Coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr has defended the first choice goalkeeper of the Super Eagles Francis Uzoho after his unconvincing display in yesterday’s hard fought 3-2 win over Libya.
Uzoho was roundly criticised for his poor ball handling and judgment of crosses during the game and to an extent his ill timed and less powered punch felled kindly to the Libyan striker who levelled things up for the host.
Rohr was asked about the performance of the 19 year old who is currently on a season long loan deal to Spanish second division side Elche from fellow second division side Deportivo La Coruna .
Just as it was at Deportivo La Coruna, Uzoho is not first choice at Elche and so far he has kept just one game and that came in the Copa Del Rey. Overall he has kept just four first team games at club level, something which makes Rohr to call for patience with him.
The coach also said the defence line should share part of the blame and not just the goalkeeper even though he admitted that Uzoho was nervous following Libya’s fight back from two goals down to bring scores to 2-2.
“Uzoho is young only 19 and sometimes your have to forgive him for some mistakes. That was a difficult game for him, he didn’t have so much to do in the beginning then he conceded the goals and he was a bit nervous later on”, Rohr said at the post match conference.
“Perhaps the defenders made some mistakes, it’s not only the goalkeeper because Libya scored two goals to comeback due to their fight and it didn’t come to us as a surprise”, he concluded.
