Former Nigeria goalkeeper Willy Okpara is backing Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh tobuild a winning team for the country.
But Okpara, who represented the country at Chile ’87FIFA Under-20 World Cup, says Oliseh needs time towork on the team, calling for support for his former Eagles’ teammate.
“Nigerians should give Oliseh a chance to rebuild theteam,” the former Orlando Pirates custodian, who was part of the France ’98 World Cup squad, was quoted by theNews Agency of Nigeriaas saying on Thursday.
“Oliseh knows most of the players, but bringing themtogether to blend will take some time.”The Orlando Pirates team manager urged Oliseh to retain some of the old players in the national team for continuity.“I also urge Nigerians to be patient with the coach heknows what he is doing,” the South Africa-based retired footballer added.
“I believe strongly that he will give Nigerians a good team, but it may take some time.Okpara is happy Nigerian players are doing well in Europe, saying the national team could benefit from the development with good planning back home.The former ACB Lagos keeper added, “Every coach has his desires of an ideal team.
Same applies to Oliseh. He has in mind the kind of players he will usefor the Gabon 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2018 World Cup qualifying matches.”Meanwhile, Oliseh has praised his players’ mental strength in their goalless draw against Tanzania in their Gabon 2017 qualifier in Dar es Salaam on September 5 – and their 2-0 defeat of Niger in a friendly affair in Port Harcourt three days later.
“What impressed me the most about my team (against Tanzania) was the unity and the way they stayed calm in the dressing room at half time,” the Tunisia ’94 Africa Cup of Nations winner was quotedbysupersport.comas saying.“They were the first to realised that things were not going right.
They were all trying to find solutions among themselves.“That is something you require the services of a psychologist for.”The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder added, “For us to go further, we must have a style of play.“The philosophy is simple.
When we don’t have the ball, we must behave and act in a particular manner and there should also be a way we behave when we have possession of the ball.“The problem we have however is that Nigerians just don’t want us to win.“They want us to win playing good football but that will require time.“I cannot tell Nigerians how long I will need to achieve that but we have a clear objective at this moment.
“That objective is qualifying for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon.”Nigeria face Congo DR and Cameroon friendly affairs in Belgium later this month..
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