A Tactical Loss!
Hello Everyone, I believe you have had a very good and fulfilling time so far.
Well for all Nigerian football lovers, fans and followers, we are still probably lamenting on the lacklustre performance of our teams at the just concluded Under 20 World Cup in New Zealand and the ongoing Women's World Cup in Canada.
I was quite disappointed myself because I had so much optimism for the Nigerian teams particularly the Under 20 (Flying Eagles). They lost not because they did not prepare well for the competition but in my opinion - it was a game we gave away from the bench. Once again, this raises the question about the competence of our local coaches.
Move onto the women's team and you will feel a sense of huge despair. The team boasts the likes of BBC footballer of the Year Asisat Oshoala, Desire Oparanozie and Ngozi Okobi. After the game against Sweden where the Super Falcons pulled a surprise 3-3 entertaining draw. We all thought that we will advance to the next stage. However, the girls lost their remaining 2 games. I personally believe that the girls had what it takes to compete with the very best but again the limitation of the technical crew was hugely exposed. Coach Edwin Okon came out publicly to say that he does not need to scout his opponents - That is a cardinal sin in the coaching profession.
I think the coaching issue needs to be addressed by the football authorities.
I picked up a write up that sort of highlights the Nigerian team approach to games, particularly tactical play. Please read on....
By T Adeniyi
I am not a football expert, nor do I claim to be one. However from my limited knowledge of the game, this is what I think went wrong...
I don't think that the Flying Eagles team were poor nor overrated. I don't even think it was a question of ability. Some say that Musa Muhammed was not technical enough or this player was not up to it. Frankly I do not buy that. There was ONLY ONE German Player that looked to be heads and shoulders above everyone else on that pitch and that was Oztunali.
So what went wrong?
Some people think this is just age grade footie...who cares, we have Chad coming up etc. The eerie thing about that match against Germany however, is that...it is exactly how the Super Eagles would have executed that match as well!
Nigeria simply does not know how to play compact teams! It is our biggest weakness! Germany were compact for 90 Minutes and Nigeria barely got a shot away! That match was not an accidental loss, it was designed and written by the Germans! We were destined to lose that match, even before the referee blew the whistle.
Nigeria relies on space to play its type of football. We do not dictate matches tactically, instead we have always relied on the breadth of the pitch or the width of the pitch to play our football. Nigeria simply cannot play football without space. Once a team is too compact, we become entirely useless. We might as well be Burundi or Lesotho. The Germans did not give us any space! They crowded every player, including Awoniyi.
And how could they do that? Well they played a high line and had a high fitness level. But wouldn't that bring about weaknesses for them? Yes! The weakness that we could exploit would be the counter. BUT, on this day, our counter-attacking was not efficient. And the only good counter we executed was squandered by the greed of Awoniyi, who refused to pass to a wide open Success Isaac (for his own personal reasons).
Basically I would say the biggest weakness in Nigerian football right now is retaining possession and particularly in the midfield. We need players that can hold the ball in the midfield and also release it.
When I said I wanted Iheanacho and Yahaya in the team..it was not a blind call for a substitution. Nacho is a striker, a cerebral striker and if it was his day, he would have given us more options. Yahaya is also a cerebral player that can deliver more accurate balls than the likes of Godwin and Bulbwa.
Another thing I noticed is that we had a poor wing play. One thing the Nigerian teams often resort to when they cannot address compact team is that we play with width (That is traditional Nigerian football right there). I didn't really see any wing play, apart from Musa Muhammed who was a good wingback. So we had no wing play, our counters were dead on arrival, what was left for us to do? We couldn't hold possession in the midfield so we resorted to police football (Long ball).
Nigeria actually does better in matches where we stretch our opponents. Look at the matches they played against France in the World Cup, although that was a match we lost, still it was NOTHING like the match against Germany, we could definitely have won that match.
Another look at our match against Spain in the Confed Cup, we actually looked quite good, because we stretched them. If the team we are playing plays free flowing football or we can stretch them, then Nigeria's attack is effective. The second they become compact, we look like we have never played football before.
This team may very well have reached the final, if we avoided Germany. I think of all the teams in the World Cup, Germany were probably the most compact.
The reality is our attack was definitely our weakest point against Germany! Even our defence looked quite decent and Enaholo was not bad, three good saves. Although I would argue that the goal he conceded could have been saved.
Is this really far fetched? How can a team whose definition is attacking flair football unable to get even shots on target? It had nothing to do with the players on that day, but their opposition! In other words, it was a tactical loss.
(This was written a day after Nigeria lost to Germany).
please leave your comments
twitter - @amoky
Well for all Nigerian football lovers, fans and followers, we are still probably lamenting on the lacklustre performance of our teams at the just concluded Under 20 World Cup in New Zealand and the ongoing Women's World Cup in Canada.
I was quite disappointed myself because I had so much optimism for the Nigerian teams particularly the Under 20 (Flying Eagles). They lost not because they did not prepare well for the competition but in my opinion - it was a game we gave away from the bench. Once again, this raises the question about the competence of our local coaches.
Move onto the women's team and you will feel a sense of huge despair. The team boasts the likes of BBC footballer of the Year Asisat Oshoala, Desire Oparanozie and Ngozi Okobi. After the game against Sweden where the Super Falcons pulled a surprise 3-3 entertaining draw. We all thought that we will advance to the next stage. However, the girls lost their remaining 2 games. I personally believe that the girls had what it takes to compete with the very best but again the limitation of the technical crew was hugely exposed. Coach Edwin Okon came out publicly to say that he does not need to scout his opponents - That is a cardinal sin in the coaching profession.
I think the coaching issue needs to be addressed by the football authorities.
I picked up a write up that sort of highlights the Nigerian team approach to games, particularly tactical play. Please read on....
 |
| Its all about tactics in Modern Football |
By T Adeniyi
I am not a football expert, nor do I claim to be one. However from my limited knowledge of the game, this is what I think went wrong...
I don't think that the Flying Eagles team were poor nor overrated. I don't even think it was a question of ability. Some say that Musa Muhammed was not technical enough or this player was not up to it. Frankly I do not buy that. There was ONLY ONE German Player that looked to be heads and shoulders above everyone else on that pitch and that was Oztunali.
So what went wrong?
Some people think this is just age grade footie...who cares, we have Chad coming up etc. The eerie thing about that match against Germany however, is that...it is exactly how the Super Eagles would have executed that match as well!
Nigeria simply does not know how to play compact teams! It is our biggest weakness! Germany were compact for 90 Minutes and Nigeria barely got a shot away! That match was not an accidental loss, it was designed and written by the Germans! We were destined to lose that match, even before the referee blew the whistle.
Nigeria relies on space to play its type of football. We do not dictate matches tactically, instead we have always relied on the breadth of the pitch or the width of the pitch to play our football. Nigeria simply cannot play football without space. Once a team is too compact, we become entirely useless. We might as well be Burundi or Lesotho. The Germans did not give us any space! They crowded every player, including Awoniyi.
And how could they do that? Well they played a high line and had a high fitness level. But wouldn't that bring about weaknesses for them? Yes! The weakness that we could exploit would be the counter. BUT, on this day, our counter-attacking was not efficient. And the only good counter we executed was squandered by the greed of Awoniyi, who refused to pass to a wide open Success Isaac (for his own personal reasons).
Basically I would say the biggest weakness in Nigerian football right now is retaining possession and particularly in the midfield. We need players that can hold the ball in the midfield and also release it.
When I said I wanted Iheanacho and Yahaya in the team..it was not a blind call for a substitution. Nacho is a striker, a cerebral striker and if it was his day, he would have given us more options. Yahaya is also a cerebral player that can deliver more accurate balls than the likes of Godwin and Bulbwa.
Another thing I noticed is that we had a poor wing play. One thing the Nigerian teams often resort to when they cannot address compact team is that we play with width (That is traditional Nigerian football right there). I didn't really see any wing play, apart from Musa Muhammed who was a good wingback. So we had no wing play, our counters were dead on arrival, what was left for us to do? We couldn't hold possession in the midfield so we resorted to police football (Long ball).
Nigeria actually does better in matches where we stretch our opponents. Look at the matches they played against France in the World Cup, although that was a match we lost, still it was NOTHING like the match against Germany, we could definitely have won that match.
Another look at our match against Spain in the Confed Cup, we actually looked quite good, because we stretched them. If the team we are playing plays free flowing football or we can stretch them, then Nigeria's attack is effective. The second they become compact, we look like we have never played football before.
This team may very well have reached the final, if we avoided Germany. I think of all the teams in the World Cup, Germany were probably the most compact.
The reality is our attack was definitely our weakest point against Germany! Even our defence looked quite decent and Enaholo was not bad, three good saves. Although I would argue that the goal he conceded could have been saved.
Is this really far fetched? How can a team whose definition is attacking flair football unable to get even shots on target? It had nothing to do with the players on that day, but their opposition! In other words, it was a tactical loss.
(This was written a day after Nigeria lost to Germany).
please leave your comments
twitter - @amoky
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