in mind Ambrose never recovered.

This is one of the reasons why we need good back-ups.

Then,it was eliminate Onazi and control the mid-field.

we lack good back-ups for our CBs, and
Leon is injury prone.

maidaboi:
i have watch his clips and he was playing the wf
cc joebie tbaba1234

Bro,he is a CF for Club Brugge .

zicky:
Look at the midfielders you called as if they are the best in the world, how many can give a neat clean pass to a striker outside Mikel, a player(nacho) with 9goals in 13games for his country has failed, bring your Dennis, Cyril and Tammy, when they don't outscore nacho with ur world class midfielders behind them then we tag them failures and continue our search for another striker

A good national team keeps on searching for the best.

Even Baxter said "Nigeria front three lack quality".If I could recall then Iheanacho sits on the bench for City,Iwobi hardly gets playing time before the match and S.Moses with problem of poor crosses.

To instill the spirit of hard-work,improvement and consistency in a team you need competition, and this will be better offered by new invitees who want to claim a shirt.

Modified:If Iheanacho is as good as you said, why did Rohr leave him on the bench for 3 games.

Even Rohr keeps on searching for a "good" nine.

maidaboi:
they are wind forward not cf

Dennis Bonaventure is a CF.

forgiveness:


Add Peter Olayinka to the party.

we have a lot of wingers in the team presently, including Onyekuru.

We only need back-ups to our CB's and Echiejile's replacement.

forgiveness:


Ramon Azeez could have easily replaced him but the coach thought na strength and power dem dey take play ball hence the reason he brought in Gabriel wey no play ball for a whole season. Smh

Wrong,According to a close source, Azeez was about to step-in to replace the injured Onazi but Mikel kicked against this by waving.Reuben Gabriel dressed-up and entered the pitch.

zicky:
Name a better striker Nigeria should take to the world cup since both are not good and according to you have failed
Also explain what you mean by both have failed, how do you define a failure.

If u have a mid-field with the likes of Mikel,Ndidi,Etebo,Ogu and Onazi and still fail to score as a nine you have failed.Ighalo's goal drought sent him out of watford.Iheanacho benched at City because the two other strikers are better than him.

He(Nacho) is even finding it difficult to score for Leicester.

Forget all those "off-the ball movement".If u fail to score as a nine for your team u have failed.

But the "failure" I mean here means that the both of them are not suited for the lone Striker system.

Hence,we should give others (Dennis and Cyriel) the chance to see what they can offer.Getting Tammy will also be nice.

Mujtahida:

Even if he misses out to Russia, definitely post Russia he would be in.

He should be in Russia because he is better than S.Moses in terms of goals scored in the same league.

TheGoodJoe:


For a start, Iheanacho can not have a poor performance as Ighalo did against Zambia. Iheanacho moves better, presses better unlike us relying on Mikel Obi to assist in pressing. Ighalo is there because of our conservative approach.

You are making it look as if Ighalo is of the same quality as Gabriel Jesus. He is not. Ighalo can not even have a chance at City because his style of play will not come close to fitting the system. Let alone staying there and blowing the net open.

It seems you must be talking about another player if you think Iheanacho's game has nothing to do with the build-up plays. Go back and see some of Iheanacho's performances under Guardiola. There were build-up moves especially during counter. Also, Iheanacho does not wait in a spot to score. He makes lots of movements to evade markers to get into scoring positions.

On losing minutes, Nacho made a move to a manager who is lost at getting the best from his team. In a more offensive team, he will flourish. Time and time again, it is proving that losing playing time does not kill talent. As long as the young man keeps working hard, he will get his chance to flourish.

I am more interested in us playing our best than all these starting time selection.

Presently,both of them lack the quality to lead our attack.
Nacho missed chances against Senegal before his equalizer and was poor against S.A.

Ighalo on his part is not that good on our Jersey,failed to score with a mid-field of such quality.

You can't take any of the two as a starter to the WC.

Kc might also fail to score if he was picked for the Zambian game.

Hence, the need for a good nine.

I expect Iheanacho to step up his game and claim the No.9 position,since he and Ighalo are now in the same position.

We should not rule out the possibility of a new invitee becoming our WC no.9 since the both of them have failed.

Our team works this way"when u get ur chance, give ur best and in face of competition, step-up your game.If you fail to abide by this rule, you are out.You can ask Omeruo and Shehu.

TheGoodJoe:


Pretty basic but Mikel Obi did lots of the pressing in the last game. Which would not happen if Iheanacho was the one up front. Ighalo is not as mobile as Iheanacho.

Neither of the two has the quality of a good CF in a lone striker formation.As we wait for Nacho to start scoring goals for Leicester,we have to try others who are available.

The trio of Ighalo,Nacho and Kayode presently lack the quality of a CF for a team as good as ours.

Mujtahida:

Do you mean he is no longer first choice at his club side or the German national team? Cos last I heard if- it's the club-he's still the first choice oo

He is no longer a starter for Hertha Berlin.

tbaba1234:


We don't need all of them.

Rohr will limit his selection to a pool of 30-35 players.

We need to strengthen our back-line with good back-ups who will compete for starting Shirts.

Modified:In 2014 France came-up with a plan after watching our previous game, which was to pay "special attention" to Onazi.When Onazi got injured there was no capable replacement for him,which cost us a quarter-final finish.

Mujtahida:

Is the guy that good?

He is better than Omeruo and plays for Wolfsburg.

tbaba1234:


If Tunde Adelakun talked about Felix Uduokhai, then it is most likely him... If true, that will be exciting news.

It would be nice to have him as a back-up for Leon but we also need J.Torunarigha and Dominic Iorfa Jnr before the WC.

Lamiri:
Onauchu is probably a Striker the team needs to call up

We also need to give a call-up to Club-Brugge's Bonaventure and Utretcht's Cyriel.

Icon79:
You made a good point! If I am advising Rohr for the World Cup, I will ask him to play Mikel and Ndidi (Onazi) as DMs and play Iwobi in AM. This would help solidify our defence, while unleashing the creative ability of Alex Iwobi. But to play this formation successfully, we'll have to deploy a 3-4-3 formation (with two adventurous wingbacks). I am not sure that we currently have them.


O pari

We can play V.Moses and Shehu(Etebo) as wing-backs,Leon,Ekoong and Awaziem as CBs in a 3-4-3.

Icon4s:
Someone said here last night that he will like to see the reactions of Zambian fans.

Well, here we go: Scroll down to the comments after the match report:

http://zambianfootball.co.zm/zambia-2018-world-cup-race-loss-nigeria/

Those guys are blaming Ngoga for failing to convert a one on one chance with the goal-keeper on our own part, we need a very good nine who is clinical in front of goal and helps in build-ups.Am not fully satisfied with Ighalo.We need to try out Dennis Bonaventure and Cyriel Dessers against Algeria.

Danielnino00:
My people lemme not lie ehn... . It was a tension soaked game . I missed a large part of the first half cus it was raining and DSTV signal dy f**k up.. ;
Here's my thought on the game..

1) The Zambians were good. I must confess,they gave us a run for our money. speed everywhere. That goal they scored might not be an offside though (But I don't care ). If they keep it up,they might make it to Qatar 2022

2) I never knew that Iwobi had that much speed oo.. . . the way he ran at the ball after that Zambia corner gave me joy .. His goal was class!! his celebration was wow . To be honest he is a sure starter in the team.. he has more footballing brain that Simeon Moses

3) We were wasteful today.. We could have been 2-0 up by half time had we converted our chances.. If not for Onazi injury, Rohr would have brought in Nacho. we can't rely on Ighalo all the time.. he has shown that he is an unreliable striker..

4) Apart from Echijele, our back four are quite solid..Balogun and Ekong are the real deal,no argument . And that Shehu should get the hell outta Cyprus , I might be wrong tho,but he seem too good to play in that kinda league..

5) Aina got his chance, and he made good use of it . Too bad Moses couldn't convert his cross.. Moses was kinda selfish today though with some unnecessary dribbles. I hope Aina get his chance in hat role against Algeria

6) Mikel is the Igwe . .I used to be a proud member of the "Slowobi" crew but Mikel's recent performance in the team since Rohr took over has proved me wrong..Currently I don't see any player that can replace him in the SE team.. his leadership quality is another great motivation in the team.

7) I'd like to see this lineup vs Algeria next month..
Alampasu.. Aina ... Awazeim...Agbo...Ebuehi
Etebo.. Ogu...Agu
Onyekuru... Iheanacho... Iwobi

An invitation should be extended to Cyril Desser and Dennis Bonaventure..





I almost slipped on my way back from the viewing center today the ground was too slippery..



*Modified*

I think an invitation should be extended to Tiago Ilori too for the Algeria game...Otherwise Baba Ilori(forgiveness) might vex

We can't rely on Ighalo and Iheanacho.We need to try Cyriel and Bonaventure.Those two have had their chances.We also don't need an Iwobi against Algeria because he has proven himself.

poshemmanuel:
Rohr should play mikel for 90 minutes..We need him to play full 90 minutes.

Mikel is not that fit to play for more than 60 mins.

We have Iwobi or Etebo to replace him.

forgiveness:


He is not eligible for the under grade teams.

Besides, he can dispose the ones you know.

dispose Moses Simon,Iheanacho or Kayode?

R2bees:
what if Nigeria draw Zambia match and lose to Algeria??

Bro,pls stop.

forgiveness:


This is the time to lure him to play for Nigeria because by the time he starts playing, you will see what he is made of and it will be too late to get him.

I think we should concentrate on getting quality back-ups for our defenders because in that role, we already have Cyriel,Dennis Bonaventure,Kayode,Iheanacho and Ighalo.

Out of these only 3 might go to the WC.

Kog45:
Yea Michael2 has a lot of reservation on this team and he has been saying it that d team lack cohesiveness,meaning they don't play as a team but always bank on individual brilliance but I believe after qualification,things w take shape.

Truly if u look at it critically our match against South Africa confirmed his opinion,with absence of our key players we lost d match meaning we don't have a strong squad yet.

If i may ask can anybody go to sleep with d absence of Mikel,Moses v,Balogun against Zambia.It was glaring this individuals make d team thick but it should not be obvious.

I try to prove a guy wrong here when he said we did not missed Balogun,Moses V.against Zambia forgetting that Omeruo was able to stand in,though that stupid error ruined his rating,he had a good game even than Ekong.Brown Ideye was able to raise his game and had a good chemistry with Nacho,Mikel, Iwobi.So with their performance we did not feel d absence of Balogun and Moses.

Rohr just need to fix things up before world cup coz we need a good squad in case of anything like injury,right now i don't see any capable replacement for Balogun in d squad

We need Felix Uduokhai,Jordan Torunarigha,Dominic Iorfa (Jnr).The NFF should get this guys before the WC.

Mickael2:



in the first 5-10mins against Cameroon Moses was playing RWF. Still on still, an overload can still be created, just that one of their Amf will come into the equation. Moses will be too concerned with the opposing RB to notice

S.Moses also tracks back to help his full back.

Mickael2:



I see light, well MAINLY light but some darkness still and I will explain why.

I have seen some people saying we can sit back if the Zambians sit back forcing them to come out and play, home ground does not support that. If I pay 5k to sit in the VIP corner and you are playing 0-0(plus a boring game) after 60mins, I will join and start chanting 'all we are saying...' and if you have been in that situation before you will run mad, and go all out attack forgetting what the coach said, this is what happens to Madrid, once it's 60mins and they are yet to score, the boos start ringing and the players get disorganised and become easy picking. If Zambia can withstand our attack till the 60th minute mark we are in trouble.


Another point, the coach is going to show them some clips of that first leg. Trust me the Zambians had 3-4 very good chances that should be put away, if they have a proper team psychologist he will point out the fact that they have become more clinical since that match(I think they beat Algeria with only 2 shots on target), that is a nitro-level confidence booster. There mindset will be if we can create just that same number of chances like we did in the first leg, considering the fact that we are more clinical now and their gk is worse than ever, we may be able to put one away and hold out for the remainder of the game. If they score the first goal we have a big problem, I am not sure we have won a game that we conceded first under Rohr, he is not a tactical genius.


Also, they may watch our clips from their first match against us down to our last match and notice one thing, our midfielders(Mikel is included) all take atleast 20mins to settle into any game and that is a bad omen. If they can take advantage of that by attacking through the middle instead of the wings in the first twenty minutes then they are sure of two good chances, that is assuming Onazi remains Onazi and is caught out of position a lot of times in the first half and Ndidi remains Ndidi who would rather concentrate on attack rather than defence.


Finally they will watch that first leg again and discover that their lord and saviour(Echejile) who provided them with 3 good chances in the first leg is still our LB. Now Leon is a good CB, but he is different from Omeruo in the sense that he is always quick to rush out whenever a player beats his LB, now this is not really a bad thing but with proper tactics it becomes a bad thing. Create an overload and Leon is dinner, that is let the RW beat Echejile and while Leon comes out to mark the RB runs past Leon and receives a pass, that means Leon is out of the equation and assuming Onazi isn't back covering they have a safe passage to our 18.

Now they have to pray that all these things go according to plan and they must remain clinical. If after the first twenty minutes they haven't scored then they should pull back and choke every attack and wait patiently for that 60-70th minute mark. All in all this will not be a blowout, quote me anywhere. You do not destroy Zambia, it is impossible, highest two goals, you do not see them at the wrong end of a proper hiding

Our LB is our weak link.

You forgot to add that V.Moses plays the LW and just like S.Moses was instructed to track back to help Shehu,V.Moses can also help Echiejiele better because he plays as a wing-back for his club.

zuchyblink:
How to beat Nigeria : defend and counter attack. Ghana knows how to do it. Am afraid, Zambia may adopt that

SA did that and it worked for them because we had Awaziem and Ekoong,no Balogun,Etebo as AM ,no Mikel, Iwobi as Lwf,no victor Moses and Iheanacho as CF, no Ighalo.

No team in Africa can beat us with our stars present.U can't frustrate a team with Mikel,Balogun,Vic. Moses and Ighalo.These players are experienced and know how to approach such team tactically.