• As Team Build Up To Mozambique Clash
For some Nigerian fans at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco, the current Super Eagles squad needs a quality ball distributing midfielder, who will also be a good playmaker to lead the team to its ultimate goal in the championship.
The Super Eagles will face Mozambique in the AFCON Round of 16 on Monday. Mozambique lost their opening game to cup holders, Cote d’Ivoire, but dug deep to triumph over Gabon, before losing 1-2 to the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon on Wednesday night.
Nigeria is gunning for its fourth AFCON title here in Morocco and for some fans, to achieve that feat, the current Super Eagles squad needs a midfield general.
Speaking with The Guardian shortly after the Super Eagles 3-1 victory over Uganda in Fes, a Nigerian, Ugochukwu Nnaji, who came from nearby Portugal to cheer the team, said: “Yes,it is good we won all our group matches, but sincerely speaking, this Super Eagles squad still lacks the services of a quality midfielder like Jay Jay Okocha.
“Okocha did not just speak the football language, but he was poetry in motion. There is still a big vacuum in our midfield, and until we discover someone close to the rank of Jay Jay, I will not say we have a complete team yet.
“Midfield is always a team’s workshop. They repair whatever mistakes that comes from other departments of the team,” Nnaji stated. Another fan, Jasper Owolabi, added: “In the early 1990s down to mid 2000s, watching the Super Eagles was a cultural event, not just a football match. It was more like a festival, than a football match. You don’t tune in merely to see goals, but to witness ideas delivered with swagger. Ideas served with a shimmy of the hips, a pause, a feint, then a pass that sliced defences like a hot knife through butter.
“That era had names like Jay Jay Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Sunday Oliseh, Christian Obodo, and Wilson Oruma. They brought life into our football. What we have these days is mere ‘kick and follow’. Our coaches need to dig deep. You don’t just collect huge salary. We need great players, particularly in our midfield.”
Owolabi continues: “I know we have midfielders like Alex Iwobi, Frank Onyeka, Wilfred Ndidi, Raphael Onyedika, Tochukwu Nnadi, and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, among others, in this Super Eagles; but
I have noticed that the entire team breaks down once the game gets to 75 minutes. And that is the time a great midfielder puts his skill on the table by holding on to the ball, and spraying passes to the wingers.
“In that process, the entire team regains whatever energy they must have lost. If we meet a team with enough resilience, it might be difficult for the Super Eagles to escape like we did against Tunisia and even this 10-man Uganda.”
Band Coordinator of Nigeria Supporters Club, Ademola Anawode, told The Guardian: “For years, I have been clamouring for a new Midfield General in the Super Eagles. I know it will be difficult to get a replacement for a gifted midfielder like Okocha, but I expect we should get someone close to him by
now.
“I think we need Okocha in the technical crew to teach our midfielders. He was around at South Africa 2013, trained with the team handled by the late Stephen Keshi, and we got the result. Once our midfield collapse, the pressure begins to mount on the defence, and we have to avoid it.”
The President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Isaiah Benjamin, who is in Morocco for the AFCON, told The Guardian that it is not a bad idea to call for solid midfield in the Super Eagles.
“It is in order for fans to call for solid midfield, just as I will want to see another Calvin Bassey in our defence. At this stage, you need your best to weather the storm,” the SWAN boss said.
The Super Eagles would clash with Mozambique for only the sixth time at senior level on Monday in the city of Fes, where Nigeria won all three group matches.
Of their five previous confrontations, Nigeria have been victorious on four occasions, including their only AFCON encounter way back in Lubango, Angola, in January 2010, in which the Eagles ran away with a 3-0 win. That Super Eagles team, led by the late coach Shuaibu Amodu, had a rough beginning in Benguela, before the victory against Mozambique in Lubango gave them the semifinal ticket against Ghana, which they lost 1-0 in Luanda.
