Daniel Amokachi believes fresh players will make Super Eagles better

Babalola Tomiwa

Super Eagles stand-in coach, Daniel Amokachi has expressed optimism that the new players he's introducing to the Super Eagles squad will breathe some life into the team after failing to reach the 2015 finals.

The Nigerian senior national team are currently camping in Uyo where they are expected to file out against the Cranes of Uganda on Wednesday in a FIFA friendly game at the Uyo international stadium.

"We are trying to inject new blood into the team. You know we have young players that are new to Nigerians,"Amokachi told supersport.com

"Hopefully with what we see them show in Europe they will be able to show same here.

"We just had one training today but we are hoping the Nigerian jersey will not be too heavy for some of them because it's not easy to wear the national colors.

"The pressure is immense, but we just hope, so we just hope it doesn't take it's toll on the day so that they can give the best performance that they can give Nigerians

Amokachi also reiterated his commitment to including the home based players as a way of continuing with Steven Keshi's tradition of infusing the home based players and the foreign based players.

The squad in Uyo consists of 11 home based players and Amokachi insists the same route will be taking in trying to build a stronger national team.

"If you remember when we qualified for the last one about eighty percent played in the qualifiers are the home based were immense as we won the Afcon."the former Everton striker said.

"Some of them scored crucial goals that enabled us win the 2013 Afcon. It's a step we have to revisit.

"You can see from the call up that it's not only the home based players but young players who are not exposed but playing in Europe and also some of our players who are not capped but making waves in Europe asking them to come and play for their fatherland.

"If we can merge all this into one, I think we should then have a formidable team.

The Super Eagles assistant coach is optimistic that Uganda will be a credible test for the Super Eagles in Wednesday's international friendly.

"Uganda is a very good side. They narrowly missed qualifying for the 2015 Afcon. We want to give them a good,"Amokachi said.

"We all know the coach and his players will want to beat Nigeria but we will be ready for them."added