TheGoodJoe:
cc: jihday

Nothing irritates me in football analysis as someone arguing something that he does not know.

First of all, Sylvain Wiltord played as a striker in games for Arsenal. It is clear you just browsed wiki and came to argue. Anyone who followed Arsenal back then will not debate this.

Saying Kanu does not come close to Bergkamp is another baffling statement. Keeo in mind Kanu had a heart condition and could not get a fair run of games. However, when he played, his quality was not a doubt.

Watch this clip and tell me Dennis Bergkamp could ever produce this kind of quality.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOGvmsanDAk

Calling Nsofor average is another weak one. Nsofor was on fire when he had his run at West Ham. Certainly one of the best in the English Premier League during his run of games. It was terrible when he was unfairly dropped. A big case for the Nigerian factor point. For you to use the term average, shows you did not watch Nsofor at West Ham at all. Those who did knew how brilliant he was during the window of his run.

For you to say Okocha, 18 games no goal for Hull, shows another misconception. Okocha played his role for Hull and he was vital. I even remember some assists he gave Fraizer Campbell, who I think was on loan from Manchester United. There are also pre-assists and also vital passes that create scoring opportunity to hinge your point on goals to value Okocha.

Icon79:
Ian Darke is picking Nigeria to come last in Group D, behind Iceland!

Stupid man, that's why I almost got him fired from ESPN after he criticized African (Ghanaian) fans for booing Uruguay in South Africa 2010.
Anyway, he's going to eat his own words!


O pari

COOL10:

Lol,stop paying attention to what the media think of us. One thing is certain,after this WC,we'll be respected as a great footballing nation again.

Icon79:
Ewu, England is always favored in every world cup. As a general rule, the host(s) tend to get the easiest draws and England the second easiest draw after the host. It's a rigged system.

Sports have become big money business so they manipulate the system to favor the big markets. Who's gonna watch if the World Cup semi finals features 3 sub-Saharan African teams?



O pari

TheGoodJoe:


Ebuehi and Idowu's inclusion and brilliant performance against Argentina put a big bomb into the experience talk. They blew such notion away.

We need the best players we have in every role. Experience will not give a player the speed and marking instinct of Ebuehi. It will not give a player the offensive instinct of Idowu.

We need quality, not experience.

goldfish80:


You're still taking about that friendly game? Look, we must be careful oh otherwise 2002 will repeat itself all over again.

Recall in 2002, we massaged our egos about going to the world cup with the youngest team. Even before the world cup, the team broke the Irish jinx by becoming the first team to defeat Ireland in Dublin for over 20 years if I recall, solid game against Paraguay with the infamous Ogbeche bicycle kick and a couple of other victories against Scotland and one other team.
We basically played the world cup before the world cup. Unfortunately, when the main event came up, we learnt the hard lesson at the mundial.
I mean, we nearly lost 3 games on the spin.

Make no mistake about it, the Argentina game is now in the dust bin of history. I get livid that we still make songs and dance out of the Atlanta 96 fame. We cannot keep stroking ourselves with that result. We must strive to get better thank goodness Gernot Rohr recognised this by not limiting his search within a particular circle.

I laughed when you made reference some pages back about Martins probably holding the team back due to a lack of pace. I laughed because just a fee years back, Martins was rated the top 2-3 fastest player in the world. You could say he's aged and the speed has dropped but I tell you after watching him sprint past 3 defenders in gear 2, to score last week I knew the guy still has it. Also, I must bring to your attention the case of Justin Gatlin.
You do realise this guy, the current world 100 meters champion is 35yr old, a good 2 years older than Martins. This guy can sprint past any teenage athlete you throw his way. This should tell you it's not about age but ability.

If you stick your head out that Victor Moses will outpace a 33yr old Obafemi Martins, you will wake up one morning and discover you're a dead man.

Icon79:
You're speaking from experience, I presume?


O pari

Joebie:
Enough of the mockery. That’s too petty. It might just be our turn in Qatar to miss out. It’s time to focus on Group D, not on a non-existent Group I

safarigirl:
what are you on about?

Which form is Martins in? Our next game is three months away, will he still be in form by then or is this another fantasy football team?

I hope this draw will help those who are still creating fantasy football teams realise that the real business has started and we cannot afford to be calling any random name at this time

March is three months away, so any player that wants to be a rave better save his best for January 2018.....


The likes of Dennis, Dessers, Kayode and Nwakeme should also lace up. There is one FW spot up for grabs and anybody can still nick it

tbaba1234:
My proposed friendlies

Sweden, very organised, similar to what you'd expect from Iceland. We saw it against Italy.

Serbia, similar type of football to croatia.

Uruguay, another south American test for Argentina.

MetalJigsaw:
That's why I'm not too comfortable about us playing much friendlies.

Icon79:
All the clowns on Fox Sports are picking Argentina and Croatia to advance out of the group. About 6 people on the panel and none of them picked Nigeria to go thru.

Clowns on TV



O pari

Certitude:
The fixtures in group A is irregular... Russia are to face Saudi Arabia first instead of Uruguay as done in the other groups.

Icon79:


Bro, in 1994 Bulgaria came 2nd in our group but they ended up winning the bronze medal. Whereas we who finished 1st crashed out in the round of 16. So it doesn't really matter who finished first or second ... as long as you're moving thru.


O pari

TheGoodJoe:


Iheanacho did not leave City because he was not performing. The few times he played for Guardiola last season, Iheanacho performed well. The reason Iheanacho lost his place was due to competition from quality players. Keep in mind, Sterling, Sane, Aguero, Gabriel Jesus can play the forward line.

Also, Guardiola wants more from his forwards. That is, he wants more contribution during build-up plays and also he wants his attackers to contribute a lot defensively.

Guardiola was still fine-tuning Nacho. Unfortunately, lots of people felt the competition at City will give him limited opportunity.

TheGoodJoe:


Iheanacho did not leave City because he was not performing. The few times he played for Guardiola last season, Iheanacho performed well. The reason Iheanacho lost his place was due to competition from quality players. Keep in mind, Sterling, Sane, Aguero, Gabriel Jesus can play the forward line.

Also, Guardiola wants more from his forwards. That is, he wants more contribution during build-up plays and also he wants his attackers to contribute a lot defensively.

Guardiola was still fine-tuning Nacho. Unfortunately, lots of people felt the competition at City will give him limited opportunity.

Dedebanky85:
Just to add Guardiola never builds his team for only one person to be the clear highest goalscorer. He builds a mobile team that you could find about 3 to 4 players almost on equal goals. So that whole shoot and score stats that Iheanacho was bragging about was just BS to Guardiola cos he knows anyone can score in his team with his footballing ideology. He sets out to look for players that can fit into his fooitballung philosophy which our dear Iheanacho falls way outside that requirement. He always slowed their game down, gave the ball away needlessly etc. If you noticed, Iheanacho hardly received passes from teammates at some point depending on his position on the field. Their expectation was that he'd lose it almost immediately. He needs to change his game style....

I also saw where you recommended that he goes to Valencia. Please thats the worst place he should go. The watch word of LaLiga is ball control and with what Iheanacho is displaying he won't even make it past the trainings. The first thing he needs to put extra hour into is his ball control. Afterwards, his stamina and game involvement. He seems too lost in games. If he works on these 3 things he'd be almost unplayable.

Dedebanky85:
So fine-tuning means when you have no other attacking options, you bench your only available attacker to play a MF in attack repeatedly? Wehdone sir! Pep has/would never rate Iheanacho in his life. Iheanacho dorsnbt fit his philosophy. Sorry to tell you this if Nacho were still in City and all their attackers and wingers/attackers are injured except Nacho, guess what Pep would do? He'd promote Foden and play him instead of Nacho. I don't know how hard it is to see that Pep never wanted Iheanacho? Truth is bitter, but it's still the truth no matter what and how hard it's tried to be disproven.

goldfish80:


You're still taking about that friendly game? Look, we must be careful oh otherwise 2002 will repeat itself all over again.

Recall in 2002, we massaged our egos about going to the world cup with the youngest team. Even before the world cup, the team broke the Irish jinx by becoming the first team to defeat Ireland in Dublin for over 20 years if I recall, solid game against Paraguay with the infamous Ogbeche bicycle kick and a couple of other victories against Scotland and one other team.
We basically played the world cup before the world cup. Unfortunately, when the main event came up, we learnt the hard lesson at the mundial.
I mean, we nearly lost 3 games on the spin.

Make no mistake about it, the Argentina game is now in the dust bin of history. I get livid that we still make songs and dance out of the Atlanta 96 fame. We cannot keep stroking ourselves with that result. We must strive to get better thank goodness Gernot Rohr recognised this by not limiting his search within a particular circle.

I laughed when you made reference some pages back about Martins probably holding the team back due to a lack of pace. I laughed because just a fee years back, Martins was rated the top 2-3 fastest player in the world. You could say he's aged and the speed has dropped but I tell you after watching him sprint past 3 defenders in gear 2, to score last week I knew the guy still has it. Also, I must bring to your attention the case of Justin Gatlin.
You do realise this guy, the current world 100 meters champion is 35yr old, a good 2 years older than Martins. This guy can sprint past any teenage athlete you throw his way. This should tell you it's not about age but ability.

If you stick your head out that Victor Moses will outpace a 33yr old Obafemi Martins, you will wake up one morning and discover you're a dead man.

TheGoodJoe:
cc: jihday

Nothing irritates me in football analysis as someone arguing something that he does not know.

First of all, Sylvain Wiltord played as a striker in games for Arsenal. It is clear you just browsed wiki and came to argue. Anyone who followed Arsenal back then will not debate this.

Saying Kanu does not come close to Bergkamp is another baffling statement. Keeo in mind Kanu had a heart condition and could not get a fair run of games. However, when he played, his quality was not a doubt.

Watch this clip and tell me Dennis Bergkamp could ever produce this kind of quality.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOGvmsanDAk

Calling Nsofor average is another weak one. Nsofor was on fire when he had his run at West Ham. Certainly one of the best in the English Premier League during his run of games. It was terrible when he was unfairly dropped. A big case for the Nigerian factor point. For you to use the term average, shows you did not watch Nsofor at West Ham at all. Those who did knew how brilliant he was during the window of his run.

For you to say Okocha, 18 games no goal for Hull, shows another misconception. Okocha played his role for Hull and he was vital. I even remember some assists he gave Fraizer Campbell, who I think was on loan from Manchester United. There are also pre-assists and also vital passes that create scoring opportunity to hinge your point on goals to value Okocha.

Dedebanky85:
If you actually watched the draw and saw their positions then there's no irregularity. All group positions were drawn. And all groups are following the same pattern of P1 vs P2, then P1 vs P3, ending with P1 vs P4. P1 Russia and P2 Saudi Arabia. So what's the irregularity?

komekn:


I have been waiting for that friendly for over 24 years.

Please do not say that.

In actual fact the Icelandic team play in a way that is similar to England. They are the unknown quantity and the one I am more weary about.

Beatable yes but we must be very professional and planned. They do not have our pace or anything to match it with. But they play a very good cohesive team game that makes them dangerous.

Do not forget Iceland beat England last year 2-1,we need to be well prepared because it's a game we must win and convincingly, because I suspect goals difference may be key.

Croatia and Argentina we know and we have to be on the very top of our game at every level to contain and beat them.

Mujtahida:

I doubt the bolded. Iceland are more compact and organised than England. We should play either Sweden or Denmark. These are the countries that play similarly to England.

goldfish80:


You're still taking about that friendly game? Look, we must be careful oh otherwise 2002 will repeat itself all over again.

Recall in 2002, we massaged our egos about going to the world cup with the youngest team. Even before the world cup, the team broke the Irish jinx by becoming the first team to defeat Ireland in Dublin for over 20 years if I recall, solid game against Paraguay with the infamous Ogbeche bicycle kick and a couple of other victories against Scotland and one other team.
We basically played the world cup before the world cup. Unfortunately, when the main event came up, we learnt the hard lesson at the mundial.
I mean, we nearly lost 3 games on the spin.

Make no mistake about it, the Argentina game is now in the dust bin of history. I get livid that we still make songs and dance out of the Atlanta 96 fame. We cannot keep stroking ourselves with that result. We must strive to get better thank goodness Gernot Rohr recognised this by not limiting his search within a particular circle.

I laughed when you made reference some pages back about Martins probably holding the team back due to a lack of pace. I laughed because just a fee years back, Martins was rated the top 2-3 fastest player in the world. You could say he's aged and the speed has dropped but I tell you after watching him sprint past 3 defenders in gear 2, to score last week I knew the guy still has it. Also, I must bring to your attention the case of Justin Gatlin.
You do realise this guy, the current world 100 meters champion is 35yr old, a good 2 years older than Martins. This guy can sprint past any teenage athlete you throw his way. This should tell you it's not about age but ability.

If you stick your head out that Victor Moses will outpace a 33yr old Obafemi Martins, you will wake up one morning and discover you're a dead man.

Joebie:
If Rohr selects Martins for the WC those who have been against oldies, are you going to commit suicide?
make we let this matter rest either way it goes. At the end of the day let's hope Rohr picks the right players whether young, oyibo, homebased, old, EPL based, Indonesian based, Warri based etc to prosecute his match plan. And that the players play their best as a unit every match. We are behind the team regardless, and we cannot influence Rohr's decision just as we can't influence his pay.

TheGoodJoe:



I am not saying Martins is slow but use the term intensity. He has lost speed and is no more the speed demon of the past. However, the demand of the system we currently play rely more on constant running than a sprint of few yards.

The players need to press when the opposing side are building up play and track back to support the team when under attack, attack with pace when we are counter attacking. Not a slight on Martins but I doubt he can meet up with the intensity of our play.

Argentina is done and dusted but it shows the potential of our young players. As I said, the next top quality friendly will determined how prepared we are. We were not prepared in 2002. Playing top friendly games would have exposed the weakness of that team.