Rohr, Idowu, Ekong, Ighalo, Moses, Ehiejile, Goalkeepers

[truetalk]

I'm sorry y'all. I tend to look at our team as a potential WC Semi Finalist and I tend to react and evaluate based on those expectations. This is way too early, because we are less than 24 hours past another wasted WC opportunity, but let's take a look some members of the SE setup and what I believe should happen to them going forward.

Rohr - Gone asap. It might be culture, mindset, dumbness or something else, but this dude is taking us nowhere. We may have salvaged this world Cup if we fired him after the 1st game. We can't win a CAN or get out of the WC group stages with him, & those must be our expectations going forward. I have written about how we should have a pool of National team coaches (ex-Internationals and outstanding NPFL coaches) who should be a 5 year rolling program from which the coaching crew for the National team, U-23 team & U-20 team should be picked. The U-17 level should remain academical & developmental.

Idowu: The likes of Ola Aina and Stanley Amuzie must be clenching their fists and wondering how they were dropped (or never considered) for this young man. He is very limited, and maybe OK for CAN qualifiers vs Benin and Malawi. We certainly have better options.

Ekong: Another limited defender who earns tons of praises on here, but he is clumsy his ceiling is not just that high. There is a reason why he is in Turkey at the prime of his career, even with an EU passport. If playing any part in any high level game for Nigeria, his instructions must be to clear/boot the ball upfield if there is no 100% guaranteed clear passing lane to a close teammate. (at least runners upfield can now adjust to that reality & we get a 50/50 chance may even get an Omeruo type assist to Musa). His most telling contributions this World Cup were Croatia's penalty & passing the ball to the Argentine, which directly led to Messi's goal.

Ighalo: I had said the goal against Cameroon in Uyo was fool's paradise and it was silly to guarantee him a starting shirt based on that. He did has done nothing to dispel that thought since, and should leave the National team with the name 'Misses Ighalo' well earned and justified.

Moses: Grateful to VicMo for bailing us out in the 2013 CAN (we headed out vs Ethiopia) and he could have bailed us out today. He is often not very engaged and attacks keep breaking down with him either due to lack of effort or him diving all over the place. I mentioned this in the qualifiers. His quality is not in doubt, but I have no problem with him on the bench or off the team so a couple of others who are zoned in can play. Was a bit better today though.

Echiejile: (See Idowu reasons & then x3) We all knew he had no business in the team, but as always some here justified his inclusion because he only featured for a few minutes before getting injured in 2010, and also got injured in 2014. So we brought him on a paid vacation to Russia. Hopefully, he is now really gone for good.

Goalkeepers There are a couple of interesting prospects coming through, in addition to Uzoho. Arsenal's Arthur Okonkwo, David Nwolokor, & Maduka Okoye are some of these keepers. We should track & possibly at some of these over the next 4 years if they continue to improve.

[airwolex]

Idowu is a RB fullstop. He actually defended very well today but going forward he offers nothing and in a 3-5-2 what's the point? He should compete with Shehu, Ebuehi, Aina etc. Let the best man win. We need a genuine left footed player.

Victor Moses is leaving me scratching my head. The better he plays for Chelsea the worse he is becoming. Zero effort in the first half. I am thinking he sees playing fullback for Naija as a demotion.

Uzoho had a good WC fullstop. Made two good saves today and was assured throughout.

Echiejile is a goner. Thanks for your services.

Ekong is Ekong. A battler, a throwback defender, a no nonsense physical guy. It's alright to have defenders that defend first but we have to find away to surround them with ball players.

Ighalo is nowhere near as bad as people make him out to be. Certainly the alternatives are not miles better than him. Kelechi played a good chunk of games and never looked like he was scoring either. Going forward Kelechi should be the number 9 but he needs to improve.

[truetalk]

Idowu is a RB fullstop. He actually defended very well today but going forward he offers nothing and in a 3-5-2 what's the point? He should compete with Shehu, Ebuehi, Aina etc. Let the best man win. We need a genuine left footed player.

Victor Moses is leaving me scratching my head. The better he plays for Chelsea the worse he is becoming. Zero effort in the first half. I am thinking he sees playing fullback for Naija as a demotion.

Uzoho had a good WC fullstop. Made two good saves today and was assured throughout.

Echiejile is a goner. Thanks for your services.

Ekong is Ekong. A battler, a throwback defender, a no nonsense physical guy. It's alright to have defenders that defend first but we have to find away to surround them with ball players.

Ighalo is nowhere near as bad as people make him out to be. Certainly the alternatives are not miles better than him. Kelechi played a good chunk of games and never looked like he was scoring either. Going forward Kelechi should be the number 9 but he needs to improve.

I agree with most of your points, but completely disagree on this one. I won't even mind saying you're flat out wrong with this one.
Ask yourself if Ighalo takes us to the next level or if he prevents us from getting there?

That is why for me, Yekini is by far Nigeria's greatest player ever.
Before he emerged, we knew we had good teams; Wingers, defenders, midfielders. We even won an AFCON (in 1980), but we never crossed that hump of becoming the dominant team in Africa. With Yekini getting into his prime (from 1990), we started to become dominant and feared and got into the 94 AFCON expecting to win.

Westerhorf realised after a while that the team would go as far as Yekini took them and built the team around him and had them playing for him. Sissia dropped to the bench for a long time for flouting this. Of course with the camp politics and factions (which he wasn't into) everyone started playing for themselves & Westerhorf was not strong enough to ensure discipline in USA 94.

Abacha with his politics and our Nations Cup ban short-circuited the dominance of that team, which should have been good for a couple of Nation's Cups at the least.

Yekini (even though he was Highest Goal Scorer just about everywhere he went for about 10 years) was not a top 5 global striker in his era, but he was what we needed & he elevated us, & we could building at least 2 systems/formations around him.

Ighalo has never been it. His 'Misses Ighalo' tag has been well earned, even from youth level. HE's had one good calendar year (in England) all of his career.

We do not necessarily need someone who is tearing the goalscoring charts in Europe (that would be a nice bonus to have of course). What we need is a striker who works for the team, BUT also has enough composure to bury the opportunities that our team WILL CREATE against any team in the world, especially in tight games.

Just based on his progression through the youth ranks and steady career progression, Taiwo Awoniyi and or Victor Osimhen seems best to meet this need.

We should also keep track of Simy Nwankwo & Paul Onuachu (to a lesser extent). I also feel Lokosa will come good. He is playing at a level not previously seen at the NPFL & has the Ahmed Musa feel (but a better striker) to him. I hope his first move to Europe will be to Holland or Belgium and not some Dead end league.

Don't really rate Sadiq. I have not seen someone fall down so much just chasing the ball since Gabriel Okolosi.

[Cellular]

They should all go on vacation.

It been a grueling campaign.

You don't rush to make a decision.

The technical staff should submit a report detailking what went right and what could do with fixing.


Ps. The only player I had serious issues with his inclusion was Simy Nwankwo.