Gernot Rohr is excited that his unpredictable style has put every player in the Super Eagles’ squad under pressure to perform ahead of today’s AFCON 2019 last group game against Madagascar at the Alexandria Stadium.
The German tactician who disclosed this much in a press conference yesterday attributed the positive mentality in the team to the changes in match day selection which has forced the players to work extra hard to be in the starting line up.
“I will make changes for the game against Madagascar because I want to put every player in my team under pressure.” Rohr began in the parley with the media.
“I’m happy that there is serious competition for places in every department. We have made changes in the goalkeeping , defensive, midfield and attacking departments. In the last game against Guinea, we made five changes and we will see which changes that can be done against Madagascar”
Rohr also disclosed that Jamilu Collins and Shehu Abdullahi would not be fielded in today’s encounter despite making progress in their recovery process.
Germany based Collins has not played for the Eagles since the 2019 AFCON started while Abdullahi was stretchered off in the team’s opening game against the Swallows of Burundi on June 22.
“Collins and Abdullahi are having special training sessions with the physical trainer and physio. We don’t want to take a risk by fielding them against Madagascar because the time is too short for that”
He however described Madagascar as a side that is better than Nigeria offensively having scored more goals in the two games they have played in the tournament so far.
“Madagascar are better offensively because they have scored three goals in two games while we got two but the edge we have is the fact that we have not conceded which makes us better defensively.