The battle for who will man the right back position of the Super Eagles will no doubt go down to the wire with the duo of Shehu Abdullahi and Tyronne Ebuehi battling to win the trust of coach Gernot Rohr.
Shehu was the undisputed first choice option at right back until the Argentina friendly where Ebuehi performed admirably well in the second half to help the team rally to a 4-2 win over Argentina, who were later drawn in the same group with Nigeria.
Yesterday Shehu started at right back and struggled to deal with the pace and movements of the English players whenever they mount an attack through his flank in the first half which England dominated.
Ebuehi was introduced in the second half with Nigeria also switching to a 3-5-2 formation which led to a much improved performance from the team as a whole even though they eventually lost the tie 1-2.
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One of the stand out players in the second half was Ebuehi as the recently signed Benfica defender combined his defensive duties with forays upfront to support the attack as Nigeria pushed forward for a leveller.
His performance made journalists who were at the game to ask Rohr during the post match conference about the performance of the duo for the half they were during the Wembley tie.
“Tyronne Ebuehi like he did already in few games each time he is coming in he is bringing his quickness, he is bringing his techniques also. There’s a competition between our players, it’s good for the team that they are not sure to be starting player”, Rohr said.
“Shehu also have perhaps at this moment the Kareem ( Ramadan) , perhaps he is not fit enough when you don’t eat all day long and drink. It’s difficult that by 5pm to be 100% ready also Ahmed Musa, they do it and we have to live with that.
“Tyronne doesn’t have this problem, he came in and he did very well again”, Rohr explained.
Shedrack Obi
