The pain of dropping points should surely be easing out by now among Enyimba faithful I believe. Now is the time to focus on what is ahead of the People’s Elephant rather than brood over what is lost. It is time to move on from the Niger Tornadoes episode. It is gone for good.
The next seven or eight days hold two important Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) fixtures for Enyimba against El-Kanemi Warriors and Ikorodu City. Already the manner of the journey to the Northeast to face El-Kanemi is something that is on the front-burner. I can imagine making a journey of more than 20 hours by road ahead of a crucial match. Surely some, or even all of the players, would be knackered or travel-weary by the time it is kickoff on Sunday.
Now that is where Enyimba head coach, Yemi Olanrewaju Daniel also known as Yema, needs to use his discretion in selection of players based on their physical fitness and intelligence. So this is the time for rotation of the squad to keep the playing personnel fresh with the visit of Ikorodu City still to come as well as matches at Bayelsa United, Remo Stars and the derby with Abia Warriors before the trip to Egypt to face Al Masry in their first group game of the CAF Confederation Cup. Definitely a packed schedule for the People’s Elephant.
Let’s focus on the immediate trip to Maiduguri as well as the game in Aba versus Ikorodu City. First, I understand the team have already made it halfway to Maiduguri as at the time I was penning this, ad I guess that is to buy them time to stretch their legs for a day before the match proper. Goalkeeper Ani Ozoemena Ifeanyi Ihemekwele, Alalibo Somiari, Paschal Eze and Imo Obot have started all of Enyimba’s four previous matches. I hear Obot and Fatai Abdullahi didn’t make the trip to the Northeast so I think Yema is conserving energy now.
Yema needs to look at bringing in some of the fringe players who have featured in a fewer minutes in recent matches. Joseph Atule, Ismail Sarki, Divine Ukadike, Elijah Akanni, Wasiu Jimoh, Moses Adikwu and Bernard Ovoke easily come to mind. Now this is not to suggest Yema overhauls his starters against an in-form side like El-Kanemi who are still undefeated in the league this season. I believe Yema who has played in this league knows what to do as this is a time in the early moments of the season you don’t want to lose key players to niggling injuries.
I know you are expecting me to talk about the possible outcome of the game versus El-Kanemi. No I won’t. You have to wait for the preview. Yema and his boys just needs to find a way to navigate through this dicey trip to Maiduguri. The coach has already spoken about this trip.
“We have to recover this point. That is the only thing that can console all of us. Everybody is down now but we have to go there and fight to get the maximum points. We know it’s going to be difficult considering we will have to be on the road for three days. At this point we can’t get tired as I’ve told the boys this is just Week 7 of the season,” the gaffer said.
Once they get the El-Kanemi game out the way, Yema can unleash his best men at home against Ikorodu City who are gradually gaining confidence in their first season in the top-flight. He cannot afford to drop points for the second successive home game as that would spell disaster.
Nevertheless the focus is on El-Kanemi at the moment and I hope Enyimba come out on top of this since we have had a season of unpredictable outcomes so far.
Tomorrow with a match preview
‘EnyimbaEnyi
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