17th April, 2012
Inspite of Ahmed Musa being one of the hottest Nigerian players in Europe, having moved to CSKA Moscow in January, former Nigerian international, Tijani Babangida, says coaches have not been able to tackle the weakness of the pacy winger, which he identified as poor pullout of the ball.
According to the chairman of Taraba United, Musa has all it takes to excel in modern football, but he has to improve on the quality of his game technically.
He said that he had the same problem Musa is going through when he was playing for Ajax in Holland and fortunately for him, the technical crew of Ajax assigned a special coach to him, a former Dutch winger, who helped to solve the problem and developed him into a better winger.
“Ahmed Musa lacks good coaches. Let me tell you my experience when I was playing in Holland with Ajax. There was this coach; I can’t recollect his name again. He played from the right side of the midfield during his professional career. He taught me exactly which foot to use when making dribbling runs and I wanted to pull the ball out for the attackers to score. This translated into my performance in the Super Eagles,” Babangida told P.M .Sports exclusively in Abuja.
“ I still recall the pass I gave Kanu Nwankwo when we played against Liberia, it was an unbelievable move and the pass was very quick and I was glad that Kanu made good use of the ball by scoring,” he added.
Unfortunately, Babangida said Musa has not played under a club coach that will show keen interest in developing his game and turn him into a better winger which will greatly benefit the Super Eagles.
“The problem with Musa is finishing, if this is corrected, he will become a better player.” Babangida stated.
Musa has been a super regular for his club, CSKA Moscow since he joined the Russian outfit in January with a goal to his name.
—Francis Achi, Abuja