Ukraine Friendly: Encourage Gernot Rohr -Mutiu Adepoju

Ex international, Mutiu Adepoju believes the current crop of players being invited for the international friendly game against Ukraine by Super Eagles technical adviser, Gernot Rohr deserves to be encouraged.

The Ukraine game will serve as a warm-up match to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Squirrels of Benin in November. Adepoju, who was part of the squads for the FIFA World Cups in 1994 and 1998, where he scored in a 3–2 win against Spain and in 2002, said that much emphasis should be on the performance of the players against Ukraine before crucifying the technical adviser.

Last week, the German tactician invited 23 players for the international friendly match against Ukraine to be played at the Dnipro Arena on September 10 with two new invitees, Joe Aribo and Maduka Okoye.

“I am not particularly worried about the list of players Super Eagles technical adviser, Gernot Rohr invited for the Ukraine game. “Although there have been knocks and thumbs up heading towards the direction of Rohr for some of the players he invited, however, I still want to believe that every player should be given a fair chance to prove his worth in the team.

“Most especially the invitation of goalkeeper, Maduka Okoye has received wide criticisms by some football critics but then, the coach knows better. As you know, if a team does well, the coach takes the praise and if they fail to excel, he also takes the blame. Let’s wait for the outcome of the game before criticizing him.”