My thoughts on the Nigeria vs. Argentina match

[General Trousers]

My thoughts on the Nigeria vs. Argentina match:

Nigeria prepared for over a month and took a 23 man team to Russia. I will say that the pre-tournament preparation was very good. Our execution on the field once we landed in Russia was not. What was clear is that some teams were more prepared, had a better strategy or had a better selection. Most of the teams had done their homework on Nigeria, and a lot of lethargic midfield play in the friendlies certainly carried into the tournament.

I will start this discussion by saying that the problems facing Nigeria and Africa at large were far too many. I will list the issues and how they played into this game.

* Odion Ighalo is not the calibre of player we need in the National Team - He misses too many chances and does not show up in big games. The minimum standard was/is Julius Agahowa, who was a hardworking and athletic goal scoring machine. This being said, Nigeria lost 10 years by not building a team around Obafemi Martins (who also could have conducted himself better, and had more mature attitude). Ighalo is poor, and in this game he missed one 1-v-1 chance against the Argentine goalkeeper, trying to slot the ball through a shoebox sized space, when blasting over the head would have been the correct approach. The incident involving Marcos Rojo was embarrassing, Ighalo could not even hit the frame from within the box. He is poor, and his time with the Super Eagles should end forthwith.

Here are other issues that resulted in a poor performance:

* The regression of Victor Moses - Once upon a time I would have seen Victor Moses on-par with his Chelsea teammate Willian. However, Moses has been very predictable in his approach to the game, so much so that 30 year old Croatian defender Ivan Strinić, completely marked him out of the Nigeria vs. Croatia game, with minimal effort. Moses is talented but any flair that he may have had seems to be diminishing.

* Not man-marking Lionel Messi - In a game such as this, it is amazing to see a very short player outrun a defender and win a long-ball. To get scored on via a long-ball is akin to succumbing to a right-hand lead punch or even worse a round-house (using two boxing analogies). Omeruo should an inability to match Messi's pace and also lost the long ball. The correct approach would have been to have had a man-marker on Messi the entire game to provide cover for the defenders. He was left to operate and almost orchestrated a few more goals.

* This Argentina team was NOT THAT GOOD. Argentina took a busload of passengers, who have not inspired any confidence ... We played scared all the way through. It was shameful.

* The fascination with Claude Makélélé - Claude Makélélé retired a long time ago, however his imprint on the style of play of Africans is too extensive. Gone are the creative and wily African midfielders, and firmly cemented are those who can shield the ball, make sideways passes and are loath to shoot the ball. As a result, the Nigerian midfielders who have embraced this style of play, are poor outside shooters, score very few goals and often try to string passes to create a goal. Against a superior passing team, this will fail, as the opposing team will maintain more of the possession.

* An unambitious Iheanacho - The negative psychological game that was waged against Kelechi Iheanacho by his teammate (and in my opinion) his coach, where players such as Gabriel Jesus and Otamendi were favored as caused Iheanacho to underperform. Samuel Eto suffered the same treatment, but was so mentally strong and stubborn, that he refused to bow. Iheanacho should emulate Samuel Eto and really play more forcefully to help Nigeria obtain the results we need.

* The lack of strong institutions - Nigeria is a country of very weak or failing institutions. Everywhere you look you see poor roads, failing hospitals, a pathetic security situation and a country that does not project any form of African pride. This affects our local football, as our teams do not perform well in continental tournaments, and our players behave like desperate football migrants. This should not be the case. We need strong institutions from the bottom to the top, and we need a sustainable local league that pays our local players a good wage. In spite of all this, I can say Ighalo's place could have easily been taken by any number of players from the local scene. Countries with strong institutions do well in this tournament (the United States being the anomaly). It does help a lot.

* We need a dominant player - Every team has a talisman. Nigeria does not. Mikel Obi has had many opportunities to become that difference maker, but we can now firmly say that his era has ended. He can still be invited, but the next 2 years should be focused on the Olympics and really strengthening this group of players.

In summary, we went to a tournament and found ourselves outclassed. I think we can come back in 4 years, but our level and quality has to be orders of magnitude higher than what we presented.

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[fledy]

Big time thoughts and comments.

[oscar52]

Overanalyzing, much simpler. Justs a clueless coach fielding subpar talent all over the place, he has no faith in the players that actually qualified for the tournament. Ezenwa, Echiejile, Onazi etc. should have been starting. Even still one player more than did not show up and that was Idowu and taking a 19yr keeper to the worldcup as well was close to a deliberate sabotage especially since said 19yr old was not involved in qualifications.

[ANC]

This was the easiest game to win against Argentina. The forwards (ighalo) were lazy; didnt fallback to close space. The defenders were over ambitious; Balogun who has zero ball control skill, foraying towards Argentina 18 yard box with no discernible plan. Etebo, just like Moses,gives Headless-chicken a whole new meaning. Idowu is just not good enough. Rohr is chief lazy.

[Rawlings]

Good comments, however, the most glaring omission from your thoughts is the lack of quality Naija players
The players YOU (not WE) took to the world cup were Naija's best, who played the best football they know how

Don't expect pineapple juice from a lemon (na my version)

[Lolly]

This was the easiest game to win against Argentina. The forwards (ighalo) were lazy; didnt fallback to close space. The defenders were over ambitious; Balogun who has zero ball control skill, foraying towards Argentina 18 yard box with no discernible plan. Etebo, just like Moses,gives Headless-chicken a whole new meaning. Idowu is just not good enough. Rohr is chief lazy.

And you didn’t even mention the worst player on the pitch for Nigeria. But we understand emotions are running high.

Idowu did not put a foot wrong today and was one of the more assured defenders.,

[Lolly]

The short analysis to our performance at this World Cup is the lack of quality in attack - strikers and midfielders. And it showed in all our friendly matches where we have so few shots on target. Ighalo, Kelechi and Musa cannot deliver ACN not to talk of World Cup. Everything else is story.

[cchinukw]

My thoughts on the Nigeria vs. Argentina match:

Nigeria prepared for over a month and took a 23 man team to Russia. I will say that the pre-tournament preparation was very good. Our execution on the field once we landed in Russia was not. What was clear is that some teams were more prepared, had a better strategy or had a better selection. Most of the teams had done their homework on Nigeria, and a lot of lethargic midfield play in the friendlies certainly carried into the tournament.

I will start this discussion by saying that the problems facing Nigeria and Africa at large were far too many. I will list the issues and how they played into this game.

* Odion Ighalo is not the calibre of player we need in the National Team - He misses too many chances and does not show up in big games. The minimum standard was/is Julius Agahowa, who was a hardworking and athletic goal scoring machine. This being said, Nigeria lost 10 years by not building a team around Obafemi Martins (who also could have conducted himself better, and had more mature attitude). Ighalo is poor, and in this game he missed one 1-v-1 chance against the Argentine goalkeeper, trying to slot the ball through a shoebox sized space, when blasting over the head would have been the correct approach. The incident involving Marcos Rojo was embarrassing, Ighalo could not even hit the frame from within the box. He is poor, and his time with the Super Eagles should end forthwith.

Here are other issues that resulted in a poor performance:

* The regression of Victor Moses - Once upon a time I would have seen Victor Moses on-par with his Chelsea teammate Willian. However, Moses has been very predictable in his approach to the game, so much so that 30 year old Croatian defender Ivan Strinić, completely marked him out of the Nigeria vs. Croatia game, with minimal effort. Moses is talented but any flair that he may have had seems to be diminishing.

* Not man-marking Lionel Messi - In a game such as this, it is amazing to see a very short player outrun a defender and win a long-ball. To get scored on via a long-ball is akin to succumbing to a right-hand lead punch or even worse a round-house (using two boxing analogies). Omeruo should an inability to match Messi's pace and also lost the long ball. The correct approach would have been to have had a man-marker on Messi the entire game to provide cover for the defenders. He was left to operate and almost orchestrated a few more goals.

* This Argentina team was NOT THAT GOOD. Argentina took a busload of passengers, who have not inspired any confidence ... We played scared all the way through. It was shameful.

* The fascination with Claude Makélélé - Claude Makélélé retired a long time ago, however his imprint on the style of play of Africans is too extensive. Gone are the creative and wily African midfielders, and firmly cemented are those who can shield the ball, make sideways passes and are loath to shoot the ball. As a result, the Nigerian midfielders who have embraced this style of play, are poor outside shooters, score very few goals and often try to string passes to create a goal. Against a superior passing team, this will fail, as the opposing team will maintain more of the possession.

* An unambitious Iheanacho - The negative psychological game that was waged against Kelechi Iheanacho by his teammate (and in my opinion) his coach, where players such as Gabriel Jesus and Otamendi were favored as caused Iheanacho to underperform. Samuel Eto suffered the same treatment, but was so mentally strong and stubborn, that he refused to bow. Iheanacho should emulate Samuel Eto and really play more forcefully to help Nigeria obtain the results we need.

* The lack of strong institutions - Nigeria is a country of very weak or failing institutions. Everywhere you look you see poor roads, failing hospitals, a pathetic security situation and a country that does not project any form of African pride. This affects our local football, as our teams do not perform well in continental tournaments, and our players behave like desperate football migrants. This should not be the case. We need strong institutions from the bottom to the top, and we need a sustainable local league that pays our local players a good wage. In spite of all this, I can say Ighalo's place could have easily been taken by any number of players from the local scene. Countries with strong institutions do well in this tournament (the United States being the anomaly). It does help a lot.

* We need a dominant player - Every team has a talisman. Nigeria does not. Mikel Obi has had many opportunities to become that difference maker, but we can now firmly say that his era has ended. He can still be invited, but the next 2 years should be focused on the Olympics and really strengthening this group of players.

In summary, we went to a tournament and found ourselves outclassed. I think we can come back in 4 years, but our level and quality has to be orders of magnitude higher than what we presented.

<

Very insightful and mirrors my thoughts on the preparation and competition thus far.