adegwurulez:

Ebuehi is just shy. Aina has been in the Eagles set up for all of 60seconds and he's already dancing with the team. Although one can argue the presence of his childhood friend played a part.

Mujtahida:

You mean Felix Uduokhai and Jordan Torunarigha as permanent fixes for the LB?

Mujtahida:

Omo you are on your own ooo. Not the annoying draw soup I saw during the Olympics.

tbaba1234:


Aina can be a permanent solution on the left. He is young and is comfortable playing there.

Ben Iroha was a natural right footer but was Nigeria's left back for a long time.

TheGoodJoe:


Busquets, Fernando and Mikel Obi play the Shield role without relying on pace. With intelligence to read game plays and good positioning, a DMF without pace can still do a solid job. However, the less pace requires a heightened intelligence.

tbaba1234:


Dessers is clearly ahead of all of those players

7 goals in 13 games this year already
29 goals last year.

AIG07:
S. Umar is not ready for the SEs. Even if he score 30goals I'll pick Awoniyi ahead of him.

forgiveness:



Dennis Bonaventure 8 goals and assist in 11 matches

Peter Olayinka 4 goals and 8 assists in 13 matches

Taiwo Awoniyi 4 goals and 3 assists in 8 matches

Do the mathematics.

tbaba1234:
.

Which mathematics?

Awoniyi played in the Dutch league last year and managed how many goals?

Bonaventure was in Ukraine, what was his return?

Dessers has been consistent over 2 years.consistency.. He moved to a higher level and is still scoring..

soetanoreoluwa:
LET PARTY BEGIN!!!

---

Nigeria: Who is on the plane to Russia?


12:43 PM WAT
Colin Udoh, KweséESPN

After being paired with Cameroon, Algeria and Zambia in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying 'Group of Death', the Super Eagles booked their place in Russia last weekend with a game to spare.

This leaves coach Gernot Rohr with more than enough time to start thinking about his squad for Russia, and to ensure proper planning wins the day for what will be a hectic year.

So, jumping the gun ever so slightly, and barring injuries and/or major loss of form, here is what the German's travelling squad could look like if departure for the finals was tonight.

BOARDING PASSES IN HAND

John Mikel Obi, Victor Moses, Alex Iwobi, Leon Balogun, William Troost-Ekong, Moses Simon, Ogenyi Onazi, Wilfred Ndidi, Odion Ighalo, Elderson Echiejile, Shehu Abdullahi, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Kelechi Iheanacho, Ola Aina

These players are all but nailed on for seats on the plane. Captain Mikel Obi is the leader and undisputed engine-room of the team. The rest of the starting XI and some subs can also be confident of having their boarding passes in hand.

Ikechukwu Ezenwa may or may not be the starting goalkeeper, but he is guaranteed a place. At the back, William Troost-Ekong and Leon Balogun are shoo-ins, and fullbacks Elderson Echiejile and Shehu Abdullahi have also shown enough consistency to be first-choice picks, with Ola Aina as back-up for one or both.

Joining Mikel Obi as midfield certainties would be Ogenyi Onazi and Wilfred Ndidi, while Victor Moses locks down one wide forward spot, and Moses Simon and Alex Iwobi will alternate the other.

Up-front, Odion Ighalo and a Kelechi Iheanacho will alternate the lone striker position.



AT THE CHECK-IN COUNTER

John Ogu, Ahmed Musa, Anthony Nwakaeme, Kenneth Omeruo, Dele Ajiboye, Daniel Akpeyi, Dele Alampasu, Uche Agbo, Chidozie Awaziem, Oghenekaro Etebo, Mikel Agu, Tyronne Ebuehi, Aaron Samuel

Of this group, Ahmed Musa and Kenneth Omeruo are the most likely to make the squad, mostly for their international experience. But both will need to get games under their belt between now and when that plane is scheduled to take off.

Anthony Nwakaeme and Aaron Samuel will battle for one spot as fallback to the lead striker.

Tyronne Ebuehi is additional back-up for the full-backs, but will need more international games first and prove his value. There are two spots up for grabs for the trio of John Ogu, Mikel Agu and Oghenekaro Etebo to battle over.

Uche Agbo and Chidozie Awaziem might both just get in as back-up to the centre-backs, but their relative inexperience might mean only one gets in, especially if Omeruo picks up one spot.

Dele Ajiboye, Dele Alampasu and Daniel Akpeyi also have two out of three goalkeeping positions to fight over.


WAITING FOR THEIR TICKETS

Vincent Enyeama, Alhassan Ibrahim, Afeez Aremu, Ifeanyi Ifeanyi, Victor Osimhen, Kayode Olanrewaju, Henry Onyekuru, Kelechi Nwakali, Musa Mohammed, Anderson Esiti, Sone Aluko, Hope Akpan

If Vincent Enyeama makes a retirement U-turn, he would automatically upgrade to a boarding pass. And that could have consequences elsewhere.

Alhassan Ibrahim is proving himself within weeks of moving to Austria from Akwa United, while Afeez Aremu and Ifeanyi Ifeanyi could well be domestic league representation, but it will be tough.


Musa Mohammed has been a Rohr favourite but he needs games and consistency; the same as Osimhen, whose youth and inexperience could count against him.

Kayode Olanrewaju and Henry Onyekuru are potential party crashers who will keep Nwakaeme and Samuel on their toes.

Anderson Esiti is beasting in Belgium as a defensive/central midfielder, and Kelechi Nwakali -- who is in the same boat -- is showing he has the smarts to play as a creative midfielder.

Sone Aluko and Hope Akpan are wildcards who will have to play out of their skins to even get to the training camp. Both fail Rohr's twin tests of playing in a top league and being under 25.

Let the party begin!

http://kwese.espn.com/football/nigeria/story/3225334/nigeria-who-is-on-the-plane-to-russia

tbaba1234:
.

Which mathematics?

Awoniyi played in the Dutch league last year and managed how many goals?

Bonaventure was in Ukraine, what was his return?

Dessers has been consistent over 2 years.consistency.. He moved to a higher level and is still scoring..

TheGoodJoe:


Tell us the role you think he played against Zambia.

TheGoodJoe:


Gats to be joking. Then we required Mikel to press. What a combination.

forgiveness:



Cyriel Dessers also played in the Belgium pro league for two seasons, how many goals did he manage to score?

Consistent in Dutch second division, ba?

Before then what was his goal return in three seasons in the Belgium pro league?

Xzbit91:


What has he done that any of our current strikers can't or have not done before?

PDPGuy:
I strongly believe that Rohr has an idea of what his final 23-man squad, or 30-man preliminary squad will look like.

These players: Osimhen, Ebuehi, Joel Obi (if fit), Nwaekaeme, Akpoguma, Ajiboye, and Onyekuru; would be added to the 23 players called up for the Zambia game.

I don’t see Enyeama returning to the team, although if he plays at the World Cup he will become the first Nigerian to play in 4 World Cups.
The 3 keepers would be Ikeme, Ezenwa, and Alampasu. If Ikeme doesn’t recover on time, then Ajiboye gets the nod.

Icon4s:


How come none of you had ever said this.

You had to wait till Zambia almost exploited it.

No player should be free from criticism.

Icon4s:


How come none of you had ever said this.

You had to wait till Zambia almost exploited it.

No player should be free from criticism.

Joebie:
RUSSIA 2018 WCQ UPDATE:

---

USA have just missed out of World Cup qualification for the first time since 1986, after losing to Trinidad & Tobago. They barely fell short of the play-off spot after finishing 5th on the North & Central American qualifiers table.

I remember when Klinsmann was gunning for foreign-borns. Some section of American's kicked against it. They fired Klinsmann, and now their sentiments have paid off.

tbaba1234:


Lost to the whipping boys of the group..

Joebie:
if someone has not already told you, let me show you the trick.
On the website you are copying the story from, right click on the picture and click on "open image in new tab" (may vary depending on your browser). when the pic opens in a tab, copy the url. Paste on Nairaland where exactly you want it. then wrap it with the img tags..
(select the entire pasted url and click on that image button on the menu above), or you can do it manually. Just type [img] to open, and [/img] to close it.. DONE

forgiveness:


Scoring goals at 18/19.

Xzbit91:


We keep attacking Onazi un48necessarily here. The whole team was jittery earlier in the match not just Onazi, even Balogun was exposed for his lack of pace on 2 occasions.

If you watch the Cameroon match in uyo again you will notice, we also did not start well but settled down as the game progressed. We ended up defeating them comfortably.

So forget, our improved performance in the second half was not down to anything special from Agu.

Mujtahida:

How person go take right click with phone?

Joebie:
RUSSIA 2018 WCQ UPDATE:

---

USA have just missed out of World Cup qualification for the first time since 1986, after losing to Trinidad & Tobago. They barely fell short of the play-off spot after finishing 5th on the North & Central American qualifiers table.

I remember when Klinsmann was gunning for foreign-borns. Some section of American's kicked against it. They fired Klinsmann, and now their sentiments have paid off.

forgiveness:


Answer question first, make I whether you know wetin you dey yan.

chrisooblog:
I'm truly shocked USA didn't qualify Na so dey no like Russia reach be that?