I posted this but some evil doer who will rot in hell deleted it:
Coach Rohr attributes Nigeria's 0-2 loss to Croatia to too many mistakes by his boys - See more at:
https://goo.gl/v5L9DC
10 observations I have to make about the Croatia game:
[1] First and foremost, what hurts most about the loss is that Croatia did not do anything to deserve a win. On the balance of play and the tame performance of both teams, a 0-0 draw would have been a fair result
[2] If we had lost 0-2 to Spain, I would not have minded but Uzoho was virtually on holiday throughout the game and yet had to pick the ball out of his net twice. Very unfair result if the ask me. We were extremely unlucky. We have played worse than this and won games
[3] From what I saw, the main problem was a lack on spirit, enthusiasm and dynamism from the team going forward. Our problems were all in the last third. We failed to have one shot on target. Where this team is totally lacking is in the area of creativity
[4] Rohr's biggest failing is that he has not taken the issue of a creative playmaker seriously. I have repeatedly said that Mikel lacks the legs for the role but was called all sorts of names for suggesting so. I hope those of you talking nonsense can now see how silly you appear. At 30, Mikel is in the twilight of his career and canot play the one-twp give and goes on the edge of the area. Even at his best, Mikel was never a fast player and lacked the urgency you are looking for in a top class playmaker
[5] I hope all of you who were disparaging calls for Kelechi Nwakali to be our playmaker can now see how dumb you are. Can you just imagine how he would have taken the initiative, gone past a few Croatians and had several shots at goal were he playing?
[6] Where Rohr messed up big time was taking Iwobi off instead of Mikel. He should have brought on Iheanacho to play Iwobi's tole out wide and then played Iwobi as his playmaker. A frobnt trio of Moses, Iheanacho and Ighalo with Iwobi playmaking behind them would surely have had a greater impact
[7] Rohr is also obsessed with Shehu Abdullahi and Bryan Idowu for some weird reason. In all fairness, the due performed their defensive functions well but offered us nothing going forward. I put it to you all that Tyronne Ebuehi and Joel Obi as our fullbacks would have made a huge difference. Did Abdullahi or Idowu provide one cross throughout the 90 minutes? Contrast that to the way Šime Vrsaljko was bombing forward all game
[8] William Ekong was responsible for both goals. On the first one he let Mandžukić lost him and get a header then he gave away a penalty for the second goal. Obviously Rohr had told him to mark him tighter of corners and the man got over-enthusiastic. Clearly Ekong has a problem with man-marking. We had more corners than the Croatians and never threatened them but alas, whenever we defended a corner, Ekong was in trouble. Is it too late to bring in a defensive coach to drill the boys on this?
[9] Mikel is clearly not fit as the Chinese league has been on a break and only just resumed. What Rohr should have done is get him and Igalo, to train with a European team when their league was off. This would have ensured they are fully fit for the World Cup
[10] Despite our loss, I am not going to panic and make rash and wholesale changes to our team. that would be irrational, irresponsible and tantamount to flying off the handle. For our next game, I would like to see this line-up:
***********************************Ighalo************************************
****************Moses**************************Iheanacho*****************
*************************************Iwobi************************************
*********************Ndidi***************************Etebo*******************
***Joel**************Balogun***************Ekong***************Ebuehi***
************************************Uzoho************************************
