INTERVIEW: If I fail with Super Eagles, I will go home, says Rohr

Gernot Rohr, technical adviser of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, says he is  aware of the limitations of his team and he is ready to do all in his technical depth to ensure the team’s qualification for the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Speaking with TheCable at the weekend after the Super Eagles pipped Tanzania to a lone-goal victory in Uyo, Rohr stated that Nigeria is not one of the top 10 African footballing nations at the moment, which means a lot needs to be done.

He said the team is technically deficient in a number of ways, and his work will soon silence the Nigerian critics who think he is not good enough for the job.

Excerpts:

Tanzania win the first step towards Russia

It is quite a big challenge. I accept the challenge and I know that it is difficult. But I believe that we can succeed. The challenge is to go to Russia. We did the first step perhaps with the game against Tanzania. It was ‎a victory. We had a training camp and trained well. But there’s still lots of work to do. I am sure that we can go there.

If I don’t succeed I wil go home

Yes, you know in football, there’s always‎ one obligation: results. So I accept the challenge to go there. If I don’t succeed, I will go home. I signed the contract and I will give all my best to be there. To help the team to go there and I am sure that we can go there. But we have other very good teams in the group. The number one in Africa is there, Algeria. Nigeria is not in the top 10 in Africa. So we are not the favorite team unlike Algeria, even Cameroon. Nigeria didn’t go to previous African Cup of Nations and we won’t go to the next one. But we will go to the World Cup.

My work will shut up my critics

I will not say anything to people who say I am not good enough for the job. My work will give the answer.

Gabo, Burkina-Faso, Guinea experience prepared me for Nigeria job

I had good experience in some African countries (Gabon,Burkina-Faso, Niger, Guinea) which prepared me of course to have a good work with the Nigerian team, but it’s a bit different because here we speak English and not French. The other countries I worked with are all Francophone countries. But I believe football is a universal sport and I think the players understand what I want. We had the first week together with good training session, one friendly game, we won 3-0 and the serious game we won 1-0. So we have started in a good way but we still have a lot of work to do. And players need confidence. There’s a lot of work to do technically and tactically on the team. It’s a short time to the next game. But I think we can succeed.

I will build an efficient Super Eagles

I had coached some Nigerian players that‎ played in my teams in Niger and Burkina Faso. I coached one Nigerian player in Nice in Southern France in 2004/05,Victor Agali. So, I have a bit of experience with Nigerian football. But now international football, I know what we need; we need to be efficient, we need to be a team, we have good players, but we must have a big solidarity and a good defence. That’s what I will have to build.

Eagles have fundamental deficiencies

We don’t have Ronaldo. We don’t have Messi. We have good players. Very good strikers. We must build the team with good balance, good defence, good midfield, good strikers who will like to play together. So what we need now is the time to work but we don’t have so much of it. However, when I see the game against Tanzania much more realistically, the team had 15 chances to score but scored only one goal. There’s a problem, something is wrong. So, I think its confidence but It’s also perhaps to make a good choice when you are in front of the goal.

We must play from the wings

We‎ have good wingers, so we must come by the sides. But the team of Tanzania was very defensive. We had to go by the sides, we tried to do that; they could not all the time, and they forgot at times. They tried to go by the centre. But I think it is a good way to come through the defence, to play from the sides, come through the wings, to have the right back play offensively, to exploit free kicks and corners from which we scored. It is very important and it is a lot of work and I think we have only one week before the Zambia game to train together.

We need a video analyst

It is very important to have a video analyst, to analyze our games and the other teams. We need it for the players to see and make playing better next time.

Winner silver at UEFA cup ’96

My best player was Zidane in 1996 because he was really a young ‎player who wanted to progress, he wanted to play football for fun. 1996 was a good year; my team got to the UEFA cup final against Bayern Munich. And it was the first year Dugarry, Lizarazu, Zinedine Zidane were at the top in Europe.
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