Read every word from Super Eagles boss Gernot Rohr's press conference ahead of Nigeria’s game against Seychelles

The Super Eagles have nothing but to guarantee the first position in Group E of AFCON 2019 qualifiers and a win will give them that. 

Ahead of the game which will take place at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba on Friday, March 22, Rohr faced the media to answer a slew of questions. 

The Franco-German coach appeared before the press with his stand-in captain Ahmed Musa who spoke first before his managers. 

At the press conference on Thursday, March 21, Rohr spoke on a range of issues, including the reasons behind some of the names on his call-up list, Super Eagles AFCON 2019 chances, the absence of Kelechi Iheanacho and his captain John Mikel Obi. 

1. Rohr defends his call-up 

“All the time, we call the best one, but this is a special situation because we have the U23, so in my first list I had (Samuel) Chukwueze and Azubuike (Okechukwu) and after speaking with the coach of the U23 which is my assistant Imama (Amapakabo), we decided to let two players where on his scouting list was on my team.

"That is why some of the players that are supposed to be with us are not here. We have to qualify for the Olympics .

"Now we have three exciting days, the Seychelles game is important to us because we want to finish top of the group and on Monday the second game against Libya for the U23 is crucial game also and we have Egypt on Tuesday; a lot of work to do.

"The question we can answer is what we can do to help the U23 to make sure we win. That is a very special situation. We have out 23 players with some injuries.

"You see that (Samuel) Kalu after the family drama had an injury and we lost Ola Aina. We have also two players Chukwueze and Azubuike that we let to go to Tunisia to face Libya. So it's a special list.

"About the injuries, we decided to replace the injured players with local players, You see that we have two players from the U20 we saw them playing in Niamey, they did very well, qualified for the World Cup.

"These two players did very well, the captain (Ikouwem) Udo and also Valentine (Ozornwafor), a central defender, they are with us. It is interesting to see these good players also. We have two other new players, one is a striker Paul Onuachu because he has a different profile from the strikers we have and to see him it's the last opportunity before the main list of 35 and also have (Ndifreke) Effiong who is playing in the local league." 

2. Rohr responds to Morocco’s coach Hervé Renard who says Nigeria are favorite for AFCON 2019

“I know Hervé Renard, he's a diplomat. He is supposed to be the favourite of the tournament, he is number one in Africa, so he's the natural favourite of the tournament and he tries to put forward other countries. 

"This is a tactic already. Me, I say Morocco are number one in Africa, they are natural favourites, Egypt with one of the biggest players in the world are favourite because they are at home, there is a big crowd behind, Senegal are number two in Africa, Tunisia are number three, we are only number four.  

So please be careful let them speak, we know what we have to do. We all the time stay humble, to declare today that we will win the AFCON, will be stupid, it is not our philosophy. We have to work, we have young players. It is true that we have little experience with the World Cup but we have also one of our players who stopped after the world cup and he was a big player also. Also it is not easy to say to win when you don't have any player in the Champions League team. We have two playing sometimes in the Europa League. That's all. We have the great players in the past but that does not mean I don't trust in my team, I trust them. We have a chance to go far in this competition but let's stay humble please." 

3. Rohr speaks on Onuachu and whether his strike force has a problem

"We are searching for a striker with his (Paul Onuachu) profile. We have the crosses, we have good wingers, so you have the crosses transformed into goals. 

“It is true that we scored three goals in Seychelles, we scored seven goals in key games against Libya. So we don’t have any problems to score goals. We even scored three goals in South Africa but only one was allowed by the referee. we scored three goals, I believe you saw that the goals were not offside. We don't have a problem. But we want to have options. 

“Paul is such a good player. In the training session only two that we have together and we saw that he has some qualities and we will be able to see him. Perhaps not tomorrow because tomorrow will not be a gift to the new players to come into the team for the first. It's been only two training sessions and they will be other games and we will see.”

4. On if the Super Eagles has nothing to play against against Seychelles 

“I don't believe so. For us their last game against Seychelles is an official game and we have some challenges. don't forget that to stay first in the group we have to win. 

“And then we have also tactical and individual challenges; the individual challenges is that we have to have the best goalscorer in this AFCON qualifiers. For the moment we have two goalscorers with six goals, one of them is (Odion) Ighalo and one of them is from Burundi. We want Ighalo to finish at the top of the goalscoerer. This will be a wonderful answer for his critics after the World Cup. 

“The challenge is to finish first and to play well. We know that it is not easy because Seychelles played 0-0 against South Africa so South Africa could not beat this team and Seychelles has been preparing since the seventh of March in Ethiopia. So they are preparing for this game and they want to do a surprise,. We have to be prepared with a lot of professionalism and saying that the first match is the most important.” 

5. On Etebo 

"(Oghenekaro) Etebo did well in training session, he made Wednesday and Tuesday, two training sessions and we have good chances to see him start the game at least 45 minutes. Etebo is from the area here, I think he wants to show something very good to his family and his friends."

6. On Kelechi Iheanacho’s absence

“I told him why he is not he list. I want to see other strikers. this is the last opportunity to invite other people because there is no other FIFA window before we have to do our first list.

“Kelechi for the moment is playing for a club where there is a new coach, It would be better for him to show in this FIFA window to show the new manager that wants to come back into the starting team of Leicester, I think it is a good moment for him to stay there.

“Also we are not really satisfied with his performances in the last time and I think he has to be more professional. It's not good all the time to be funny. You must show that you are serious, working everyday in the training session and show that you are to come back in the team, at the club and also with us.” 

7. On Mikel Obi’s future with the Super Eagles

“Obi Mikel is playing again in Middlesbrough for a few weeks and is doing well now. But there is still a little problem with his knee and it was not the moment now to come back for him in these conditions. They have so many games in Middlesbrough, they are fighting for promotions. He told me that this is not the moment to come back so the question was not there to come back now but if Obi Mikel, is very fit again, if he has the motivation, if he shows that he is better than the other people we have, the door is open for everybody.

“I’m not like (Joachim) Löw who announced officially that three of his players are out definitively from the Germany national team, I never say that because you never know what can happen. You can have injuries, you can sometime a great fitness and performance from the players who you believe are finished. 

We are watching and seeing what is happening to see if he can come back. We need experience in our team, we have young players, so the experience of such a player could be interesting.”

8. His approach for the games against Seychelles and Egypt

“Seychelles is the most important game, generally, the next game is all the time, the most important, we don’t think for the moment, the second or the third game. 

“Perhaps for some of us , it is three games because we decided in our solidarity with the U23, if we can help, we will help, we want them to go to Tokyo in 2020. We want them to go to the African Championship and they have to win 3-0. So this is a big challenge, if we can help with that, we already qualified. But we have to win our games.”

9. Rohr’s assessment of the Super Eagles

“I think there is a bigger chance to win the AFCON than the World Cup. We have a chance to go far because we have a team that were among the five (African) teams that played at the World Cup, nobody from the five teams went into the second round but we were very close. Since the World Cup, I see that the team is improving.

“That is why we are very optimistic for this AFCON, I want to find again some players who are injured, Kalu, Ola Aina, perhaps Kelechi is coming back in the team, so there will be a competition for the list already. If there is competition for the list, I think the level of the team will be higher. That is why we have the opportunity to bring other players to have more competition to come into our list.” 

10. On the four NPFL players in the squad 

“I called them because two of them (Ozornwafor and Udo) I saw them in (U20) AFCON in Niger. I was watching the matches, I was seeing the players and some with the coaches and I decided to take two of them because they did well. 

“The last one Effiong is coming because we had in the last moment an injury of Ola AIna so I didn't want to call somebody in Europe. If you have somebody here it’s better. It is good to see them and they also have the opportunity to come to U20, U23 and also to the CHAN team. If they play well for the CHAN team like Udoh in Morocco they can play for us.”

11. On Francis Uzoho’s troubles in Cyprus 

“Uzoho has a problem with the medical certificate, which was made in the last moment so they did not recognise. He made one or two games with his clubs and then has been suspended but now he will play, so we are happy about it. 

“It is not a problem in the goalkeeper for the moment,. Uzoho is the goalkeeper for the future, we still have (Ikechukwu) Ezenwa who played against South Africa, don’t forget, Uzoho was injured and we had also Daniel Akpeyi who is playing in the bigger club in South Africa.”