Nigeria coach explains why he dropped ‘impressive’ Ighalo for Tanzania

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Super Eagles head coach, Sunday Ogorchukwu Oliseh has come out with an explanation of his shock decision to leave in-form Watford of England striker, Odion Jude Ighalo out of his list of 18 foreign-based players invited for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier away to Tanzania.
odion ighalo

Ighalo will not be there in Tanzania’s National Stadium to lead the eagles’ attack, as the gaffer prefers Al-Ain of United Arab Emirates star, Emmanuel Emenike and Anthony Ujah from Weder Bremen of Germany.

While making his preferences known in an interview with SportsDay Tuesday afternoon in Abuja, Oliseh threw the gauntlet to Emenike and Ujah to rain goals against Tanzania on September 5, while stressing that he cannot invite every Nigerian player at the same time, even if they are all in top form.

Observers believe Ighalo is a shock omission from Oliseh’s 18-man squad, despite his recent exploits for club and country, for which he even scored in a 2-0 home win over Chad and got off well in the English Premier League with a goal against Everton on the opening day of the season.

Oliseh, though, went on to promise that Ighalo is still part of his plans for the new Eagles but, while admitting he would have loved to see the Watford lad replicate the goal he scored in the first AFCON 2017 qualifier against Chad in Kaduna, the Eagles’ gaffer insisted that Emenike and Ujah are Nigeria’s best twin-option in attack for now.

He recounted that that Emenike was top scorer and gold medallist at AFCON 2013, while Ujah scored ten goals in Germany’s Bundesliga last season.

Aside the top two, Russia-based Sylvester Igboun and Esperance of Tunisia’s Emem Eduok have been considered ahead of the former Flying Eagles skipper, but Oliseh insists he cannot call everyone at once and Ighalo will have to wait for his turn.

The Eagles coach then went on to talk about financial implications that also formed his choices, with a hint that it would not be proper to invite three players for two attacking positions and pay their flight tickets to camp, due to financial constraints facing Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

“We can only invite two players in each position because we are trying to get a competition, but it’s useless bringing three strikers and you pay their flight tickets and you will not be able to use one or two of them.

“We have some heavy weight on Emenike and Ujah for that position and if need be we may like to play two of them. So please let’s not start controversies now.

“We can only play 11 players at once. We have two other strikers we want to try out. We are starting from the scratch, but with time I hope for a winning style of play.

“Odion Ighalo is in our plans but he couldn’t make the list for the Tanzania clash. He will definitely form a better part of my new Eagles,” Oliseh submitted.

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