Senior Players Ganging Up To Snub Rohr And Make Team Selection In Sierra Leone

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been up and dong trying to bring sanity to Super Eagles camp over ‘the bad blood’ generated by Friday’s 4-4 draw the Nigerian team recorded against Sierra Leone in an African Cup of Nations qualifier.

At the end of the game, many of the players and some back room staff blamed coach Gernot Rohr for the draw, accusing the German of ignoring their counsel in the game management.

An NFF top official, who pleaded anonymity, told the Guardian that the federation’s President, Amaju Pinnick, had to intervene when it looked like some players and coaches were trying a mutiny against Rohr over the way he is handling the team.

Relating to an incident during the match when Skipper Ahmed Musa had to confront Rohr for making ‘bad changes’ in the course of the game, the source said many of the senior players accused the German of not understanding the flow of the game and therefore could not make effective changes.

“The Sierra Leonean coach made three changes that turned the game on its head, while Rohr reduced the effectiveness of our team by some curious decisions.

“The worst part is that he did not seek any of his coaches’ opinion before making changes during the game. He only wrote some things on a paper and passed to our team secretary, Day Enebi, who then submitted names for substitutions.

“Rohr said some of the players were not mentally ripe for national team games, yet he keeps inviting these players.

“The way things stand, if the NFF president fail to bring sanity to the camp, we could witness worse performance in Freetown,” he said.

The source also said some of the senior players have started questioning Rohr’s competence, arguing the German has not been able to lift the team above the 2017 level.

“I have been confronted by some of these players with what they perceive as the poor coaching standard of the leader of the technical crew.

“After the 2-1 loss to Argentina at the World Cup in Russia, Rohr said he had learnt his lessons from that game. But he seems to have learnt nothing.

“Some of the senior players have now decided to play more active part in team selection and management during games since Rohr has shown a glaring lack of capacity to manage the team effectively.

“I am sure that if the late Amodu Shaibu or Stephen Keshi were in charge of the Super Eagles, no team, not even France or Brazil, can force Nigeria to a draw after trailing by 4-0. It is not possible.”

This post was first published on GoalBall.