Cybereagles

bret- hart wrote:He needs to stay there along with his boy toy John12. Useless coach. We went to the WC to learn while the 2nd youngest team went there and won.

With a superior group of players and a Federation that invested in them have you heard of Claire Fontain? The NFF believe in luck and apoint managers based on what? When the sack Rohr who are they going to replace him with?Sometimes Nigerians act as if we ever where going to win the World Cup with the likes of Ighalo and Echijile walking into the team with no fear of any competition.

Everyone was performing fine and there’s no guarantee that changing anyone at that point wouldn’t disrupt the team cohesiveness. At the end of the day, you must take your chances at the highest level or be punished for it.

The YeyeMan wrote:

txj wrote:

The YeyeMan wrote:

txj wrote:

The YeyeMan wrote:

txj wrote: We were not the 2nd best team in the group.

- not by quality of players
- goals scored
- chances created
- experience

The job of a manager is to put his team/players in a position to win.

On the balance vs Argentina, Rohr put his team in a position to win.

He was failed by players not taking the opportunities they had.

This is a very football-by-numbers approach you're taking here.

Were Sweden and Mexico the top teams in their group by quality of players, chances created or experience?

No. Its football by the facts.

Germany collapsed and MEX/SWE took advantage of it. They had both the players and the team to be able to do so.

In our case, in spite of Argentina's poor performance, they are unique in the sense that they had Lionel Messi who changes everything in the game.

In the three games in our group, our overall performance truly reflected our abilities going in.

I understand the patriotic fervor and all, but that is the fact.

Yet we were only minutes away from qualifying...

I disagree. The Croatia game, above all, was not a reflection of the extent of this team's possibilities. I don't think the team is great by any means but it's better than it showed.

There's always a margin for improvement and I wasn't thrilled by our approach. But it is a legitimate approach as we saw Deschamps pretty much do the same thing vs Croatia to win the WC. And note that from a Croatian perspective, it was also not a reflection of their team's possibilities.

What I saw was a team and manager who were unsure of their best XI going into the tournament and throughout it....

Most managers are not sure of their teams going into a tournament and typically DISCOVER it in the process. Same with France, Croatia, Uruguay, Russia, etc.

Problem with the Croatia game wasn't just the tactical approach. Their was little self-belief. Nobody was expecting such a dire and insipid performance.

Did not see any example of a lack of self-belief. Nigerian players I've known over the years are never short of self-belief.

In any case, none of us is qualified to make that assessment. And neither has the ever manager highlighted this as an issue.

I think the path forward begins with recognition of where we are atm.

We are a team that went to the WC with a GK in the youth team of a relegated La Liga team.

txj wrote:

The YeyeMan wrote:

txj wrote:

The YeyeMan wrote:

txj wrote:

The YeyeMan wrote:

txj wrote: We were not the 2nd best team in the group.

- not by quality of players
- goals scored
- chances created
- experience

The job of a manager is to put his team/players in a position to win.

On the balance vs Argentina, Rohr put his team in a position to win.

He was failed by players not taking the opportunities they had.

This is a very football-by-numbers approach you're taking here.

Were Sweden and Mexico the top teams in their group by quality of players, chances created or experience?

No. Its football by the facts.

Germany collapsed and MEX/SWE took advantage of it. They had both the players and the team to be able to do so.

In our case, in spite of Argentina's poor performance, they are unique in the sense that they had Lionel Messi who changes everything in the game.

In the three games in our group, our overall performance truly reflected our abilities going in.

I understand the patriotic fervor and all, but that is the fact.

Yet we were only minutes away from qualifying...

I disagree. The Croatia game, above all, was not a reflection of the extent of this team's possibilities. I don't think the team is great by any means but it's better than it showed.

There's always a margin for improvement and I wasn't thrilled by our approach. But it is a legitimate approach as we saw Deschamps pretty much do the same thing vs Croatia to win the WC. And note that from a Croatian perspective, it was also not a reflection of their team's possibilities.

What I saw was a team and manager who were unsure of their best XI going into the tournament and throughout it....

Most managers are not sure of their teams going into a tournament and typically DISCOVER it in the process. Same with France, Croatia, Uruguay, Russia, etc.

Problem with the Croatia game wasn't just the tactical approach. Their was little self-belief. Nobody was expecting such a dire and insipid performance.

Did not see any example of a lack of self-belief. Nigerian players I've known over the years are never short of self-belief.

In any case, none of us is qualified to make that assessment. And neither has the ever manager highlighted this as an issue.

I think the path forward begins with recognition of where we are atm.

We are a team that went to the WC with a GK in the youth team of a relegated La Liga team.

BY THE COACHES CHOICE O! Lets not act like thats all we had...He accepted prior to the WC that his goal was to reach the round of 16 and he failed.

maceo4 wrote:

txj wrote:

The YeyeMan wrote: Problem with the Croatia game wasn't just the tactical approach. Their was little self-belief. Nobody was expecting such a dire and insipid performance.

Did not see any example of a lack of self-belief. Nigerian players I've known over the years are never short of self-belief.

In any case, none of us is qualified to make that assessment. And neither has the ever manager highlighted this as an issue.

I think the path forward begins with recognition of where we are atm.

We are a team that went to the WC with a GK in the youth team of a relegated La Liga team.

BY THE COACHES CHOICE O! Lets not act like thats all we had...He accepted prior to the WC that his goal was to reach the round of 16 and he failed.

Oh, now you are advocating for Ezenwa to have been first choice?

Damunk wrote:

maceo4 wrote:

txj wrote:

The YeyeMan wrote: Problem with the Croatia game wasn't just the tactical approach. Their was little self-belief. Nobody was expecting such a dire and insipid performance.

Did not see any example of a lack of self-belief. Nigerian players I've known over the years are never short of self-belief.

In any case, none of us is qualified to make that assessment. And neither has the ever manager highlighted this as an issue.

I think the path forward begins with recognition of where we are atm.

We are a team that went to the WC with a GK in the youth team of a relegated La Liga team.

BY THE COACHES CHOICE O! Lets not act like thats all we had...He accepted prior to the WC that his goal was to reach the round of 16 and he failed.

Oh, now you are advocating for Ezenwa to have been first choice?

He was 1st choice during the qualifiers?

zee wrote:Rohr settled the penalty issue(given to France) by saying that FIFA sent refs to every team 4 days to the start of the WC, to explain what will result in a penalty.
He said that once your hand is no longing on your body or is not defending your face ...then it is a penalty and FIFA REMINDED THEM THAT THEY HAVE OVER 40 CAMERAS

I saw him as well, i WAS THINKING THIS GUY DAN USE US HAMMER, How come there are that many Croatians in Germany, the place was flooded with Croatians, I hope Salisu is using his world cup experience to get tv gigs as well.
I like the way they always analyse there football, you get to see the players from the Top,some of the images are world class.

fabio wrote:

Damunk wrote:

maceo4 wrote:

txj wrote:

The YeyeMan wrote: Problem with the Croatia game wasn't just the tactical approach. Their was little self-belief. Nobody was expecting such a dire and insipid performance.

Did not see any example of a lack of self-belief. Nigerian players I've known over the years are never short of self-belief.

In any case, none of us is qualified to make that assessment. And neither has the ever manager highlighted this as an issue.

I think the path forward begins with recognition of where we are atm.

We are a team that went to the WC with a GK in the youth team of a relegated La Liga team.

BY THE COACHES CHOICE O! Lets not act like thats all we had...He accepted prior to the WC that his goal was to reach the round of 16 and he failed.

Oh, now you are advocating for Ezenwa to have been first choice?

He was 1st choice during the qualifiers?

Not sure how you can reach that conclusion, my point is we can't use the coaches own choices to absolve him of blame. Its not like he couldn't have looked at other keepers, he chose to go with a 19 y.o. so he lives with his decision as he didn't achieve the goal set by his employers which was round of 16.

Cellular wrote:

txj wrote:

The YeyeMan wrote:

txj wrote:Gernot Rohr is an experienced manager and is eminently qualified.

I do NOT like his style. But people need to respect his qualifications and his qualities.

Top managers know their teams. We have the foundation of a good team, but not a team that is a 2nd round team.

Going fwd, we just need to build on it...

The team was clearly capable of reaching the 2nd round - there was a shortfall of ambition, and ruthlessness vs Argentina. Fine margins as usual.

Not in the group we were in. There is no objective basis beyond patriotism to make that assertion.

Loser talk.

The coach made tactical errors in a game that would have elevated him from a coach coming to the World Cup to gain experience to a good coach.

It is not like his errors in making timely subs is a new phenomenon with him.

He lost against an Argentine team that was in disarray. A team that had players calling the strategy and tactics. Thankfully, in the second round, France showed everybody that Argentina was exactly who we thought they were.

@Cellular, you are also choosing to demonstrate a selective memory. You also forgot to mention 2 things.

That Argentina team that you claim was in disarray scored more goals against France than any other team in this tournament.
Other than Argentina & Croatia (thanks to a Lloris error),...no body put 2 goals past the France defense, even the most scoring team in the WC, Belgium!

Argentina also showed their attacking prowess in that game. Argentina actually went up 2-1 against France before they got blown apart. The game actually finished 4-3.

What helped France was their overwhelming attacking talent. They could throw Mbappe, Griezmann, Giroud, Pogba, and a Pavon magnificent goal at Argentina.

We could throw Ighalo at that same defense (who had his chance and blew it, 2wice).

If you are going to criticize Rohr's tactics and compare him to France, then at least do not choose to forget that they (France) could afford to play an overt attacking game against Argentina, and we could not!

Then WTF did Nigeria not get a penalty for that Rojo handball?

zee wrote:Rohr settled the penalty issue(given to France) by saying that FIFA sent refs to every team 4 days to the start of the WC, to explain what will result in a penalty.
He said that once your hand is no longing on your body or is not defending your face ...then it is a penalty and FIFA REMINDED THEM THAT THEY HAVE OVER 40 CAMERAS

wiseone wrote:Then WTF did Nigeria not get a penalty for that Rojo handball?

zee wrote:Rohr settled the penalty issue(given to France) by saying that FIFA sent refs to every team 4 days to the start of the WC, to explain what will result in a penalty.
He said that once your hand is no longing on your body or is not defending your face ...then it is a penalty and FIFA REMINDED THEM THAT THEY HAVE OVER 40 CAMERAS

'cos the crooked ref refused.