goldfish80:


You think those "young Germans" aren't physical? Do you know what Germans are reputed for? Germans are very tough people my friend.
Please let's not live in a non existing euthopia.

TheGoodJoe:


V. Moses, S. Moses, Iwobi, Iheanacho

The less skillful ones are Kayode, Osimhen, Musa,
Big but skillful, Mikel.

When we talk skill, it is not always Jay Jaysky

goldfish80:

Two for my favourite European teams are France and Germany. These 2 sides are both technically and physically gifted to survive any opponent. It is false representation to claim the Germans aren't physically strong but just nimble footed passers.

Do you want think you can press properly if you're not physical enough? Maybe our definition of physical aren't the same anyway.

goldfish80:

The skillful players you listed there are just 3 in the persons of Victor Moses, Iwobi and Moses Simon out of a possible 24-26 players.
Kelechi is not skillful anymore. They have coached it out of him at Man City. Mikel is Mikel, he's an economic player.

TheGoodJoe:


Did Pedro and Messi not press? The reason why a lot of teams in modern football resort to pressing is to combat the lack of physical presence. Pressing requires combined effort to retrieve the ball. This nullifies one-to-one battles for the ball.

TheGoodJoe:


Kelechi is still skillful but he now uses more off-the-ball movements to cause havoc. It is reinvention, not coaching out. Have your forgotten the way Nacho dribbled the goalkeeper of the Zambian team? Is that not skill? What of his dummies last season?

He is skillful and is more skill than power.

goldfish80:

You're just playing the ostrich. How many dribbles does he complete in a match? How can you classify a guy who completes less than 2 dribbles per game as being skillful?

TheGoodJoe:


Na wa for you. Did you read invention? Iheanacho causes havoc through off the ball movement but when he pulls off dribbles, it is clear to see he is quality.

A player without skill can not skin a keeper with such accuracy. .

goldfish80:

Skin which keeper? What was so special in going round a keeper when that was his only choice? If you played football, you won't be in such awe that he went round the Zambian keeper after being set up by Brown.

When you talk about invention and "movement" being what he does more now goes back to justify my claim that skills have been coached out of him at Man City.

TheGoodJoe:


Hehe. Lekwa Footballer and skinning. Stop making me laugh. That was brilliance.

By the way, add Onyekuru and Isaac Success to your list of ala skillers.

TheGoodJoe:


Hehe. Lekwa Footballer and skinning. Stop making me laugh. That was brilliance.

By the way, add Onyekuru and Isaac Success to your list of ala skillers.

Iheanacho - bad control per game - 1.2
Aguero - bad control per game - 2.8
Kelechi's current weakness isn't his touch but his dribbling; he gets dispossessed 3-4 times more often than he completes dribbles whilst Aguero is dispossessed about the same amount of times as he goes past someone.

©Man City blue moon forum

goldfish80:

How many caps do Success and Onyekuru have combined?

goldfish80:


Keep playing the ostrich.

junnyjake:


I don't know what you mean by "arrogance"

Before our loss to SA, we've been unbeaten in all competitive encounters against them spanning a period well over two decades.

Tell me we had no edge going into that game. We had no right to feel confident when facing an inferior team.

SA no be our mate, and when we follow them go their house, na better flogging them go collect.

TheGoodJoe:


When you said out of 24-26 players, are all of the 24-26 players regularly capped?

TheGoodJoe:


Sentiments aside, we do not have any player in the class of Mikel in our team. Maybe in the future our young lads will carve their separate niches to excel but for now he is the only one who can bring that exceptional touch to the midfield.

His attributes of reading the game, both offensively and defensively, his simple but highly intelligent connective passes, his positioning and through passes is one of the assets of our team.

For now, no one from Esiti, Ndidi, Onazi, Ogu, Aluko, Ajagun, Ifeanyi Matthew, Nwobodo, C. Nwakali, K. Nwakali, J. Obi etc.

From the whole pack, we lack a player close to Mikel in intelligence and touches. I agree with safarigirl on this. We stand a better chance with sixty minutes of Mikel than none at all. He is a special player.

junnyjake:


Thank you.

I wanted to respond to that, but then I laughed it off.

Nigeria is too big a team to allow just a single player determine how well the play. We all saw how Onazi's injury affected us against France in the 2014 WC.

We've been blessed with depth in our team, with numerous options in one position.

John Ogu can deputize for Mikel, and that can provide ndidi the opportunity to move upfront as much as he would love to.

TheGoodJoe:


Keep playing tolo tolo.

TheGoodJoe:


But our strength lies with more organized play to toom toom football. The Camerounians are a more physical side than us. We will be deceiving ourselves going into a physical battle with them. Logically the more physical side stands a better chance winning a physical battle.

AndreTAyodeji:
Mikel is a special,talented and intelligent player but i think it`s high time we stop blaming the S.A loss on the absence of Mikel from the team,Rohr himself bottled that game with his midfield selections,bad tactics,No Plan B and the atrocious long balls Onazi with a low passing accuracy was hitting to Nacho all game.Mikel`s experience would have been a major boost for the team in the game but he was unfortunately absent and we must learn to cope in his absence, Balogun would have done Mikel`s job from the back and also bring experience to the team,Victor Moses would have also silently done his own job bring experience to the frontline and effectively drag the team to victory.Now we know Onazi and Ndidi should never play together again,we saw what Ogu and Ndidi brought in the Senegal game and now i can`t wait to see what Ndidi and Joel Obi will bring to the team.The player i see close to Mikel right now is Joel Obi,dude offers you stabiliy in your midfield as he always keeps it simple,top notch pinpoint passing accuracy,pushing the team forward by starting attacks with the ball at his feet,excellent reading of the game,good positioning and a natural CM who also defensively does a job.However, he is still no where near Mikel`s leadership skills and experience but we can expect him to effectively replace Mikel on the football part while Balogun and co provides the team with experience and the leadership part.

AndreTAyodeji:
Joel Obi`s stat from the 76 minutes he played on the pitch yesternight:Pass accuracy of 88.1%, 5
interceptions, 5 long passes, 59 short
passes, 2 tackles won, 3 aerials won, 3 key passes, 1 assist. I am not hyping the guy oo but just impressed with him after his comeback from injury,hope he put his injury woes behind him and also keep playing well. Elsewhere Nura Abdullahi was on Roma`s bench yesterday but didn`t come on but i think he will get his chance in the cups and some other games.

Joebie:
@ bolded. That's arrogance. Based on our head to head record with SA, I don't see that OVERWHELMING superiority. #fact

Icon4s:


Are we going into a Rugby game?

What I mean is we have the calibre of players that can COPE with their physicality. we are not going into a physical battle with them.

All this all emphasis on physicality does not hold for me. If we rattle them with our sleek play and crisp touches and passes they may not finish the game with 11 players. Haha haha. Typical of them.

I think I would need a sleek player like Simon in this kind of game, even if it is second half.

Victor Moses is also sleek and strong in addition.

Mikel will definitely cope well if played in AM position.

Onazi as we all know is a kind of player for this occasion. He is a fighter in the midfield.

Iwobi may not be too physical but he makes up for it with his sleek passes.

Kayode if made to start if Iheanachp does not make it is also quick and sleek player.

We have a strong CB pairing of Eking and Balogun. And Ndidi must sit just on front of the duo.

Echiejile is not a newbie as far as African football is concerned. So I trust him to cope.

I dont know who will play RB but if it is Shehu I am not worried.

Bros me no fear o.

goldfish80:

How many dribbles does he complete per game? Aren't you contradicting yourself? You said earlier he modified his game around speed and movement or something like that.

pyrex23:

plz wah does at bolded mean
been seeing dat on this thread since..

Joebie:
A half fit Mikel is not better than them.. That's a very disrespectful remark. And it is not a statement of fact. That's the point I'm making. Don't make it seem we overcome opponent at ease even with the presence of a FULLY fit Mikel. Na today Mikel start to dey play for us? We don't even have a great record to start with, even with a FULLY fit Mikel. Mikel is not Messi. He is not Ronaldo etc. Those are the kind of players that are indispensable even when they are half fit. It's an exaggeration to me. Mikel is good. And I mean that as a praise. But I'm not going to put him where he is not. #NoSentiments because I'm a Nigerian

Joebie:
This is my fear for SE. I know some of us have been saying don't go physical if you want to beat Cameroon, because they would win that war.
I agree with that statement to some extent. Let me start from where I disagree.

If you say we should opt for more sleek play, speed blah blah etc. The question I have for you is will we learn all that style of play few days to the game? The truth is we are most likely to play our own game, the game that we have been seeing us play, and of course we should expect some tweaking here are there. Should Rohr decide to come with a whole new approach all together, what is the chance that we can master it few days going into the game? Does our game as it stand have some measure of physicality? Do we have excellent positioning, speed, and sleek passes? It's okay to judge from our best match in recent times -- Algeria match.

Let's get realistic and analyze ourselves based on when we have a full house. And then also talk about the adjustment we need to make, if we must stand a chance to beat Cameroon. Rohr rightly said what I've been saying. Cameroon after playing a considerable number of matches together have a better chance playing as a team than us. I'm not saying we will lose, but I'm saying many things point to their favor. Sleek play, cohesiveness etc are attributes mostly seen in teams that have played more together. Hence, Cameroon stand a higher chance of playing as a team than we do. I'm not expecting likes to this post because this is a Nigerian forum. But I will always say things as it is. Sentiments aside.

Joebie:
This is my fear for SE. I know some of us have been saying don't go physical if you want to beat Cameroon, because they would win that war.
I agree with that statement to some extent. Let me start from where I disagree.

If you say we should opt for more sleek play, speed blah blah etc. The question I have for you is will we learn all that style of play few days to the game? The truth is we are most likely to play our own game, the game that we have been seeing us play, and of course we should expect some tweaking here are there. Should Rohr decide to come with a whole new approach all together, what is the chance that we can master it few days going into the game? Does our game as it stand have some measure of physicality? Do we have excellent positioning, speed, and sleek passes? It's okay to judge from our best match in recent times -- Algeria match.

Let's get realistic and analyze ourselves based on when we have a full house. And then also talk about the adjustment we need to make, if we must stand a chance to beat Cameroon. Rohr rightly said what I've been saying. Cameroon after playing a considerable number of matches together have a better chance playing as a team than us. I'm not saying we will lose, but I'm saying many things point to their favor. Sleek play, cohesiveness etc are attributes mostly seen in teams that have played more together. Hence, Cameroon stand a higher chance of playing as a team than we do. I'm not expecting likes to this post because this is a Nigerian forum. But I will always say things as it is. Sentiments aside.

Modified
A coach can devise ways of beating a team using new tactics which can be mastered during training. But attributes likes sleek play, cohesiveness etc can't be mastered overnight.

TheGoodJoe:


Tolo tolo talking. Whoscored have showed you Iheanacho is a strong dribbler. You can keep playing tolo tolo or move on.

goldfish80:

I'm yet to see those whoscored stats. Bring the numbers and let's go from there.