'Can do the job' - Ex-Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr defends Uzoho from critics

Ex-Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr has insisted that there's no better goalkeeper in Nigeria than his former pupil, Francis Uzoho despite the Omonia Nicosia star's blunders in recent national team matches. 

The former Bayern Munich defender saw the then teenager as a future Nigeria number 1, handing him his international debut against three-time world champions Argentina in a friendly in November 2017 and took him to the 2018 World Cup, where he was in goal in all the matches contested by the Super Eagles. 

Uzoho came in for criticism after Nigeria missed out on a place in last year's World Cup and did not cover himself in glory in his last four appearances for the Super Eagles, so much so that manager Jose Peseiro had to go in search of his possible replacement ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations. 

In truth, Uzoho is not a poor goalkeeper but his inactivity at Omonia Nicosia has contributed to his recent run of making schoolboy errors. 

Set pieces continue to be his Achilles heel as he has conceded in four consecutive Super Eagles matches from dead balls - against Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

Asked to comment on the goalkeeper situation in the Super Eagles, Rohr said to British-Nigerian journalist Osasu Obayiuwana: "Uzoho can do the job. I don’t know if there is a better one."

Rohr, however, suggested that there are top level strikers in the Super Eagles but the team is lacking the same quality of midfielders, especially defensive midfielders.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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