Former Super Eagles’ centre back, Sam Sodje has spoken out in support of the Nigerian national team’s coach, Eric Chelle, throwing his weight behind the gaffer, with a view that he is on the right track, Sports247 reports.
Speaking ahead of the Eagles’ friendly against Russia in Moscow on Friday, Sodje opined that Chelle is taking the right approach in his choice of players for build-up games, as was also the case during the recent four-nation invitational Unity Cup competition, which the Eagles won on Saturday, after defeating Jamaica via penalties in London.
Consequently, the former Brentford of England defender, who is one of three brothers that played top flight football in the United Kingdom, admitted that Chelle embarked on a lot of experimentation with his squad lists for the Unity Cup and Friday’s game in Moscow, but stressed that these type of games should be used for tests, though they are equally important as competitive matches.
Sodje retorted, “Every game is always important. It might be friendlies or tournaments, but to win any game for your country is special. However, we are not looking towards winning all the time in this type of games.
“It’s mostly about knowing the players. But we also know what trophies mean to the fans. I also know that beating Ghana and Jamaica in London is good, but we must not forget that we have to plan ahead as well.”
He concluded with a closer look at Chelle’s ability to infuse players from the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) into his squad and reckoned that the Franco-Malian gaffer is really showing sincerity about giving opportunities to home-based players.
“When it comes to the national team, we must also understand that we need different kinds of players, and I’m sure the coach is doing that.
“The mixture of home-based players with the foreign-based ones is incredible, and I love the attitude he is putting in towards it. It may not be the same when talking about the World Cup qualifiers.
That may be a different approach, but it’s a good thing we are playing these games to see how good we are,” Sodje acceded.
