TheGoodJoe:


Mikel Obi does not play with pace. So, you can not expect him to play like Essien. Essien can create gaps and try to force attacks. When the team loses the ball, he can track back with pace. For Mikel Obi, it is different, he prefers to solidify the defence, keep it tight. He does not take risk with the ball. If Mikel Obi makes mistakes, it is so obvious because it is unusual.

Even Busquets that plays in a highly offensive side does not take much risk. This is due to his ability to play the role without pace.

To you, Mikel Obi should do more. To Gus Hiddink, former coach of Netherlands and Chelsea, Mikel Obi provides the right balance. Just that his contribution is underrated.

Mujtahida

---

:

The top league in the 90's was the Italian league. Far far superior to others at that especially in the early 90's(infact beginning from the late 80's with Sacchi's revolution) and then Spain. Go do a study of the top players of that era and tell me where they were playing. Where was Van Bast, Riboldedd? Maldini, Baggio, Stoichkov, Batistuta, Romario were all in Italy. Of all the players that won the world best in the period under review not one from the Dutch league(indeed Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard left Holland for Italy) apart from Ajax all the teams making the UEFA champions league finals in the period were from Italy and Spain mostly

no 2 If by European champion you mean champions league then you are wrong unless you mean the glory days of the Dutch league way back in the 70's when Cruyff led Ajax to the Super cup or the super cup in the 95.If it's the Champions league they won it first against Milan.


And how many players did we have at Ajax in 94? Just Finidi. We have Moses in Chelsea today. Not comparing them but since its big clubs you want I give you Moses.


Nope, Portugal was just one place where football was played. Their glory days was in the 60's with Eusebio and put your eyes on the period (1990-1994) cos Italy reigned supreme then. The bolded is pathetic. So don't we have teams like Qarabag and teams from the back water leagues of Europe competing in the Champion's league? So 20 years from now you will use that to argue that Azerbaijan and Romania were top leagues in Europe because their teams were COMPETING in the Champion' s league. no 1 Belgium was the kindergarten of the major leagues in Europe in the 90's. Check UEFA champions league finals from 90-2000 if you will see one Belgian or Portuguese club. None.


Pay attention to the period under review. Whatever those clubs had achieved before the 90's when our players began to make their way in numbers to Europe is for the glory of those clubs. It has nothing to do with our players. You yourself has acknowledged that the best league then was Italian serie A. Fact is we had no single player there.


Teams play better now and football has improved now as a team sport. But the players of that era were far technically superior and gifted than the players of today. So you are making my point for me. You can only elevate the past team over this guys in regard to their clubs and leagues only if we had the majority of our players then in Italy and Spain or if the majority of our players today are playing in Zanaco and Orlando Pirates. As far as I can see, club wise they are both on the same level if this current crop are not even better because the 94 crop had lots of unattached players and bench warmers.


no 1 Going by what? Portugal was not top 3 or 4 in the early 90's. As for Rashidi, God rest his soul. But let me (thanks to the Internet and excellent record keeping of oyibo people) burst your bubble. Rashidi joined vitoria setubal in 1990-94. In the 90/91 season vitoria setubal were relegated to division two. In the 91/92 season they were in the second division through to the 92/93 season. In 93/94 they were promoted to the primera division and that was when Yekini scored 21 goals to top the charts. By 94/95 they were relegated. So Rashidi was playing in a low profile club in a league which was just one among others in Europe. Wikipedia for Setubal:
After another yo-yo period from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, Vitória returned to the Portuguese top flight for the 2004–05 season and have remained there since
.
It's not like it at all. It's more like what it was then. I can't find anything in the present to compare to that.



Ajax won the Champions league in 95. As at 94 Ajax were not the best team in the world.


no 3 Onyekuru is doing the equivalent of what Ikpeba did.


Ikpeba didn't come into his own at Monaco(which he joined 1993-1999) in the 93/94 season. He had a tough start at Monaco and it was from 96 that he gradually became a success ( a lesson for the Iheanacho naysayers). They were not the Mbappe of that era. If they were they would have been playing in Italy and Spain. PSG of Mbappe era has Neymar for godsakes. That should tell you the level.


I said give me the INDIVIDUAL awards the OTHERS in the team apart from Rashidi and Amokachi won. You've given me nada. You just mentioned Rashidi and Amokachi again. Finidi won nothing in 94 and nothing individual throughout his career. Ikpeba too won nothing individual as at 94. (I am pegging it to 94 because that is the WC year just like 2018 is the WC year for this crop)


It's like you are dwelling in the 80's. I am talking early 90's. Forget what Belgium was in the 80's. The leagues and clubs of both squads are comparatively at the same level. fact is the 94 team was full of bench warmers, unattached players and players in India and ivory Coast. You can't change that fact notwithstanding that Amokachi and Yekini were outstanding. In the end whatever their club or league levels they got the job done to the extent they could and they rightly deserve to be called golden generation. This current guys too have given indications that they can rise up to that level and better that record. Now a little something for you to chew on: Iceland has no stellar quality except perhaps the guy that plays for Everton. Yet they beat a star studded England side at the Euros and edged out a vastly superior Croatia to qualify for the World Cup despite the Modrics, perisic, mandzukics, Konami, Rakitic boasted of by Croatia. Football has moved beyond stellar names. This much I - who loves the 90's with Baggio them have realised. I know it's comforting to you when you see a team filled with star dust but it's cold comfort these days. Team work wins. Not stellar names and big clubs. This is the age of Aquarius. The age of Pisces is gone.

goldfish80:


Rashidi came to the team when they were in division 2, his goals helped them gain promotion (top scorer in div 2)
In the Premiere, he emerged top scorer and claimed the Apoty. (He achieved all these while being the least paid player in the club)

One again, I don't know what youre trying to prove. I have never judged a player by the league they played. I look at performance.

I honestly cannot figure out the corner stone of your argument.

realpoacher:


He is trying to tell you that according to two other guys here,.. The fact that he was playing for a division 2 club is a big worry and that he would or should never be considered playing for us at all.

You can't win the lottery if you never bought the ticket.

Yekini would never had shone in the GWG owing to yardstick those two guys on this thread are using for this current SE players because he would never have been considered at all since he was playing in a backwater Division 2 league.

If you still don't get his point,.. Then I am sorry.. This is a lost cause

We all should know the origin of this whole argument.

Two people on this thread had set a yardstick for measuring a call-up to the SE. They are on the opinion that only players playing in the top leagues are considered good enough for the SE... Funny enough the tops leagues in their own opinion are

English Premiership
English Championship
English League one
English League two
English conference

Ahead of
Bundesliga
LA liga
Serial A
Ligue 1
Jupiler
Eresdivisie
Etc


If their logic was to hold true in '94, more than half of that squad had no business in the team

Yekini olympiakos Pireuse out
Alonysios Agu kayerispor out
Peter Rufai fariense out
Michael Enemalo- no club -out
Stephen keshi - no club- out

Uche okafor- ashdod- out
Uche okechukwu -fernebache-out
Efan Ekoku -norwich city-out
Emeka Ezuego -fremad amager- out
Thompson Oliha -no club- out
Victor Ikpeba (not a regular at Monaco then) out

Hehehehehej .... Yeye dey smell

forgiveness:


Smh false information

Icon79:
KPOM!

And he had the skills to be as good as Pogba if not better. One thing with Africans especially Nigerian players is their tendency to settle and become comfortable wherever they are. If I have the talents of Mikel, I would never have stayed one day on Chelsea bench. And that's because there's no way I would've settled.



O pari

korlahwarleh:
All these people saying we have poor or below average players. Please I want to ask you a question o. Going by your submission that our players are poor, which I acquiesce to only because of this question by the way, PLEASE WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Tell FIFA to replace us with Ivory Coast, since they have star players and we do not?
Wait till "February" when the "international transfer window" opens, then urge Buhari to solicit more loans from Paris Club so we can buy Neymar, Van Dijk, Kante and De gea?
Please I will be happy if you can answer the question.
WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED? Some of us are really confused. So you can allay our fears and confusion by answering the questions

Thanks

Icon79:
I agree that Mikel lacks the pace of somebody like Michael Essien, but he doesn't really need superb pace to be a world class DM or CM or AM. Jay Jay Okocha didn't have much pace either.


O pari

kingphilip:
add Peter Cech too for saying he'll always prefer Mikel though due to his defensive discipline

edi287:

This is the truth. Mou expected Mikel to be like Pogba is at the moment. I remember after the Confederations cup he said something like Mikel still doesn't score goals but he's still difficult to get the ball off...subtle hint at him not improving as much as he would've liked all those years.

MetalJigsaw:
Hello guys! I've been unable to post here for about two days before now. Was it a ban or something ...I hope not

I'm delighted to be back though .

MetalJigsaw:
5 MISHITS:

Nigerian Footballers With Wrong Transfer Moves In 2017

1 December 29, 2017 9:34 am

With the year 2017 coming to an end Completesportsnigeria.com’s JOHNNY EDWARD presents five Nigerian Footballers who made wrong transfer moves during the year.


Brown Ideye (Olympiakos to Tianjin TEDA for £10.8m)
After a miserable spell with West Bromwich Albion F.C. Albion in the English Premier League, Brown Ideye rediscovered his goal scoring form playing for Olympiakos when he joined the Greek champions in the summer of 2016. He scored 10 league goals to help Olympiakos win the Greek title for the 43rd time in their 91-year history. During his short stint with the club, he scored 28 goals and provided ten assists in 65 appearances. But surprisingly, he opted to join Tianjin TEDA during the January 2017 transfer window. After failing to hit the height expected, Ideye soon fell out with the club’s manager and was demoted to the second team afterwards. He scored four goals in his first 14 games. The move also jeopardized his chances of keeping his place in the Super Eagles squad.

Emmanuel Emenike (Fenerbahce to Olympiakos £3m)
Having played on loan at Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates and West Ham United, Emenike ended his four year stint with Fenerbahce and joined Olympiakos on a two year deal with an option of another year. He was expected replace his compatriot Brown Ideye who moved to Tianjin TEDA, but he never flourished. Emenike has not made Olympiakos’ matchday squad for the last eight weeks and has missed his team’s last 18 games though he has scored four goals in ten games for the Greek Champions.

Imoh Ezekiel (Al Arabi to Konyaspor £3m)
Despite sealing a big-money move to Qatar in 2014, petit forward Imoh Ezekiel wasn’t really a big success for Al Arabi during his time there in the UAE. He returned to Belgium for loan spells with former club Standard Liege and giants Anderlecht after his first six months at Al Arabi.
On his return, he scored 11 goals in 33 appearances during the 18 months he spent at Al Arabi. Ezekiel opted to join Turkish side Konyaspor with one year left on his deal at Al Arabi in a bid to rediscover his scoring form, but alas, in 13 appearances (10 as substitutes) in the Turkish Super Lig, the one cap Nigeria international never found the back of the net before terminating his contract in December.

Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City to Leicester City, £25m)
Kelechi Iheanacho is yet to live up to his £25m price tag at Leicester City. He has just scored once since arriving from Manchester City in the summer. Iheanacho’s poor form has seen him drop to third in Claude Puel’s striking pecking order behind Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki. Many had expected the Nigeria international to walk straight into the Foxes’ starting lineup, but that has not been the case. Iheanacho’s goal scoring record in the English Premier League has also reduced. At Leicester City, he has one goal in 393 minutes which is some way shy of his Manchester City average of one goal every 100 minutes. He appears to be declining.

Olanrewaju Kayode, Austria Wein to Manchester City – £4m (Loanee at Girona)
Olanrewaju Kayode was a very popular figure during his time with Austria Wein. The striker turned out to be a good buy for the club in 2014 when he signed from Maccabi Netanya and he had an immediate impact scoring 13 times in 34 appearances in his first season.
Olanrewaju continued his impressive run of form in the 2015/16 season surpassing his goal scoring feat and emerged the top scorer in the Austrian Bundesliga with 17 goals in 33 games. But in the summer of 2017, Olanrewaju joined Manchester City for £4m and was shipped out on loan to newly promoted Girona in the Spanish La Liga Santander where he has failed to sparkle. The current season hasn’t gone too good for Olanrewaju after he failed to score in 12 La Liga games and (13 in all competitions).


https://www.completesportsnigeria.com/5-mishits-nigerian-footballers-wrong-transfer-moves-2017/

TheGoodJoe:

Welcome back. Probably a ban.

realpoacher:


He is trying to tell you that according to two other guys here,.. The fact that he was playing for a division 2 club is a big worry and that he would or should never be considered playing for us at all.

You can't win the lottery if you never bought the ticket.

Yekini would never had shone in the GWG owing to yardstick those two guys on this thread are using for this current SE players because he would never have been considered at all since he was playing in a backwater Division 2 league.

If you still don't get his point,.. Then I am sorry.. This is a lost cause

We all should know the origin of this whole argument.

Two people on this thread had set a yardstick for measuring a call-up to the SE. They are on the opinion that only players playing in the top leagues are considered good enough for the SE... Funny enough the tops leagues in their own opinion are

English Premiership
English Championship
English League one
English League two
English conference

Ahead of
Bundesliga
LA liga
Serial A
Ligue 1
Jupiler
Eresdivisie
Etc


If their logic was to hold true in '94, more than half of that squad had no business in the team

Yekini olympiakos Pireuse out
Alonysios Agu kayerispor out
Peter Rufai fariense out
Michael Enemalo- no club -out
Stephen keshi - no club- out

Uche okafor- ashdod- out
Uche okechukwu -fernebache-out
Efan Ekoku -norwich city-out
Emeka Ezuego -fremad amager- out
Thompson Oliha -no club- out
Victor Ikpeba (not a regular at Monaco then) out

Hehehehehej .... Yeye dey smell

Icon4s:

I should be asking you that.
You said you have a number 10 that can replace Mikel.
Who is that number 10?