Samson Siasia Raises Alarm Over Nigeria U-20's Defence

Ahead of this year's FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Egypt, Nigeria coach Samson Siasia has told Goal.com that he is growing grey hairs over his team's defensive setup.

"I'm still having problems in my defence, especially my central defence," Siasia said while reviewing his team's preparations for the tournament.

The former schoolboy international, Kingsley Udoh, has been the team's mainstay in the heart of the defence, but his lack of match fitness due to the fact that he has not been playing for a club has been evident of late.

Siasia has also battled to get a worthy partner for Udoh in the centre of the back four.

The coach also bemoaned the lack of quality substitutes in the team.

"One could see from our shock loss to Guatamala in the recent tournament in Egypt that the reserve players are not good enough. I wanted to give every player a chance, but unfortunately this backfired because we did not have the players from the bench to do the job," he said.

The former World Cup star disclosed that the Flying Eagles, as the national Under-20 side are known, will resume training in Abuja on August 8 ahead of their scheduled departure for final preparations in Mallorca.

"We plan to take on the national team of the armed forces in Abuja before we fly out to Spain," he said.

Several players from the domestic league, like Kano Pillars midfielder Shehu Shagari and Osanga King, are expected to now battle for places in the final squad, as Siasia plans to call up as many as 30 players for this final leg of the team's build-up.

"Shagari is a very hard working player, and in our final game against Egypt, Osanga really impressed," said Siasia.

Also expected to stake a claim in the final World Cup squad will be the AC Milan pair of Nnamdi Oduamadi and Harmony Ikande. Oduamadi has been promoted from Milan's youth team to the seniors and recently featured against city rivals Inter in a pre-season game.

Samm Audu, Goal.com