NIGERIAN TEAM FOR RUSSIA WORLDCUP

GERNOT ROHR'S DECISION ON NIGERIAN SUPER EAGLES

Coach Gernot Rohr dropped Ola Aina and Mikel Agu to arrive at his final 23-man World Cup squad on Sunday, a day after losing 2-1 to England in an international friendly game.
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to the Three Lions at the Wembley Stadium exposed Nigeria greatly. As it stands, Herr Rohr must be wondering which team to start when the Super Eagles take on Croatia in their opening World Cup game in Kaliningrad on June 16.
Perhaps it is a good thing to have the satisfaction that your second team can potentially do better than your first. For what it’s worth, the Super Eagles showed two different sides during the game against England and it is now left for Rohr to decide which of the players would start.
When we next see the team in public against the Czech Republic on June 6 in Austria, we would be seeing close to Rohr’s finished article. But which of the teams will he play?
Against England, Rohr started with the back four of Bryan Idowu, Leon Balogun, William Ekong and Shehu Abdullahi while Joel Obi, John Obi Mikel and Ogenyi Onazi played in the middle with Alex Iwobi, Victor Moses and Odion Ighalo completing the 4-3-2-1.
But they were badly exposed for lack of pace in the middle as Onazi and Joel failed to keep up with the game and left the defence over-burdened. Their passing was limited and it left the forward line static without any meaningful opportunities to work with.
Rohr’s changes in the second half saw the introduction of a 3-man central defence as on came John Ogu and Kenneth Omeruo in place of Joel and Balogun while Tyronne Ebuehi who came on for Shehu moved further forward and created an avenue for the Eagles to provide a greater attacking threat against the English defence.
Oghenekaro Etebo, who came in for Onazi, provided greater energy and pace that made sure the English forwards had reduced access to the ball.
The start of the second half immediately saw a changed Nigeria set up and they finally got an opportunity to press against the English defence. It was on one of the early runs that led to Iwobi’s pass to Ighalo and the striker coolly side-stepped his marker to have a poke at goal. With Jordan Pickford clearly beaten, Ighalo’s strike hit the upright and bounced back into play with a very alert Iwobi able to quickly knock it back into the net to halve the deficit after goals scored by Gary Cahill and Harry Kane in the first half.
Still, Nigeria failed to show urgency in the last quarter of the game when they needed to score to make the game even. But they had shown enough and could take away some lessons that they now see what works and what needs to be fixed.
With Rohr’s final squad announcement on Sunday, there is now no distraction for the players to focus on their tactics ahead of their final friendly.
But what manner of final 23 do we have? Joel Obi, who was supposed to bring in some steel and creativity but has not shown enough is in the squad with Onazi who is one of the more experienced campaigners in the side who will be appearing at his second World Cup.
Could we have added Kelechi Nwakali to fortify and bring more options to the midfield? Too late now.
The starting line-up against the Czech Republic will show if Rohr took important lessons away from the defeat to England. He said after the game that there is a lot of work to be done, now is the time to put in the hard work because there will be no second chances against Croatia in Kaliningrad.