₦airaland Forum

DannyKoice:
Mehn I didn't know Nigeria had it in them. That second half showing was fantastic. With this putting them in a more advantageous position than Argentina, Nigeria will have the opportunity to play counter attacking football against them and a real occasion awaits the Super Eagles. I don't imagine the haphazardous Argie defence will relish squaring up against the scintillating pace of Musa and Iheanacho.

oyetpel:
Told ya
UP Nigeria.

DannyKoice:
Mehn I didn't know Nigeria had it in them. That second half showing was fantastic. With this putting them in a more advantageous position than Argentina, Nigeria will have the opportunity to play counter attacking football against them and a real occasion awaits the Super Eagles. I don't imagine the haphazardous Argie defence will relish squaring up against the scintillating pace of Musa and Iheanacho.

Beorn:
I knew super chickens had it in them because Iceland have average to mediocre players, and are usually good against superior teams where they park the bus and defend like a pack of wolves, frustrating their superior opponents and coming away with a draw, or with huge chunk of luck, a win.

When they meet average teams like themselves, they come out to attack, and that's what they did against Nigeria and it backfired just like I had predicted. If they had sat back and defended like their lives depended on it like they did against Argentina or Portugal in the last Euro, we wouldn't have won. They underrated us and came out to play attacking football and we destroyed them. Our first-half was horrible, though, characterised by our headless chicken style use of the ball without any meaningful output. Our wing-backs and midfield (Mikel is the culprit here) were particularly pathetic. Good thing they improved after the break.

We can win Argentina, but with our first-half display, I'm not keeping my hopes up. We need a determined and better all-round display to stand a better chance of defeating the Argentines or drawing with them.

newjosboy:
And now, lets go back to movies.
Tremors: A cold day in hell 5/10
The movies is not that bad for a low budget.
I like the light comic convoy.
"I have balls of steel! My balls are made of stainless steel! My balls are written in the Guinness book of balls!"

DannyKoice:
Iceland may not have the best players but it'd be a mistake to call them a mediocre team. This is a team that topped a group that included Croatia in the World Cup qualifiers. As a team with huge tall players, they are set up to counter attack by default, and didn't deviate from the their typical setup against Nigeria at all. They approached the game like they would any other game - cede the midfield to the opposition and hit on the break. They followed that strategy to the letter against an inefficient Nigeria in the first half, created 3 good chances, and fortunately for us, missed all.

Rohr switched the ineffective first half formation to 3-5-2 after the interval, and it worked wonders. It was the perfect tactics to counter the Iceland smash-and-grab gameplan, because they weren't the only team counter attacking anymore. Any time they counter us, we counter back, and we actually had the edge at this as we have faster players. We were able to cause them a lot of problems at the back, and Musa scored 2 great goals as a result.

Iceland didn't lose because they were a piss poor team, they lost because Rohr outcoached their coach. We figured them out and exploited that weakness to the max. I believe Nigeria can cause a lot of damage to the Argentine team if we use this 3-5-2 formation on them right from the getgo. It's the perfect setup for the kind of players we have and would bring out the best in our pacy forwards. They may have more technically gifted players, but their midfield is in shambles and their defence is shaky, and besides, Nigeria have physically stronger and faster players. We can outrightly win Argentina if we come out on 3rd gear and stay that way.

Beorn:
I still think they're average at best and lack real quality. How many of those Iceland players can even make the bench of top quality clubs or teams? We're talking of a team made up of film directors, dentists, shop attendants, doctors, etc. That's why I used a range of between mediocre to average to grade them. What that team have that most teams don't, is their collective fighting spirit. They fight like warriors. Their lack of other tactics makes them average. They just have one pattern only.

And we didn't switch to 352 in the second-half, we started the game in that formation formation (Check Whoscored.com for confirmation). So what changed? It's not like those spaces we exploited was missing in the first-half, we're just too foolish to realise counter was our best way of breaking them down. In the first-half, we didn't make use of the space they left while attacking us. They dominated us for long periods in the first-half unlike when they were busy defending against Argentina. Our wing backs who were expected to help in the counter or release ball on time to our forwards for swift counter, but we weren't doing it. Even our midfield with Mikel being the culprit, weren't playing those pass-splitting through pass fit Musa to latch unto. Iceland came out to attack us when compared with their match against Argentina. Don't let the counter deceive you. You don't only counter when you're defending, you can counter in an attacking set-up as well. Man City do play counter-attacking football despite their attacking football.

During the second-half, we employed these counter tactics and won them. The Ebuehi that was introduced helped add pace on that left wing. The coach came with the right formation, but our players didn't play to his instructions. When they did in the second-half, we carved them open, over and over again. If we'd gone for the 352 formation in our first game and removed Mikel as our SS, we may have gotten a draw in that match.

Beorn:
I still think they're average at best and lack real quality. How many of those Iceland players can even make the bench of top quality clubs or teams? We're talking of a team made up of film directors, dentists, shop attendants, doctors, etc. That's why I used a range of between mediocre to average to grade them. What that team have that most teams don't, is their collective fighting spirit. They fight like warriors. Their lack of other tactics makes them average. They just have one pattern only.

And we didn't switch to 352 in the second-half, we started the game in that formation formation (Check Whoscored.com for confirmation). So what changed? It's not like those spaces we exploited was missing in the first-half, we're just too foolish to realise counter was our best way of breaking them down. In the first-half, we didn't make use of the space they left while attacking us. They dominated us for long periods in the first-half unlike when they were busy defending against Argentina. Our wing backs who were expected to help in the counter or release ball on time to our forwards for swift counter, but we weren't doing it. Even our midfield with Mikel being the culprit, weren't playing those pass-splitting through pass fit Musa to latch unto. Iceland came out to attack us when compared with their match against Argentina. Don't let the counter deceive you. You don't only counter when you're defending, you can counter in an attacking set-up as well. Man City do play counter-attacking football despite their attacking football.

During the second-half, we employed these counter tactics and won them. The Ebuehi that was introduced helped add pace on that left wing. The coach came with the right formation, but our players didn't play to his instructions. When they did in the second-half, we carved them open, over and over again. If we'd gone for the 352 formation in our first game and removed Mikel as our SS, we may have gotten a draw in that match.

KoiceReloaded:
Forgot to upload this last night. Someone updated Musa's wiki page.

oyetpel:
@beorn, it is preposterous not to call this set of players professionals.




Do you know other professional footballers also attend coaching schools while still active in football?

DannyKoice:
A team of dentist that held Argentina to a 1-1 draw, beat croatia home and away in the qualifiers, eliminated England in Euro 2016, and other accomplishments that I can't go into right now. They may be average talented as individuals, but as a team, they are a formidable foe. They are a really good, compact and solid unit that can annoy an attacking opponent to no end and eventually force mistakes,

Iceland obviously played for draw against Argentina going by their ultra defensive tactics. They usually don't dominate the midfield but they're very good at going forward and set pieces. Methinks they respected the Argies too much.

As for the Nigerian tactics, I'm pretty sure we started with a 4-2-3-1, and later switched to a 3-5-2 after half-time. Whoscored only gives the most basic information. If you want complete tactical analysis, you have the wrong app.

Nigeria swapped from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-5-2, the spare man at the back allowed them to build up a bit better, the 3v2 in midfield further cemented their possession of the ball. More importantly, Iceland's narrow 4-4-2 meant our wingbacks were always in space out wide. With Moses sometimes rampaging forward to become an outright winger, it was a front three that screamed pace. It's no surprise both goals came from a pacy forward being set up and driving into the box.

As for Iceland, their defensive play was very solid, they only conceded when their defenders didn't have time to reset, like against Argentina. What they could perhaps have done better was try and be a little more aggressive. The Nigerian back three didn't look entirely comfortable in possession when pressed, but this didn't happen often enough. At the very least, it could have helped them win more set-pieces, which has always been their main threat in difficult matches.

Overall, I'd say pace was what proved fatal for Iceland, they couldn't move up for fear of the forwards' pace, and they couldn't stay deep because they needed to try and win this. And with Nigeria's superiority in the center of the pitch, salvaging a point after going behind was unlikely. Bottom line, we outmaneuvered a solid disciplined team.

Beorn:
KoiceReloaded, I'm still in shock that you know your onions when it comes to football. I envisaged you as one nerd that watches movies and TV all day.

Beorn:
@emboldened, you're reaffirming my initial stance. That's their M.O. They are averagely talented but are compact and have a great fighting spirit. They work best by frustrating their opponents with ultra defending and hitting on counter. If they come out to play attacking football like yesterday, they become sitting ducks for target practice.

Also, the formation a team starts with is the formation that all sites will record, not the one they switched to during the course of the competition. Even Livescores and other sites had the Super Chickens in 352 ab initio. You didn't notice it because we were playing like headless chicken in the first-half.

KoiceReloaded:
You can add video games on that list. I'm kind of a grandmaster at FIFA.

KoiceReloaded:
Be that as it may, our positive 2nd half display gives me hope. Argentina is in disarray atm, and hopefully, the unrest can manifest in their football.

Beorn:
No wonder about your knowledge on football - you got it from gaming.

Beorn:
Anything less than our second-half performance and we're toast.

Ishilove:
troubleseller, KoiceReloaded, Beorn, oyetpel, DannyKoice and the rest of the Derailing Arm Chair Football Analysts, take this!

KoiceReloaded:
Even if we are to revert to the lethargic football we saw vs Croatia, losing is not a guarantee. I think you're overestimating Argentina.

Ishilove:
troubleseller_, KoiceReloaded_, Beorn_, oyetpel_, DannyKoice_ and the rest of the Derailing Arm Chair Football Analysts, take this!

Beorn:
Attending coaching school and still active is different from shooting movies and being active in football. If you doubt me, check all those players that started attending coaching schools while active, they started the school at their OLD AGE OR LATTER PART OF THEIR CAREERS WHEN THEY WERE NO LONGER ASSURED STARTERS WEEK IN, WEEK OUT. Eg: John Terry and Ryan Giggs.

Shooting movies and still training for a competitive club is hard to come by. How will you have the chance to shoot movies and still train every day of the week in preparation for a UCL, Caraboa Cup, FA Cup, and Premier League matches? How's that possible? The teams most of those Iceland players plays for are mediocre teams that aren't competitive like the average EPL teams. Do you know Neymar did his minor role for Triple X while on holidays/recovering from injury? Do you think Barcelona would've allowed him to be focusing on important matches and still shooting movies while the season was still very fresh?

oyetpel:
So you mean the Iceland players do their part time jobs while the football season is still on, even when i have shown you their professional clubs they play for?

How do you mean mediocre, the teams they are playing for are better than the clubs of most of our players at the world cup. Maybe you would like to argue this too so that i can outline it for you.