New Telegraph

Various sides of Rohr’s list for October friendlies

During the week, Super Eagles manager, Gernot Rohr, released a 25-man list of players expected to file out for Nigeria in the two friendly encounters billed for next month. The Super Eagles, now ranked 29th in the world and third in Africa, will take on the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire on October 9 and on October 13, will engage the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia, who are second in Africa in the rankings. Both games have been arranged by the Nigeria Football Federation to prepare the Eagles for the next rounds of 2022 AFCON qualifiers, home and away against Sierra Leone in November.

Rangers of Scotland defender, Leon Balogun, and former junior international goalkeeper, Dele Alampasu, midfielder Mikel Agu, Kelechi Iheanacho are the players staging a return to the team. Captain of the most recent Nigeria U-17 squad, Samson Tijani, is one of the surprise call-ups along with Portugal-based wing-back Zaidu Sanusi. The goalkeeping department is the most intriguing with a fresh call-up extended to Matthew Yakubu of SKF Sered, Slovakia, due to his current form with his team. Alampasu and Maduka Okoye are the others. Frank Onyeka (FC Midtjylland, Denmark) and Chidera Ejuke (CSKA Moscow) are entirely new in the team like keeper Yakubu.

Regulars like Ahmed Musa, Kenneth Omeruo, William Troost-Ekong, Victor Osimhen, Moses Simon, Samuel Kalu, Wilfred Ndidi and Samuel Chukwueze are also in the 25-man list. Ndidi is however out due to injury. No doubt, there can never be a perfect list but this list has many areas of discussion. It is important to state that the effects of Nigeria’s slow return to sports and football affected the domestic league players as none of them made the cut. The Nigeria Professional Football League was suspended since February in the wake of COVID-19 but till date there is uncertainty over when football will restart.

After using the Point Per Game system to dramatically determine the country’s representatives in continental football, there is no template to keep the Plateau United, Enyimba, Rivers United and Kano Pillars players in shape for the challenges ahead in Africa.

Ikechukwu Ezenwa is missing on the list apparently because he is match rusty and to win back his place might be difficult with number one goalie, Francis Uzoho,8 is back from injury while vastly improved Daniel Akpeyi is certain to be in the best three for any call-up.

The best of these current invitees will make up the number for the competitive games in November but sadly, Ezenwa is the first major casualty of the slow restart to football. The new invitees are expected to put in their best if they want to be in the team in November for the competitive AFCON qualifiers. Football is about form. Iheanacho and Balogun have been out of the team and now have a big opportunity to reclaim their places in the regular list for competitive games.

It is nice that the entire list is a blend of new and experienced regular players. Osimhen, Chukwueze, Samuel Kalu, Moses Simon and Ndidi are hot on current form and one expects them to replicate their respective club forms in the two friendlies.

Osimhen and Simon emerge the best players for Lille and Nantes respectively last season and so much is expected from them. Musa, Ekong, Omeruo are expected to provide the leadership roles in the team as national team football returns. Former international Friday Ekpo and former Eaglets coach, Manu Garba, showered praises on Rohr for the list released for the October games. Ekpo said that the list was a reflection of the scouting system entrenched by the coach as it shows the scouts have done very well in monitoring Nigerian players abroad.

Garba argued that it was in the best interest of the national team to have some youngsters introduced into the Super Eagles at this stage. At this stage, Rohr and his crew will need to double their efforts to get the best from these youthful stars. The talents in Nigeria are enormous and there must be good coaches to take them to the next level. Rohr’s game reading ability is suspect because of his substitutions. He must work on this as he gradually prepares a bunch getting set to be the next golden generation of the Super Eagles. The manager should also make discipline a key element in the camp especially with the young ones so that football-loving Nigerians will witness good results in the coming weeks and months.

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