How Stephen Keshi got his tactics right against Morocco

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chidikechidia
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How Stephen Keshi got his tactics right against Morocco

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ANALYSIS | By Solace Chukwu
Nigeria prevailed over Morocco in a seven-goal thriller to book their ticket to the African Nations Championship (CHAN) semi-finals on Saturday. The game ended 4-3.
As expected, Bright Esieme took the place of the suspended Solomon Kwambe and Ugonna Uzochukwu returned to partner Abdullahi Shehu in the center of midfield. The rest of the side was the same as in the win over hosts South Africa, and lined up in the same 4-2-3-1. Morocco was also 4-2-3-1.
One of the key features of the first half was the way in which the Super Eagles pressed. They generally let the Moroccan center backs have the ball, but pressed the central midfielders; Rabiu Ali and Gbolahan Salami worked in tandem, while the rest of the team got into two lines of four and tried to stay compact.
If ever there was a game to illustrate that in football, you can’t simply rinse and repeat tactically, this was it. The same approach that had held the hosts at arm’s length in the previous game was utterly ineffective here. In order to beat Nigeria’s medium block press, Morocco went long and direct. Their two defensive midfielders sat deep and were largely static, but the North Africans were not keen on winning the midfield battle. They simply targeted the angled runs into the channels of Mouhssine Iajour, whose pace and movement was excellent all game.
The plan was simple: one Moroccan wide player would make a run toward the ball, dragging one of the full backs high up the pitch with him, and Iajour would dart into the space and isolate a center back. This worked so often that it was surprising coach Stephen Keshi didn’t instruct the full backs to simply hold position and pass on the wide man. As early as the first minute, Iajour isolated Kunle Odunlami, held him off easily and had a shot saved. From then on, Azubuike Egwuekwe went everywhere with the striker. It was clear he didn’t trust his defensive partner in a 1v1 situation with Iajour, and this compromised defensive shape even further.
The Atlas Lions also did well with overloading sensitive areas of the pitch, notably their left flank. Going forward, Ifeanyi Ede played much higher than Ejike Uzoenyi on the other side, and was not always quick to get back in a defensive position to protect Esieme. The Enyimba full back was constantly doubled up on and passed around with quick one-twos. They overloaded the middle too, leaving four attacking players high up the pitch in order to precipitate counters. This led to the first goal, as the ball was needlessly turned over in midfield, and with the Super Eagles full backs advanced, Morocco were suddenly running at the Nigerian defence 3 on 2. Moutaouali scored with a delicate chip.
Four minutes later it was two. Iajour was brought down after another trademark ball into the channel had caught out the defense. He dispatched the free kick himself, then turned provider on 40 minutes for Moutaouali to get his brace. The pattern was same as the first goal: cheap turnover in a central area, this time by Uzoenyi, ball into Iajour, pass to Moutaouali on the edge of the box. He drilled it in off the post.
Very surprisingly, Keshi made no changes at half time even with a three-goal deficit, and in spite of the fact that his team had failed to register a single shot on target in the first 45 minutes. Truth be told, he did not alter much structurally, aside instructing the team to press the Moroccan center backs more. Whatever it is he said at half time must have been inspiring though, because the Super Eagles staged the mother of all comebacks in the second half.

Rabiu Ali | Scored Nigeria's second goal
Four minutes after the restart, they pulled a goal back. With a static Moroccan midfield and attacking players high and unwilling to track back defensively, Uzochukwu’s run from deep wasn’t picked up at all. He juggled on the edge of the box and fired home.
Immediately, Keshi stirred, hauling off the ineffectual Salami for Barnabas Imenger. Five minutes later, there was only one goal in it. A long ball into the box was knocked down by Ede, and another run from a deep position wasn’t picked up. Rabiu Ali made no mistake.
The Atlas Lions, having enjoyed the freedom of the park in the first half to hit angled balls to Iajour’s runs, had a much harder time dealing with rigorous pressing as they had little time to look up and find the pass. The striker was reduced to feeding off scraps and chasing lost causes in the second half. On the whole, the team looked jaded, their passing and ball control became progressively wayward as the game wore on.
On 90 minutes, the comeback was complete. Uzoenyi, man of the match against South Africa in the previous game, had endured a torrid evening up until that point. All was forgiven though, as he feinted onto his weaker right foot and let fly from all of 35 yards to drag the game to extra time. The goal seemed to spark him to life; he went from being invisible in the first 89 minutes to being the best player on the pitch in extra time. Did this maybe have something to do with the Moroccans running out of gas?
Having looked on their last legs even in regulation time, the North Africans simply didn’t have the mental or physical strength to push for another goal; Nigeria bossed extra time utterly. Uzoenyi’s whipped cross was spilled by experienced Moroccan goalkeeper Lamyaghri, and substitute Abubakar Ibrahim tapped in from close range nine minutes from time. Keshi brought on center back Umar Zango, and saw out the rest of the game with ease.
In an enthralling, end-to-end game, the Super Eagles were better physically. Kudos must go to them for the determination to pull off a resurrection from the dead; it lent itself to the highest scoring game in the history of the CHAN. The Atlas Lions struggled to play around the heightened second half pressure; with four attacking players so high up positionally they were a broken team, and suffered against runs from deep positions as a result; what had been a strength early on became a weakness the longer the game went on.
Keshi must now decide whether to restore Solomon Kwambe to the side for the semi-final against Ghana; Bright Esieme got forward impressively and took up intelligent positions, but his crossing was frequently poor. There is also a case to be made that Abdullahi Shehu, while good at attacking transitions, is not disciplined enough positionally to play in a double pivot. This was already apparent early in the previous game against South Africa, where Ryan Chapman kept finding space between the lines before being unwisely taken off by Gordon Igesund. I doubt that Keshi will want to worry about that just yet though; he will doubtless consider it when his heart rate returns to normal.
HE THAT DWELLS IN THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH, SHALL ABIDE UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY.

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