I have played under many coaches since I joined the national team and I must confess that Lagerback brought something different to the team…Yobo
A MAJORITY of the Super Eagles players on Tuesday pleaded with the Nigerian football authority to give their technical adviser, Lars Lagerback, the chance to build a new national team for the country.
According to them, the Swede has shown within a short time that he has the wherewithal to halt the slide in the country’s fortune in international football.
Speaking shortly after Nigeria drew 2-2 with South Korea in a match it needed to win to qualify for the second round of the ongoing South Africa 2010 World Cup, the players absolved Lagerback of blame for their poor performance at the Mundial.
Deputy captain Joseph Yobo told journalists during a post-match briefing at the Moses Madhiba Stadium in Durban that it would be unkind of any Nigerian to say that Lagerback failed the country when the Sweden former coach was not responsible for Nigeria’s elimination.
He added that apart from the results, the coach acquitted himself creditably: “I have played under many coaches since I joined the national team and I must confess that Lagerback brought something different to the team,” Yobo said.
“We did not win our matches here, but any observer with technical knowledge of the game will agree that the current team showed a lot of urgency in its play. Unfortunately, the players did not do their bit on the pitch. Will you blame Lagerback for the lost chances that would have taken us to the second round?”
He added: “It is unfortunate that we always look for a scapegoat each time we fail. We should search ourselves and find out where we faltered and then make amends.
“I want to plead that Lagerback is given the opportunity to build his team with the best players eligible to play for Nigeria because I believe that given more time, the coach will give us the national team we deserve.”
To Kalu Uche, who scored Nigeria’s opening goal in the 2-2 draw with South Korea, Lagerback’s knowledge of the game will give Nigeria a new lift if he is given the opportunity to work for the team for a reasonable length of time.
“I am sad that we could not qualify for the second round despite dominating the game against Korea,” he said. “We created chances that would have made the game end 5-2 but did not score the goals. Now people are blaming Lagerback, why?
“Considering that Lagerback did not have the time to scout for all the good Nigerian players before taking his team to South Africa, I will say that he has done well. Everything depends on the Nigeria Football Federation and the sports authorities, but I will suggest that he be given time to build his own team.”
Kalu added: “The bane of African football is lack of continuity and we have to change that way of doing things. Look at all the African teams at this World Cup, most of them are going home early because they did not allow their coaches enough time to work with the teams.
“We should for once give the coach time to work in his own way and give us a good team. It doesn’t matter who is in the team as long as the players are Nigerians.”
Skipper Kanu Nwankwo, goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and Dickson Etuhu also towed the same line, but Russia-based striker Osaze Odemwingie disagreed with his mates, saying that Lagerback has failed Nigeria and should be shown the way out.
According to Odemwingie, who was furious that the Swede did not give him enough playing time, the Swede committed tactical blunders in the game against South Korea game. He said Lagerback allowed sentiment to becloud his judgement, adding that he was left out of the final group match because he questioned the coach’s tactics.
“We played three matches and lost two and people are still saying that we did well,” he fumed. “I have not seen a coach who will instruct strikers not to participate in defending.
“I think that is a big mistake with Nigerian football when we have only one defensive midfielder and one creative in front of him. All our middle was open and that was the problem we had against Greece.
“Today he instructed three attackers not to participate in defence, which left our midfielders in tough job of curtailing the tireless Koreans."
Odemwingie suggested that he was not given enough playing time because he attacked Lagerback’s tactics, adding that leaving out Obafemi Martins and himself was a great disservice to Nigeria. The Lokomotive Moscow striker added that sacking Shaibu Amodu has proved to be a great mistake, which came back to haunt Nigeria at the World Cup.
Odemwingie was among the players that hailed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)’s decision to sack Amodu after the Angola 2010 Nations Cup, because he said that, with hindsight, he would have opposed the move.
“I think we made a mistake in sacking Amodu because what we got here showed that the wise decision would have been to go with what we had. Now we have spent so much money for nothing,” he lamented. “Nigerians deserve better than what we gave them and I want to apologise to them.”
Though he admitted that Nigeria did not have the team to win the World Cup, he said the country had the quality to qualify for the second round in a group that had Greece, South Korea and Argentina.