To get the best out of Osimhen we need a world class playmaker

[Ayo Akinfe]

[1] Victor Osimhen has made the 12-man shortlist for Men's Best Player of the Year
[2] He is out only genuine world class player at the moment
[3] If we want to get the best out of him, he needs a world class playmaker to feed him
[4] He also needs a world class coach
[5] Nigeria wasted the talents of Okocha and Kanu with local coaches like Chukwu, Onigbinde, Amodu, etc and we are doing the same again here
[6] If you ask me, Osimhen should be managed by a national team coach like Herve Renard
[7] Such a coach should then move heaven and earth to get us a world class playmaker
[8] Having lost out on Ebere Eze, out best option for now looks like Michael Olise to me
[9] Anyone who remembers how Maradona and Careca worked at Napoli will understand the importance of having someone to feed Osimhen in the team
[10] If Jose Peseiro can get us Michael Olise, beating off France, England and Algeria, I will cut him some slack

[highbury]

[1] Victor Osimhen has made the 12-man shortlist for Men's Best Player of the Year
[2] He is out only genuine world class player at the moment
[3] If we want to get the best out of him, he needs a world class playmaker to feed him
[4] He also needs a world class coach
[5] Nigeria wasted the talents of Okocha and Kanu with local coaches like Chukwu, Onigbinde, Amodu, etc and we are doing the same again here
[6] If you ask me, Osimhen should be managed by a national team coach like Herve Renard
[7] Such a coach should then move heaven and earth to get us a world class playmaker
[8] Having lost out on Ebere Eze, out best option for now looks like Michael Olise to me
[9] Anyone who remembers how Maradona and Careca worked at Napoli will understand the importance of having someone to feed Osimhen in the team
[10] If Jose Peseiro can get us Michael Olise, beating off France, England and Algeria, I will cut him some slack

Slave mentality is a real mental disease sha

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

World class playmaker na beans? How many teams in the world have a world class playmaker? Actually, how many world class playmaker are there in the world? Are there even up to 10?

Surely, we need a top No 10 but I don't think we need a Pirlo, Ronaldinho or even okocha to be a top team with Osihmen.

I no go.lie, even a James Maddison type go do

[danfo driver]

Napoli doesnt have a world class playmaker, how did they get the best out of Osimhen?

[danfo driver]

A few things:

[3] If we want to get the best out of him, he needs a world class playmaker to feed him

Interestingly, Osimhen is at his best when he is feeding off scraps and bullying and fighting to get his pound of flesh.

[4] He also needs a world class coach

He has never played under a world class coach. Didnt have one in Napoli last year and doesnt have one now. Wonder how he was still able to provide world class performances. Hmm

[8] Having lost out on Ebere Eze, out best option for now looks like Michael Olise to me

I believe Eze was easier to get than Olise.

We need to focus on realism and build from there. Picking pies from the sky is a painful waste of time.

[10] If Jose Peseiro can get us Michael Olise, beating off France, England and Algeria, I will cut him some slack

I advise that you keep your slack to yourself now, because he will NOT be getting Olise.

[waka-man]

Because you can dribble, doesn’t mean you are a “playmaker” - itself an outdated term from the 90s

Oliseh is no playmaker. Eze sort of is, but sort of isn’t.

Most “playmaking” happens these days from deep lying players behind front threes. KDB. Odegard. Of course, Modric.

But I advise you to retire the notion. It’s old. Okocha is not coming back.

Osimhen will do just fine with a ball winning midfield, full backs that can stretch the field and a team approach that presses high.

And we have all the ingredients to do that. Not some old skool idea of football that no one else is beholden to.

[Tobi17]

Ayo is still stuck in the 90's to early 2000s, the #10 role is out of style now, the likes of Okocha, Ozil etc are no longer seen in the modern game cause creative outlets are made from deep lying playmakers and even full backs these days.

[The YeyeMan]

Ayo is still stuck in the 90's to early 2000s, the #10 role is out of style now, the likes of Okocha, Ozil etc are no longer seen in the modern game cause creative outlets are made from deep lying playmakers and even full backs these days.

[onovo]

Because you can dribble, doesn’t mean you are a “playmaker” - itself an outdated term from the 90s

Oliseh is no playmaker. Eze sort of is, but sort of isn’t.

Most “playmaking” happens these days from deep lying players behind front threes. KDB. Odegard. Of course, Modric.

But I advise you to retire the notion. It’s old. Okocha is not coming back.

Osimhen will do just fine with a ball winning midfield, full backs that can stretch the field and a team approach that presses high.

And we have all the ingredients to do that. Not some old skool idea of football that no one else is beholden to.

The drop in personnel for playmakers is not only limited to Nigeria but a global issue. Come to think of it, currently you rarely find natural playmakers in the mould of Okocha, Maradona, Riquelme, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Deco, Pirlo, Rivaldo, Scholes, etc. These guys where orchestrator who can dictates the rhythm. Besides Modric in your above list, I will never consider De Bruyne as a playmaker as he lacks that midfield spark unique to these guys.

In my opinion, I think because of how the game has evolved to be today, it is very difficult to develop/produce true playmakers. Hence the the drop in personnel in that department.

[Tobi17]

Because you can dribble, doesn’t mean you are a “playmaker” - itself an outdated term from the 90s

Oliseh is no playmaker. Eze sort of is, but sort of isn’t.

Most “playmaking” happens these days from deep lying players behind front threes. KDB. Odegard. Of course, Modric.

But I advise you to retire the notion. It’s old. Okocha is not coming back.

Osimhen will do just fine with a ball winning midfield, full backs that can stretch the field and a team approach that presses high.

And we have all the ingredients to do that. Not some old skool idea of football that no one else is beholden to.

The drop in personnel for playmakers is not only limited to Nigeria but a global issue. Come to think of it, currently you rarely find natural playmakers in the mould of Okocha, Maradona, Riquelme, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Deco, Pirlo, Rivaldo, Scholes, etc. These guys where orchestrator who can dictates the rhythm. Besides Modric in your above list, I will never consider De Bruyne as a playmaker as he lacks that midfield spark unique to these guys.

In my opinion, I think because of how the game has evolved to be today, it is very difficult to develop/produce true playmakers. Hence the the drop in personnel in that department.

The modern game has gotten more defensive

[ohenhen1]

You need a good team. Good defenders and midfield. It is a team sport.

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

Actually, after thinking about this, Ayo has a point.

A world class playmaker is not required but for the way we play, the instincts of out players, the flow of the Nigerian game, a good No 10 is needed for the team to flourish. It is the pillar of our attacking games, it can be deep ala Mikel or advanced like JJ. The real point of this thread is that we don’t have any, deep or advanced available or on the horizon. We need to find a creative MF asap. Any suggestions?

[Bigpokey24]

person score over 30 leagues goals last season for Napoli... person don score 20 goals in 26 games for Nigeria, and this absentee Ayo says Our Osimhen needs a playmaker

[Odas]

World class playmaker na beans? How many teams in the world have a world class playmaker? Actually, how many world class playmaker are there in the world? Are there even up to 10?

Surely, we need a top No 10 but I don't think we need a Pirlo, Ronaldinho or even okocha to be a top team with Osihmen.

I no go.lie, even a James Maddison type go do

Bros, I dey here, make una [Nigeria] com get me, quik-quik

[onovo]

Ayo is still stuck in the 90's to early 2000s, the #10 role is out of style now, the likes of Okocha, Ozil etc are no longer seen in the modern game cause creative outlets are made from deep lying playmakers and even full backs these days.

Exactly same point I also raised earlier. Even Modric who is a true playmaker is currently aging. The current game has phased out the development/production of playmakers. This may likely be the reason why our national team/super eagles is currently loaded with quality attackers but lacked a playmaker/midfield orchestrator. If this was to be the 90's to early 2000s, my guess would be that some/one of our attackers like Boniface/Iheanacho/Lookman and even Chukwueze would have been conditioned/developed by their club as a playmaker/midfield orchestrator. It is sad though to see that our beloved playmakers/#10 who were known for their soccer artistry and joga bonito are now going into extinction in the modern game.

[donadoni]

It would be good to have our own version of Odegaard or similar because we have definitely been missing that type of player for quite a while. Iwobi sometimes looks like he could be but lately I’ve seen that he has to run around so much and play deeper than he should in our games because of the other lazy players around him and this takes away from him being able to focus on creative support for the attack.

But coming back to Osimhen, here we have a player in the running for the Balón D’or based largely on his Napoli performance. The player that supported his success the most was actually kvaratskhelia. Kvara is not really an Odegaard or KDB type of player. So maybe if we don’t have that type of player we should be asking ourselves who could be our own version of Kvara. I would say someone like Samu on his day can be a world class player of that mould, and I believe there is a natural chemistry/friendship between him and Vic - notice how unselfish Vic was in returning the ball to Samu to try and get him a goal in the last match (actually I would have preferred Osimhen to be selfish and score himself in that particular move).

Basically what I’m saying is we have to think about making the most of what we have instead of dreaming about which foreign born player will choose us and become our messiah overnight. We have so much attacking talent, we have to find some formations that get these players on the pitch alongside Osimhen, not have 3-4 great players bench warming because they don’t fit our default formation.

CE armchair coaches..I hand over to una…

[Damunk]

Actually, after thinking about this, Ayo has a point.

A world class playmaker is not required but for the way we play, the instincts of out players, the flow of the Nigerian game, a good No 10 is needed for the team to flourish. It is the pillar of our attacking games, it can be deep ala Mikel or advanced like JJ. The real point of this thread is that we don’t have any, deep or advanced available or on the horizon. We need to find a creative MF asap. Any suggestions?

No-one obvious but we’ve nothing to lose by doing a conversion.
Let’s try Chuba Akpom and Ibrahim Olawoyin.

I really thought Ejuke was the obvious choice but I don’t know what has happened to him of late.

[Damunk]

It would be good to have our own version of Odegaard or similar because we have definitely been missing that type of player for quite a while. Iwobi sometimes looks like he could be but lately I’ve seen that he has to run around so much and play deeper than he should in our games because of the other lazy players around him and this takes away from him being able to focus on creative support for the attack.

But coming back to Osimhen, here we have a player in the running for the Balón D’or based largely on his Napoli performance. The player that supported his success the most was actually kvaratskhelia. Kvara is not really an Odegaard or KDB type of player. So maybe if we don’t have that type of player we should be asking ourselves who could be our own version of Kvara. I would say someone like Samu on his day can be a world class player of that mould, and I believe there is a natural chemistry/friendship between him and Vic - notice how unselfish Vic was in returning the ball to Samu to try and get him a goal in the last match (actually I would have preferred Osimhen to be selfish and score himself in that particular move).

Basically what I’m saying is we have to think about making the most of what we have instead of dreaming about which foreign born player will choose us and become our messiah overnight. We have so much attacking talent, we have to find some formations that get these players on the pitch alongside Osimhen, not have 3-4 great players bench warming because they don’t fit our default formation.

CE armchair coaches..I hand over to una…

Come on, guy!
Your post was brilliant until you had to add that really cynical line.
We are looking for ANY Nigeria-eligible Messiah, not just foreign-borns.

What’s with all this discrimination?
I’m sure the majority suggestions in the midfielder/defender thread are not foreign born.
Foreign borns just happen to be part of the general pool of talent available to us. And it’s not all of them by any stretch. Just those who mostly are also in contention for other top countries.
It’s not as if we are dragging anybody with Azerbaijan or Faroe Islands.

Many of us here are foreign born and you’d never know unless told.
Otherwise, I agree with everything you’ve suggested.

[Bigpokey24]

It would be good to have our own version of Odegaard or similar because we have definitely been missing that type of player for quite a while. Iwobi sometimes looks like he could be but lately I’ve seen that he has to run around so much and play deeper than he should in our games because of the other lazy players around him and this takes away from him being able to focus on creative support for the attack.

But coming back to Osimhen, here we have a player in the running for the Balón D’or based largely on his Napoli performance. The player that supported his success the most was actually kvaratskhelia. Kvara is not really an Odegaard or KDB type of player. So maybe if we don’t have that type of player we should be asking ourselves who could be our own version of Kvara. I would say someone like Samu on his day can be a world class player of that mould, and I believe there is a natural chemistry/friendship between him and Vic - notice how unselfish Vic was in returning the ball to Samu to try and get him a goal in the last match (actually I would have preferred Osimhen to be selfish and score himself in that particular move).

Basically what I’m saying is we have to think about making the most of what we have instead of dreaming about which foreign born player will choose us and become our messiah overnight. We have so much attacking talent, we have to find some formations that get these players on the pitch alongside Osimhen, not have 3-4 great players bench warming because they don’t fit our default formation.

CE armchair coaches..I hand over to una…

Come on, guy!
Your post was brilliant until you had to add that really cynical line.
We are looking for ANY Nigeria-eligible Messiah, not just foreign-borns.

What’s with all this discrimination?
I’m sure the majority suggestions in the midfielder/defender thread are not foreign born.
Foreign borns just happen to be part of the general pool of talent available to us. And it’s not all of them by any stretch. Just those who mostly are also in contention for other top countries.
It’s not as if we are dragging anybody with Azerbaijan or Faroe Islands.

Many of us here are foreign born and you’d never know unless told.
Otherwise, I agree with everything you’ve suggested.

I trust you to vex when abroad recruits are called out.. not a single abroad recruit made any awards list

[oyek]

You could wish Mikel and Onazi were still part of the present squad, because these two in their prime is what this squad is missing. When we had them there were no forwards like we have now.

[sholaJay]

The days of a traditional #10 are long gone.

Premier league leaders Man City are playing a flat 4-4-2.

Serie A champions Napoli play with two 8s in a 4-3-3

La Liga leaders Madrid currently play Bellingham at the tip of a diamond 4-4-2. And he’s an all round box to box midfielder.

Liverpool main creative spark comes from their RB same with Newcastle.

As much we people mention Odegard at Arsenal he actually does the final assist or scores the goal. Arteta puts alot of impetus on tactical fluidity and arsenal actually build a lot of their attacks down the left hand side with zinchencko (LB) tucking into midfield allowing the LCM to bomb forward and creating a box (4 man midfield and outnumbering the opposing 3 man midfield)

Point is the game has evolved from creative force being the sole responsibility of one midfielder. It’s tactical fluidity, high pressing (winning turnovers) and wingbacks that are the main creative forces in the modern game and we have that in abundance in our current set up.

In the game against Sao Tome we saw what looked like box midfield. With the full backs pushing forward and iheancho and lookman being instructed to drift infield. This always gave them 3 option: 1. Cut into the box with the strong foot to shoot, 2. Cut onto their stronger foot to assist the strikers, 3. Disguise pass for the full back to overlap…. We had options and patterns in our attack. These are some intricate movements that we haven’t seen in the eagles up for a while…. Yes it was just soa tome, but in recent years we have struggled against Madagascar and Central African Republic. During the Rohr / Eguavoen era there was never patterns of play or intricate movements to create passing lanes. We were just relying on individual brilliance of our fast wingers. ( Simon at AFCON). Gone are the days of just giving it to wingers to dribble to the bar line and whipping in a ball into the box / a #10 doing step overs in the middle of the park.


Creativity is now a team effort - all the way from false 9 (Gakpo), inverted wingers (grelish), box - to box CMs (modric), Deep lying play makers (Lobotka), left back (Zinchenko) , right back (Trent - Alexandra) to Goal keepers (Onana ,Ederson)

[Damunk]

It would be good to have our own version of Odegaard or similar because we have definitely been missing that type of player for quite a while. Iwobi sometimes looks like he could be but lately I’ve seen that he has to run around so much and play deeper than he should in our games because of the other lazy players around him and this takes away from him being able to focus on creative support for the attack.

But coming back to Osimhen, here we have a player in the running for the Balón D’or based largely on his Napoli performance. The player that supported his success the most was actually kvaratskhelia. Kvara is not really an Odegaard or KDB type of player. So maybe if we don’t have that type of player we should be asking ourselves who could be our own version of Kvara. I would say someone like Samu on his day can be a world class player of that mould, and I believe there is a natural chemistry/friendship between him and Vic - notice how unselfish Vic was in returning the ball to Samu to try and get him a goal in the last match (actually I would have preferred Osimhen to be selfish and score himself in that particular move).

Basically what I’m saying is we have to think about making the most of what we have instead of dreaming about which foreign born player will choose us and become our messiah overnight. We have so much attacking talent, we have to find some formations that get these players on the pitch alongside Osimhen, not have 3-4 great players bench warming because they don’t fit our default formation.

CE armchair coaches..I hand over to una…

Come on, guy!
Your post was brilliant until you had to add that really cynical line.
We are looking for ANY Nigeria-eligible Messiah, not just foreign-borns.

What’s with all this discrimination?
I’m sure the majority suggestions in the midfielder/defender thread are not foreign born.
Foreign borns just happen to be part of the general pool of talent available to us. And it’s not all of them by any stretch. Just those who mostly are also in contention for other top countries.
It’s not as if we are dragging anybody with Azerbaijan or Faroe Islands.

Many of us here are foreign born and you’d never know unless told.
Otherwise, I agree with everything you’ve suggested.

I trust you to vex when abroad recruits are called out.. not a single abroad recruit made any awards list

Yes, because I hate discrimination in any form - be it race, ethnic group, religion, age, gender. sexuality, disability.
You are obviously very comfortable with it.
Your concept and mine of who is a Nigerian are very different and can never meet.

[Bigpokey24]

you see what you just did right here? Not once have i made any prejudice rants etc. I called out a set of recruits who are yet to make any major impact. You only pointed that part out of donadoni's post. I want you to be honest and forget any back and forth. In the history of Nigerian football, can you name at least 2 or 3 abroad recruits, not born in Nigeria, or went through our youth projects..fyi Iwobi was born in Nigeria, had the JJ factor etc was part of the u23 training squad, Moses was born in Nigeria etc, Osai Samuel was born in Nigeria etc... as i said these players or those that tasted our under 17s, 20s, 23s etc are always the ones who makes headlines globally... can you tell me why this is the norm?

It would be good to have our own version of Odegaard or similar because we have definitely been missing that type of player for quite a while. Iwobi sometimes looks like he could be but lately I’ve seen that he has to run around so much and play deeper than he should in our games because of the other lazy players around him and this takes away from him being able to focus on creative support for the attack.

But coming back to Osimhen, here we have a player in the running for the Balón D’or based largely on his Napoli performance. The player that supported his success the most was actually kvaratskhelia. Kvara is not really an Odegaard or KDB type of player. So maybe if we don’t have that type of player we should be asking ourselves who could be our own version of Kvara. I would say someone like Samu on his day can be a world class player of that mould, and I believe there is a natural chemistry/friendship between him and Vic - notice how unselfish Vic was in returning the ball to Samu to try and get him a goal in the last match (actually I would have preferred Osimhen to be selfish and score himself in that particular move).

Basically what I’m saying is we have to think about making the most of what we have instead of dreaming about which foreign born player will choose us and become our messiah overnight. We have so much attacking talent, we have to find some formations that get these players on the pitch alongside Osimhen, not have 3-4 great players bench warming because they don’t fit our default formation.

CE armchair coaches..I hand over to una…

Come on, guy!
Your post was brilliant until you had to add that really cynical line.
We are looking for ANY Nigeria-eligible Messiah, not just foreign-borns.

What’s with all this discrimination?
I’m sure the majority suggestions in the midfielder/defender thread are not foreign born.
Foreign borns just happen to be part of the general pool of talent available to us. And it’s not all of them by any stretch. Just those who mostly are also in contention for other top countries.
It’s not as if we are dragging anybody with Azerbaijan or Faroe Islands.

Many of us here are foreign born and you’d never know unless told.
Otherwise, I agree with everything you’ve suggested.

I trust you to vex when abroad recruits are called out.. not a single abroad recruit made any awards list

Yes, because I hate discrimination in any form - be it race, ethnic group, religion, age, gender. sexuality, disability.
You are obviously very comfortable with it.
Your concept and mine of who is a Nigerian are very different and can never meet.