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20 Conclusions on Super Eagles WC2018 ambition

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By Ediale Kingsley
1. John Ogu, Mikel Obi, Wilfred Ndidi is my first choice midfield lineup.
2. For that midfield line up to work well and smoothly, Alex Iwobi must play in front of the lineup. Behind the attack. Iwobi plays softer than the tough plays of the JMW.

3. If you staked your 10k on Nigeria winning. You’d have a little more than 60k for your troubles right now.

4. In this game, we missed Victor Moses just in the same value Argentina missed Messi.

5. It was always going to be a win or die match for Argentina. And it was. They really wanted to win. So this win was never a fluke.

6. We can take Musa, Onazi and Echejile to the world cup. But they are for the bench.

7. Daniel Akpiyi is a no no. That mistake is unpardonable.

8. The biggest mistake of this tie was not to have featured Ezenwa. Before the match, I’d hope he was selected. But he wasn’t. Now two other keepers were tried instead. At the end of the day, we are more confused. And lost the opportunity to take Ezenwa’s exposure to the next level. There are some things that need focus, trust, decision and training. We need to put all focus on Ezenwa.

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9. I thought we already have a perfect Right-Back in Shehu Abdullahi (Anorthosis Famagusta, Cyprus) but the lord has blessed us with another Tyronne Ebuehi (ADO Den Haag, Netherlands).
Both player remind me of Barca’s Left-Backs Jordi Alba and Lucas Digne.

10. The best news has to be Brian Idowu. Yeah, finally the Left-Back headache seem to be no more. Idowu in Jesus-beards shows up at the eleventh hour. With a goal kwa!

11. Ola Aina is a Hull City standard. Not too bad for backup plan. He held his own in the match. But LB of modern football needs to be able to pace forward and try help in attack. That usually troubles the opponent and reduces the attacking pressure. Once again, thank God, Idowu has these qualities.

12. At the press conference Pre the friendly match. Rohr told the Press that Idowu is going to the World Cup. After the match, we understood his audacity. Rohr is good. Pinnick is great. We hope this goodness last.

13. Team Nigeria must start learning the trickery and mischief of the game. Africa hasn’t won the World Cup because they have always been beaten by the trickery and mischief of the game. You saw how Di Maria and Aguero were acting up in our box 18. They wanted penalty awarded to them. Nigeria must spend time unlearning, learning and relearning how to lie, act and fall when tackled. It’s a skill. If you don’t do it well. You’ll be punished.

14. Daniel Apkeyi committed a primary school mistake and was immediately punished. First you took the ball out of your box; then, you picked it up upon Aguero’s disturbance; and that was already bad. But then releasing the ball to Aguero after the referee called foul was unforgivable. We saw what he did with the ball. He placed it down and quickly passed and Dybala knockes it into the net. Thank God the Referee asked for a retake. To win the World Cup. You’ve got to put your soul, brains and blood to it.

15. Iheanachor should start perfecting his set piece skills. That free kick goal he delivered was awesome. We need to have a sure-banker set piece taker like that in the team. Victor Moses loves to take the set pieces. Moses should focus on his runs and dribbles (Make he leave this one for Iheanachor).

16. From all the matches and runs so far this is our first XI for me:

Goalkeeper:
Ikechukwu Ezenwa

Defenders:
CB William Ekong (Bursaspor FC, Turkey); RB Abdullahi Shehu (Anorthosis Famagusta, Cyprus); CB Leon Balogun (FSV Mainz 05, Germany); LB Brian Idowu (FC Amkar Perm, Russia)

Midfielders:
Mikel John Obi (Tianjin Teda, China); Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City, England); John Ogu (Hapoel Be’er Sheva, Israel)/Alex Iwobi (Arsenal FC, England).

Forwards:
Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City, England); Odion Ighalo (Chang Chun-Yatai, China); Victor Moses (Chelsea, England)

17. Alex Iwobi can score. As a Barca fan, it wasn’t fun…but did you see Iwobi disgrace Mascherano? He should be a false 9.

18. Leon Balogun is brilliant but has no pace. Something to work on. He must not put himself in a situation he will need to race back. That will always end up in a disaster.

19. If the Super Eagles dot the ‘I’s and cross the Tees. We may witness, for the first time, an African nation in the finals of the World Cup.

20. What we saw in that match was a complete trashing of the Argentines. At a point, team Argentina was helpless. And the more that match would have lasted, the more goals Super Eagles would have scored.

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