Iwobi also suggested that Super Eagles’ recent poor form at home came about because of the poor state of the pitches they play on
By Kehinde Okeowo
Everton midfielder, Alex Iwobi, has bemoaned the bumpy state of the pitches the Super Eagles play on during home fixtures.
Iwobi made this known during a recent interview with “The Beautiful Game” podcast, where he claimed the poor state of the stadiums contributed to the team’s poor performances.
Nigeria despite boasting of a star-studded squad failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and were recently beaten by lowly Guinea-Bissau at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja in one of their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The 26-year-old, while discussing the performance of the team, said recent bad results experienced at home came about because of the poor pitches they play on.
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He went on to draw a comparison between the games they play at home and those played away on good pitches, saying they are likely to get a good result in matches played on good surfaces.
The Nigerian international also suggested the team should pick a single venue for their home games and boasted they are a good side that would be difficult to beat when the conditions are right.
He said, “We don’t know if we are going to have a nice pitch to play.
“Obviously, we got a new coach and we played Sierra Leone and we beat them 2-1 in a very difficult game, then we played Sao Tome and Principe and beat them 10-0 because we played on a great pitch.
“A lot of us play in Europe now and we play on great pitches where it is easy to manipulate the ball around and play freely. If we had that in Nigeria it will be difficult to beat us and I am confident to say that not many teams can beat us.
“To start with, we don’t have a good pitch because if we have that I feel like we will be unstoppable. That is one thing about Nigeria and I don’t know what’s going on behind but we could play in Asaba, we could play in Lagos or Abuja. We understand that everyone wants to see the Eagles play and Nigeria is a very big nation but at the same time, it will just be nice to have just one base where we know how it is going to be, the hotel we are going to stay and the food we eat. It just makes everything easier.”
Iwobi further said the Super Eagles are still a young side still learning and urged Nigerians to be patient with the team.
“Our team is still young and we still have a lot to learn and even as a team, we are still learning about ourselves.
“One thing I can promise Nigerian fans is that as much as the talent is still there only God knows where we will be in the next few years and they just need to be patient with us because we are trying.” he added.