Exclusive!
A couple of days ago in Benin-City, Edo State Capital, our Managing Editor, Kingsley Abavo had a chance meeting with former Bendel Insurance FC of Benin and national football coach, Godwin Izilein. In an exclusive interview, he bares his thoughts about the quality and chances of the Super Eagles of Nigeria going into the 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON); which begins on Saturday, 13 January, 2024 in Cote d'Ivoire. Though the tournament is officially tagged: 2023 AFCON.
"The fear I have is that we are not prepared, we are only going to participate. If we win, good luck, if we doesn't win, it won't be a big surprise to me!"
Full details!
Assessment
First of all, I want to congratulate the players invited and my biggest question; how prepared is the Super Eagles?
We find most of the players invited; to me have outlived their usefulness and they shouldn't have been invited at all.
Like we suggested earlier to the NFF, there are home based players who wants to perform unlike these our super players from Europe because of the over consciousness of what they have, they are always very careful playing serious contact game and the game is contact itself.
So why not give these players who wants to be there; who are yet to receive some of these honour to vie for these positions instead of repeating these same old players yearly.
The fear I have is that we are not prepared, we are only going to participate. If we win, good luck, if we doesn't win, it won't be a big surprise to me.
Talking about the players being careful making contact with opponents; could this be the reason we have not be successful in the recent past?
I want to go professional now; the three fundamentals of the game, are; attack when you receive the ball, when you are in possession of the ball, when you lose possession of the ball and when you regain possession.
If you look at our games, our boys like to receive the ball and as soon as they are dispossessed, they don't fight for the ball; and if you don't fight for the ball, how do you gain possession and if you don't gain possession, can you score? No!
So this is why we insist; get boys who are ready to lose possession and when they lose, they are ready to fight for it and when they gain possession, they go for the kill!
If you don't shoot, you can't score and if don't dispossess your opponent of the ball, you cannot have the opportunity to score.
So, this I don't care attitude of our foreign based players; can only be addressed if we get some of these willing local players.
Amunike and co were all local players so why can't we go back to those era?
The most annoying part of it; the national coach, Peseiro comes here to trade with us; he comes here casually to take the team and as soon as the game is over, he goes away; no, it should not be so!
The fundamental responsibility is for him to go round these local teams, discover these players and harness them into one entity.
Rather, he calls the players two, three days and say they are going to play a game; no, it is not possible, we need to work hard.
If the understanding is not there between the invited players and the local players, they cannot play anything.
Then look at the goalkeeper; Francis Uzoho, how can a professional player parry ball into his own net?
Ordinarily, the function of a goalkeeper is to parry the ball out of his goal area but on few occasions, he parried the ball into his own net, to the detriment of the team; and he is still invited to be member of the team.
I think Nigerians who are enthusiasts of the game should talk so that all of these should stop.
We have said this repeatedly, we the local coaches are ready to sleep inside the pitch, give you the desired result if we are paid one tenth of what is paid the foreign coaches.
We are not well paid; how can you pay somebody $70,000 monthly then we are paid peanut; N200,000, N400,000, compare and contrast, there is a sharp difference!
If I am paid say; $25,000 a month I will come out of retirement, work hard to justify the salary. But the white man knows once he fails, he simply leaves!
I feel seriously in terms of some of our Committee members at the NFF; they have a stake in there that is why they are not taking decisive decision.
But the country is bigger than them all; so they must do something.
Osimhen's anticipated influence on the team at the AFCON
Osimhen can only be hot and hotter if there is a serious coordination between him and his colleagues. If the colleagues are not giving him good balls, he cannot work.
It is just an individual game! In fact, it is all about trying to harness eleven characters into one entity; it is like a chain, when there is a disconnect the entire system is finished.
Osimhen needs good defenders to defend our goal area, Osimhen needs midfielders to dispossess opponents off the ball and give him good passes, and if there are no good passes what is he going to shoot? Nothing!
So, Osimhen should pray that he has colleagues who are ready to work, who are understanding, who are not selfish, who will give him penetrating passes and will make him a good scorer otherwise, nothing, Izilein concluded!
Nigeria, winners of the tournament in 2013, are in Group A alongside the host nation; Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea.
The Super Eagles open battle on Sunday, January 14th against Equatorial Guinea, in a bid to win the AFCON for the fourth time.
The host nation face Nigeria on Thursday, January 18th, before they battle Guinea-Bissau on Monday, January, 22nd.
The Team
1. Francis Uzoho
2. Ola Aina
3. Zaidu Sanusi
4. Alhassan Yusuf
5. William Troost-Ekong
6. Semi Ajayi
7. Ahmed Musa
8. Frank Onyeka
9. Victor Osimhen
10. Joe Aribo
11. Samuel Chukwueze
12. Bright Osayi-Samuel
13. Bruno Onyemaechi
14. Kelechi Iheanacho
15. Moses Simon
16. Ojo Olorunleke
17. Alex Iwobi
18. Ademola Lookman
19. Umar Sadiq
20. Chidozie Awaziem
21. Calvin Bassey
22. Kenneth Omeruo
23. Stanley Nwabili
24. Victor Boniface injured and replaced with Terem Moffi
25. Raphael Onyedika
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