Cybereagles

Nigeria - Ajayi, Ekong, Ndidi, Aribo, Chukwueze, Osimhen, Kalu

Algeria - Aïssa Mandi, Ramy Bensebaini, Riyad Mahrez, Ismaël Bennacer, Islam Slimani and Saïd Benrahma

Senegal - Kalidou Koulibaly, Sadio Mane, Idrissa Gueye, Cheikhou Kouyaté, Ismaïla Sarr and M'Baye Niang

Ivory Coast - Serge Aurie, Max Gradel, Nicolas Pépé, Wilfried Zaha, Franck Kessié and Seko Fofana

Egypt - Mohammed Salah, Ahmed Hegazi, Mohamed El Neny, Trezeguet and Ahmed Fathy

For me, these should be the five teams that go to Qatar 2022!

Are these 5-a-side squads or what?

Coach and strategy nko? Abi na only names dey play ball?

Replace Egypt with Morocco.

Egypt is pretty poor right now.

vancity eagle wrote:Replace Egypt with Morocco.

Egypt is pretty poor right now.

Without Salah Egypt is as average as Niger Republic, they used to have some pretty solid players but now I can name any decent Egyptian player outside of a world class Salah.

Decent list

Tbh I'll put Nigeria in third place, Algeria first and Senegal in #2. Nigeria has the biggest pool of hot prospects and talents in Africa, but unlike the two other top teams (Algeria and Senegal), we don't have a completely settled TEAM yet. I think we will finally peak after the world cup (hopefully we get the likes of Saka, Ebere before then)

Tobi17 wrote:Tbh I'll put Nigeria in third place, Algeria first and Senegal in #2. Nigeria has the biggest pool of hot prospects and talents in Africa, but unlike the two other top teams (Algeria and Senegal), we don't have a completely settled TEAM yet. I think we will finally peak after the world cup (hopefully we get the likes of Saka, Ebere before then)

I think the main Nigerian weakness is the lack of experience.
With the loss of Mikel, Moses, Musa, Ikpeme and to a lesser degree Ighalo, we are basically sporting a full Olympic-eligible squad.

Damunk wrote:

Tobi17 wrote:Tbh I'll put Nigeria in third place, Algeria first and Senegal in #2. Nigeria has the biggest pool of hot prospects and talents in Africa, but unlike the two other top teams (Algeria and Senegal), we don't have a completely settled TEAM yet. I think we will finally peak after the world cup (hopefully we get the likes of Saka, Ebere before then)

I think the main Nigerian weakness is the lack of experience.
With the loss of Mikel, Moses, Musa, Ikpeme and to a lesser degree Ighalo, we are basically sporting a full Olympic-eligible squad.

Ndidi, Troost, Etebo, Iwobi, Uzoho, Iheanacho, Omeruo all have world cup experience playing against top sides too.

Thats a pretty decent set of players.

Ndidi, Troost, Etebo, Uzoho played virtually every single minute of our 3 matches, and Omeruo has actually played at 2 world cups so we do have some experience.

I think this our "inexperience" is way overblown. We have enough experience, its just that our team is young.

vancity eagle wrote:

Damunk wrote:

Tobi17 wrote:Tbh I'll put Nigeria in third place, Algeria first and Senegal in #2. Nigeria has the biggest pool of hot prospects and talents in Africa, but unlike the two other top teams (Algeria and Senegal), we don't have a completely settled TEAM yet. I think we will finally peak after the world cup (hopefully we get the likes of Saka, Ebere before then)

I think the main Nigerian weakness is the lack of experience.
With the loss of Mikel, Moses, Musa, Ikpeme and to a lesser degree Ighalo, we are basically sporting a full Olympic-eligible squad.

Ndidi, Troost, Etebo, Iwobi, Uzoho, Iheanacho all have world cup experience playing against top sides too.

Thats a pretty decent set of players.

Ndidi, Troost, Etebo, Uzoho played virtually every single minute of our 3 matches so we do have some experience.

Plus kenneth omeruo that has played two world cups and has an ANC bronze and Gold medal.

vancity eagle wrote:

Damunk wrote:

Tobi17 wrote:Tbh I'll put Nigeria in third place, Algeria first and Senegal in #2. Nigeria has the biggest pool of hot prospects and talents in Africa, but unlike the two other top teams (Algeria and Senegal), we don't have a completely settled TEAM yet. I think we will finally peak after the world cup (hopefully we get the likes of Saka, Ebere before then)

I think the main Nigerian weakness is the lack of experience.
With the loss of Mikel, Moses, Musa, Ikpeme and to a lesser degree Ighalo, we are basically sporting a full Olympic-eligible squad.

Ndidi, Troost, Etebo, Iwobi, Uzoho, Iheanacho all have world cup experience playing against top sides too.

Thats a pretty decent set of players.

Ndidi, Troost, Etebo, Uzoho played virtually every single minute of our 3 matches so we do have some experience.

A little bit, yes.
But apart from maybe Ekong, there is no question that the rest are still early in their careers - not even in the middle - and would probably be the first to tell you they still have a lot to learn.

As for Omeruo, I don't think he is or should be a starter and could easily lose his SE position despite his experience - just like Musa has, kind of.

vancity eagle wrote:Replace Egypt with Morocco.

Egypt is pretty poor right now.

Boufal and Tarabat are the only two decent Moroccan players I can think of at the moment. Their squad does not excite me at all.

In contrast, look at the Senegalese team. It is packed with top class players.

Ayo Akinfe wrote:

vancity eagle wrote:Replace Egypt with Morocco.

Egypt is pretty poor right now.

Boufal and Tarabat are the only two decent Moroccan players I can think of at the moment. Their squad does not excite me at all.

In contrast, look at the Senegalese team. It is packed with top class players.

Why are you comparing them to Senegal, I said they are better than Egypt. Their squad is loaded.

Taarabt, Ziyech, Boufal, Harit, Sofiane Amrabat, Hakimi, Saiss, Iddrissi, Belhanda, El Neyseri

Egypt that disgraced CAF by losing to Saudi and then lost at home to South Africa at AFCON. That's who should represent CAF in Qatar ? God forbid.

Anyways, even Salah will not be able to save them.

vancity eagle wrote:

Ayo Akinfe wrote:

vancity eagle wrote:Replace Egypt with Morocco.

Egypt is pretty poor right now.

Boufal and Tarabat are the only two decent Moroccan players I can think of at the moment. Their squad does not excite me at all.

In contrast, look at the Senegalese team. It is packed with top class players.

Why are you comparing them to Senegal, I said they are better than Egypt. Their squad is loaded.

Taarabt, Ziyech, Boufal, Harit, Sofiane Amrabat, Hakimi, Saiss, Iddrissi, Belhanda, El Neyseri

Egypt that disgraced CAF by losing to Saudi and then lost at home to South Africa at AFCON. That's who should represent CAF in Qatar ? God forbid.

Anyways, even Salah will not be able to save them.

Have you forgotten that Morocco lost to Benin Republic in the Nations Cup?

Ayo Akinfe wrote:

vancity eagle wrote:

Ayo Akinfe wrote:

vancity eagle wrote:Replace Egypt with Morocco.

Egypt is pretty poor right now.

Boufal and Tarabat are the only two decent Moroccan players I can think of at the moment. Their squad does not excite me at all.

In contrast, look at the Senegalese team. It is packed with top class players.

Why are you comparing them to Senegal, I said they are better than Egypt. Their squad is loaded.

Taarabt, Ziyech, Boufal, Harit, Sofiane Amrabat, Hakimi, Saiss, Iddrissi, Belhanda, El Neyseri

Egypt that disgraced CAF by losing to Saudi and then lost at home to South Africa at AFCON. That's who should represent CAF in Qatar ? God forbid.

Anyways, even Salah will not be able to save them.

Have you forgotten that Morocco lost to Benin Republic in the Nations Cup?

So this Ayo (aka 10 bullets) got all you guys gripped on your balls; every time he opens some nonsensical stupid thread you all come running with replies

Damunk,

This point has been argued previously on CE. This squad, in terms of age, is actually older than some previous AFCON winning teams on the average, including some Nigerian AFCON winners. Moreover, the issue of calendar age is often nullified by competition experience/cap experience. Ultimately, calendar age is not a major issue for this Nigerian squad. The issue may well be how stable the team is, personnel wise, going into a major competition. On this issue, however, we actually have a coach (Rohr), who has handled that well in the past by realizing that the lack of team practices and its havoc on team chemistry necessitates a slow/gradual change in team personnel.

Damunk wrote:

vancity eagle wrote:

Damunk wrote:

Tobi17 wrote:Tbh I'll put Nigeria in third place, Algeria first and Senegal in #2. Nigeria has the biggest pool of hot prospects and talents in Africa, but unlike the two other top teams (Algeria and Senegal), we don't have a completely settled TEAM yet. I think we will finally peak after the world cup (hopefully we get the likes of Saka, Ebere before then)

I think the main Nigerian weakness is the lack of experience.
With the loss of Mikel, Moses, Musa, Ikpeme and to a lesser degree Ighalo, we are basically sporting a full Olympic-eligible squad.

Ndidi, Troost, Etebo, Iwobi, Uzoho, Iheanacho all have world cup experience playing against top sides too.

Thats a pretty decent set of players.

Ndidi, Troost, Etebo, Uzoho played virtually every single minute of our 3 matches so we do have some experience.

A little bit, yes.
But apart from maybe Ekong, there is no question that the rest are still early in their careers - not even in the middle - and would probably be the first to tell you they still have a lot to learn.

As for Omeruo, I don't think he is or should be a starter and could easily lose his SE position despite his experience - just like Musa has, kind of.

Enugu II wrote:Damunk,

This point has been argued previously on CE. This squad, in terms of age, is actually older than some previous AFCON winning teams on the average, including some Nigerian AFCON winners. Moreover, the issue of calendar age is often nullified by competition experience/cap experience. Ultimately, calendar age is not a major issue for this Nigerian squad. The issue may well be how stable the team is, personnel wise, going into a major competition. On this issue, however, we actually have a coach (Rohr), who has handled that well in the past by realizing that the lack of team practices and its havoc on team chemistry necessitates a slow/gradual change in team personnel.

Prof, great points.
I never actually considered the slow change in personnel might be a strategy to counter the lack of collective game time and/or collective experience.
Even though it may be true that there were younger AFCON-winning Nigerian teams (which ones by the way?) I am very conscious of how the African game is rapidly evolving. I believe there is slowly developing an African 'elite' - pulling away from the traditional 'African level' and approaching the 'world level'. A level where we can easily beat the middle level European and South American teams and beat their elite nations on a good day. And that's what I'm looking at when I mention experience, both by way of game time and exposure to the top level.

Our defeats and exits in past World Cup appearances could arguably be linked to individual and/or collective inexperience - Oliseh and Eguavon in the 1994 loss v Italy and the 2-1 loss to Arg in the opening game. The '98 Denmark 4-1 thrashing ("already thinking of Brazil" according to Taribo); the stupid Kaita red card v Greece in 2010; the France defeat in 2014 (no worthy replacement for the injured Onazi) and the heart-wrenching 'last minute' loss to Argentina in 2018 all readily come to mind.

As for the elite group I mentioned, I'd put Senegal, Nigeria, Algeria and Morocco in that group. Old powers like Cameroun and Egypt seem to be losing ground, Ghana even more so despite the talents they have. Not sure what Ivory Coast are doing with all their own undoubted talent.
But the top African nations are only going to compete at the very top if their collections of talent have the experience as well as the self-belief, which comes from heavy 'exposure' to the world's very best

The current SE does not have the high level experience that previous teams (98 & 2010) had.
Currently we don't have many players with the level of experience needed to excel in the WC. Very few have UCL experience I.e Balogun, Ekong, Omeruo etc have never even played in the UEL. The ones who have that experience like Musa Moses etc are either out of the squad or on their way out. Those who have the experience like Iwobi, Ndidi, Dennis etc are still growing in the game.
On the positive side, we have players getting experience in the top 5 European leagues in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

Dammy wrote:The current SE does not have the high level experience that previous teams (98 & 2010) had.
Currently we don't have many players with the level of experience needed to excel in the WC. Very few have UCL experience I.e Balogun, Ekong, Omeruo etc have never even played in the UEL. The ones who have that experience like Musa Moses etc are either out of the squad or on their way out. Those who have the experience like Iwobi, Ndidi, Dennis etc are still growing in the game.
On the positive side, we have players getting experience in the top 5 European leagues in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

I fully expect Ndidi, Chukwueze and maybe one other player to move to a Champions league team this transfer window. Even if they do not, I do not see this being a big problem as the evidence from the Brazil friendly shows they were able to cope with the elite.

Yes, it would be nice to have players at Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Man City, Juventus, PSG, etc but we have to live in the world as it not as we wish it would be. By Qatar 2022, I expected at least Osimhen, Ndidi, Chukwueze, Kalu, Ekong, Sanusi, Aribo and maybe Aina and Uzoho to have played in the Champions League.

Damunk,

I actually believe that the top African teams are already competitive with middle-level European teams and have been for a while. However, it is not easily demonstrated by looking at the World Cup games for various reasons. One of those reasons is simply the representation problems. By that I mean that Africa having so few reps at the WC means that its achievements are less noticeable whereas with Europe already forming 50% of group teams has a better statistical chance of moving much further in the competition than Africa that has 25% opportunity. You really have to look further in terms of actual results to note Africa's progress. Thus, it isn't a talent problem in my view but a politico-administrative one.

In my view, there are maybe 8-10 African teams that can comfortably compete at the World Cup but cannot always get there because of a far more grueling qualifying series when compared to the much easier European qualifiers. In a sense, Africa's top teams are currently quite competitive against second tier teams in the world whether they are European or South American. These teams are the likes of Switzerland, Poland, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, USA, etc. We are competitive with them AT THE MOMENT. The only teams that are consistently better than us are also consistently better than any other team elsewhere. Those teams are Argentina, Brazil, Germany (bar last World Cup), Spain (see Germany), etc.

The question is can we compete consistently with the likes of Brazil, Argentina, Germany? That is a question not only for Africa's top teams but a question for most of the teams in the world bar may be six or so teams. That is my view.

Damunk wrote:

Enugu II wrote:Damunk,

This point has been argued previously on CE. This squad, in terms of age, is actually older than some previous AFCON winning teams on the average, including some Nigerian AFCON winners. Moreover, the issue of calendar age is often nullified by competition experience/cap experience. Ultimately, calendar age is not a major issue for this Nigerian squad. The issue may well be how stable the team is, personnel wise, going into a major competition. On this issue, however, we actually have a coach (Rohr), who has handled that well in the past by realizing that the lack of team practices and its havoc on team chemistry necessitates a slow/gradual change in team personnel.

Prof, great points.
I never actually considered the slow change in personnel might be a strategy to counter the lack of collective game time and/or collective experience.
Even though it may be true that there were younger AFCON-winning Nigerian teams (which ones by the way?) I am very conscious of how the African game is rapidly evolving. I believe there is slowly developing an African 'elite' - pulling away from the traditional 'African level' and approaching the 'world level'. A level where we can easily beat the middle level European and South American teams and beat their elite nations on a good day. And that's what I'm looking at when I mention experience, both by way of game time and exposure to the top level.

Our defeats and exits in past World Cup appearances could arguably be linked to individual and/or collective inexperience - Oliseh and Eguavon in the 1994 loss v Italy and the 2-1 loss to Arg in the opening game. The '98 Denmark 4-1 thrashing ("already thinking of Brazil" according to Taribo); the stupid Kaita red card v Greece in 2010; the France defeat in 2014 (no worthy replacement for the injured Onazi) and the heart-wrenching 'last minute' loss to Argentina in 2018 all readily come to mind.

As for the elite group I mentioned, I'd put Senegal, Nigeria, Algeria and Morocco in that group. Old powers like Cameroun and Egypt seem to be losing ground, Ghana even more so despite the talents they have. Not sure what Ivory Coast are doing with all their own undoubted talent.
But the top African nations are only going to compete at the very top if their collections of talent have the experience as well as the self-belief, which comes from heavy 'exposure' to the world's very best

I would actually like one of the non-powerhouses to qualify for a change. Someone from outside the Nigeria-IVC-Cameroon-Ghana axis (DR Congo or Guinea anyone?).

Strange to see a list of top 5 African teams without Morocco (AKA the most technically accomplished team in Africa). If anything they overpass it and try to walk the ball into the net.

wiseone wrote:I would actually like one of the non-powerhouses to qualify for a change. Someone from outside the Nigeria-IVC-Cameroon-Ghana axis (DR Congo or Guinea anyone?).

Strange to see a list of top 5 African teams without Morocco (AKA the most technically accomplished team in Africa). If anything they overpass it and try to walk the ball into the net.

As long as they further the case for African representation rather than detract from it.

Only Cameroun (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) have gone as far as the Q/F.
After that only Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have ever reached the 2nd round.
The rest went for the ride, so they're not doing much to make the case for African football.

See the breakdown of Africa at the World Cup here.

Enugu II wrote: The question is can we compete consistently with the likes of Brazil, Argentina, Germany? That is a question not only for Africa's top teams but a question for most of the teams in the world bar may be six or so teams. That is my view.

Prof, I think we are almost there tbh.

I am fascinated by the psychology of football and how the mindset pans out in a game between two teams.
I believe it can often win games even despite superior technical ability and strategy. It can definitely give a team an edge esp if the differences are not that vast. And that is the key edge Brazil, Argentina, Germany and much more recently Spain have over the rest of the world, including Africa especially.

They just know they will beat whatever is put in front of them on a 'normal' day, while we merely think we might beat them on a good day and with "a bit of luck". That marginal mental advantage consistently wins games, all other things being equal.

It is hard to believe that Spain who we today regard as a world power were perennial underachievers up until 2010 when they won the World Cup in SA. That is when it all clicked 'kpakam' and they somehow found their mojo. Before then, Spain had never gone beyond the quarter finals! Imagine.
They just didn't have the mental tools, despite their undoubted talent pool that had always been there achieving nothing.

At the youth level the playing field is more equal in many regards, including the mental approach. If anything, countries like Nigeria have reversed the trend and victory is the norm for them and less so for Brazil, Germany and other football 'superpowers'. Kids in a way are fearless and 'have no respect'.

I believe if we can mentally get to that same point at the senior level, a World Cup S/F place (and beyond) beckons for Africa - and I predict it will be a west African country that will first achieve it before the floodgates suddenly open.

Nigeria in my opinion is our best bet with the right blend of youth, experience, talent and crucially that unshakeable self-belief. The signs are already beginning to appear.