Nigeria v Argentina and the Messi man-marking dilemma

[Coach]

^500+ goals for Barcelona, record goalscorer in El Classico, over 1 in 3 record at international level, perhaps none have had an Ndidi to pick him up or nearest man if he drifts. Forgerrit and play your game.

[metalalloy]

^500+ goals for Barcelona, record goalscorer in El Classico, over 1 in 3 record at international level, perhaps none have had an Ndidi to pick him up or nearest man if he drifts. Forgerrit and play your game.

[Robotnik]

Has Nigeria ever beat Argentina 1-0? No

Nigeria usually has had to score multiple goals to beat Argentina.

It will be Nigeria vs Messi at Russia 2018.

[Ayo Akinfe]

CE is full of jokers. Did you see what happened to Real Madrid over the weekend?
Just beat Iceland and Croatia.

That is what makes us Nigerian and sets us apart from other Africans. We aim to beat all our opponents and never concede second best to anyone. See how Sweden eliminated Italy, now, that is the spirit we take to the World Cup.

[Tbite]

Has Nigeria ever beat Argentina 1-0? No

Nigeria usually has had to score multiple goals to beat Argentina.

It will be Nigeria vs Messi at Russia 2018.

This is astute.

Lets face it, if we win the match, it won't be with a clean sheet! We don't need to shut them out, we simply need to edge them!

Messi can score, so what? But can we edge them? I think it is possible! Unlikelier events have occurred in world football of late! Nigeria beating Argentina is not as unlikely as some here are making it to be, yes the statistics suggest otherwise, but statistics are a representation of the PAST!

Do we have the personnel in the PRESENT to do the damage? the answer is yes we do! Lets go for a 2-1, 3-2 win.

[ogiso]

All this discussion over our third game? Foolhardiness! Remember all our noise about Brazil even though we had Denmark before us? We need to deal with Croatia and Iceland first, lest Argentina become an irrelevance.

[greg]

All this discussion over our third game? Foolhardiness! Remember all our noise about Brazil even though we had Denmark before us? We need to deal with Croatia and Iceland first, lest Argentina become an irrelevance.

Very true, and thank God we now have a coaching crew that thinks like this. I also think that we're now at least 1 goal better since our 3-2 loss to a Messi-full Argentina and they are at least 1 goal worse.
How to deal with Messi though is always an interesting discussion. The best I have seen was the Champions League final (or semi) between Barca and Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan. No man marking at all, but the team defensive posture reduced Messi to a sideways and backwards passer all game long. That is surely another game to watch for any team looking to contain him.

[Tbite]

All this discussion over our third game? Foolhardiness! Remember all our noise about Brazil even though we had Denmark before us? We need to deal with Croatia and Iceland first, lest Argentina become an irrelevance.

Oi'boy you sure your head dey house so? Denmark were sitting in ANOTHER round.

Every game in a given round must be analyzed and planned for.

Heck even if we lose to Croatia and Iceland, so we should not try to beat Argentina? The SE goes to win games! We don't go in for moral victories. We try to beat Argentina period!

[wiseone]

Ndidi has the legs and energy to follow Messi everywhere. The trouble with man marking is: (a) it reduces your team to 9 effective outfield players since one of the players is playing "shadow" (b) if the marker gets booked early - wahala dey. You are then only one mis-timed tackle or dive away from having the entire gameplan implode.

It would be interesting to study games where Messi has been rendered relatively ineffective over the years (of which there are quite a few at both club and national level) to see if there are some common elements about the tactics that we can learn from. Rohr analysis crew - over to you

[maceo4]

All this discussion over our third game? Foolhardiness! Remember all our noise about Brazil even though we had Denmark before us? We need to deal with Croatia and Iceland first, lest Argentina become an irrelevance.

Oi'boy you sure your head dey house so? Denmark were sitting in ANOTHER round.

Every game in a given round must be analyzed and planned for.

Heck even if we lose to Croatia and Iceland, so we should not try to beat Argentina? The SE goes to win games! We don't go in for moral victories. We try to beat Argentina period!

Sure, but our first two games are more important and there hasn't been a thread analyzing those games. That's what we need to focus on, b/c if we do our job in the first two games then the last one becomes less important.

[Tbite]

All this discussion over our third game? Foolhardiness! Remember all our noise about Brazil even though we had Denmark before us? We need to deal with Croatia and Iceland first, lest Argentina become an irrelevance.

Oi'boy you sure your head dey house so? Denmark were sitting in ANOTHER round.

Every game in a given round must be analyzed and planned for.

Heck even if we lose to Croatia and Iceland, so we should not try to beat Argentina? The SE goes to win games! We don't go in for moral victories. We try to beat Argentina period!

Sure, but our first two games are more important and there hasn't been a thread analyzing those games. That's what we need to focus on, b/c if we do our job in the first two games then the last one becomes less important.

That's something that can be addressed. We should focus on Croatia and Iceland (someone should create the threads). I just believe all three games are important. I don't see the benefit of hoping to qualify before Argentina. This is the WC, where qualifying for the second round might not even mean much. Defeating Argentina will be a good signal that we are ready to go further. It could be the confidence boost that we need for a deep run, it might even be NECESSARY for a deep run. Because running into too many tough teams might be bad for our depth.

The WC is not the WCQ, you don't hope to beat Zambia before meeting Algeria. You have to be prepared and able to beat all teams in front of you. We have been to the second round three times, it is not an achievement any more. We take it one game at a time, but beating Argentina will be good for us.

[Dammy]

CE is full of jokers. Did you see what happened to Real Madrid over the weekend?
Just beat Iceland and Croatia.

That is what makes us Nigerian and sets us apart from other Africans. We aim to beat all our opponents and never concede second best to anyone. See how Sweden eliminated Italy, now, that is the spirit we take to the World Cup.

Thank you very much Ayo for your comments. It seems that Kabalega does not understand the Nigerian mentality despite being on this forum for many years, We walk our talk. Nigeria will go into that Argentina game believing we would win (we might not). Unlike other Africans, we will not concede defeat before the match. It is this "Can do" mentality that has seen Nigerians surmount odds in different fields all over the world.

[Odas]

All this discussion over our third game? Foolhardiness! Remember all our noise about Brazil even though we had Denmark before us? We need to deal with Croatia and Iceland first, lest Argentina become an irrelevance.

Although the Denmark game was in a second round, but thank you!

[maceo4]

All this discussion over our third game? Foolhardiness! Remember all our noise about Brazil even though we had Denmark before us? We need to deal with Croatia and Iceland first, lest Argentina become an irrelevance.

Oi'boy you sure your head dey house so? Denmark were sitting in ANOTHER round.

Every game in a given round must be analyzed and planned for.

Heck even if we lose to Croatia and Iceland, so we should not try to beat Argentina? The SE goes to win games! We don't go in for moral victories. We try to beat Argentina period!

Sure, but our first two games are more important and there hasn't been a thread analyzing those games. That's what we need to focus on, b/c if we do our job in the first two games then the last one becomes less important.

That's something that can be addressed. We should focus on Croatia and Iceland (someone should create the threads). I just believe all three games are important. I don't see the benefit of hoping to qualify before Argentina. This is the WC, where qualifying for the second round might not even mean much. Defeating Argentina will be a good signal that we are ready to go further. It could be the confidence boost that we need for a deep run, it might even be NECESSARY for a deep run. Because running into too many tough teams might be bad for our depth.

The WC is not the WCQ, you don't hope to beat Zambia before meeting Algeria. You have to be prepared and able to beat all teams in front of you. We have been to the second round three times, it is not an achievement any more. We take it one game at a time, but beating Argentina will be good for us.

Not if it takes so much out of the team that they are not able to fully recover for the next game. This is a long tournament in a short period of time, you want to take care of business as early as possible so you are not tiring your players out playing catch up. The third game for most big teams is usually used to help get some rest for their big guns, not trying to prove that they are ready to go further.

[Mr Shows]

With Messi's brilliance it only takes a minute of magic to undo all the hard work put in to shutting him out. Too much emphasis on him will open up areas for Argentina to exploit. In the Olympics, he sat back a bit deeper and became provider. The key to containing Messi is down to how we work as a unit. Rohr is good at organising his team tactics. If both teams need a result by the time play each other, it may turn out to be a very cagey affair.

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

With Messi's brilliance it only takes a minute of magic to undo all the hard work put in to shutting him out. Too much emphasis on him will open up areas for Argentina to exploit. In the Olympics, he sat back a bit deeper and became provider. The key to containing Messi is down to how we work as a unit. Rohr is good at organising his team tactics. If both teams need a result by the time play each other, it may turn out to be a very cagey affair.

I say we must beat Croatia if we’re going to qualify,then we can go all out against Iceland if they lose to Argentina. If Iceland v Argentina ends in an unlikely draw then we can clinch top spot by beating Iceland. But all talk until pioom!