I AM CONFLICTED ABOUT RETAINING ROHR

[marutimon]

. Do you think he can honestly do it again?

Yes I do.

I think he will qualify this team easily for the worldcup.

Rohr is actually suited for the African game because what he brings to the table is to make our team more "European"

and when you play like this within Africa you will easily beat out all competitors. Any half decent organized team will do well within Africa, because in Africa the teams are so unorganized. Again this is why Egypt won 3 straight ANC's.

The problem for Rohr is on "THE WORLD STAGE" when he tries these "European" tactics against European and South American teams, that is where we will suffer.

So the question is do you want to remain a big fish in a little pond or do you want to go into the ocean and make waves.

by the way the solution is not a complete abandonment of the organization and defensive solidity Rohr has worked on and built

What is needed is a synthesis of this with attacking soccer.

Rohr abandons the attack for the stability and compactness. Again this is great within Africa.

We need a balance of attack and defence, and we need to not be over reliant on counter attacking, but also when we counter attack, we need to perfect it to deadly efficiency, and not the garbage that Etebo was guilty of.

I have no idea why Rohr did not drill it into the head of Etebo and others to pass the ball quickly up the field to kill teams on the counter instead of dribbling and shooting to kill birds.

That is why I call African soccer, "dumb soccer'. We have been doing this for ages.

People still claim Etebo did great. But he killed off Nigeria's attacking decisiveness together with Ighalo. The brains of Iwobi, Mikel, Iheanacho and yes... Simon (who is more purposeful than most give him credit) were responsible for Nigeria's success. Not Etebo running through crowds of defenders and shooting on sight.

Etebo is still a useful player, but a quality coach will give him hell and make sure he understands to play for the team. The same needed to be done to Victor Moses.

I agree. I'm just stating why he either needed to be pulled and to be given a stern talking to by the coach or Mikel (as in - "do that one more time and you're off!". He messed up far too many breakaways. I can forgive him for the Iceland game, but Rohr really should have told him off then, because he was at it again.

[Elexus]

Rohr did well.
Put things in perspective. In this world cup, every team put 11 players behind the ball as soon as they lost possession. It makes it hard for anyone to find space. Even Croatia, normally an offensive minded team, put 9 or 11 men behind the ball as soon as they lost possession against us. Argentina did the same in the first half. They played with real fear. Apparently they learned from the friendly match that Nigeria could come back.
When Iceland dared to open up, before they knew what hit them, they were down 2-0.

With Rohr, at least no one is complaining of him not bringing our best players. He had looked at everyone available. The problem was our strikers. Our strikers failed us when we needed them most.

In the first half, Iheanacho had a chance to run at the goal when Argentina lost possession in their own half. But he simply froze or was overawed by the occasion and allowed the Argentine to dispossess him of the ball. Immediately after Iheanacho's failed attempt, Argentina had their opportunity and Messi scored. Ighalo, with the goalkeeper at his mercy and at point blank range, miscued in a manner reminiscent of Yakubu's. At this stage, not many teams are going to give you such opportunities. So when you are lucky to get one and you don't make good use of it, no one is to blame.
I cannot fault Rohr. He had analysed his team and made changes when required. Either the team was too young or the majority of the players were overawed by the occasion. Etebo would dribble into the crowd and lose possession. He could not release the ball at the appropriate time. I can see why Ighalo is playing in China and I can see why Man City did not keep Iheanacho.

[theYemster]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

They were within 5 minutes of making the round of 16. Smart game management by the coach would have secured their place

How would better game management have prevented the cross that led to the winning goal for Argentina? We did not advance because of inexperience. What cost is not game management but inexperienced silly mistakes against Croatia. That was a game we should have and would have won but for our mistakes.

Firing Rohr now will bring us back to square one and may cost us qualification for the ANC. I do think he should be evaluated after the ANC and replaced if necessary.

Overall yes perhaps inexperience was a factor however wrt the Argentina match, I would place more blame on Rohr for not doing something about Idowu's wing...I believe bringing on Ebuehi either as replacement or as a complement would've prevent the cross for their winning goal. If inexperience was the reason then it was Rohr's inexperience.

[Sampo]

Rohr did well.
Put things in perspective. In this world cup, every team put 11 players behind the ball as soon as they lost possession. It makes it hard for anyone to find space. Even Croatia, normally an offensive minded team, put 9 or 11 men behind the ball as soon as they lost possession against us. Argentina did the same in the first half. They played with real fear. Apparently they learned from the friendly match that Nigeria could come back.
When Iceland dared to open up, before they knew what hit them, they were down 2-0.

With Rohr, at least no one is complaining of him not bringing our best players. He had looked at everyone available. The problem was our strikers. Our strikers failed us when we needed them most.

In the first half, Iheanacho had a chance to run at the goal when Argentina lost possession in their own half. But he simply froze or was overawed by the occasion and allowed the Argentine to dispossess him of the ball. Immediately after Iheanacho's failed attempt, Argentina had their opportunity and Messi scored. Ighalo, with the goalkeeper at his mercy and at point blank range, miscued in a manner reminiscent of Yakubu's. At this stage, not many teams are going to give you such opportunities. So when you are lucky to get one and you don't make good use of it, no one is to blame.
I cannot fault Rohr. He had analysed his team and made changes when required. Either the team was too young or the majority of the players were overawed by the occasion. Etebo would dribble into the crowd and lose possession. He could not release the ball at the appropriate time. I can see why Ighalo is playing in China and I can see why Man City did not keep Iheanacho.

You are right about the players who failed at the crucial points of the games.
Rohr could have also adjusted better to manage the game, especially at 1-1 with so little time remaining. This was his responsibility. I don't want to sound harsh on him, but what does one make of him repeatedly saying to the world the boys were not ready and they were there for the experience? It is completely against our Nigerian mentality. True as it may be, we just do not roll like that! Psychologically, I interpret this bad rap to our opponents' advantage - not motivating your team and inviting their opponents to have them for the taking. What exactly does this sort of negative talk do for the morale of these young players?

[Orion]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

For once I agree with this guy.

Look, you could all keep burying your heads in the sand and pontificating about this player and that player (all mediocre BTW) and pretend like we should be winning the World Cup with a "better coach" but you cannot escape the facts. The player quality is just not there!

We proved in the qualifiers and the World Cup itself that we're one of the best in Africa but it is still far below world level. Even if we select all the best players we have right now and employ the best coach we can get our hands on, at most we'll make the round of 16 (if we get a lucky draw) and then run into trouble. Can this team win the AFCON? Yes. But as we have just seen, the level in Africa at the moment is very low when compared to the best in the world.

[zee]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

For once I agree with this guy.

Look, you could all keep burying your heads in the sand and pontificating about this player and that player (all mediocre BTW) and pretend like we should be winning the World Cup with a "better coach" but you cannot escape the facts. The player quality is just not there!

We proved in the qualifiers and the World Cup itself that we're one of the best in Africa but it is still far below world level. Even if we select all the best players we have right now and employ the best coach we can get our hands on, at most we'll make the round of 16 (if we get a lucky draw) and then run into trouble. Can this team win the AFCON? Yes. But as we have just seen, the level in Africa at the moment is very low when compared to the best in the world.

Rubbish and daft nonsense.

[theYemster]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

For once I agree with this guy.

Look, you could all keep burying your heads in the sand and pontificating about this player and that player (all mediocre BTW) and pretend like we should be winning the World Cup with a "better coach" but you cannot escape the facts. The player quality is just not there!

We proved in the qualifiers and the World Cup itself that we're one of the best in Africa but it is still far below world level. Even if we select all the best players we have right now and employ the best coach we can get our hands on, at most we'll make the round of 16 (if we get a lucky draw) and then run into trouble. Can this team win the AFCON? Yes. But as we have just seen, the level in Africa at the moment is very low when compared to the best in the world.

You agree with him? Regardless, Nigeria took arguably inferior players to the last WC and progressed out of the group stages and was unfortunate to lose to France due to questionable officiating.

[Orion]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

For once I agree with this guy.

Look, you could all keep burying your heads in the sand and pontificating about this player and that player (all mediocre BTW) and pretend like we should be winning the World Cup with a "better coach" but you cannot escape the facts. The player quality is just not there!

We proved in the qualifiers and the World Cup itself that we're one of the best in Africa but it is still far below world level. Even if we select all the best players we have right now and employ the best coach we can get our hands on, at most we'll make the round of 16 (if we get a lucky draw) and then run into trouble. Can this team win the AFCON? Yes. But as we have just seen, the level in Africa at the moment is very low when compared to the best in the world.

You agree with him? Regardless, Nigeria took arguably inferior players to the last WC and progressed out of the group stages and was unfortunate to lose to France due to questionable officiating.

You see, you guys keep saying that. Every single game, it’s always this one incident, that one thing, that one decision, the ref, that player’s fault etc. etc. that prevented us from getting the desired result.

How about, the opposition was just better?

Let's take Argentina for example. People are looking for a scapegoat this time around as if that would have made a difference. Argentina has defeated us FIVE TIMES at the World Cup. FIVE TIMES. It's not luck, coincidence, or the fault of one player. They always have just enough to win when they need to. We are just good enough that they can't rout us but whenever they need to step up a gear to win against us in a competitive game, they’ve always been able to do so. Why? Because they've always had better quality payers. Even when a team is in disarray, player quality can still shine through.

[TheHitman47]

I don't completely agree with Orion. Yes you need quality but you need confidence in yourself that you can win as the fact is that this world cup there were some significant upsets. I look at Iran, or South Korea or Japan.

Also Mexico, do you think they are really that far above us in ability? They consistently make the Round of 16. it's the same with the US. I don't think even the better US teams have been better than us at our best and they consistently made the round of 16 until this year where they failed. A good manager can do a lot. But there is no denying that quality players are what you need to win the whole thing. Group stage exits for our team and players isn't acceptable, and IDGAF if we are playing against Argentina and Croatia.


PEOPLE NEED TO CUT THEIR INFERIORITY COMPLEXES, it's embarrassing!

[chief nfachairman]

1. On one hand stability is key, and it is not as if this Rohr team is poor. They are very structured, pretty good defensively, can get results against decent teams. He qualified us from the toughest African qualifying group in history with a game to spare and that is nothing to scoff at. I believe a Rohr coached Nigeria side will be favourite to win the ANC. I believe the type of structure and defense he has built will be very hard to breach when coming up against fellow African opposition.

2. On the other hand, the team is too one dimensional, static, conservative, doesn't play with that attacking flair which we all love. Rohr is too slow and conservative a coach. He doesn't seem to have an eye for talent but just likes to stick with his tried and tested, and this is very detrimental. He makes horrible use of substitutions and has not instilled the proper DNA in this team. African teams are not going to succeed by trying to play European style football. You cannot beat them at their own game, you must beat them AT YOUR GAME.

So I feel we have a major decision to make, and I am really torn at which way to go. Ultimately 2022 has to be the goal from this very moment.

If we keep Rohr we will be a solid side, probably win a nations cup, but will most definitely fail to live to our utmost potential at the 2022 WC.

If we sack Rohr and hire the wrong coach, it will be very detrimental, and we may go back to the disarray which preceeded Rohr's arrival.

If We sack Rohr and hire the proper coach (has to be a South American, or dutch IMO) then this team could possibly reach great heights. We have to be clear about what we want.

We need to tell a new coach,(if that is the direction we take) that we want "the best" players, we want attacking football, and we need to integrate young talents who play smart, technical, attacking football, and NOT KICK AND RUSH, or GRA GRA.

Personally I would like to see a Brazilian coaching this team, with youth talents integrated.

Players who will not be around in 2022 should no longer be called IMO, even for ANC 2019. We need to blood new players right now for 2022, no time can be wasted.

Rohr should be fired, no sentiments. The SE can do better with a tactical coach, the SE qualified for the World Cup because of individual brilliance from players like Vic mo and Mikel. Remember Rohr lost to SA in Nigeria without those guys. The SE can do better with a new coach with innovative ideas. Rohr is old and clueless on the strengths of the SE after spending all these years coaching in africa. Let's try finidi, or a competent foreign coach.

The individual brilliance of those 2 made them qualify for the last 2 nations cup?

[Ebyboy]

The great Amodu qualified us twice and both times...UNDEFEATED and still got sacked after winning bronze, so why won't a coward that lost to SA at HOME be sacked?

I don't think I'll ever get over Amodu never leading our team to the World Cup. It was our biggest loss of a generation. He was Nigeria's best coach ever, save for maybe Troussier.

I just can't help but wonder what Nigeria would have achieved in 2002 and 2010 if not for our small-minded white-inferiority-complex NFF.

Amodu is the blueprint, we need to hand it over to Nigerian coaches. I appreciate the input of Troussier and Rohr, but we need to look to the future. WE need a blueprint for development and that can only be done if we go local.

On point. Ya own go better!

[chief nfachairman]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

They were within 5 minutes of making the round of 16. Smart game management by the coach would have secured their place

How would better game management have prevented the cross that led to the winning goal for Argentina? We did not advance because of inexperience. What cost is not game management but inexperienced silly mistakes against Croatia. That was a game we should have and would have won but for our mistakes.

Firing Rohr now will bring us back to square one and may cost us qualification for the ANC. I do think he should be evaluated after the ANC and replaced if necessary.

I agree

His next goal if he is still coach should be to qualify Nigeria for the next ANC 2019 and target goal nothing less than Championship or worst case Bronze match

Where does Finidi coach? What has he done with Betis? Atleast we know enfant terrible got his team virtually promoted in the dutch league.

The man who has told us he likes working with kids hence he applied for age group teams.

Or you think NFF that didnt see him better than the others for age group teams would now take him as SE coach?

Abi you want us to continue with another tryout and error and we'll keep revolving on the same spot for many more years?

[chief nfachairman]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

These are the guys that started for NIgeria in the WC
Uzoho - Deportivo D3
Shehu - Turkey TOp Div
Omeruo - Turkey top Div
Balogun - Bundesliga
Ekong - Turkey top Div (Was actually an EPL reject. lol)
Ndidi - EPL
Etebo - La Liga
Mikel - CHina (former EPL)
Moses - EPL
Musa - Russia TOp Team, Europa (EPL reject)
Nacho- EPL (almost an EPL reject)
Idowu - RUssia TOp Div
Ighalo - China (EPL reject)
Iwobi - EPL

Nothing wrong with been an EPL reject. Pogba and Pique were EPL rejects.

[Bestplayer]

Any attempt to retain Rohr as SE coach is just madness,.. sheer madness. The guy is too dumb and clueless to achieve anything positive in Nigerian football. Heck, I would even take Bonfere Jo over this clown any day....

[zee]

Any attempt to retain Rohr as SE coach is just madness,.. sheer madness. The guy is too dumb and clueless to achieve anything positive in Nigerian football. Heck, I would even take Bonfere Jo over this clown any day....

...................................and a full-blown football-coward.

[theYemster]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

For once I agree with this guy.

Look, you could all keep burying your heads in the sand and pontificating about this player and that player (all mediocre BTW) and pretend like we should be winning the World Cup with a "better coach" but you cannot escape the facts. The player quality is just not there!

We proved in the qualifiers and the World Cup itself that we're one of the best in Africa but it is still far below world level. Even if we select all the best players we have right now and employ the best coach we can get our hands on, at most we'll make the round of 16 (if we get a lucky draw) and then run into trouble. Can this team win the AFCON? Yes. But as we have just seen, the level in Africa at the moment is very low when compared to the best in the world.

You agree with him? Regardless, Nigeria took arguably inferior players to the last WC and progressed out of the group stages and was unfortunate to lose to France due to questionable officiating.

You see, you guys keep saying that. Every single game, it’s always this one incident, that one thing, that one decision, the ref, that player’s fault etc. etc. that prevented us from getting the desired result.

How about, the opposition was just better?

Let's take Argentina for example. People are looking for a scapegoat this time around as if that would have made a difference. Argentina has defeated us FIVE TIMES at the World Cup. FIVE TIMES. It's not luck, coincidence, or the fault of one player. They always have just enough to win when they need to. We are just good enough that they can't rout us but whenever they need to step up a gear to win against us in a competitive game, they’ve always been able to do so. Why? Because they've always had better quality payers. Even when a team is in disarray, player quality can still shine through.

Fair points however here's my take. Yes the opposition this time was slightly superior. Croatia > Bosnia, Iceland > Iran, and Argentina is a wash, though one can argue that 2014 Argentina > 2018 Argentina.

That said, the players in the Nigeria team last time out were arguably inferior to the players this time out. And this team (despite the quality of players or lack thereof) still had a good chance to go through had the coach made a couple of changes, like introducing Ebuehi and reinforcing the midfield. So while yes I don't disagree that many of the players in this team were scrub which possibly accounted for the loss to Croatia, it was more due to the coach's tactical failures that they capitulated late against Argentina.

[theYemster]

Any attempt to retain Rohr as SE coach is just madness,.. sheer madness. The guy is too dumb and clueless to achieve anything positive in Nigerian football. Heck, I would even take Bonfere Jo over this clown any day....

Bonfrere of today or the one of yester-years?

[kajifu]

I doubt anyone here will be backing this Rohr if he was Nigerian.
The man has nothing to offer at @47k a month he should be ship out.
I will even take a wash up Wenger than this man.Fired him and get a coach NOW to prepared for ANC.

[Bestplayer]

Any attempt to retain Rohr as SE coach is just madness,.. sheer madness. The guy is too dumb and clueless to achieve anything positive in Nigerian football. Heck, I would even take Bonfere Jo over this clown any day....

Bonfrere of today or the one of yester-years?

Doesn't matter. Any version of Bonfere is better than Rohr. The guy needs to be fired asap. It is only the blind that cannot see Rohr's limitations..

[gochino]

Funny, our players have always been average, at least since the 2002 world cup. In this world cup we played the worst type of football I have ever seen! Zero connection between defense and Midfield, defenders just booting the ball out to no one in particular! etc...Yet some people want us to retain a coach that has equaled our worst ever world cup outing?? Why?

[osita]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

Atimes u think with ur #$%, if you are objective you will see that we would have qualified with the right substitution. however the way you think u can't go beyond that just a hate and jealous behaviour that is inbuilt from your people

[john12]

The same Nigerians that we’re complaining why rohr took out iwobi in the first game will be the same ones that would had complained if rohr had taken out another player yesterday and we lost. The man had his tactics and his strikers failed to utilize their chances while Argentina did utilize their own. Morals:The better team Won and I’m glad that rohr has improved our team from we’re we was 2 years ago

[Cellular]

Rohr is not the problem
Naija simply lack quality players
Did u really expect a bunch of EPL rejects, Chinese league players, division 2 benchwarmers, relegated players & Nigerian "mercenaries" to do better than they did?

They were within 5 minutes of making the round of 16. Smart game management by the coach would have secured their place

How would better game management have prevented the cross that led to the winning goal for Argentina? We did not advance because of inexperience. What cost is not game management but inexperienced silly mistakes against Croatia. That was a game we should have and would have won but for our mistakes.

Firing Rohr now will bring us back to square one and may cost us qualification for the ANC. I do think he should be evaluated after the ANC and replaced if necessary.

Overall yes perhaps inexperience was a factor however wrt the Argentina match, I would place more blame on Rohr for not doing something about Idowu's wing...I believe bringing on Ebuehi either as replacement or as a complement would've prevent the cross for their winning goal. If inexperience was the reason then it was Rohr's inexperience.

Thank you Sir!

He is busy talking about the players' inexperience but his own inexperience was more detrimental to the team than his players.