₦airaland Forum

realpoacher:
As a Coach, you always have one job to do.


Find a way to play your game.


In this Match, we did not play our game, infact, we couldn't play our normal free flowing football we were used to, why?

Morocco did not allow us to do that, they had 3 players on us whenever we tried to move the ball to our half, Pass to Osimehn, 3 people on him, pass to Akor, or Lookman or Iwobi, same story, 3 players on them. Towards the end of the match, Iwobi had to drop deep to the defense line to collect the ball with a little freedom


As a Coach, what should you do? You don't stand for 90 minutes watch your team struggle to play their normal game, NO! ... You look for a way to fix it - think on your feet and fix it.


Your opponent should not be running riots on you all night and you stand by doing nothing.

Algeria did that nonsense and got punished, Egypt did the same nonsense against Senegal and lost, Nigeria did the same nonsense against Congo and now Against Morocco.

I also see many coaches do this nonsense too but Pep doesn't, Arteta doesn't, Anceloti doesn't


As a Coach, learn try multiple formations, try your players in multiple positions, understand how they fare in uneven grounds so that when push comes to shove, instead of being clueless, you fix it on the field instantaneously.


From the first blast of the whistle, you could see that Morocco had studied your team to the minute details, they figured that if they close the holes from the midfield down to the final third, you midfielders and attackers will be useless I.E it simply means that once they can cut off supply to midfielders and strikers,
.. Otilo.

Now as a Coach, should you have done, seeing that for almost 60 minutes, you had no forward press not shots on Target,... Then you switch the formation to 4-3-1-2


Remove Akor for Onauchu
Remove Onyedika for Chucks

-------- Onauchu -------- Osimehn

------------------------- Iwobi -----------------


Lookman ---------- Onyeka ----------------- Chucks


Bruno ------- Bassey ---------- Ajayi ----- Osayi


With this setup, the Moroccans will certainly be deceived and run at you


Lookman and chucks are runners of the ball and will widen the field for Iwobi to operate


Onyeka has two oxygen packs glued to his heart and can handle the pressure with chunks and lookman supporting both Bruno and Osayi


The goal is to use both chuks and lookman on the wings and playing deep in our half to spread out the Morocco for Iwobi to play and for Osimehn to Pounce.


But what did Chelle do,... He stood there on the sidelines for 90 minutes watching helplessly like he did against Congo.

He might be a great pre-game tactician but very poor in-game manager..... Something Anceloti is a genius at


Frankly, as a Coach.... Ability to read games and change the tempo to your terms is very very important else you might not go far in becoming great

Lookman and chuks in midfield is a disaster waiting to happen

Replace chuks with Bashiru

We need at least 2 sensible midfielders that can hold the ball better and are physically strong enough to withstand press

But you're mostly right

TheSuperNerd:
Carney Chukwuemeka
Faustino Anjorin
Lesley Ugochukwu

They are all 3/3 midfielders (Technical, tactically progressive and also importantly, Physically built & aggressive).

My only issue is if we can recruit them or if they will honor our interest.

Bro, it will be hard for any of them to play for us

They don't rate us at all

I'm thinking about Akor Adams's performance yesterday and laughing to myself

TheSuperNerd:
Look at this one too. Onyedika executed a clean tackle and won the ball but the ref called it against us. Look at how Iwobi reacted. Look at the steam it took out of our lads.

See clear tackle. Look at Iwobi's reaction The ref broke so many momentum in the game. pic.twitter.com/Uf1KPfYE24

— Chinaza Kelvin (@kelvin_chinaza) January 15, 2026

This clip is also part of why I say Onyedika was not all bad yesterday. He was not as physically assertive and aggressive as he should have been given the occasion but he did do some things right.
Below is yet another stat backing it up, under intense pressure, this guy still finds the pass.... he only need to up his physical aggression meter.

Backpasses and side passes with little or no impact at all

Goke7:
Chelle, for all his good works, may need a good match reader; either he's making too early substitutions or making them late. I observed after the Tunisia game that he was never in a hurry, as before, to make substitutions, which means he's a good listener, but I feel the NFF technical committee needs to work with him more to get a good match reader for him. Okpala Sylvanus was Keshi's match reader when NFF wanted to frustrate him; they simply remove sylvanus, and the rest they say is history .

Chelle needs help with reading our games, but an incredible job so far from him

Who is your suggestion?

I think those foreign assistants working with him may already be the match readers

I also don't think this NFF may want to add someone to thwir payroll

Blueelf:
Lookman and chuks in midfield is a disaster waiting to happen

Replace chuks with Bashiru

We need at least 2 sensible midfielders that can hold the ball better and are physically strong enough to withstand press

But you're mostly right

At bolded, that should work too

The man simply had no plan B


Once plan A gets caged, you all are on your own

Blueelf:
Chelle had no plan B

He had been tinkering with the team and finally found a working for.ula but alas, he had no plan B

His fault

Meanwhile

We can give him a benefit of a doubt if he spends one or two more years with this team we will become more dynamic

realpoacher:
At bolded, that should work too

The man simply had no plan B


Once plan A gets caged, you all are on your own

Bros, maybe you weren't here but I remember asking here on this thread what our plan B was

Even me with little to no coaching knowledge saw that we were too predictable

The response I got was - No team will try to press us or they will leave space

Let me tell you categorically boss, the Egyptians are quite disciplined. And if they also read our game like regragui did, we may end up loosing third place

Chelle needs to up his tactical knowledge come up with a plan B, Plan C or even a Plan D, else we risk becoming too predictable

9JAMac10:
Victor Osimhen vs Morocco:

0 Goals/Assists
0 Key Passes
0 Shots
0 Dribbles
3 Fouls
Ducked the penalty kicks as a captain

EGO OF VINICIUS, ABILITY OF Nicholas jackson …ECOWAS HAALAND

Where was this energy after the Algeria match?
Your data no work that day abi?

lbrichman2:
My brother!!!
These people no get shame!!

They don't care one bit. Even the most reliable and formidable North African team has to use wayo to win on home soil. Shows how big the west team are lately. Tunisia and Algeria better return to the drawing board. They're in denial mode right now. Kudos to CIV once again. Making Africa proud without stain

Bruno Onyemaechi will forever have the respect of Nigerians, real fighter

Goke7:
We can give him a benefit of a doubt if he spends one or two more years with this team we will become more dynamic

True.

I am of the opinion he should continue and grow with the team

The root of Super Eagles problems have always been NFF

I believe he'd have learnt from this

realpoacher:
At bolded, that should work too

The man simply had no plan B


Once plan A gets caged, you all are on your own

Ok
We hear you
Plan A got caged
How many goals did we concede as a result?

9JAMac10:
I'm thinking about Akor Adams's performance yesterday and laughing to myself

Why?

😀😀

He's decent though but he's not there yet obviously

But midfield sef no try sha. It's not totally his fault

lbrichman2:
Where was this energy after the Algeria match?
Your data no work that day abi?

forget about Algeria . Osimhen had a stinker yesterday. I see why people say Osimhen is only good in the air . Man was shuffling his feet when iwobi gave him that good pass towards the Moroccan goal

9JAMac10:
forget about Algeria . Osimhen had a stinker yesterday. I see why people say Osimhen is only good in the air . Man was shuffling his feet when iwobi gave him that good pass towards the Moroccan goal

Broo

Osimhen is good oo

Yes, he can improve on his off the ball movement and positioning

But he's a world class striker ooo

Yesterday was good for me

Because it reminded everyone that we have a real gem in Nwabali

If he can keep his head down, he can be as historical for us as Enyeama was

If the Wrexham guy -Arthur Okonkwo should join, he should act as understudy because he is not as good as Nwabali

Okoye should also be given a look in

Good one Nwabobo. 👍

lbrichman2:
Omo..
Una sure say Aina go still walk into this first 11?
E be like say Osayi don build house for that RB position o
Locked Amoura
Found it tougher yesterday but still held his own
Even when dribbled, he recovered superbly to put the ball out for a corner
This defence is sweeting me..

Not to mention Ajayi and General Bassey Bus stop!!!

In a big game like this, Aina would had done better offensively and defensively.

We have to bear with the CAF president and his goons' shenanigans till 2029.

African football is in a quagmire.

Sarsaparilla524:
We have to bear with the CAF president and his goons' shenanigans till 2029.

African football is in a quagmire.

Popular votes is how he got it

CASF is a reflection of Africa. The greedy and corrupt get into power.

The next o e will be nothing different my guy

If we develop our football and host, then we can dictate.

I'll say it anywhere, sports is business. Morocco has to be compensated. They lost women's finals, got to Semi Final of world cup and rep african football well. Even won the Arab cup

Of course, if they sneeze, motsepe will come running. They are repping African football well

Let us also put our house in order too

Note: I'm not supporting corruption in anyway

forgiveness:
In a big game like this, Aina would had done better offensively and defensively.

Hmmm

Are you sure ebony?

forgiveness:
In a big game like this, Aina would had done better offensively and defensively.

Aina wey see shege for last Afcon final from a teenager that didn’t make the current Ivory Coast team 😂

Goke7:
Aina wey see shege for last Afcon final from a teenager that didn’t make the current Ivory Coast team 😂

So, you are not aware he played with injury.

Blueelf:
Hmmm

Are you sure ebony?

Why not? You saw how Hakimi dictated from the back. That is a world class player.

forgiveness:
In a big game like this, Aina would had done better offensively and defensively.

Offensively maybe, but defensively?
I no sure o
Osayi really played ball o

forgiveness:
So, you are not aware he played with injury.

how injury free where those who played yesterday, including osayi

lbrichman2:
Offensively maybe, but defensively?
I no sure o
Osayi really played ball o

Both defensively and offensively, he is better. Let us no sugar-coat it.

forgiveness:
Why not? You saw how Hakimi dictated from the back. That is a world class player.

But Aina isn't world class

Anyways...we move

Goke7:
how injury free where those who played yesterday, including osayi

Is there any report Osayi played with injury? At least, we heard about the injury of Aina and after that final, he went missing from Nottingham Forest starting 11.

Blueelf:
But Aina isn't world class

Anyways...we move

Did you read "Aina is world class" in my comment? He is definitely above average and better than Osayi. That's fact. No doubt Osayi showed up in this tournament. He also good is a contender for the position but with Aina, Aina would had done better.

Please, don't drag CAF President and CAF. We still get appeal for FIFA ooooo.

CAF did very well in the organization of this tournament. The officiating was superb.