Omeruo, Oboabona defend like AMATEURS – Taribo

Taribo West has slammed the Super Eagles defence duo of Kenneth Omeruo and Godfrey Oboabona for defending like "amateurs" in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The former Nigeria defender, who says the national team's caretaker coach Shaibu Amodu should begin the search for new central defenders to make Omeruo and Oboabona compete for starting roles, also launched a fierce attack on left-back Juwon Oshaniwa, saying the Eagles "need someone better than him".

The Eagles on Wednesday in Abuja defeated Sudan 3-1 in their reverse fixture to revive their hopes of
qualifying for Morocco 2015 after Russia-based Ahmed Musa grabbed a brace and China-based striker Aaron Samuel scored a great goal on his international debut to help Nigeria climb to third place in Group A with four points from as many matches. But the African champions are in danger of missing out of the Morocco 2015 finals if they drop any point.

South Africa, who were held to goalless draw by Congo in the other group fixture in the same day,   lead the table on eight points, while Congo are second on seven points. Sudan are bottom of the standings on three points.

And Atlanta '96 Olympic Games gold medallist Taribo, who says the Eagles have only themselves to blame for their position in the standings, maintains Middlesbough's Omeruo and Caykur Rizespor's Obaobana should take the lion's share of the blame. He said they should take responsibility for the 1-0 defeat against Sudan in the first leg in Khartoum last Saturday.

"The Eagles impressed me (on Wednesday)   but our defence was suspect and Omeruo and Oboabona played like amateur defenders," the former Inter Milan strongman, who represented Nigeria at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, told our correspondent on the telephone during the week.

"They are good defenders but they were too relaxed and made the same mistakes over and over again. We have   conceded goals the same way in the qualifiers. Sudan's goal was similar to the one against us in the first leg in Khartoum.

"They only did well against South Africa, though they made some mistakes. South Africa had the opportunity to execute one-on-one moves and score goals but the goalkeeper saved us. The two defenders didn't play like champions or professionals in other games.

"I think they need competition. We need to scout for new central defenders. I would have suggested that they should be dropped but we don't have better replacements for them now. But they should work on improving their weaknesses.

"We should have someone better than Oshaniwa in the left-back."

Taribo backed the Eagles to seal their place at the continental showpiece and tipped the team to pick up maximum points from their remaining matches of the qualifiers.

"If they can continue to play the way they played on Wednesday, we'll be in Morocco next year to defend our title," the 2000 Ghana-Nigeria Africa Cup of Nations silver medallist said.

"We should play like the Sudanese who play with determination. We should mark like them, and play like champions."

The former AC Milan defender showered praises on Musa, Samuel and Emmanuel Emenike over their showing in the encounter.

He said, "Samuel was impressive while Musa was fantastic. Emenike also played well but he needs to scored a goal to regain his confidence."

BY FESTUS ABU