It may have
surprised most followers of the Super Eagles that Keshi bang the door against
some more established players in the current national team; to make way for
rather unknown quality in his world cup provisional list. Many felt it was a harsh
decision to have left players like Ikechukwu Uche, Brown Ideye, Fergo Ogunde,
who were vital members of the AFCON winning team.
I understand
some of the questions raised by some analysts, why Keshi decided to select some
rather half fit players such as Joseph Yobo, Nnamdi Oduamadi, Nosa Igieborand
didn’t consider quality stand by for injury prone ogeniyi Onazi and Mikel Obi. It means that if any of
these key players crop up a major injury, which is about 65% likely to happen,
then Nigeria team will be greatly exposed to opponent’s attack.
We’ve seen
how John Ogu adequately stood in for Mikel Obi, when the later wasn’t available
for some games in the past. Fergo Ogunde was playing the inside right position
before Onazi was found to be better. But I think if Onazi is indisposed, Ogunde
could be a good stand by or what do you think?
If you ask
me, I’ll personally tell you that Ikechukwu Uche is the best striker available
to the national team today. No one can question his abilities or current form.
But Keshi insisted that Uche doesn’t adhere to instructions and often challenge
his coaching ability and he doesn’t want that kind of distractions at the world
cup.
It’s ok,
since there are other quality strikers like Emmanuel Emenike, Shola Ameobi,
Osaze Odenwingie… I don’t think we will feel his absence that much.
Really,
where I think Keshi need to beef up seriously is the defensive midfield. I
think we’ll need a lot of ball winners and combatant players with high work rate in the middle.
Brown Ideye
is one such player that possessed very high work rate. I don’t know why Keshi
decided to exclude such a mobile player that easily moves from attack to defense
line and join attack again. He usually help block of opponent’s counter attack moves.
But some analysts are of the opinion that Ideye is very wasteful in front of
goal. Indeed, that may have worked against him when the technical committee deliberated
on the provisional list.
Again,
looking at the defense line, I felt Keshi should have invited Taiye Taiwo as a
back up for Elderson Echiejile at the defense as well as Godfrey Obobana
at central defense; but Keshi Knows
Better.
In all, I
think Keshi has chosen the best players given the circumstances he found
himself in the national team. He can still go on to win the world cup.
We’ve seen in
the past coaches like Scolari dropped great player like Romario, who scored
most of the goals that got Brazil to qualify for the world cup. Scolari rather
preferred to select half fit Ronaldo, who eventually delivered the 1994 world
cup to Brazil. This things happen and I think we should give all our support to
Keshi
