One of the thing most Nigerians have complained about the coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr is his decision to delay his substitutions especially when it’s clear that the team need something different.
Rohr is most times guilty of waiting till few minutes to the end of games before making substitutions even when the team is losing and some players are not living up to their quality.
The coach was asked about why he always take time to make substitutions and he revealed he normally consults his assistants before deciding on who should be taken off and who will come on as replacement.
He pointed out to the game against Argentina at the Russia 2018 World Cup, where he wanted to take off Ahmed Musa and bring on Alex Iwobi but he was persuaded by his assistants to leave Musa on the pitch because the Argentines were scared of his pace.
“Against Argentina at the World Cup, I wanted to bring in Iwobi for Musa, but my assistants, who were upstairs analysing the game, advised against that”, the coach said.
“They told me that the Argentine defenders were afraid of Musa and changing him would be counterproductive, so I waited. Perhaps, I should have gone ahead to effect the change.
“We change according to situations and also, we know that something can happen to change the dynamics of a game, like a red card to the goalkeeper happening when you have already made all the changes. That means you cannot bring another goalkeeper and would be forced to play without a goalkeeper.”
