I’m looking for midfielders like late Thompson Oliha or Mutiu Adepoju- Eguavoen

Super Eagles coach, Austin Eguavoen has said he’s looking for midfielders like former Nigerian internationals Mutiu Adepoju and late Thompson Oliha to run the middle of the park.

Eguavoen in a video seen on Eagles Tracker, and credited to Elegbete TV Radio said if he gets offensive midfield players like them, the Super Eagles midfield will improve.

The former Golden Eaglets coach said he’s gone round Nigeria and Europe to find these kinds of players who can move from box-to-box in the midfield but is yet to see any.

“It’s quite unfortunate. That’s why I went round the league, here and abroad. The system I’ll like to play is to look for a player – two offensive midfield players who can draw box-to-box. We used to have late Oliha and Mutiu Adepoju. If I can find those type of two players as we speak today, our formation will change.

”You have to plan your team around what you have – your strength. That’s how we are going to plan how to prosecute the games. If I could find a player like late Oliha and Mutiu Adepoju, our system will definitely change. However, what we have right now, we’ll see how we can modify and try to see how we can prosecute these games,” he said.

Adepoju, famously played for Real Sociedad in Nigeria and represented the Super Eagles 48 times between 1990 and 2002. The late Thompson Oliha played for Nigeria 31 times between 1988 and 1994 and both players were members of the 1994 Super Eagles squad, dubbed to be the golden generation of footballers in the country.

The Super Eagles midfield has become one of the grey areas of the team with many fans pointing to it as the weakest link in the team at the moment. While Nigeria is blessed with many holding players, scouting has not been improved to help the team find enough creative players.