How will you evaluate the strategy of playing both home and foreign players based together?
Well the positive thing is that I gave the foreign base player the opportunity to show me what they are up to. The negative thing is that I went there for 3 point but I end up with 1 point. But another positive thing is that the three home based players and the fourth one-Reuben-that came in in the second half really gave me a lot of courage and another additional motivation to keep working with them and they can be relied upon.
If the game was to be replayed again next week what will you do differently from what you did in the first leg?
I will play the same style of play but I will change the players that I started with. I will feature hungrier players, more committed players that want to get result. Because when we started, we played good. The Rwandans were not there until we gave them the confidence during the second half and they started playing.
Some people felt that our defence was rock solid but the mid field was not giving the right kind of supplies to the attack and that the mid field now remain our trouble area. Do you agree?
They all have their opinion I won’t say I disagree because it’s their opinion. But one or two of the player were not working with the tactical play that we had before coming to the field and that’s why it looks as if the mid field player are not doing their job, and that’s why I said if I have to play them again I’ve to change the personnel on the field and put the ones that will go by the instruction and the game plan of the game.
You called up 11 foreign based players for this last game. Will that be a trend now?
Yes because I am trying to build a different team, mostly surrounding with the local team and if I have to bring in foreign based players, they must be players that will give me everything that I want. But I don’t think I will ever bring in more than 10 players. I never did it in Togo or in Mali so I’m not going to do it here in Nigeria. I have to give the home base players the opportunity, but they also need to live up to the expectation, by giving all their best.
Some people feel that limiting the number of foreign based players will also affect some of the young hungry foreign based players that can also be useful to the team?
No, those are the young professionals that are just coming up that I might go to their direction like Nnamdi, Odumade, Obiora some other young talented players out there. I might want to give opportunity to them to show what they can do and try to blend them like Ahmed Musa, Joel Obi and all those younger kids with the home based players and take it from there.
What about the challenges of home based players who are in Nigeria this season and the next season they are gone abroad. Will this not be a problem for building your team?
It not a problem if I have 6 months with them. They already know what I want they know the basics that I want and if they are in Europe playing for their team it becomes a lot easier for me because now the orientation of professionalism comes into play. They will begin to understand more what it means to be a day to day professional and they have to take football to another level, so it is not a problem. But I cannot have a player 2 weeks, leaves and now come back. I can’t do that. I want players that I can have for six month or one year, if he now leaves, it is not a problem because he already knows the fundamentals of our game.
