With Adebayo Olodan
Super Eagles gaffer, Gernot Rohr, during the week released a list of 23 players for the dead rubber African Cup of Nations qualifier against Seychelles and the international friendly match against Pharaohs of Egypt.
Missing from the list are; the skipper of the team, John Obi Mikel, FC Porto midfielder, Mikel Agu, Villareal youngster, Samuel Chukwueze and Premier League duo of Kelechi Iheanacho and Isaac Success.
Former FC Ebiede forward, Paul Onuachu, who now plies his trade in Denmark with FC Midtjylland and Enyimba defender, Valentine Ozornwafor are the only players invited to the senior national team for the first time.
Taking a critical look at the list of invited players, I believe the coach deserved to be applauded for extending invitation to some players who could improve the squad based on their current form.
However, the gaffer also erred with some of the players listed for the match.
Though he may be playing in the less fancied Scandinavian League, 24-year-old Onuachu has been one of the nation’s most consistent strikers in recent years in Europe. The leggy forward has been painting Denmark red with his goals and it won’t be a bad idea to see him turn out in the green and white jersey. However, to give Onuachu and other young strikers the chance to blossom, Rohr should have excluded the more experienced Odion Ighalo and Ahmed Musa from his squad. More so, Ighalo appeared not to have settled down at his new Chinese club, Shanghai Shenhua, following the commencement of the season last weekend.
Also, based on current form, the coach should have dropped at least one of Francis Uzoho and Daniel Akpeyi from the squad. Uzoho, who last month made the switch from Spain to the Cypriot League has remained inactive over discrepancies in his health clearance at Anorthosis Famagusta. For Akpeyi, he has been performing below par since he joined Kaizer Chiefs from Chippa Utd in the South African League. At the moment, he risked being deposed in goal following consistent calls by the supporters of the club. Perhaps the coach should have replaced the name of Akpeyi who has failed to impress for club and country, with a young goalkeeper from our domestic league.
Another debatable invitation is the inclusion of Leon Balogun who has been struggling for playing time and Premiership club, Brighton Hove Albion. The central defender is likely to be match rusty when he shows up in Nigeria soon.
Like Onuachu, Ozornwafor, who plies his trade at Enyimba will likely get the chance to play for the Eagles for the first time and he may realised his ambition soon as there are very few Nigerian natural left-back, doing well abroad.
Also, Gernot Rohr has done well by excluding a number of players from the squad based on their poor form and other factors; this is not to say those left out are not likely to be part of the African Nations Cup squad in June.
Surprisingly, Taiwo Awoniyi, who is scoring goals for fun in the Belgian Jupiler League, was excluded while Victor Osimhen who has failed to hit the back of the net in recent weeks was included. Perhaps, it may be safe to say Rohr had drawn up the list long before now.
Since the Super Eagles had long booked a place at the African nations Cup, it must be said that Nigerians should pay less attention on the outcome of the two matches but the performance of the new players and options that may be thrown up.
With the little time left to the 2019 AFCON, the coach must be supported in his bid to name the best Super Eagles squad in Egypt. After failing to qualify for two subsequent AFCON, we cannot afford to make up the numbers this time. It will not be a bad idea if we ended up on the same note as 2013 – Winning the trophy.
