Former captain of the senior national team of Nigeria Austin Okocha has faulted the tactics employed by coach of the Super Eagles Gernot Rohr as the reason why Nigeria lost 0-2 to Croatia.
Speaking at a guest analyst on pay television during the game, Okocha blamed the Franco-German coach for playing Alex Iwobi on the flanks instead of giving him the play maker role handed to captain John Obi Mikel.
Okocha said the decision to play Mikel as the number ten of the team is largely to be blamed for the poor display of both Iwobi and Victor Moses during the game as both players didn’t get enough quality balls to prove their worth.
He also explained that although Iwobi plays from the flanks at Arsenal, that is lagerly due to the presence of Mesut Ozil , who is a better playmaker but that is not the case with the national team of Nigeria.
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“We didn’t have a creative player today,” the former Nigeria No.10 said. “Mikel has been a good servant to the national team. His best position is playing in front of the defence. We saw what he did playing for Chelsea where he had a glorious career.
“The most creative player in that team is Alex Iwobi but he was played on the flanks. He (Iwobi) can play on the flanks at Arsenal because they had better players in that role like Mesut Ozil.
“The reason why we lost was because we played our best players out of their positions.
“Playing Mikel in that position didn’t help Moses and Iwobi on the flanks.”
Ade Emmanuel
