MY THOUGHTS ABOUT APPOINTMENT OF COACHES FOR SUPER EAGLES

 Nigerian football has been struggling for very many years and we seem to have lost it all at the national team level right now. With the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify fr next year's nations cup, it has dawned on all that the national team has to be restructured.
Clemens Westerhof was in-charge for about 5 years and did greatly as a coach.Westerhof is credited with turning Nigeria into a perennial powerhouse in African football and showing that they, and other African nations, can compete on the world stage. He is responsible for what could be described as a "golden" period in Nigerian football. Players such as Jay-Jay Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Nwankwo Kanu, Rashidi Yekini, Daniel Amokachi and others, who all went on to successful careers with various high-profile European clubs, entered the world spotlight while playing under Westerhof. He structured and harmonized the 4-4-2 formation in Nigeria and most Nigerian players over te years, grew with this football orientation. The formation always had 4 defenders,, 4 midfielders and 2 strikers. Of the 4 midfielders,we have RMF,LMF,AM and DM.We were comfortable with this formation and had players who fitted into these positions appropriately. However,evolution in football has changed a lot of things.
Young players now have opportunity to watch different playing patterns on TV and are having a different orientation twards the game. The talents coming out of the country now do not fit into these positions occupied by the Okochas and Kanus. Instead,they flow with the modern football culture.Just like Westerhof had a master plan and harmonized the 4-4-2 formation to be our traditional formation,we need a new master plan to achieve long-term targets for football in Nigeria.
Overtime, we have made different appointments,none of which we were satisfied with.The last best man we had was Bonfrere Jo. We need a technical team be put in place.This team should comprise football experts who will have a task of designing a new football tradition for Nigeria and recommend a coach or coaches who should be appointed to build a formidable Super Eagles team, fit to compete with any team in the world.
Truth be told, our local coaches are not well-groomed for such a task and they cannot boast enough experience required to build such a team.I strongly suggest they be kept in the background and understudy the foreign expert in-charge while they also contribute to the technical inputs of the foreign coach.They should also act as advisors.Only minimal bias and maximun credibility should be considered in the appointment of a coach for the Super Eagles. The bul of our players are slow and today's football requires a lot of pace.
We have a choice to make,its either we map out a strategy for the long-term or we just patch up coaches for the short-term.Also,we need a coach who has a will to develop the game in Nigeria.
Above all,we need the football administrative body to be sanitized and best brains with good plans and focus be brought in.

THE BIG GAME AT OLD TRAFFORD (MAN U vs. CHELSEA

*Make a correct prediciton of the Man U- Chelsea game and get N500 recharge card of any network..Only the first correct prediction wins the prize.*

I hope my readers permit my inconsistency in publishing posts. Its been many busy weeks for me,training takes most of my time and I still have to do individual player development daily. The transfer window has opened and shut and all players who moved are either gradually settling into their new clubs or have settled in quickly.

The season is quite early but a few surprises have been recorded.There is no point mentioning them now because they are no longer fresh in our memories. We have seen some interesting away victories this season.

It's the big showdown today and United will be locking horns with a team they defeated four times last season,Chelsea.

United have flagged off their campaign on a high,enjoying wide goal margin victories.Chelsea on the other hand have had a decent start,gradually gathering momentum and adapting to a fluent and attacking style of play under AVB. It's a big day for the young manager stepping out against the most experienced coach in English football. Chelsea have been trying to play more vertically this season and United have maintained their pacy wing plays with consistent connections by the all-efficient Wayne Rooney.

Chelsea will have to close the spaces if they want to get a point or points away from Old Trafford this afternoon because the hosts are fond of running into spaces. It will remain a 4-4-2 for United and most likely a 4-3-3 for Chelsea. Hernandez netted 3 times against Chelsea last season and the blues will have to stop that quick young man who is very comfortable in front of goal. The eyes of Chelsea's players have to be multiplied because players like Rooney,Nani and Young have to be equally monitored.

Ramires,if picked to start, will be available to cause problems for United with his forward runs and box-to-box ability. It is expected that Chelsea will look to calm things down in the middle and force United to struggle through to get balls to their flambouyant wingers.

It promises to be a very lively game where a lot of technicalities will be displayed by players and coaches of both teams.Sir Alex Ferguson is an icon and AVB is a tinkerman.


My prediction: Man U 2-2 Chelsea

Drop your predictions now,closes at the start of the game. Drop your predictions as comments on the page in this format;

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MAN U 3-2 MAN CITY

All across the world,football lovers sat on Sunday afternoon to watch the champions of last season who double as city rivals go head-to-head in the game that ushers in the new season. Man U showed superiority by coming from two goals down to win the game by 3 goals to 2.Nani was the man of the afternoon as he crowned a great display with a brace.

United started on bright note,running through City's midfield with every ball they got forward.Ashley Young drove United forward from the first minute,giving City players a run for their monies.On exactly 23', Nani and Welbeck ran through the right side and exchanged passes in an entertaining fashion but the Portugese could not finish the last pass. The continuous United threats forced City to initiate attacks and their first real chance came on 28'with Silva picking Milner,but the former Villa man could not finish either.It was obvious City were struggling through the game as they had picked up 3 bookings by the half-hour mark. Nani had an attempt from a freekick as United continued to look for a goal. City responded in a timely manner as Lescott made the best of Silva's freekick by heading home past Degea. As if this was not enough,the United defence again opened up space for Dzeko to shoot from outside the area and caught the United keeper responding late for City's second just before half time.

As expected,Sir Ferguson made tactical changes to the side at half time and United again resumed the second half very strong.This time,their efforts provided them a goal on 52' as Smalling tapped into the net an Ashley Young freekick.Nani proved his brilliance at 58' as he scored a nice goal well assisted by the Cleverley.Just before the final whistle went off came Kompany's saddest moment as a spirited Nani fought for the ball and ran past him to score United's winner.

OBSERVATIONS
If you ask me,I will say Sir Alex got it all right in the game while a lot is to be said about Mancini.Sir Alex was a genius for taking off Ferdinand and Vidic and bringing in Evans and Jones who played central defence without being wary of City striker's threats. Also, Cleverley's introduction was key to United's victory as he opened the midfield and created space for the wingers to play in and afforded Anderson room to play an anchor man role in the midfield.Mancini's first sub should have been Balotelli off for Adam Johnson because he needed width in the game and had to pull one of Nani or Ashley back to support in defence thereby reducing United's attacking threat.Also,Milner was the best performing midfielder for City and I wonder why he was taken off.There is no point highlighting Kompany's mistake.In a nutshell,what I saw on Sunday was unlike City's midfield.Maybe the players are tired from pre-season games as was Kompany's excuse or maybe Mancini is not just getting it right. I believe the non-stop signing of players is making the current squad at City unsettled.

We wish United,City and out other beloved teams in the premier league all the best this season as we eagerly awaiting the opening games this weekend.

The curtain raiser:Man U vs. Man City

Once again,the two bitter rivals in Manchester will lock horns.The rivalry has grown stronger in recent times as City have been spending big.The latest addition to their squad being Sergio Aguero who was signed for £35 million from Atletico Madrid.Manchester United have also been busy in the transfer market strengthening their squad with not less than 3 players so far.United defeated City in the league last season while City got one over their rivals in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.                                                              
Possible line-ups for tomorrow's game;
Man U:De Gea,Rafael,Vidic,Ferdinand,Rafael,Nani,Giggs,Anderson,Young,Rooney,Owen.
Man City:Hart,Richards,Kompany,Lescott,Clichy,De Jong,Yaya Toure,Barry,Silva,Balotelli,Dzeko.

It will be the first real test for United's keeper,De Gea who is stepping into the big shoes of Van Der Saar.
I see Man U sticking to their traditional 4-4-2 with Young and Nani swapping positions on the left and right during the game.The most notable modification of United's formation is how deep Rooney drops to the midfield to pick the balls and drive his team forward.Also,I expect to see Nani and Young make forward runs through City's defense and create space for the central midfielders to run through,create goal chances and score goals.
If Clichy starts for city,I expect to see Barry play in front of him on the left side with DeJong and Toure stabilizing the central midfield for City.silva should play the link role between midfield and attack.we hope to see city play a less-conservative game.We hope Mancini's men play a more attacking game this season.
Man U will look to attack through the wings while city will depend on number advantage to attack through the middle.Whoever emerges victorious tomorrow will start the season on a high.
We wish both champions all the best as they go head-to-head tomorrow.

football today

I have been off for a while and I am sure you all missed me.I apologise for my long absence.I picked up a role as assistant cach with ACE FOOTBALL ACADEMY.Now I am back and sincerely a lot has changed since I left.Right now,its all transfer news in the air.I have been thinking about the 4-2-31 formation and came up with a lot of things about this amazing formation.Look out for more on the formation tomorrow.I have to go now.See you tomorrow.

PAUL SCHOLES HANGS BOOT

I salute one of the greatest ever midfielder to grace the beautiful game of football. '18' Scholes as I like to call him, is a legend that left a mark at United and in football history as a whole. The midfielder spent the whole of his career at Manchester United.Born in 16 November 1974 at Hope Hospital in Salford, Greater Manchester, to parents Stewart and Marina Scholes, the veteran midfielder played cricket and football while in school.He first trained with Man U at age 14 after being scouted in school. He scored 3 goals in his first 2 games for Manchester United and went on to score 7 goals in the 1994/95 season. He made 675 appearances for united and scored 150 goals in all.He also made 66 appearances for the English national team and scored 14 goals in all. Despite the persuasion and calls over the last few years, Scholes declined to play for the national team again. He last played for England in 2004.He cannot be listed amongst the disciplined players in football as he received 90 yellow and 4 red cards in the Premier League, making him the third most booked player in Premier League history.He also been booked 32 times in the Champions League, more than any other player in the competition.

Scholes sits comfortably at the centre of a 4-4-2 formation playing a pivot role for the team.He will be remembered for his brilliant display of short and long passes and smooth ball distribution.He cordinated the midfield and controlled the game play for United even until the end of his career.Although he did not enjoy all the playing time lately,he always had a great impact whenever he was introduced. Scholes who started as a forward was deployed to the '10' role by Ferguson where he formed great partnership with Roy Keane. The most recent of his goals which remains fresh in my memory was the strike against Barcelona in 2008 at the tenth minute.The strike seperated both teams and took united into the finals where they
defeated Chelsea in Moscow.

Scholes had a great number of strikes from outside the box though this reduced towards the end of his career. Carrick paired Scholes in the midfield when he arrived United and at this time, Scholes did a of work in the team playing both as a 10 and a 4 as the duo exchanged roles regularly. His brilliant performances contributed to United's league success that season.

Honours


Carling Cup : 2006, 2009, 2010

Champions League : 1999, 2008

Community Shield : 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010

FA Cup : 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004

FIFA Club World Cup : 2000, 2009

Premier League : 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009 (Manchester United)

Paul Scholes will take on a coaching role with United from the start of next season.He is one of the best midfielders ever in football history.

All hail PAUL '18' SCHOLES!!!

A NIGHT AT WEMBLEY

I sit here remembering every moment of last night's game. It was an action-packed match that I  would always want to watch again and again. The line-ups for both teams were the anticipated ones.
Man U-Van Der Saar,Fabio,Ferdinand,Vidic,Evra,Valencia,Park,Carrick,Giggs,
Rooney and Chicharito


Barcelona-Valdes,Alves,Mascherano,Pique,Abidal,Xavi,Busquets,Iniesta,Pedro,Villa and Messi.

United started the game on the high as is their usual practice. A few decent attacks before they handed the game over to Barcelona. Park, Vidic and Ferdinand were up for the game and intercepting passes and breaking Barcelona attacks. At about 23', United started attacking again. They got carried away attacking and Barcelona got a good attack on with three men ahead of Xavi when he advanced with the ball for the opening goal. This number threw united defenders into confusion and lost knowledge of who each should mark. A true pass to Pedro resulted in a goal with a good touch from the striker. United again attacked and just 7 minutes after, scored the equaliser through Wayne Rooney even though Giggs appeared to be in an offside position when he picked the initial pass from Rooney. Nonetheless, the striker finished the ball well.

*Both sides were level at half time*

The second half was when Barca did justice to the game. They started out attacking and overwhelmed Man U. It was good enough that Man U did not run after Barca but waited to close them down. But the question remains: 'How long can you hold Barca?' Iniesta took a lot of time before passing the ball to Messi. Lionel picked the ball and was quick to push forward before taking the final strike for the second goal. To me, it was a combination of the 'bush baby'(Iniesta) and the 'evil spirit'(Messi).

David Villa found it difficult to get behind United's defenders so instead he stood in front of them and made shot attempts for every ball he got. These attempts paid off when he sent home the third goal that put both hands on the trophy for Barca. Van Der Saar made a number of good saves but was not enough to keep the catalunyans from carrying the day.

OBSERVATIONS
**Chicharito had no real impact in the game and that leaves me wondering why Sir Alex started him.From my point of view,I expected Nani,Fletcher,Oshea or Scholes would have started.

**Evra was always tending towards the centre to assist in breaking the dangerous attacks of Barcelona and in the process, freed his man.

**Unexpectedly,Villa started from the right side and Pedro from the left. The first goal came when the two players swapped position.

**The three goals for Barcelona was shared among the strikers which was a clear indication that the midfielders did a wonderful job last night.

**I expected Giggs to play in front of Carrick and Park while Rooney drifted to the left flank thereby providing width and drive to the United side.

**Finally, was I the only one who saw Fergie's hands shaking?...lol

The question remains, WHO WILL STOP BARCELONA?!!!