komekn:


Mikel and Iwobi no be mate.

Don't forget that Andrea Pirlo gave England a complete lesson in football technical control, Vision, passing and defence. How to overcome muscle with brain and he was at the ripe old young age of 34.

Mikel still has quite a few years left before he gives up his crown. Shockingly he us not fully fit just back from injury. And he with maybe 70% fitness giving Cameroon a masterclass as well as any young pretenders for his crown.

Mikel rules unopposed for now and even beyond.

Yes, Mikel still retains that position for now to me. In addition to what you said sir, Mikel is better to make the most out of goal scoring chances and also defend from up front, which Iwobi has not been spectacular in. For now, Mikel is my favorite for that position. Iwobi can play from the wings in the presence of Mikel.

I'm loving it with the way the team is having abundant wingers and fullbacks who can play on both sides.

Did anyone notice that our only goal came when Simon and Victor swap sides? The cameroonians became so confused that they were caught unexpected and out of position.

Ejaria Trains With Liverpool First Team Pre-Manchester City
Published: September 05, 2017
Ejaria Trains With Liverpool First Team Pre-Manchester City
Liverpool continued their preparations for the Premier League clash with Manchester City at City of Manchester Stadium, with a training session held at Melwood on Monday morning.

Based on the photos published by the official website of the Reds, former Nigeria U17 trainee Ovie Ejaria may be drafted into the first team by manager Jurgen Klopp for the visit to M11 3FF, having trained with the squad.

Golden Ball winner of the 2017 Fifa U20 World Cup Dominic Solanke is away on international duty with the England U21s who are preparing to face Latvia on Tuesday, and wasn't involved in the session.

Ejaria has not made Liverpool's match day squad for their first five competitive fixtures this season, but it is thought he is still in the plans of Klopp as the transfer window closed for business last week and he remained at Anfield.

The 19-year-old has appeared twice for the U23 squad in Premier League 2, notching an assist against Sunderland on August 20.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : liverpoolfc.com
0

That's the beauty of dynamism.

AIG07:
I'm loving it with the way the team is having abundant wingers and fullbacks who can play on both sides.

Did anyone notice that our only goal came when Simon and Victor swap sides? The cameroonians became so confused that they were caught unexpected and out of position.

Joebie:
Ejaria Trains With Liverpool First Team Pre-Manchester City
Published: September 05, 2017
Ejaria Trains With Liverpool First Team Pre-Manchester City
Liverpool continued their preparations for the Premier League clash with Manchester City at City of Manchester Stadium, with a training session held at Melwood on Monday morning.

Based on the photos published by the official website of the Reds, former Nigeria U17 trainee Ovie Ejaria may be drafted into the first team by manager Jurgen Klopp for the visit to M11 3FF, having trained with the squad.

Golden Ball winner of the 2017 Fifa U20 World Cup Dominic Solanke is away on international duty with the England U21s who are preparing to face Latvia on Tuesday, and wasn't involved in the session.

Ejaria has not made Liverpool's match day squad for their first five competitive fixtures this season, but it is thought he is still in the plans of Klopp as the transfer window closed for business last week and he remained at Anfield.

The 19-year-old has appeared twice for the U23 squad in Premier League 2, notching an assist against Sunderland on August 20.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : liverpoolfc.com
0

I still wonder why he refused to go on loan

Congo 1 Ghana 2, (44 mins)

Was he listed by Klopp for this season? If yes, then he is very much in klopps's plans

jotey:


I still wonder why he refused to go on loan

Joebie:
Exactly.. And never do we have to sub Mikel out in other to hold on to our lead. Just switch him to a DMF. Our players can be that dynamic

chai you don fut icing on top am.

All what Mikel needs is regular football and more game time in his club to regain match fitness.

jotey:


iwobi
.we can move Mikel back to CMF

Iwobi can thrive very well with Mikel playing as 10. He can sometimes switch to the middle and exchange brilliant and defense-unlocking passes with Mikel like they both did against Zambia in the first leg. The services of both of them on the pitch at same time will be needed to unlock the defenses of some of those “top” teams in the world cup.

Joebie:
Was he listed by Klopp for this season? If yes, then he is very much in klopps's plans

he was also listed last season but how matches did he play?

Congo 1 Ghana 3. HT
Very tough game.

Joebie:
That's the beauty of dynamism.

I hope rohr can fully recognise, understand, and possibly perfect the use of the weapons he has in his arsenal. Play to these guys strength and see wonders.

blueto:
Iwobi can thrive very well with Mikel playing as 10. He can sometimes switch to the middle and exchange brilliant and defense-unlocking passes like they both did against Zambia in the first leg. The services of both of them on the pitch at same time will be needed to unlock the defenses of some of those “top” teams in the world cup.

close your eyes for a second sir and imagine Mikel as the cmf and iwobi as the amf

are you not thinking what I am thinking?

playing iwobi on the wings is a waste when we still have moses Simon and even onyekuru

solonnachi:
THE SURE WORLD CUP BOUND PLAYERS
1. John Obi Mikel (Untouchable- Midfield maestro)
2. Victor Moses (Untouchable- Nigeria's hottest attacker and Dribbler)
3. Leon Balogun (Untouchable- Solid rock Oyibo wall general)
4. William Troost Ekong (Untouchable- Oyibo wall deputy)
5. Vincent Enyeama (Whether you like it or not, we BADLY need him; reliable, tested and trusted)
6. Alex Iwobi (New generation star and rocky)
7. Odion Ighalo (Has cemented that No 9 position)
8. Ogenyi Onazi (The devil you know is better than the angel you dont know)
9. Ola Aina (Rohr knows this guy's use and sooner or later, Nigerians will know him)
10. Wilfred Ndidi (The premier league most sought after holding midfielder after Kante)
11. Shehu Abdullahi (Politics will put him on the world cup train and besides that, he is showing a deadly form right now in RB)
12. Kelechi Iheanacho (New generation rocky)
13. Ahmed Musa ( Politics will put this guy on the world cup train. Don't say I didnt tell you)
14. Moses Simon (Rohr still believes so much in this guy. He will make it if his form does not drop)
YOU WOULD SAY I TOLD YOU

SPOT ON. Barring any unforseen circumstances, 80-90% of the above listed names will make the cut.

We now have a strong starting 11 minus Echiejile.

meanwhile
AS Roma manager Eusebio Di Francesco has included the promising Nigerian right back Nura Abdullahi in his 23-man Champions League squad-list submitted to UEFA following the conclusion of the summer transfer window.

jotey:

he is better at the AM position besides we have better wingers

Mikel as the CMF and iwobi as AM would be a joy to watch

you saw their interplay against Zambia

We need those wicket Mikel's final passes. He has also been scoring goals from that position lately. We will better utilize him from the AM position. It is either Iwobi deputizes for him or we play him from the wings.

solonnachi:
THE SURE WORLD CUP BOUND PLAYERS
1. John Obi Mikel (Untouchable- Midfield maestro)
2. Victor Moses (Untouchable- Nigeria's hottest attacker and Dribbler)
3. Leon Balogun (Untouchable- Solid rock Oyibo wall general)
4. William Troost Ekong (Untouchable- Oyibo wall deputy)
5. Vincent Enyeama (Whether you like it or not, we BADLY need him; reliable, tested and trusted)
6. Alex Iwobi (New generation star and rocky)
7. Odion Ighalo (Has cemented that No 9 position)
8. Ogenyi Onazi (The devil you know is better than the angel you dont know)
9. Ola Aina (Rohr knows this guy's use and sooner or later, Nigerians will know him)
10. Wilfred Ndidi (The premier league most sought after holding midfielder after Kante)
11. Shehu Abdullahi (Politics will put him on the world cup train and besides that, he is showing a deadly form right now in RB)
12. Kelechi Iheanacho (New generation rocky)
13. Ahmed Musa ( Politics will put this guy on the world cup train. Don't say I didnt tell you)
14. Moses Simon (Rohr still believes so much in this guy. He will make it if his form does not drop)
YOU WOULD SAY I TOLD YOU

Shehu is NOT about politics... He deserves his spot... He is a utility player and will be on the list if fit. In fact, i think he is one of the untouchables... He has been in every Rohr's list

solonnachi:
THE SURE WORLD CUP BOUND PLAYERS
1. John Obi Mikel (Untouchable- Midfield maestro)
2. Victor Moses (Untouchable- Nigeria's hottest attacker and Dribbler)
3. Leon Balogun (Untouchable- Solid rock Oyibo wall general)
4. William Troost Ekong (Untouchable- Oyibo wall deputy)
5. Vincent Enyeama (Whether you like it or not, we BADLY need him; reliable, tested and trusted)
6. Alex Iwobi (New generation star and rocky)
7. Odion Ighalo (Has cemented that No 9 position)
8. Ogenyi Onazi (The devil you know is better than the angel you dont know)
9. Ola Aina (Rohr knows this guy's use and sooner or later, Nigerians will know him)
10. Wilfred Ndidi (The premier league most sought after holding midfielder after Kante)
11. Shehu Abdullahi (Politics will put him on the world cup train and besides that, he is showing a deadly form right now in RB)
12. Kelechi Iheanacho (New generation rocky)
13. Ahmed Musa ( Politics will put this guy on the world cup train. Don't say I didnt tell you)
14. Moses Simon (Rohr still believes so much in this guy. He will make it if his form does not drop)
YOU WOULD SAY I TOLD YOU

I totally disagree with the bolded. He has earned it. Not politics.

Icon4s:


I totally disagree with the bolded. He has earned it. Not politics.

Shehu is one of the untouchables. There is a reason why he is on every Rohr's list.. Most of the world cup team is already known.

tbaba1234:


Shehu is NOT about politics... He deserves his spot... He is a utility player and will be on the list if fit. In fact, i think he is one of the untouchables... He has been in every Rohr's list

He was always in the later part of Keshi's list. He was always in Sunday Oliseh's list. He was also in every of Siasia's list.

Players like that will always make squad list.

Super Eagles invitee Ola Aina is in the running to be named Hull City's Player of the Month for August 2017.

jotey:


close your eyes for a second sir and imagine Mikel as the cmf and iwobi as the amf

are you not thinking what I am thinking?

playing iwobi on the wings is a waste when we still have moses Simon and even onyekuru

I don't see the coach dropping the pair of Ndidi and Onazi in that regards for now, which makes Mikel's favorite role to be the AM, and Iwobi coming to shift Mikel to CM with him playing the AM role can make the defensive work laborious for DM.

tbaba1234:


Shehu is one of the untouchables. There is a reason why he is on every Rohr's list.. Most of the world cup team is already known.

I agree

I think he is now our new RB

he was very solid against cameroun especially the 2nd leg

Icon79:
Thank you very much, chrisooblog.

You are one of the few people that have actually given a balanced assessment on Ezenwa's performance. He definitely made the right decision on the penalty. You can remember that a similar ball was played in the first half, then he decided to stay home and cover the near angles and Cameroun almost scored from that chance. And even the commentator was asking why he didn't come out. In the second half he came out and the penalty happened, now everybody is blaming him .... forgetting that he actually saved our brushes on a couple of times in that match.

As regards to the penalty, the less said the better. I made it abundantly clear on twitter that that was not a penalty. All I saw was two players going for the ball and then a coming together. It was a 50-50 ball and the keeper has every right to go for that ball. It was just a contact by two players going for the same ball and no intention to foul on the part of the goalkeeper. The Cameroun players just sold it very well and the ref bought what he was selling.

Or maybe the ref was just trying to earn his pay. After all, a similar dodgy penalty was awarded to this same Cameroun team against Zambia when it was becoming apparent that Cameroun was gonna lose the game.


O pari

One of the attributes of exceptional goal keepers is bravery.

Ezenwa ran out to the ball then seeing this giant of a man running at him like a bettering ram hesitated (fear enter him head), otherwise he would have been first to the ball.

That hesitation made it a 50/50 ball and gave the Cameroonian player the opportunity to simulate. Ezenwa will learn from this experience.

My view his inexperience gave the opportunity to Cameroon to simulate. Was it a penalty no it was not.

Who do you blame, inexperience.

blueto:
I don't see the coach dropping the pair of Ndidi and Onazi in that regards for now, which makes Mikel's favorite role to be the AM, and Iwobi coming to shift Mikel to CM with him playing the AM role can make the defensive work laborious for DM.

the pair of ndidi and onazi doesn't work if Mikel is not on the pitch

why not use Mikel as cm then even if rohr wants to remove him he can bring in ogu

blueto:
I don't see the coach dropping the pair of Ndidi and Onazi in that regards for now, which makes Mikel's favorite role to be the AM, and Iwobi coming to shift Mikel to CM with him playing the AM role can make the defensive work laborious for DM.

the pair of ndidi and onazi doesn't work if Mikel is not on the pitch

why not use Mikel as cm then even if rohr wants to substitute him he can bring in ogu

you saw how the partnership of ogu nd ndidi worked perfectly against Senegal

mostob:
i think Iwobi is the most suitable for that mikel role. Playing with the like of ozil,sanchez might have gel him well. As an arsenal fan,don't be surprise if i tell you i prefer iwobi to ozil in the AMF role. He is just being wasted on the wing.

It's so clear that Iwobi is a midfielder. I don't know what Wenger does with him on the wings.

whizola:
All hail ‘Balogunbauer’
It is in observing the simplicity of football that we appreciate its complexity.
That there are three basic departments to a team — defence (of which the goalkeeper consists), midfield and attack — is easy enough to grasp, and is essential in understanding what is unfolding. Yet, in any good football team, the interaction between these is fluid enough to create varying levels of originality. All books in the earth, after all, consist of the same letters used in an infinite order of variableness.
What was all that hot air about? Well, the Super Eagles moved one step closer to Russia 2018 with a fine performance in Yaounde, drawing 1–1. For me, it was a very meaningful result; the game in Uyo was something of a caricature, as the latent superiority of Gernot Rohr’s side was greatly exaggerated by the haplessness on the day of the African champions.
The most important thing to pick out is that it showed us the level of selfless sacrifice this team can put in toward achieving a goal. From back to front, there was a focus that has not always been familiar within the national team. As Cameroon dominated the ball, the wingers dropped in and the team was extremely compact out of possession, allowing no ingress whatsoever through the middle of the pitch.
Defensively, there has not been a better display from a Nigerian team in ages. Much praise has gone to the pair of Leon Balogun and William Troost-Ekong (more on them later), and while they were great, it would be a disservice not to acknowledge how well the rest of the side did to make their tasks easier.
Ironically, it was going forward that this team showed some worrying concerns. Averaging 2.5 goals a game, you would not think this side has a problem advancing up the pitch. It is however becoming clear that this team is not just one that counters very well, but may be one better served by employing that by default anyway.
It is well said that you can tell the identity of a team by its style of defensive midfielder. A possession-based team will almost always employ a playmaker at the back of midfield: it needs to circulate the ball and look for gaps, after all. A transition-based team will broadly want an energetic, mobile ball-winner to regain possession and transfer it forward quickly.
Who is the deepest midfielder in the Super Eagles set-up? Ogenyi Onazi, a terrier-like battler who plugs gaps and harries opposing attackers. Interestingly, he is partnered, just ahead, by Wilfred Ndidi, himself a roving ball winner who plays simple, unambitious passes.
The most comfortable the Super Eagles looked last night was when Cameroon had the ball. When the home side’s intensity dropped somewhat, and this team tried to build up, the problem with such a defensive double-pivot in midfield was clear: how to advance the ball into the attackers?
In Mikel John Obi, Victor Moses, Odion Ighalo and Moses Simon, Nigeria have a quartet that seems to riff very well together. Ighalo now offers movement (in a transformation that makes one wonder how far gene splicing has advanced in China), Simon pace, Moses dribbling and Mikel is the binder whose ability to both hold possession and play one-touch passes holds it all together.
How do you get the ball to them when neither of the two deeper midfielders is (a) capable of evading pressure, or (b) passing incisively? That was the major dilemma presented to Nigeria yesterday.
Cameroon’s best openings of the first half came when they pressed Onazi and Ndidi. It didn’t take long to figure out something had to change. The first bit of proper build-up occurred when Mikel came slightly deeper, put his foot on the ball, spun and sprayed the ball wide left. It however leaves the team with one less man in attack.
Realistically, Moses comes inside and the left-back bombs forward to maintain width in this situation. Well, our left-back is Elderson Echiejile. Suffice to say he is no marauding full-back.
So, unorthodox solution. Balogun spent much of the latter part of the first half in a role closely approximating the old-fashioned libero, running with the ball out of defence in order to transfer it forward. Having played at full-back before, and being stationed on the right of Mainz’s back three last season, it is something he definitely has in his toolbox. Problem solved, yes?
Well, no.
First of all, what then happens when the opposition cotton on to this? In the second half, Cameroon got wise to him and proceeded to block him off in the build-up, letting Troost-Ekong have the ball. Did anyone notice how often Ekong gave the ball away in the second period, trying to pass between the lines? That wasn’t his fault.
Secondly, knowing Balogun’s proneness to injury, what happens when he is unavailable? How does this team build up?
I have some solutions, but those will come in a later post. This is already a lot longer than was initially intended. Your resident Super Eagles worrywart will sign out by stating the obvious: this was an immense performance by our young national team, and we are now a point away from making the World Cup. Crazy.
P.S : I would hold off on lighting Ikechukwu Ezenwa’s funeral pyre. His rush of blood to the head is a flaw that extends beyond him to locally-based goalkeepers — judging when and how to come off the line is a frequent weakness. So I would not

Top notch analysis.

I thought I was reading an article on a sports journal.

komekn:


One of the attributes of exceptional goal keepers is bravery.

Ezenwa ran out to the ball then seeing this giant of a man running at him like a bettering ram hesitated (fear enter him head), otherwise he would have been first to the ball.

That hesitation made it a 50/50 ball and gave the Cameroonian player the opportunity to simulate. Ezenwa will learn from this experience.

My view his inexperience gave the opportunity to Cameroon to simulate. Was it a penalty no it was not.

Who do you blame, inexperience.

True Sir. Why catch a player's leg when you could go for the ball?

Joebie:
Once again I say,Victor Moses is our BEST player

Best for me not necessarily for his football(which I immensely appreciate) but because he's got this electric activity, this throbbing vibe, he's always bubbling like a brook. Energy in motion. He keeps us revving. Let Moses never have a quiet game for us. Amen.

Icon4s:


He was always in the later part of Keshi's list. He was always in Sunday Oliseh's list. He was also in every of Siasia's list.

Players like that will always make squad list.

The northern factor will still put him in the plane to Russia even if his form drops. Trust me on this

AIG07:
exactly. with shehu's stellar performance in both legs he has cemented his place at the right back. It's either aina embrace the LB position which is up for grab or he seats on the bench with ebuehi as back up.

Until he has played a game for us you cannot make a comparison assumption based on thin air

When you see Aina play RB then we will know who is better. For now he Shehu has it.

Ebuehi is nowhere near Aina's level they are not in competition.

Aina has been voted in the championship team of the week already if I'm right three times so early in the season. So I would say wait and see.