Every word Flying Eagles boss said on preparations, professionals invited, Inter Milan & Gent starlets

Flying Eagles head coach Ladan Bosso fielded questions from journalists after Wednesday's training session ahead of the national team's trip to Argentina for the 2023 FIFA U20 World Cup. 

Nigeria have an impressive record at the 2023 FIFA U20 World Cup, having finished runners-up on two occasions, were the third placed team in 1985, reached the quarterfinals three times and have qualified for the last sixteen in their last three appearances. 

Bosso's team will be doing battle with the Dominican Republic, Italy and Brazil in the group stage of the 2023 FIFA U20 World Cup and his first task is to qualify for the knockout rounds of the competition. 

The 55-year-old was quizzed on a variety of topics including the readiness of his team for the World Cup, plans for friendly matches and how much he knows about Nigeria's rivals in Group D. 

Bosso also shed light on the omission of Gent forward Ahmed Abdullahi from the provisional squad and confirmed that Inter Milan midfielder Ebenezer Akinsanmiro is most probably out of the roster. 

Read every word Ladan Bosso said :  

Good to have you Ladan Bosso, head coach of Nigerian Flying Eagles, seventeen days before the start of the World Cup and about a week before the submission of the final list, how ready is your team Sir? 

"As far as we are concerned we've gotten the necessary support from the Federation, we've gotten the necessary support from stakeholders that have been following the team. For now what we are trying to do now is to put the finishing touches to our preparations. And what are the finishing touches? We try to blend the professionals that we have invited and thank God everything about the professionals is very positive. We have been able, that is the technical crew and the technical department, Google and download and get the appearances of the foreign-based players we have invited, appearances in the last ten matches, so if you are not a regular player in your team you cannot be here. All we are tying to do is to avoid the mistakes of what our U23 did. It's a grave mistake inviting players that you don't know their form so we have to take correction from there. All things being equal we are on the right way."

Coach, the Niger and Benin Republic friendlies were recently arranged. Are there any other plans to play solid friendlies?

"We plan to play Lobi Stars and Nasarawa United but at the moment they have matches this weekend. The good thing is that we will be in Argentina maybe 10-12 days before the kickoff so we'll be able to arrange for solid friendly matches against unknown opponents to fine tune our strategies. "

You said you knew some things about your opponents the other day, how much do you know about them now? 

"The most important thing is that small information about your opponent will give an insight on how to prepare for them. I have my eyes everywhere, even in Europe people Google and send me messages about our opponents but these are things that I should not be disclosing on the air. We are doing a good job, my colleagues are doing a very good job, the Federation is doing a very good job and I believe we are good to go."

What type of football should Nigerians expect from you?

"With what we are seeing now the team now is better than we took to Egypt. We looked at the problems we had in Egypt and we try to reinforce the areas and that is what we are doing right away and everything about it is positive".

Will you be going all out to play champagne football or you'll be very conservative?

"For me as a coach, we take every match according to the way it comes and according to the strengths of our opponent. We are going to play Dominican Republic in the first match, we look at them, what pattern or what system suits us that we can have an edge over them. The way we play our first match might not be the same formation for the second match and that second match may not be the same for the third match, so it depends on the strength of the opponent, the players that are available for us and we are good to go." 

You really vouched for Ahmed Abdullahi from Gent the other day, he barely trained with the team before they went for the Nations Cup but he's not included in your squad.

"Yes of course. He was one of the disappointments that we faced and I don't want to repeat such mistakes because every day we are on a learning process. Ahmed was the only player that joined us over there and from the look of things his fitness level was very, very low compared to the players we took and that was the genesis of his red card in the first match. And of course from the players that we have invited Ebenezer is a good player, could have been important to us but his release will be on the 15th. The club said they can only release him from the 15th and that is not good for us, so we have to keep him aside."

So how do you hope to score goals there in Argentina? 

"You can see what is happening. In Egypt our problem was finishing but as far as I'm concerned if a team plays six matches, scores eight goals, conceded only two, it's still a plus. However, we try to reinforce that area and you can see from the training sessions goals are coming."

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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