German coach Gernot Rohr has set a record as one of the longest serving foreign coaches to handle the Super Eagles and since his engagement on August 9, 2016; yet many football analysts have not been impressed with the output despite relatively good results. TUNDE LIADI spoke to some of the football stakeholders on the impact of the German tactician so far.
As the coach of Nigeria’s senior national football team, Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr has played 49 matches with 24 wins, 12 draws and 13 losses.
Apart from this, he has qualified Nigeria for major tournaments including the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup and Egypt 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) while he has brought youthful dynamism to the team as well as inclusion of overseas-based players of Nigeria descent.
Yet former Super Eagles striker, Julius Aghahowa, was critical of Rohr’s contribution to the team, saying the former Bayern Munich defender cannot take the team to the Promised Land.
“We are all in happy mood about the result in Douala,” noted Aghahowa after the Super Eagles 2-0 win against Central African Republic (CAR). “The game in Lagos (Eagles lost 1-0) made everyone sad and now that they have redeemed themselves, it’s a welcome development.
“It showed that the team went in there with a purpose but moving forward, the mistakes made in Lagos must not happen again.
“I don’t think Rohr can take the Eagles to the Promised Land. In terms of the team developing from one level to the other, I have not seen that.
“If we play top teams, we will get exposed and that’s why we haven’t in a long time. We are scared of playing top teams in Europe.”
Speaking further, Aghahowa queried why Rohr has not drafted enough players from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
“Rohr has been with the team for five years and we have been complaining about him before his contract was extended. Through, the NFF have their reasons for handing him an extension, we’ve not seen his impact in terms of coaching on the team.
“Clemens Westerhof picked players from the domestic league and made them professionals but Rohr does not want to have anything to do with them. Our players from our league must join these overseas-based players.
“We have a coach who does not want anything to do with them. What if we don’t have (overseas-based) professionals, won’t the coach pick the players from the NPFL?
“There has not been a major impact from him on the team.”
Similarly, former NPFL Chairman, Victor Rumson Baribote has expressed his misgivings towards Rohr, adding the country deserves a better manager.
Baribote stated further what Rohr has achieved with the Eagles could have been done by any domestic coach and that was miffed with the coach’s over-reliance on foreign -based players even when the team was up against less fancied opponents.
“The team needs to play as a unit. There is no playing pattern yet under Rohr,” Baribote lamented.
“My brother let me not say he has done nothing, however he tried, but it is not good enough for a team like ours. What he has done anybody could have been done by just anybody.
“In the game involving CAR for instance, he (Rohr) had no business calling up all his players from Europe in order for him to get a result. The Eagles had no justification to lose the game at home to CAR.
“We won the return leg in Douala but we don’t need to celebrate victory against a CAR with all Europe-based players.”
Meanwhile, former BCC Lions of Gboko and Shooting Stars midfielder Bolaji Douglas stressed that there has been no significant improvement in the playing pattern of the Super Eagles in the past five years under Rohr.
Douglas said that he used to be an admirer of the German and that he had once clamoured that the Eagles gaffer be given more time like Clemens Westerhof who supervised the golden years of the senior national team albeit after staying long on the job.
“I was one of those who initially keyed into his ideas when he came in. He got some very good results. Even after the World Cup, I still felt he should be allowed to stay on. I felt he needed time,” Douglas declared. “I felt it was only fair to judge him after he has been allowed a Nations Cup outing before the World Cup. Clemens Westerhof had that benefit.
“But it would seem something has gone wrong with whatever visions he might have come to Nigeria with. Prior to the Russia 2018 World Cup and Nations Cup in Egypt, I thought he was doing a good job.
“But after the AFCON, his performance has been dire. It would appear he has not been able to move the team forward. Right now, I would rate him below average.”
The former Nigeria international said the Eagles have lost the fear factor under Rohr, citing the lacklustre matches against Sierra Leone and CAR as an example.
“To be fair and honest, has he improved the Super Eagles? Douglas asked rhetorically. “The answer is a flat no.
“We have been struggling with each game and have lost to teams we have no business losing and struggle against teams we ought to be taken to the cleaners. I mean we now watch Super Eagles play the likes of Sierra Leone, CAR with our hearts in our mouth.
“I understand there are lots of distractions going on around the team but the team has not improved. “ We have good talents coming in but it would seem Rohr does not know what to do with them.
“It is hard to describe our pattern of play, most of the time it is disjointed, lethargic with players appearing not to have a clear strategy about the game they are playing.
“A team that conceded four goals to Sierra Leone and then went on to lose to CAR cannot be said to be improving.
“We are in the easiest qualifying group, we normally stroll through these sorts of groups in the past but here we are looking over our shoulders, it will be hard to say that the team is improving. The stats are all over the place.”
The ex-international also picked holes in Rohr’s lack of flexibility with the assemblage of the players and the manner with which he deploys them against even less-fancied opponents.
“It is hard for me to give any advice here. But it would seem his loyalty to certain players has made him become rigid and afraid to try out new players and ideas.
“I don’t know what his football philosophy is, but he appears to be conservative and in no hurry to try out new ideas.”
However, Douglas charged the Eagles handler to scout for creative midfielders: “The biggest area where this team needs improvement is in the middle, there is no creativity there, hence all the boring square passes that end up on the wings with atrocious crosses.
“Our dead ball play needs improvement, wasting free-kicks and corner kicks at this level is criminal.
“He needs to find a way to improve the play of the team in the final third of the field.
“We have too many similar players in the team, time to look for players with something different to offer.”
Another former Nigerian international, Peter Nieketen, said that inasmuch as Rohr’s employers, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), deemed his services satisfactory, Nigerians agitations won’t go anywhere.
He said Rohr has enjoyed the privilege that no Nigerian coach has had even and he opined that only the NFF could explain why the German has stayed on the job for this long with minimal success.
He noted that Rohr’s over reliance on foreign based players without any plan to develop the Nigerian league players is a serious indictment on him.
“It is only the NFF that can explain the reason he has stayed this long and with the Football House open support given to him, he remains in charge,” Nieketen said. “He is lucky to still be in charge because most Nigerian coaches who performed better than he has done may not be in charge due to the chaotic system. He is on a very big monthly salary too.
“I have been privileged to work in all the different stages of the leagues and I can boldly say that talents abound but the Eagles coach has not shown enough confidence in the home-based players.
“The height of it was not allowing any of the home-based Super Eagles that were preparing for a tournament in Congo DR to join up with the main Super Eagles even after their trip was cancelled,” he added.