₦airaland Forum

chrisooblog:
Yeye team snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I stand to be corrected but Nigeria has never bottled a significant lead to end up losing. And before anyone trys to use the Sierra Leone game in Benin as a gotcha moment that one sef na draw wedraw in the end.

Senegalese will feel the way we felt in 1994.

TheSuperNerd:
Mujtahida's bad belleism is strongly recommended for studying. Now he don enter studio

Bro!!!

See the tracks in the Album
Joy joy joy
As e dey pain dem
Oh my home, oh my home (featuring Mane)
Jerusalema (featuring Hugo Broos and Mokoena)
Ten green bottles

TheSuperNerd:
Indeed Dakar was waiting. I guess they miss their Jollof since their chef did not follow them to the WC. Nonsense and Thiaw.

Thiaw Thiaw 😀😀

Joy joy joy, in my heart is singing, joy joy joy, in my heart is singing

Goke7:
It has happened 2-2 and am happy

So you are in our camp?

TheSuperNerd:
Naaah not yet. 6/9 or 7/9 into the Round of 16 should kindly happen

Switch Off your hatewatch for this game, my good man. There are others to come.

Senegal switched off. Others ain't coming. More to go.

Mujtahida:
I like the way Senegal is playing. Quick, swashbuckling and energetic.

But I still want them to come home. Dakar needs them

They're on their way to Dakar

Odunayaw:
Senegal please don't be like the rest

E kaaro Sir 😏😏

I like the way Senegal is playing. Quick, swashbuckling and energetic.

But I still want them to come home. Dakar needs them

We haters plenty

9JAMac10:
Black African teams start with intensity, talent, and confidence, then lose momentum before the finish line. The quality is there, but concentration and mental discipline fade too easily under pressure. Football at the highest level is not just talent and physicality.. it’s focus, game management, and staying mentally locked in for 90 minutes.

Physically strong. Not so mentally and psychologically

Blueelf:
My hate watch is taking shape bar morocco

We dey together. That's what is making the WC sweet for me

FiveFootNinja:
South Africa down
DR Congo down
Ghana is next...

Pow pow pow.

Goke7:
Where is my prophetic seed and offering

Please drop something 😂

Ask my client. He's with my fees. Let him give you ten percent

Goke7:
England will surely get a second goal

Prophet Goke

Players dey ooo
I like it when great players prove why they are great.

Na wa

Goke7:
Ope o finally 1-1

If it enters penalty England will lose

I talk am. I said cross ball, cross the ball.

Semid4lyfe say him thank God say I no be coach.

Meanwhile see what my input caused. Tuchel visits this thread just as Eguavoen and Finidi

mostob:
Lumumba no dey pitch?
Make dem show am na

No be Afcon be this oo

Spainever:
England cannot win this game unless ref help them

They will lose.

semid4lyfe:
Thank God say you no be coach

😀😀

England need to cross more. Those Congolese appear to be vulnerable to crosses.

But you see that tiki taka wey England dey do with ball, Congo will defend successfully. Their game with Ghana should have taught England that this tiki taka cannot work where a team sits deep

semid4lyfe:
Reminder, football na 11 vs 11.

If you delete Messi and Mbappe from match, Julian Alvarez, Simeone, Lautaro, Dembele, Olise, Barcola etc fit still do the damage.

It's not that Messi or Mbappe would not score but check out Messi's goals against Algeria and Austria. Man just waltz into space and scores. Mbappe often has free space to shoot.

Baba, yes those other guys can do damage but I will delegate one player to man mark these specific dangerous guys. Even if they drift to their own 18, follow them. Make sure he is not free to do whatever he likes with the ball.

Let the remaining 9 maintain shape.

charlesemeka85:
Na this Spurs Spence I no really understand the hype about him. 🤦‍♀️

That guy na Otu.

semid4lyfe:
In this year of our Lord 2026, and with how much the game has evolved, I can't believe that some of una still dey romanticize strict man marking. No be na wa, na real wa.

There's good reasons why man marking is not utilized anymore and has fizzled out in the modern game. And rightfully so if I may add.

1. Teams defend in blocks and zones, with defence and midfield moving in sync, and assigning a player to man mark a designated opposing player breaks the defensive shape of the team.

2. In the modern game, players play multiple positions and constantly rotate in-game. Strikers drop into midfield, wingers switch wings and also tuck inside, wingbacks/fullbacks dey overlap, teams play with false 9's, midfielders make runs and pop up in top striker positions etc.

For example, I have seen Messi and even recently Harry Kane in Bayern Munich drop so deep that they're part of the back four, collecting pass from goalie to build play. How do you man mark such players? Any defender assigned to man mark spends most of the match out of position and disadvantages his team severely.

3.Most times, man-marking creates an overload of attacking team vs defenders, 4 v 3, 2 v 1 etc situations because the teams defensive shape has been compromised by the man marker who has been drawn out of position and created space for an overlapping wingback, unmarked midfielder, attack minded defender (Harry Maguire, Sergio Ramos, Pique etc) to exploit.

4. Its physically tiring and extremely exhausting to man mark a player. Nobody fit do am for 90 minutes. If the man marker loses concentration or attacker dribble the man marker once, goal fit happen.

5. Football is increasingly data driven these days. There are data scientist crunching numbers, doing computational analysis, simulating all manners of game plays and formations. and they have come to the unanimous conclusion that it doesn't work hence the reason it's not utilized.

6. Bonus point. Officiating these days is pro-attackers to encourage goalscoring, and tackling like Taribo did to Henry in those days will most likely result in a red card and the defender being sent off.

So what coaches do these days is share the responsibility - high pressing, zonal marking, keeping a high defensive line/offline traps (this one dey work wella for Osimhen), assign specific man markers during corner kicks etc. But for one defender to follow a player everywhere for 90 minutes, that tactic is a net negative.

Summarily, modern football values the integrity of the team's shape more than stopping one individual. Coaches would rather have their defensive block remain compact and force the opposition into difficult areas than allow one defender to abandon his position chasing a star player across the pitch.

Good analysis. At the end of the day, Messi and Mbappe stroll in and bang in goals.

Wetin be Bellingham work for this England team?

He's not pulling the strings like Olise.

daveP:
Im glad Super Eagles no sabi do that thing. We've even tried it but we are terrible at it 😂😂😂
To face opponent and go past them is now a big issue. Urghhh!! Mbappe doesn't care. Messi arrives at the right time. If i were any coach I'll man mark him. It will help. Most goals he arrived at the perfect time when nobody was acting like the dangerous man was on the pitch.

We don't have patience for that kind of football.

Goke7:
Imagine see their horrible defence 😂

Pass merchants don forget to lock gate. Congo use one long pass split their defense.

England plays like South Africa. Make Congo win them. I hate teams that always pass pass pass.

Wire shot from outside na!!!

daveP:
Saliba and Gabriel carry that mentality come World cup. They're the two that are man marking hard while their cb partners seem to do the opposite. The way Saliba marked Gyokores yesternight 😂

It beats me why man marking is now old school.


I expect a factory reset for football philosophy after this world cup sha.

Let's bring back dribbling, man marking and one touch, 1v1 duels.

Trevor Noah said some about why team go see chance after holding possession only to turn back to rinse and repeat the back and forth and this shape thing. 😂

SA epitomises that kind of football you describing in your last paragraph.

But Nigeria doesn't play that way.

minfelix:
They are actually, atleast getting further in a world cup tournament is our level as Africans for now, so dropping that trend is like dropping our qualities and history…

We are improving. But we never get pedigree.