Former Super Eagles’ striker, Yakubu Aiyegbeni has come out with a down-to-earth verdict that the absence of a creative midfielder is affecting the output of attackers in the Nigerian national team, Sports247 reports.
‘The Yak,’ who made top marks with lots of goals off his boots in the English Premier League – while playing for Portsmouth, Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers – opined further that the absence of a playmaker is the biggest problem in Nigeria’s current squad.
The product of Okomu Oil FC of Benin City reasoned, “The midfield is the most important position to worry about now. We don’t have a creative midfielder who can pass the ball to our strikers.
“Look at the way they score goals in the national team now, and you note that it was quite different in our days. We had players like (Sunday) Oliseh, Jay Jay (Okocha), Finidi (George), and other good passers; but now they don’t have them.”
‘Yak Attack’ also pointed out that the current Eagles’ squad is saturated with defensive minded players and noted that even he would have struggled to score in the present set-up, since the team lacks players who can provide their forwards with killer passes.
“We now have too many defensive midfielders, and we are really short of someone who can really pass the ball to the strikers. That’s why you see current strikers in the national team of Nigeria struggling to score goals.
“Hopefully, we’ll soon see how they will start passing the ball to our strikers to score. Even if I play with this generation now, I will find it difficult to score goals,” Yakubu admitted hypothetically.
He concluded by looking specifically at Fulham of England dazzler, Alex Iwobi, who he rated high in terms of work rate but low with regards to the quality of his passes.
“We don’t have a creative midfielder who can pass the ball. We only have Alex Iwobi, who can run for 120 minutes.
“He can help the team defensively, and he does a great job there … but he’s not a creative midfielder who can pass the ball effectively to the strikers to score,” Yakubu affirmed.
