Rohr begged Moses, Mikel to change roles

Nigerians and indeed lovers of Super Eagles are in cloud nine following Nigeria’s 2-0 win over Iceland inside the Volgograd Stadium on Friday.

But the victory came with a lot of sacrifice from Victor Moses and John Mikel Obi, Sportinglife.ng can reveal today.

Eagles’ manager Gernot Rohr informed the media in Volgograd on Friday night in a post-match conference that he had to convince Moses and Mikel to play in the right wing back and central midfield positions against Iceland as the panacea for the resounding second half showing of the Eagles against the Icelandic side.

‘It took a lot of convincing over days to get Moses to play as the right wing back, where he plays for his Barclays English Premier League side, Chelsea. In the Eagles he plays as the attacking midfielder and he appears to prefer that role. But I sat down with him to tell him why he needs to revert to his right wing back role, which comes with a lot of sacrifices and extra hard work, having not trained for it in the build-up to the Mundial.

‘I’m happy to tell you that Moses accepted to change roles in the interest of the nation and it helped a great deal in changing the structure and the character of the team against the Icelandic side.

‘I also sat down Mikel to revert from the attacking midfield position to the central midfield where he played for Chelsea and plays now for his Chinese side, which comes with plenty of energy. I’m proud to say here that Mikel accepted without any problem since he would be doing it in the interest of the country and football loving Nigerians. These two people made it possible for what you saw. We can only get better when we confront the Argentines on Tuesday inside the Saint Petersburg Stadium.’’

Rohr spared no word in praising his players’ performance in the second half stressing that the Icelandic side had the first half which they dominated, leading to the yellow card shown to Bryan Idowu in the 43rd minute.

‘‘At half time, I pulled out Idowu for Tyrone Ebuehi because I wanted to play on the offensive. I’m happy that Ebuehi did well irrespective of the penalty he conceded, which the Icelandic side lost. I instructed the boys at half time to be more compact in their play and bond together while attacking and defending.

‘‘I want to also salute Iceland for giving us a very good fight. Don’t forget that they are ranked 20th in the world and Nigeria is ranked 48th. The Icelandic side deserved their rating,’’ Rohr said.