Dropping Melkalm/Obodo will hunt us

mke1010 · Post by **mke1010** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 4:47 pm

Those two type of players are exactly what we were missing today. Ball winners/hustlers and defensive players. We had no cohesive midfield today and we were just too stationary and slow. We need rugged play in that department. Hopefully Olafinjana can get help and step up his own game. The guy was nearly irrelevant today.

omotori · Post by **omotori** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 5:02 pm

exactly.

either of those two guys beside Seyi would have made a big difference.

we basically had no defence in the midfield.

bobbye · Post by **bobbye** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 5:10 pm

This is absolutely the cause of our defeat today.Today's loss should be dumped on doorstep of Ogunjobi and Chukwu.If Oruma Obodo Uche Kalu and Melkam were in the final 22 believe you me it could have been a different result.Please whoever that get to Chukwu should advise him to start Ekwueme and Ikedia in the next game,definitely it make a lot of difference. Mark my words.Yakubu and Kanu should not start.

Akoni Miyake · Post by **Akoni Miyake** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 5:24 pm

From my Knowledge of English football i saw the reasons behind playing gilberto/viera or keane /scholes, or makalele/lampard what did we have today??

cic old boy · Post by **cic old boy** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 5:24 pm

There is only one reason those guys were not in the squad - they didn't drop.

Corruption will kill our football. Take it from me, we will be worse than Ghana before everyone sees the light.

mke1010 · Post by **mke1010** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:10 pm

I really feel like Ogunjobi should be investigated as to why Obodo and Melkam were dropped. We don't have defensive midfielders on this team-our biggest weakness. And yet we have two quality defensive players sitting at home. Had Obodo or even Melkam been paired with Olafinjana backing Okocha our central midfield would not have as open as desert. Nigeria played a man down today as Kanu was invicible.
Abbey Yobo Enahakire Udeze

Osaze Olafinjana Okocha Ekwueme/lawal

Uttaka Agahowa

This is what we need against SA

Blakes · Post by **Blakes** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:17 pm

losing west is what is hunting us now..WEST was a bigger loss...

mke1010 · Post by **mke1010** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:38 pm

Blakes-you are right but there is nothing we could do about losing West. he is injured. On the other hand Obodo/Melkalm are healthy and ready.

airwolex · Post by **airwolex** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:47 pm

I couldn't agree with you guys more. Obodo in particular would have been very usefull in the midfield. Can someone tell me why we need so many strikers? Couldn't Agali or kanu have been dropped to make room for one defensive midfielder? The balance of the team is poor. And to think they wanted to take Martins too, honestly the people running our football nowadays are clueless

theYemster · Post by **theYemster** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:48 pm

Akoni Miyake wrote:From my Knowledge of English football i saw the reasons behind playing gilberto/viera or keane /scholes, or makalele/lampard what did we have today??

we had a fuul on the bench that's what.

Enugu II · Post by **Enugu II** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 9:00 pm

airwolex wrote:I couldn't agree with you guys more. Obodo in particular would have been very usefull in the midfield. Can someone tell me why we need so many strikers? Couldn't Agali or kanu have been dropped to make room for one defensive midfielder? The balance of the team is poor. And to think they wanted to take Martins too, honestly the people running our football nowadays are clueless

I do not believe Obodo would have helped one bit. CCC had midfielders available to him but they were rooted to the bench. What makes you think he would have played Obodo?

mke1010 · Post by **mke1010** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 9:09 pm

Enugu11-that's the point. We did have midfielders on the bench but he did not use them. Nothing would guarantee that CCC would have the sense to use Melkalm/Obodo but I think based on the number of defensive midfielders on that team nothing should justify the exclusion of Obodo and Melkalm. In fact I would go as far as to say that with Kanu's decision to delay his arrival in camp either of the aforementioned player would have been more valuable to the team. You need to train with the team to increase efficiency. Okocha and Kanu decieded to show up mins before our first match. How could we expect success? If the the team that CCC fielded during the warm ups was used I guarantee you that there would have been better team work.

Post by **YUJAM** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 9:32 pm

EII:
CCC's lack of tactical awareness is the problem. How many times do we have to tell you that formations count and gone are the days of 4-4-2 with one sole attacking player and one pure dm in the middle of the park?

Obodo is a midfield general who sits back deep and distributes the ball both long and short. Obodo's passing repertoire is exactly what the Eagles needed today. JJ did not have to come down this far to get the ball.

Obodo would have been immensely helpful if CCC knew how to use him.

bobbye · Post by **bobbye** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 11:39 pm

Ogunjobi should be proscuted for dropping Obodo from final 22 for no just cause. If he is convicted, he should be thrown into prison and throw away the key for the heartaches his crime afflicted on Nigerians today. It is high time our leaders start facing the consquences of their actions. The stupid guy should tell Nigerians why he insisted that Obodo dropped and Chinese
league included.Please tell me what purpose inclusion of Ekong serve us today.What a shame we have such an incompetent adminstrator

spastic · Post by **spastic** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 11:51 pm

It is beginning to down on me that our fault finding in everything, is really taking a lot away from the truth.

On this day in the year of the lord 2004 Morrocco was a better team, in all aspects of the game, and they won chikena finissh.

Enugu II · Post by **Enugu II** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 11:53 pm

YUJAM wrote:EII:
CCC's lack of tactical awareness is the problem. How many times do we have to tell you that formations count and gone are the days of 4-4-2 with one sole attacking player and one pure dm in the middle of the park?

Obodo is a midfield general who sits back deep and distributes the ball both long and short. Obodo's passing repertoire is exactly what the Eagles needed today. JJ did not have to come down this far to get the ball.

Obodo would have been immensely helpful if CCC knew how to use him.

Yujam:

Who says that 4-4-2 is gone? Let me ask you, are you unaware that the 4-4-2 is used today by several successful teams that wow all of us in Europe? Btw, the 4-4-2 does not use one sole attacker and netither does it have to use one sole DM.

The point is Obodo was never used as DM in the SE and there was no guarantee that if he was available today that he would have been used as a DM. That is the point, my brother. CCC had a DM on the bench and failed to use him, so what makes you feel that he would have used Obodo?

Furthermore, let me say that the game was lost more on the absence of attacking options (i.e the absence of crosses from the wings -- lack of a true leftside midfielder and the absence of Udeze's runs) than the absence of Obodo or whoever else in the middle. The very pases that you talked about -- the few made by JJ were stopped stone cold by the Moroccan offside tactics. Why would Obodo's passes have been significantly different?

omotori · Post by **omotori** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:05 am

guys, lets call a spade, a spade. CCC fielded an overly offensive team when he should have been more worried about the midfield.

even if this was a must win game where we needed goal difference to advance, this selection/formation cannot be justified.

how do you play Okocha & Kanu at the same time together in the midfield & play one DM.

two simple adjustments would have made all the difference.

this was a show-case team not an impact team.

spastic · Post by **spastic** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:15 am

Omotori Onigbinde Did this in the worldcup and no one seemed to mind.

We can find excuses to blame the coach all we want(inasmuch as we all know that he is not the most tactically astute 1 out there) the reality still stands, The better team won. It wasn't as if we controlled the game and were mounting serious pressure but lost coz our overaggressive style.

We lost the game in every department, this has nothing to do with formation, we were just a bad team.

But the sadder story is this, if we by some spate of luck win the next game with a few changes here and there people would claim we lost the first game coz the wrong players were fielded in the first game, while in reality our victory would probably come more because of the time spent toghether by the players than anything else, regardless of if there are changes to the lineup or not.

Bottom line we were bad as a team players and Coach included.

furiously frank · Post by **furiously frank** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:26 am

bobbye wrote:Ogunjobi should be proscuted for dropping Obodo from final 22 for no just cause. If he is convicted, he should be thrown into prison and throw away the key for the heartaches his crime afflicted on Nigerians today. It is high time our leaders start facing the consquences of their actions. The stupid guy should tell Nigerians why he insisted that Obodo dropped and Chinese
league included.Please tell me what purpose inclusion of Ekong serve us today.What a shame we have such an incompetent adminstrator

I am not a supporter of Ogunjobi, infact I want to see him out of our FA has much as you, but lets get our facts right. I was livid with rage when Obodo was dropped and I thought Ogunjobi was responsible, so I rave and rave, only to learn later that Ogunjobi specifically addressed a press conference to put the blame squarely on CCC's shoulder. He said this was the reason he asked CCC to send the faxed copy in his own hand writing. So blame CCC and not Ogunjobi. Btw, CCC has not in any way dispute the fact that the decision to dropped Obodo is entirely his

omotori · Post by **omotori** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:35 am

in WC 2002, we could barely find a DM apart from the unpredictable Justice. So Onigbinde played one DM - Yobo who is not even a DM noormally, coupled with Lawal who while not a classic DM plays pretty solid defence.

But with the increased abundance of DM's, today why play just one DM.

also, CCC has had time to decide on his midfield.

I am a CCC supporter but I do not understand todays approach. Especially the need for such an offensive lineup.

I am hoping for at least an improved lineup against South Africa. Or else its over.

Otitokoro · Post by **Otitokoro** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:36 am

furiously frank wrote:
bobbye wrote:Ogunjobi should be proscuted for dropping Obodo from final 22 for no just cause. If he is convicted, he should be thrown into prison and throw away the key for the heartaches his crime afflicted on Nigerians today. It is high time our leaders start facing the consquences of their actions. The stupid guy should tell Nigerians why he insisted that Obodo dropped and Chinese
league included.Please tell me what purpose inclusion of Ekong serve us today.What a shame we have such an incompetent adminstrator
I am not a supporter of Ogunjobi, infact I want to see him out of our FA has much as you, but lets get our facts right. I was livid with rage when Obodo was dropped and I thought Ogunjobi was responsible, so I rave and rave, only to learn later that Ogunjobi specifically addressed a press conference to put the blame squarely on CCC's shoulder. He said this was the reason he asked CCC to send the faxed copy in his own hand writing. So blame CCC and not Ogunjobi. Btw, CCC has not in any way dispute the fact that the decision to dropped Obodo is entirely his

FF,
Thanks for the intelligent assessment. It's really amaziing how people just open their mouths and spew forth all sorts of ridiculous statements.
Ogunjobi has done nothing to warrant all the abuse that has been heaped upon him, regarding the dropping of Obodo. When Chukwu refused to utilize him in the Nations Cup qualifier against Angola in Benin a while back, nobody realized that he and Chukwu had a beef then. Now, Chukwu dropped him from his squad and everyone is blaming Ogunjobi.
The blame lies SQUARELY on Chukwu's shoulders!

African Star · Post by **African Star** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 1:58 am

spastic wrote:Omotori Onigbinde Did this in the worldcup and no one seemed to mind.

We can find excuses to blame the coach all we want(inasmuch as we all know that he is not the most tactically astute 1 out there) the reality still stands, The better team won. It wasn't as if we controlled the game and were mounting serious pressure but lost coz our overaggressive style.

We lost the game in every department, this has nothing to do with formation, we were just a bad team.

But the sadder story is this, if we by some spate of luck win the next game with a few changes here and there people would claim we lost the first game coz the wrong players were fielded in the first game, while in reality our victory would probably come more because of the time spent toghether by the players than anything else, regardless of if there are changes to the lineup or not.

Bottom line we were bad as a team players and Coach included.

Spastic, the fact is that Morocco was better because they were better prepared and executed their 3-5-2 formation to perfection, CCC trying to play name players fielded a team that had no balance, that is why the midfield was so porous and in todays game the midfield is where the game is won.

don1 · Post by **don1** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 2:26 am

airwolex, took the words right outta my mouth