Nigeria legend Segun Odegbami is convinced that Ola Aina and William Troost-Ekong are the only two defenders with the quality to play for the Super Eagles, Soccernet.ng reports.
Aina and Troost-Ekong were not available for the four games the Super Eagles played under Finidi George – two as caretaker manager and two as substantive head coach.
Nigeria did not keep a clean sheet in any of those four games, conceding six goals, including twice against the Benin Republic in a disappointing defeat that has shattered the hopes of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
By contrast, the Super Eagles kept four clean sheets in seven games, conceding only thrice at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, where Troost-Ekong was named the Best Player.
In the absence of Troost-Ekong and Aina, Finidi turned to Calvin Bassey, Semi Ajayi, and Benjamin Tanimu to build a solid wall in defence for the Super Eagles.
But Odegbami is convinced the Super Eagles’ defence is weak because none of these lots is a master in their defensive roles.
1980 AFCON winner believes Nigeria lost to Benin because of the absence of Troost-Ekong and the general lack of quality across the defence line.
“At the full-back positions, only Ola Aina has shown consistency and exceptional brilliance down the right side of the field over several years,” Odegbami wrote in his column in the Vanguard.
“The left side has been the opposite, porous and so weak sometimes that Aina has had to be moved to the left side to cover up for this weakness on occasions.
“The centre of Nigeria’s defence line has been weak. At AFCON 2023, William Troost-Ekong rose to the challenge and provided leadership and great cover for that weakness.
“The first goal scored by Benin Republic against Nigeria in the absence of William clearly confirms this glaring weakness. There are no bona fide central defenders currently in the Nigerian team.”
Odegbami also pointed out that the Super Eagles lack top quality in midfield with the duo of Alex Iwobi and Wilfred Ndidi not giving as much to the team as their illustrious predecessors.
“In the midfield, Nigeria has a few names like Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi,” Odegbami continued.
“They are very good players until you start to compare them with those before them, the engine room of most of Nigeria’s great teams of the past – Samuel Garba, Haruna Ilerika, Mudashiru Lawal, Henry Nwosu, Jay Jay Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Kanu Nwankwo and so on? And I do not mean any disrespect to the mid-field players in the current Super Eagles.”
To tackle the problem, Odegbami has called for the injection of new and better players into the Super Eagles.
“Nigeria needs a new team of players in several positions.
“These players cannot be conjured into being by wishful thinking. They will come only through a proper production line established by administrators that know what they are doing!,” Odegbami concluded.
NB: Do you agree that only Ola Aina and William Troost-Ekong have the quality to play for Nigeria? Leave your comments below, please.
This post was last modified on June 23, 2024 1:59 pm
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Administration is the bane of this country across board. We have quality CB and Fullbacks of Nigerian descents in Europe. The following players are better than Semi Ajayi, Omeruo and Awaziem respectively:
1. Toain Adarabioyo.... Chelsea
2. Shawn Adewoye...Waalwirck
3. Gabriel Osho....Free
4. Michael Kayode.... Fiorentina
5. Felix Agu.... Weirder Bremen
Calvin Bassey should be permanently deployed as a Left back for Super Eagles
great but not totally true. even in odegbami days not all players in all positions were exceptional.
zaidu is good and even Osayi Samuel has potentials.
the problem is coaching. a good coach deployed formation that suits the types of players he has per time. pesero did that at afcon. the present defenders can only excel in a three man defence. that was what Finidi did not get into his skull.
he used that in the friendly against Ghana.
at afcon Bassey was a beast in a three man defence. even that formation saved ekong because prior to afcon ekong has also not being exceptional in the defense for Nigeria.
a 352 will always bring out the best in this present team.
finidi was daft. he did not learn from his stay in the team before ne became coach. bassey always make mistakes in a two man central defence unless he has a strong and intelligent second Central defender.
he failed at Ajax but excelled at fullam because he had adarbioyo. adarbioyo was so good that Chelsea has bought him. if you're playing 2 man central defence then play Bassey at left back. but you must have very strong and intelligent central defenders.
going forward
omerou is old, semi Ajayi is not doing well again. he is getting old too. he was injured in his club prior to the world cup qualifiers but the daft finidi invited him and put him in defense.
we can't get adarbioyo.
go for ogbu and tourinaya and Osho to have new legs. dump this journey man called tanimu until he goes to a better league.
I don't have anythıng bad agaınst the current SE players, but there ıs urgent need to ınvıte new players to strengthen the team. At the same time, some few players have no busıness to be ın the team. A player needs three qualıtıes to excel professıonally; these are speed, skıll and ıntellıgence. Only few players ın the current SE possess these three qualıtıes. To be ınvıted to the natıonal team, a player must show patrıotısm and commıtment to play for the country.
Odegbami forgot to include Etim Esin and Mikel Obi who did well in their era . We have Humphrey Edible and James Etokebe too .
He should have limited the list to No 10 and the central midfielders......
in this current team,we have some super stars with seed and ball distribution skills . Ihanacho is one.We have Chukweze,Missed and lookman can all play in.offensive midfield .
but that has to do with the knowhow of a coach .
Etim Esin for instance was a winger but it a coach who discovered him and position him in 10
Humphrey Ebobor was also a winger but Coach Onigbide took him to 10 to allow Etokebe play 11.
these are the stuff to that can change games ...
So when talk about super eagles,we have everything but we need a top notch coach and also a good scout...
However it is wrong to write off Alex Iwobi who did excellently well during the two games .I think that is sentimental.It is also not right to condemn Ndidi.
generally,Senior does not need to come out to condemn super eagles players .
The coach will also know where to strengthen his team .We have players up to 24 in the team and it is constantly comped to get the best .