Sacking Amodu was a mistake

In a surprise turn-around, Osaze Odemwingie has said that it was a mistake to fire Shaibu Amodu and replace him with Lars Lagerback.


Odemwingie was one of the players who spoke up against Amodu at the African Nations Cup in Angola, leading to the axing of the former BCC Lions coach.

But after a disastrous World Cup where Nigeria finished bottom of a winnable group with just one point out of nine, the Lokomotiv Moscow forward said that it was a mistake to fire Amodu.

“They should not have fired Amodu. I think that was a mistake,” he said.Odewmingie went on to say that Nigeria did not have a team good enough to challenge the best.

“To be honest, we don’t have the team that can win the World Cup. If you go down to the roots, most of us, including myself, in our clubs we are not doing great.

“We are not like the big team we used to be, having players in the big clubs and coming here with the ambition to win the Cup. But definitely we could have

done much better.” Odemwingie also criticised coach Lars Lagerback’s selection and tactics, but says if the coach can learn from his mistakes, he would do better with the Super Eagles.

“I think the World Cup experience and being with us has given him some advantage over the next candidate.
“People learn from mistakes. If he takes the positives from this one and he feels good with working with Nigerian boys then yes, I think he should stay.”

“Three games three losses. I think a few things he did were big mistakes,” Odemwingie said,
“Like telling two strikers not to participate in defending.

“I think that is a big mistake with Nigerian football when we have one defensive midfielder and one creative in front of him. All our middle was open and that was the problem we had against Greece.

“Today the instruction was that three people did not have to participate in defence. I think that also was a big mistake.”
Odemwingie was reported to have erupted in the dressing room after the Greece loss, and explained that he had good reason to.

“Yeah I said to him that there are some key players in this team that he didn’t give enough playing time. And I was one of them. I said to him we have been here for a few years and we have qualified this team for the World Cup and he was putting us aside and it’s not fair.

“Some of us like myself and Martins are leaders in this team and we have been making the difference for the country and we needed to get more playing time and more chances to play.”

Odemwingie then suggested that his tirade may have been the reason he was left out of against Korea.
“It is possible that that’s why he didn’t play me today.”