Ndidi Now Nigeria's Most Important Player & Four Takeaways From Super Eagles Stars Performances

Nigerian players have had mixed fortunes so far this season and allnigeriasoccer.com's Izuchukwu Okosi in this piece takes a look at the takeaways from the form of key Eagles stars before the latest international break.

1. Wilfred Ndidi Is Arguably Nigeria's Best Player Currently

Leicester City midfield destroyer Wilfred Ndidi is having a brilliant campaign at Leicester City and perhaps has even done more for the Foxes than Ngolo Kante ever did in the 2015/2016 title winning season.

According to football statistical website, www.whoscored.com, Ndidi is tied  with Atletico Madrid's Filipe Luis as the second best tackler per game with 4.2 in the top five leagues in across Europe behind Verona's Bruno Zuculini at 4.3, meaning he is atop that rating in the English Premier League at the moment, little wonder he is now on the wish list of Liverpool and Barcelona ahead of the summer' transfer window.

Ndidi's aerial dominance and pass completion rate are excellent. He has also weighed in with three assists so far and could potentially be Nigeria's most important player at the World Cup.

Hopefully he will  come out of the international break and the rest of the season unscathed.

2. Competition For Nigeria's Defensive Midfield

Gernot Rohr is expected to name at least three defensive minded midfielders for the World Cup in Russia.

Team captain John Mikel Obi plays in the attacking midfield role for Nigeria so that leaves the battle for who starts in defensive midfield position in Rhor's favoured 4-3-3 formation between Wilfred Ndidi, Ogenyi Onazi, John Ogu, Oghenekaro Etebo, Joel Obi, Azubuike Okechukwu and perhaps Afeez Aremu.

On the back of his great season thus far,  Ndidi is certainly almost guaranteed a spot for the friendlies against Poland and Serbia, and ultimately at the World Cup. That leaves a place in the team's starting berth for the other players to jostle for.

On paper, Onazi who was in goal scoring form for his Turkish side,Trabzonspor over the weekend against Azubuike Okechukwu's Yeni Mslatyaspor is likely to get the nod being the team's vice captain but the consistency and even goal scoring ability of the other defensive midfielders makes it rather difficult to conclude who starts or drops to the bench- or out of the World Cup team.

Etebo has been spectacular for on-loan club Las Palmas and would have a thing or two to say about Rohr's selections.

The pre-World Cup friendlies will be the opportunities Rohr needs to make these decisions.

3. Goalkeeping Crisis Resolved?

Following the unfortunate illness that struck Wolverhampton Wanderers keeper Carl Ikeme (leukemia) and uncertainty surrounding the return of Vincent Enyeama to the national team, Nigeria football faithful became apprehensive.

This was not made any easier by Rohr's seeming fate in Enyeama getting a new club or a change of fortune at Lille of France after Marcelo Bielsa's verdict on the keeper with three World Cup appearances (2002, 2010 and 2014).

Enyimba custodian Ikechukwu Ezenwa was however on duty during the WAFU Cup in Ghana in 2017 and the African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Morocco earlier this year and seems to have won the trust of Rohr with some promising performances albeit a few edges to iron out in his game.

The coach recently alluded to the fact that Dele Alampasu has not been active at his club while Dele Ajiboye did not impress him at the CHAN thereby handing Daniel Akpeyi (who interestingly was criticized for conceding two goals against Argentina in the friendly last year) and Deportivo La Coruna's Francis Uzoho the chance to stake a claim.

Rohr must however cast his nets wider and look inward in the NPFL.

Ojo Olorunleke was in inspired form for Akwa United in the CAF Confederation Cup preliminary rounds.

4.  January Transfer Moves All For World Cup Places

A couple of Nigeria internationals swapped their clubs for new abodes this January all in a bid to ensure that they stand a chance to make Super Eagles' team to Russia 2018.

Forgotten Eagles striker Brown Ideye moved from Greek giants Olympiakos to Malaga in the La Liga same as Isaac Success who left Watford for the same club.

Las Palmas welcomed the duo of Emmanuel Emenike (although retired from international football) and Imoh Ezekiel (who is an exceptional talent and should be in the Eagles' reckoning) but unfortunately these two aren't playing at the moment.

Ahmed Musa returned to his former club, CSKA Moscow on loan for the rest of the season after languishing on the Leicester bench almost every weekend.

Conversely the departure of Islam Slimani to Newcastle United opened the window of opportunity for Kelechi Iheanacho to stake his claim for more game time under Claude Puel which he grabbed and has scored some vital goals for his club in the Premier League and FA Cup.

5. NPFL Stars Keen To Join The European Train

The West Africa Football Union (WAFU) last year and African Nations Championship (CHAN)  in January and February 2018 proved that Nigeria do still have quality players in the domestic league.

A few of  the players coach Salisu Yusuf prosecuted both competitions with like Stephen Eze who has signed for Bulgarian club, Locomotive Plovdiv as a result of his outstanding performances.

The players put in great shifts understandably believe that unless they became foreign based Eagles, their World Cup chances are limited.

That is indeed true as Gernot Rohr has told the Nigerian media on a couple of times that the country's best players are based in Europe and not at home.

Izuchukwu Okosi