₦airaland Forum

I am not watching the match but when I saw the news that the former back room staff to waldrum warning the super falcons that Comoros has recruited foreign born players, I knew the girls were not going to have it easy.

Reminds me of the cape verde women at the last wafcon, they gave a good account of themselves.

Basically, what this means going forward is to always prepare with your best legs along with very good coaches, including quality friendly matches where necessary. No more taking things for granted if not our football will go downwards. Wishing them all the best still.

My takes from the game
1. If Eric chelle is looking for the right profile to play in the diamond behind the strikers iheanacho and chukwueze are the right fit. Lookman deserve to play on the wings where he can better influence the game.
2. Between can be called upon for the right full back positions.
3. Know when to deploy a counter attacking approach, especially in away matches if the opponent is very strong in Africa.
4. Benjamin Fredrick has the brain but I am not sure about the legs. I still believe he should be tried in midfield.
5. We have seen enough of Moses Simon.

In this kind of matches, when a team is better than you and holds more possession than you in a match, the next thing is to play on the counter, that is why you still need very fast players on the wings. Your super eagles would not always successfully hold possession in all the matches they would play.
At the same time when playing with 2 strikers, please use a genuine striker not Simon. Today is lookman tomorrow is Simon. This is how the french team play that they got right. Different opposition, different strategy. We need speed for a counter-attacking setup.

In continuation, the coach needs to be tactically dynamic.
In African football, what many of our home based coaches don't realize is that a direct approach is better than playing the possession high football. At the same time, you need players with a lot of energy and stamina to play here in Africa. Is the reason why when scouting for players for the national team, the players need to have frightening speed in attack on the wings , a lot of creativity and dynamism in the middle, speed in the full back positions and strength in defence like bassey who can't be easily dispossessed of the ball.
All these factors put together is the way we can get back to winning games convincingly on the continent both male and female.

More than formation, a good coach should be very strategic in thinking and at the same time must make sure that everything player playing must be effective on the field.
Eric chelle tried this diamond formation in chan against Senegal and Sudan and all of a sudden, the boys forgot how to play football.
When it was time to analyze what went wrong a lot of people blamed the assistant coaches for taking only their club players to the competition.
Similarly, when guinea Bissau defeated us here in uyo, it was a guy running from the midfield that split the 2 center backs open to score the goal when pesiero was coach, this particular match was what made the coach to adopt a 3 man defense for the Afcon.
The same move made the same team score the third goal against us in the last match.
The bottom line is that no matter the new players we call up after a while the criticism would start, not saying that we don't need new players but the coach must be able to get the best out of what he has tactically till it is obvious that the next thing is to bring in new players.

Not politics but the effects of capital. The team with the most money have the opportunity to organize themselves better. Same all over the world.

We need serious scouting for shooters, a new right winger that can pass, create and score, we need an all in one midfielder like Thomas partey, we need a creator or two like olise.

And our game play needs to be more dynamic. 3-5-2 could have worked well also. 4-3-3 of femi azeez , lookman and osimhen upfront can be tested .

For now no more awoniyi and Simon. We need younger,stronger and faster players across board. If we can't find a 10 chukwueze can do that job albeit within a 3-5-2 set up. A defensive midfielder behind iwobi and chukwueze. Lookman on the right femi azeez on the left with George and Osimhen upfront.

The bench needs to be overhauled. We need more quality on the bench.

Honestly, the Guinea Bissau team has played the best football of all teams so far. They played us hands down. They have the speed and strength in the right places.

9JAMac10:
What did Lookman come to do at this qualifiers ?

Blame your coach for putting him in the middle.Same thing your coach did against congo and Morocco.

All of you shouting midfield midfield even after choking the middle and using one striker, they still scored. Choking the middle is not how to win a match, being very direct and creating chances to outscore your opponent is how to win a football match. The midfielders won't score you goals.

They deserve to beat us 4-0.

The next change should be lookman for tolu.

Next time we are scouting for players,look for the one that are strong and fast.

Nigerians still don't get it. The coach is average. His decision making is still very poor. Everybody blaming the players don't know that they are acting on the instructions of the coach. Somebody somewhere is saying lookman is tired of playing for Nigeria.If you change all the players on the pitch and bring in a new set, nothing will change, you will still complain of one thing or the other. The coach is using lookman ineffectively in the middle whereas he needs to be on the wings. At the same time another winger should be on the other side. This game reminds me of the clueless display against congo and Morocco.

Even osimhen won't save us with this kind of gameplay. No creativity whatsoever. All of you saying chukwueze is not good hope you can see.He takes the creative burden away from iwobi.

Abeg shift lookman to the wings, and take out one midfielder for usor on the other side let them create, later you can bring in tolu for anyone of the strikers preferably awoniyi, for box presence and height. We can't be blaming pitch for everything.

At this point I feel the coach is gambling with the team. I am tired of complaining about the same thing.

We are playing without wingers. Hope we don't suffer for it.

Nigerians on X are just crazy, they know the players that are terrible but can't tell you what needs to change. Initially, it was lookman been Nigeria's best player at last Afcon, now he is $^i+. Chukwueze who is one of AC Milan's best player this season is no longer good for the super eagles etc. Terrible.

Moses Simon played well because he had players in the box to cross to just like against Benin. We still need shooters from midfield.At least 2.

The subs have now balanced up. Now we play 4-4-2.

The coach is not good at all. He is confusing everybody.Same mistakes again and again. You take our akor you put in player that is not a strikers. Now Simon and lookman who play the same position would be contending for the same space, on top of that you remove chukwueze who is the games best player.This is individual brilliance saving us

When playing with 2 strikers, one is a main strikers while the other is a support strikers, the pairing could have been tolu and either akor or illeni.....
The 2 upfront are both supporting strikers.
Secondly, when using lookman you have to put him on the wings while giving him a free role to find space to operate not choking him in the middle. Very soon Nigerians would pounce on the players saying nonsense. A taller player would have been dealing with chukwueze's crosses properly. I have been saying the same thing all the time. Always put lookman on the wings.

The coach is actually getting some things wrong, he needs to shift lookman to the wings so that things can flow naturally. No need blaming it on players.

Let lookman please play on the wings not in the middle.

1.We would need to scout for more midfielders.
2. Ndidi doesn't have the legs and the energy anymore.
3. We need to start integrating the player on the flanks that would eventually displace Moses Simon. This guy is not it anymore. By now we should have seen some of these English-Nigerian dual nationals in that position.
4. There is no more room for experiments in tactics.The sides we are facing would be very difficult to beat.
5. When the time comes for tolu arokodale to play, please the coach should not expect him to play like osimhen, giving him some weird passes to chase up and down the field. The chances need to be created for him to convert, that is the only way to get the best out of him and for the benefit of the team.
6. The coach should not over burden the full backs so they don't start falling of with injuries.

Philosopher1979:
Okay got you. Against teams that defend deep and do not give any space to exploit, femi azeez may become ineffective as he won't find space. On the other hand, zadok yohanna can create space in such situations as in create something out of practically nothing. Just sheer genius to unlock a tight defence

Both you and Elopa guy have gotten it wrong. If teams are defending deep the only thing your wingers can do is to put the ball in box for the 2 strikers and an extra man in the box. I have said the same thing everywhere several times.
Brazil's equalizer against Japan
England's come back against congo
Argentina's win again England.

These are just a few matches that give you a proper example of what to do against such teams.
France had the opportunity to do same against Spain in the semi's they failed to bring in mateta and thuram .

So, zadok or any creative midfielder won't solve that problem. The most recent example is PSG last game against lille. The problem is that many teams wait until the last 5 minutes to start putting the ball in the box. This was what I expected us to do against congo and Morocco.

Schemerkhiz:
International Friendly

FT: Poland U20W 🇵🇱 0-1 Nigeria U20🇳🇬 W

⚽️Mary Mamudu's goal in the first half gives the Falconets the win.

For a moment I was almost traumatized, I thought I saw Madugu, I was like "not again, this man is everywhere our women are playing ball".

It would be better for the super eagles to use Benjamin Fredrick as a midfielder going forward. We are very light in that department and he is good enough for the role instead of fighting for who should pair who in defence. This is the future I see for him in the national team and also he began his career as a midfielder for the junior team.

That chioma okafor would have been a good player for the falcons. Similar to the chawinga sisters. She has the pace and she is left footed. Not ordega. I wished sometimes she choose Malawi, I don't like when a country deliberately stifles the growth of an athlete with politics. I dislike wasted talent.

WarHammer2000:
Madugu seems to have read the game well. Sit back in defence and South Africa runs out of ideas. Then hit them on the counter.

If this works, I would have to say he is a better tactician than many people here think.

I concur but confusing us with the playing personnel is not the way to go. Make things simple , put ajibade where she belongs , replace ordega with someone else who will move to the left and play kanu and oshoala as strike partners, not kanu playing from the wings. Very simple yet so difficult for the coach. Nigerians must understand that you can not always play with the ball against every opposition.

The Cameroonians mean business. The coach has to correct something. Make kanu and Monday remain central while or remove one midfielder for a player that would occupy the left wing. However, he decides to do it ajibade and Esther on both flanks gift and kanu in attack. Try to take out alozie, I fear a second bookable offence.
If not alozie should be placed on crossing duty for options on the left flank.