NewStats: 3,259,429 , 8,170,073 topics. Date: Saturday, 24 May 2025 at 11:22 PM kl2t

Maybe, just maybe in a "what if" situation with the benefit of hindsight, the likes of Dessers, Ejuke, Christiantus Uche, Orban etc would have offered us more if they were given a chance in this qualifiers. The Lookman/Moses Simon stuff just hasn't worked with Osimhen, same as Boniface (though to be fair he never got a chance). Even Sadiq would have given us something different, who knows at this point? We were so afraid of dropping points that we failed to try anything new. Ghana called up and played several new players alongside the experienced ones and see how that turned out for them.

Even the Papa Daniel should have been given a chance in the second half when we were struggling with creativity in the first against Zimbabwe.. why then was Papa Daniel invited? he looks like a really decent attacking midfielder from his YouTube highlights, so not err on the side of caution if Osimhen was getting no service by bringing in more players early in the second half? Why was Bruno on the bench when he gives more attacking outlet than Osayi? Why was Ola Aina played out of his natural position? Why wasn't Chukwueze yanked off and maybe Boniface and Tolu brought on early and at the same time to Osimhen? Why wasn't Onyeka who would have ran his socks off and ed a tired Ndidi invited? Why wasn't Onyedika played when he stabilizes the midfield better?

So many why's, and at this point it will never make sense why I even waste my mental health ing this national team. Except for raw patriotism, I should never be this emotional distressed over a country has never given me any reasons to be patriotic.

Abeg congrats to all the serious countries that qualified, maybe I should just pick one small African country that will be making it's debut in USA/Canada and just it. Nigeria won't be the death of my mental health under this useless APC istration. I refuse to be unhappy because of Nigeria

Jerrymanta:
Maybe, just maybe in a "what if" situation with the benefit of hindsight, the likes of Dessers, Ejuke, Christiantus Uche, Orban etc would have offered us more if they were given a chance in this qualifiers. The Lookman/Moses Simon stuff just hasn't worked with Osimhen, same as Boniface (though to be fair he never got a chance). Even Sadiq would have given us something different, who knows at this point? We were so afraid of dropping points that we failed to try anything new. Ghana called up and played several new players alongside the experienced ones and see how that turned out for them.

Even the Papa Daniel should have been given a chance in the second half when we were struggling with creativity in the first against Zimbabwe.. why then was Papa Daniel invited? he looks like a really decent attacking midfielder from his YouTube highlights, so not err on the side of caution if Osimhen was getting no service by bringing in more players early in the second half? Why was Bruno on the bench when he gives more attacking outlet than Osayi? Why was Ola Aina played out of his natural position? Why wasn't Chukwueze yanked off and maybe Boniface and Tolu brought on early and at the same time to Osimhen? Why wasn't Onyeka who would have ran his socks off and ed a tired Ndidi invited? Why wasn't Onyedika played when he stabilizes the midfield better?

So many why's, and at this point it will never make sense why I even waste my mental health ing this national team. Except for raw patriotism, I should never be this emotional distressed over a country has never given me any reasons to be patriotic.

Abeg congrats to all the serious countries that qualified, maybe I should just pick one small African country that will be making it's debut in USA/Canada and just it. Nigeria won't be the death of my mental health under this useless APC istration. I refuse to be unhappy because of Nigeria

It's been the same habit for local coaches and anything they have their hands on, the criteria for selecting someone like Papa Daniel is what? Their plan has always been to select a first 11 then the rest can be made up of fringe players and at least one they could benefit from once he moves to Europe. Chelle might be from Mali but the list had Eguavoen written all over it.

The same thing Onigbinde did in the 2002 World Cup with the calibre of players he selected, Christian Chukwu did away against Angola in 2004 and much of that qualifying for 2006, Eguavoen has been doing since he's been the coach/technical director for the 2022 series and this one.

I just have pity for someone like Osimhen and Lookman as if Nigeria misses out of the tournament they'll be 31/32 by the time 2030 WC comes.

Goke7:


No we can’t and never bury the home based talk if our foreign based players can’t win matches at home. Far from it, we keep using the excuse of how poor our league is to justify the invitation of foreign based players who we keep shifting the time of our matches at home to 5pm or 6pm so they can cope with our weather and still they can’t carry their legs to get us 3 points. It’s a mess but let’s continue to live in denial sha

This talk of home based no be am ooo

Goke7:
It’s high time we review this over dependence on foreign based players, it’s not working 100% for us. Zeal and commitment always comes back to hunt us. We can’t continue to see our foreign based stars struggle against home based African teams. It’s becoming a thing of mockery, something is wrong somewhere abeg

The home based players are even the worst, how is the CHAN team performing in their games?

The selection of the team has to be such that your 23 players has to be of same capabilities but then having Eguavoen and corrupt officials it will take a miracle for that to happen.

If a 23 man team is selected in the SE, about 15 will be good players while you'll start wondering how the other 8 selections were made.

Peterzoom20:
Ekong and ndidi should leave this team after afcon. Their legs are gone. Players from npfl might not have the europe training in them but they would have the ion to defend the country. South Africa would soon go to the world cup with mostly home based players.

South Africa selected their best players for the qualifiers, did the SE do the same?

zuchyblink:
Over reliance on European rejects don kpai our national team

Only 4 players out of the 13 that played today were born abroad.

Argentina walloping Brazil, 4 to 1. Brazil is at à low now.

As we are dropping players and firing coaches and players, we must not forget the NFF, the NFF has been the biggest problem in Nigeria's football, a football istration that thinks that the bare minimum is enough, because we are the giant of Africa, from their choice of coaches to the entire lacklustre approach to football, how many months did it take for them to relieve peseiro from his job even then it wasn't even clear if they wanted to fire him or renegotiate his contract, after they finally let him go it took months of back and forth with no new coach only to end up with experimental finidi George, even after that the NFF still continues with the lacklustre approach, how they come up with their list of coaches is not known, the overall sports management by the NFF has been terribly poor, we need to clear the glass house too.

Let's not forget NFF in all of this.

TheGoodJoe:


The working for our goal was mad. It was nice tactics. That is why Osimhen went to celebrate him. Chelle can. He just started working with them. He also needs to trust Onyedika more.

correct, I’m sure next time he’ll replace some players. Now i understand why 3 coaches rejected the chance to take this job, see how people are blaming Chelle for inability to qualify.

TheGoodJoe:


I think it was Arokodare. It was an offensive pressed missed and it was crucial in the play that led to us conceding.

I don't understand that guys game.
Onanchu raised to power 2.

TheSuperNerd:
Chellechukwu messed that one up.

He should have brought in Alhassan and Onyedika both to increase our midfield numbers alongside Iwobi and to keep the tempo up in the final third keeping Zim on the backfoot.

We bring in Onyedika for Iwobi while leaving an Ndidi on the pitch. Nothing changed much... Still a 2 man midfield and only subbing out an attack minded technically blessed midfielder for a defensive minded technically blessed midfielder.

Chelle should have gone to 3 in the middle. Well, we are not going to the World Cup.

SA will lose their 3 pts vs Lesotho and we will still not get near them. Shame.

I think the issue is that most of our coaches are so carried away with our attacking prowess that they fail to pay attention to our midfield and defence till it is too late.
We don't even need stars in midfield or defence. Just players who do the basic thongs right. Frank onyeka just runs and marks well and it is OK. We even have at least decent midfielders but every time it us attract, attack.
In our friendly let us see what ebenezer akinsanmiro can do in place of iwobi. Another issue us that experiments should be left for friendlies. Our coaches don't try new things in friendlies.

Glad to see Osimhen reacting angrily to his teammates after the game. They need to know this dropped points was down to them. Zimbabwe weren't going forward often but looked dangerous with each forward move..Zim missed some chances before and after our goal.

Chelle..the intensity from the players clearly dropped particularly in the second half. His subs should have done everything necessary to close shop. Anyways I think he remains and works on this team. AFCON should be the realistic goal now.

Joebie:
Let's not forget NFF in all of this.

They are the chief culprit. Three coaches for a world cup qualifiers. Always gambling with dubious tendencies . The same mistake in 2022 was repeated

caprikon:
Glad to see Osimhen reacting angrily to his teammates after the game. They need to know this dropped points was down to them. Zimbabwe weren't going forward often but looked dangerous with each forward move..Zim missed some chances before and after our goal.

Chelle..the intensity from the players clearly dropped particularly in the second half. His subs should have done everything necessary to close shop. Anyways I think he remains and works on this team. AFCON should be the realistic goal now.

His starting 11 was questionable and even his substitution was not impressive .

Karlovych:
It's been the same habit for local coaches and anything they have their hands on, the criteria for selecting someone like Papa Daniel is what? Their plan has always been to select a first 11 then the rest can be made up of fringe players and at least one they could benefit from once he moves to Europe. Chelle might be from Mali but the list had Eguavoen written all over it.

The same thing Onigbinde did in the 2002 World Cup with the calibre of players he selected, Christian Chukwu did away against Angola in 2004 and much of that qualifying for 2006, Eguavoen has been doing since he's been the coach/technical director for the 2022 series and this one.

I just have pity for someone like Osimhen and Lookman as if Nigeria misses out of the tournament they'll be 31/32 by the time 2030 WC comes.

if I write this same comment as yours they will call me a conspiracy theorist...

Eguavoen or a group of people in the NFF keep writing the same list of players without any young new additions to the list.

without Ndidi the SE made it to the Final of the AFCON.. so why is Ndidi still given a starting shirt just because he plays in the EPL..

its because of things like this I was not happy about Onyeka moving to because I know the NFF won't invite him anymore..

both Orban and Ejuke can play Chukwueze's wing and Chuks needs someone to bench him in that wing.

In the next international friendlies window, it is still the same list of players they will invite again.

Karlovych:
South Africa selected their best players for the qualifiers, did the SE do the same?

No ,our selection was not on merit. Someone like Frank Onyeka who plays regularly in and played in AFCON was not invited ,they invited players based on sentiment

codemaniacs:

In the next international friendlies window, it is still the same list of players they will invite again.

NFF has no strategy to develop the team. Generally speaking, you have 5 stages of play in African football.

AFCONQ
AFCON
WCQ
WC
Friendlies

Each of these stages requires a different strategy. If we’ve qualified for AFCON, then the remaining qualifying matches should be to test out fringe players and give call ups to other players.


But we seem to pick the same players for AFCONQ as for AFCON and friendlies.

Chukueze in the starting 11 shows lack of seriousness from the coach

mrwilliams9:


NFF has no strategy to develop the team. Generally speaking, you have 5 stages of play in African football.

AFCONQ
AFCON
WCQ
WC
Friendlies

Each of these stages requires a different strategy. If we’ve qualified for AFCON, then the remaining qualifying matches should be to test out fringe players and give call ups to other players.


But we seem to pick the same players for AFCONQ as for AFCON and friendlies.

NFF is after their stomach . They are not interested in any development. They rely foreign based or talent to win matches forgetting that football is more of a team work than individual display

We didn't go Qatar 2022 and nothing happen . We are not going to 2026 world cup , life continues Iose nothing. I swallow the pain ,na players and NFF go cry . The deals , endorsement from world cup is now gone
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I only feel For Osihmen and Ademola if they eventually miss out on this… The remaining players can go and rest abeg

Hats off to Moses Simon
He played really well

jihday:
correct, I’m sure next time he’ll replace some players. Now i understand why 3 coaches rejected the chance to take this job, see how people are blaming Chelle for inability to qualify.

Anyone blaming Chelle is unfair, and this is what we always do. Am one of those who never wanted Chelle but what happened yesterday has nothing to do with the coach. The players let us down like they did against Rwanda in the same Uyo, why is this difficult to understand?

Blueelf:
When we get a better midfielder that renders iwobi a persona non grata, you guys will see how that man's mediocrity has denied us of a functioning midfield and you'll know that he was average in his best days

Both him and Ndidi

Iwobi Alex was terrible yesterday

yinkeys:
Hats off to Moses Simon
He played really well

He never did anything right in that match.

Joebie:
Let's not forget NFF in all of this.

We can’t continue to blame nff alone, those on the pitch yesterday had no business not getting the full 3 points.

mrwilliams9:


Thank you oooo. People will just criticize but offer no alternatives.

If we remove Iwobi who should we put? Was it not Iwobi that made the cross that Tolu nodded and the Zim keeper saved?

The game was won. All we needed to do was see out the result, finish. Track the runner and defend properly.

Hmm,if we removed Iwobi who should we put?this is the reason why eagles will continue to fail.....Kai Iwobi I watched against Zimbabwe,walahi I will replace him ASAP with even NPFL player

TheSuperNerd:
Ball playing midfielders.

Uche is one. Akinsanmiro is another. Nwakali in EFL League one is another but let's forget him.

The first 2 are ball playing midfielders who will do a good job, I am convinced but no... we keep snubbing this "conundrum" coach after coach nd after coach.

Even Eguavoen mentioned this when he failed to bear Rwanda at home and also knew this when we failed against Ghana. My problem is that they know but still don't get proactive on the solution.

Nwakali is a Nigerian so we should not forget him,forget him for who,Iwobi wey dey play nonsense, enough of over hyping of our players,time to fix things with players who are ready irrespective of their league status

joelsteron:
Even at 80mins that coach believed our defenders are error prone, you just have to keep trying.. if Ekong don't, osayi will, if ekong don't, bassey will... Just keep trying.

Brawler defenders and what do you expect

COOL10:
If we fail (and we most likely will) to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, it won't be hard to predict exactly what's going to happen in the future.


We'll most likely go ahead and employ another Grade C foreign coach who's going to be successful in qualifying us for the 2030 World Cup.


After we get knocked out in the Round of 16, we're going to tell him that we don't need him anymore and also tell him that the only reason he was able to qualify us for the World Cup was because of the plethora of "star players" that we have 😂. We won't that he saved us from our inability to qualify for two back-to-back World Cup editions. We won't that he qualified us with relative ease. It'll be a repeat of the Gernot Rohr situation but with more emphasis on World Cup qualification/performance.


After sacking the new Grade C foreign coach whilst still owing him a lot of money, we'll go on another unsuccessful spree of employing mediocre local coaches who do nothing impressive to improve themselves apart from waiting for the National Team job to fall on their laps.


This cycle will keep repeating itself. The fact is we don't deserve any better. We deserve exactly what we're going through right now. We are not ready for progress. You can disagree with me all you want but it's not gonna change anything (Zilch, Nada).


THE TRUTH IS INDEED BITTER, and we're in this position because some people (especially those in the media and NFF) have refused to embrace it for what it is.

We are a bunch of arrogant people who will never give credit to whom is due but continue to deceive ourselves and you’re right we will keep driving away coaches who have indeed improved our football all in the excuse of boring football and looking for a tikitaka that we don’t even have the players to execute. It’s a cycle like you said and I did predict it here after Afcon and it has happened. You see that media they are the greatest culprit always misleading Nigerians on what they think is best for our football when in truth they keep damaging it further.

Leave coach or nff
Make we focus on players now
Why other countries ivory coast, Egypt others
These players dey play like say na life and death... Abd Dem get European club too ooh, this one no be home based again

So wetin dey motivate them.. why can't our players play their life out
You want blame nff?
Is it nff that made them concede in the 90th minutes..... You no fit hold on for just 5 minutes
Omo nawa