The former Bordeaux manager is not the right head coach to lead Nigeria’s latest golden generation to a brighter future, according to one of the country’s finest ever players, George Finidi.
Finidi has called for Gernot Rohr to be held responsible for the Super Eagles’ poor performances at major tournaments, and hence a better replacement should be hired.
Rohr has been in charge of the Super Eagles since August 2016, leading the team to the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2019 African Cup of Nations.
However, his team failed to make it past the group stages at the Mundial. Nigeria also settled for a third-place finish at the AFCON after losing a semifinal tie to a Riyad Mahrez-inspired Algeria.
Finidi believes he has seen enough of the German coach to conclude that he is not the best for the Super Eagles job.
Finidi was a member of the Clemens Westerhof-led Nigeria side that conquered Africa in 1994 and also caught the attention of the world at the USA ’94. The former international is convinced that Rohr does not have the quality of the Dutch manager.
“After Westerhof, I have not seen any other good foreign coach that we have had. Look at what happened in Russia. The team that Rohr took to Russia, individually were better than the team Keshi took to Brazil and got to the second round. But Rohr didn’t take us anywhere,” Finidi told The Vanguard.
The former Real Betis winger is convinced that one of the problems Rohr has is that his Super Eagles team does not have a distinct playing style.
“In the first place, I don’t know what kind of football we want to play. Sometimes when I look at the team, I don’t know if we want to play counter-attack, or we want to play the passing football like Barcelona or Man City, I never know.
“During the Nations Cup I was watching, but I couldn’t see any discernible pattern. I could not see the strength in that team, where you can say if Musa, Chukwueze, or any other person has the ball, something is going to happen.
“A team must have that culture, must-have game-changers.”
Rohr is keen to extend his current coaching contract with the Super Eagles beyond the summer when it expires.