Dear S/Eagles: Not yet a dream team
Dear Super Eagles,
It’s the end of the road. Your journey in this AFCON edition has come to an end.
Well.
Am I feeling any bad about it?
No.
Why?
Because the team is no good.
Not exactly good enough to win the tournament.
Although a little discipline and proper game management would have seen us win the cup — regardless of our level of performance.
I hope everyone screaming Onyekuru can now see that the boy is not good enough. If he was any better Everton would not have to loan him up and down.
Also…
I had said we wouldn’t have done better with Egypt. That S/Africa was my preferred choice. And thank God we got the Bafana Bafana boys.
Well some persons felt otherwise. The match against Algeria justifies that speculation. If I had a choice, I’d prefer meeting Ivory Coast instead of these North Africans.
We have been kicked out!
And maybe it’s the best time we face the truth. We do not have the best players anymore. Our boys are average.
One dude was arguing with me on one of my piece that Iwobi is a world class creative midfielder. He compared him to Iniesta and so other midfield maestro.
I just couldn’t believe that anyone would consider Iwobi that great.
Don’t get me wrong. Iwobi is good. But great is another fit entirely. And he is yiung and still has the time to be develop into greatness. But for now the player is a decent average.
Onyekuru will never play again in the Super Eagles. Common!!!
This is the national team.
I have always known dude lacks the presence to command attention on the pitch. The coach also understands this. But why he chooses to take the gamble today is what I will never understand.
Was he under pressure to use him?
Chukwueze wasn’t totally brilliant. But his presence in the remaining moments in that game would have given us more value.
At worst, he would have brought in a Mikel Obi.
Coach Rohr must have thought within himself to take a gamble and a risk. After all, he was given a Semi- Final target.
And that’s my fucking problem.
Why the heck would anyone give Super Eagles manager a Semi – Final target?
The players are among the highest paid. The coaching crew are among the highest paid.
Maybe in World Cup, I would understand a Semi-Final target. But not in Africa Nation’s Cup.
No.
The target should have been to get to the final.
Naturally this would have been a good ground to chase away the Pinnick Amaju led NFF.
But…
They are yet the best. We can’t trust the thiefs on the touchline waiting to step in. At least the Amaju led squad has managed to tick some boxes right.
But we have failed at this AFCON.
I do not care about the match for 3rd place. As a matter of fact I won’t watch it. I won’t report it. It means nothing to me.
And that’s the truth. No one even reckons with the second place team. You either win the cup or not. That’s how I see it. We must have that mindset.
You can say we tried.
But ‘to try’ is the mindset of average thinkers and mediocre performers.
We failed. We can go back to the drawing board to build a team that can dominate possession.
We had players whose first touches were bad. Players who couldn’t give passes. And players who could not receive passes.
We had no leader in the pitch. And I do not agree that the captaincy hand ban belongs to the most capped player.
We needed a leader. Musa is beautiful. But not exactly a leader. And please this is not taking anything from the brilliant chap. He made a juicy contribution.
But…Ndidi or Etebo looked more like a leader. And like it or not games like this need moment by moment directions.
We are the most fucked up team in terms of game management. We are never deliberate in the way we manage our games.
You have 4 mins added time. What do you do?
Knowing that this guys were better in terms of ball possession. The coach would have used that time to change some players. Thereby waste some time and so you can enter the extra 30mins time proper.
There are many ways to waste time. Many productive ways to manage different section of a match as well.
We need to develop our football. This quick fix and cut-and-join approach won’t work.
We need a strong first eleven. If I was to be coach. Only 6 of these first 11 players would make my team.
I can never play without a holding 4. I will never play without a distributive 10. I will never have a team that can not decide to starve the opponent of the ball for 20mins minimum.
Until we build such a team, we remain an average side.
Your Football spotter,
Ediale
PS: I know I should be a coach but Elegbete says I am not fit. Meanwhile I say congratulations to the family of EseOghene M. Edafe as they welcome a new baby. May the joy the baby brings come to stay forever. Amen.