Nigeria has never got its central midfield strategy right

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Nigeria has never got its central midfield strategy right

Post by Ayo Akinfe »

Over recent weeks, there has been a bit of an elevation in the quality of debate on this forum, with the emphasis gradually shifting towards tactics, formation and getting the balance of the team right. Consequently, I have decided to begin a series of commentaries on the subject to take the discussion to another plane.

My hope is that what we shall be doing here will be no different to what exists in any other walk of life, whereby there are DIY versions of how to do things freely available on the Internet. Footbal ilike anything else, has its sacrosanct laws as rigid as the Law of Gravity while at the same time having a lot of subjectivity to it.

I hope we can try to avoid mixing the two up as the fine line between them is not always clearly demarcated. I also hope forumers wil please express their views in a polite, civil and gentlemanly manner, even when we have our inevitable ferocious differences.

Back to the question of central midfield, there are different opinions about how the Eagles should play but everyone here is of the opinion that you need two anchormen to shore up the middle. Indeed, across the footballing world, everyone bar Christian Chukwu is of the opinion that you need a minimum of two ball winners in central midfield.

Now despite their being a universal consensus bar Chukwu on this matter, there are several ways in which it can be done. However, the fundamental strategy is that these two players fight for the ball and when one drives forward, the other steps back to fill in space and be on the lookout for a counter attack.

Over the years, Nigeria has had several midfield duos. They include:

Atuegbu/Lawal
Lawal/Nwosu
Nwosu/Adesina
Adesina/Eguoavon
Ekpo/Oliha
Adepoju/Oliha
Adepoju/Ekpo
Oliseh/Adepoju
Oliseh/Siasia

Of late, we have had the promising partnersip of Olofionjana/Obodo, which I believe is the future of Nigerian football. In the 4-1 win against Malawi in Abuja, the two oif them played together but I for one was not impressed with the results. Why?

What happened in Abuja was that Olofinjana sat deep and Obodo bombed forward. A lot of time, Olofinjana did not drive forward when he had the ball and Obodo got too carried away with unecessary showboating to bother tracking back to help his midfield partner.

The way it should work is that when one of this duo gets the ball, he drives forward to attack and the space gets filled automatically. I want you all to bear in mind the fact that six times out of 10, when an anchorman wins the ball in midfield, the counter attack is on.

To make use of this, the anchorman needs to drive forward as quickly as possible, trying to either pick out a forward player, or driving into the box himself. If we cast out minds back to Tunisia 2004, on too many ocasion, Seyi Olofinjana won the ball in dangerous areas after the opposition had committed men forward but could not initiate attacks because his instructions were to sit back and protect the back four.

Now in my opinion, those kind of instructions are utter nonesense. You need to have a fluid midfield where your midfielders can take advantage of the counter-attack and asking Olofinjana to pass the ball short to JJ of just long to Kanu upfield, meant that the team was never going to ba an attacking team.

Throughout Nigeria's footballing history, we have never got this right, as we always have a case of one of these two central midfielders sitting deep and the other joining the attack. This rigidity, makes a mockery of the concept of total football.

Despite Cameroon's poor showing in Tunisia, I think one thing they got right was the flexible combination of Djemba-Djemba and Mbami in midfield. When one drove forward, the otheer sat back and held.

For me, the Vieara/Petite partnership at Arsenal in the late 1990s was the best display of such flexible midfield interplay I have ever seen. It is something the new coach of the Eagles will have to work on if the team is ever going to win anything in the modern game.
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Post by Waffiman »

Ayo, I hear you but we still do not have a coach who can build a team. What I saw in the ANC was a team which operated in bits and pieces. The key elements of attack, midfield and defence did not work together. Until we employ a coach who knows what he is doing the SE will not know what they are doing.
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Post by Ayo Akinfe »

Waffiman wrote:Ayo, I hear you but we still do not have a coach who can build a team. What I saw in the ANC was a team which operated in bits and pieces. The key elements of attack, midfield and defence did not work together. Until we employ a coach who knows what he is doing the SE will not know what they are doing.
But even Westerhoff, Bonfere, Amodu and Onigbinde did not get this right. Oliseh/Siasia and Oliseh/ Adepoju never interchanged properly as Djemba-Djemba and Mbami did.

In 1994, Siasia was bombing forward, leaving Oliseh to sit. The way the system is supposed to work, the two of them are supposed to operate like one person.

I take your point about Chukwu but let us forget him as he does not even know what we are talking about. He still thinks you just need a "Number four" and that is the end of the matter.

Playing two two-way central midfielders means getting them working like a piston in a pump that goes up and down. This is one area where we need serious work in the team.
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Post by Waffiman »

Ayo Akinfe wrote:
Waffiman wrote:Ayo, I hear you but we still do not have a coach who can build a team. What I saw in the ANC was a team which operated in bits and pieces. The key elements of attack, midfield and defence did not work together. Until we employ a coach who knows what he is doing the SE will not know what they are doing.
But even Westerhoff, Bonfere, Amodu and Onigbinde did not get this right. Oliseh/Siasia and Oliseh/ Adepoju never interchanged properly as Djemba-Djemba and Mbami did.

In 1994, Siasia was bombing forward, leaving Oliseh to sit. The way the system is supposed to work, the two of them are supposed to operate like one person.

I take your point about Chukwu but let us forget him as he does not even know what we are talking about. He still thinks you just need a "Number four" and that is the end of the matter.

Playing two two-way central midfielders means getting them working like a piston in a pump that goes up and down. This is one area where we need serious work in the team.
Ayo, I disagree. Oliseh/Siasia combo was brilliant and do not forget Oliseh was young and inexperienced then. Oliseh/ Adepoju in Spain were also brilliant, IMHO, it was when our problems at RB forced us to move Mutiu there that we became weaker as a team.

I am loath to comparing the Mbami and Dejmba combo because IMHO none of them are in the class of the guys you are comparing them with yet. Besides, they are playing in a 3-5-2 formation, thereby getting a lot of help while Oliseh/Siasia and Oliseh/ Adepoju did not have such luxury of numbers in the middle.
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Post by Ayo Akinfe »

Waffi, Cameroon did not play 3-5-2 in Tunisia 2004. By the way, Oliseh/Siasia and Oliseh/Adepoju did work as well as it should have. One was on permanent defensive duties. That is not the way the system is designed to operate.
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Post by txj »

Personally, I think that the problem we have had in recent years in playing with balance in midfield, emerges from the continued attempt by our coaches to replicate the Westerhof approach, without the full compliment of his personnel. And it finds expression, especially in what IMO, is the lingering question of how best to position Okocha.
Just before the ANC, I did post something on how I thought the SE could play, with three midfielders (from right to left, Olofi, A. Oliseh, Obodo) in front of the back four, and Okocha in the hole behind 1 striker, leaving the second striker to attack from wide right.
It would require that whoever is in A. Oliseh's position, predominantly sit in front of the back four, never straying beyond the halfway line for long.
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Post by quickie »

Ayo Akinfe wrote:But even Westerhoff, Bonfere, Amodu and Onigbinde did not get this right. Oliseh/Siasia and Oliseh/ Adepoju never interchanged properly as Djemba-Djemba and Mbami did.
And what did properly interchanging Djemba-Djemba and Mbami do in the ANC? 1 win in 4 matches? Is the purpose of the game to interchange properly and not win games?

Back to overhyping of Abami & J'eba J'eba again? Highly overated.They just walked into a succesful team...that's easy.Now, let them rebuild Cameroun.

We have never got the tactics right in midfield, right? I guess you have known more than all those coaches put together. Everyone is a genius on hindsight...please tell me the midfielders that we should have used instead of those listed above. I don't seem to recollect any half decent midfielder in Nigeria that didn't get a look in those days.


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Post by Ayo Akinfe »

quickie wrote:
Ayo Akinfe wrote:But even Westerhoff, Bonfere, Amodu and Onigbinde did not get this right. Oliseh/Siasia and Oliseh/ Adepoju never interchanged properly as Djemba-Djemba and Mbami did.
And what did properly interchanging Djemba-Djemba and Mbami do in the ANC? 1 win in 4 matches? Is the purpose of the game to interchange properly and not win games?

Back to overhyping of Abami & J'eba J'eba again? Highly overated.They just walked into a succesful team...that's easy.Now, let them rebuild Cameroun.

We have never got the tactics right in midfield, right? I guess you have known more than all those coaches put together. Everyone is a genius on hindsight...please tell me the midfielders that we should have used instead of those listed above. I don't seem to recollect any half decent midfielder in Nigeria that didn't get a look in those days.


Q
Please read the thread. It is not just about personnel. It is about how you use them.
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Post by quickie »

I guess that's 3-5-2 right?

There is a limit to rigidity in football these days. Every team builds a team/plays based on the personnel they have.

For many a year, we had teams that were solid...because you're trying to prove a point doesn't mean you should bring down our past teams.

Between 1981 & 1991, I watched 90% of Eagles matches at the National stadium and watched all the players off the ball, and we had a pattern...everyone knew what they were doing...and midfield was solid. We were never ragged.

PS - In those years, we lost only one match to Algeria, I think.

For one man, to wake up one day and say we've never got our central midfield right is shocking.Simple.


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Post by Blakes »

man anything Ayo posts nowadys tie's into the 3-5-2 system in one way or the other...Even if the thread is entitled "cows can fly" the content of the post will still relate to the 3-5-2 formation system in some way....I dont know where u got this kinda confidence for the system, abi has Miss Cleo told u something that we dont know...
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Post by Ayo Akinfe »

quickie wrote:I guess that's 3-5-2 right?

There is a limit to rigidity in football these days. Every team builds a team/plays based on the personnel they have.

For many a year, we had teams that were solid...because you're trying to prove a point doesn't mean you should bring down our past teams.

Between 1981 & 1991, I watched 90% of Eagles matches at the National stadium and watched all the players off the ball, and we had a pattern...everyone knew what they were doing...and midfield was solid. We were never ragged.

PS - In those years, we lost only one match to Algeria, I think.

For one man, to wake up one day and say we've never got our central midfield right is shocking.Simple.


Q
If you are not going to read the thread and understand ther points I am making, it isa pointless cointinuing this discussion. What has brought 3-5-2 into this?

Did Cameroon play 3-5-2 in Tunisia? Yet they got this poart of their game right. Are you one of these people who wakes up in the morning thinking who am I going to fight today?
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Post by PaJimoh »

Is this suppose to be a revelation? Nigeria has hardly got any strategy right.

Defence, Mid Fiels or Forward lineup, same old story
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Post by Ayo Akinfe »

Blakes wrote:man anything Ayo posts nowadys tie's into the 3-5-2 system in one way or the other...Even if the thread is entitled "cows can fly" the content of the post will still relate to the 3-5-2 formation system in some way....I dont know where u got this kinda confidence for the system, abi has Miss Cleo told u something that we dont know...
Were you taught how to read? Please show me one mention of 3-5-2 in my piece.
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Post by quickie »

Ayo Akinfe wrote:
quickie wrote:I guess that's 3-5-2 right?

There is a limit to rigidity in football these days. Every team builds a team/plays based on the personnel they have.

For many a year, we had teams that were solid...because you're trying to prove a point doesn't mean you should bring down our past teams.

Between 1981 & 1991, I watched 90% of Eagles matches at the National stadium and watched all the players off the ball, and we had a pattern...everyone knew what they were doing...and midfield was solid. We were never ragged.

PS - In those years, we lost only one match to Algeria, I think.

For one man, to wake up one day and say we've never got our central midfield right is shocking.Simple.


Q
If you are not going to read the thread and understand ther points I am making, it isa pointless cointinuing this discussion. What has brought 3-5-2 into this?

Did Cameroon play 3-5-2 in Tunisia? Yet they got this poart of their game right. Are you one of these people who wakes up in the morning thinking who am I going to fight today?
Your threads are pretty demeaning to Eagles sometimes ,you need to chill, don't post your opinion like it's gospel.. Not fighting you....just letting you know that the statement "Nigeria has never got its midfield right" is uncalled for. Period.

No proper fan of the Eagles that have watched them for last 25 years will come out with that.


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Post by Coach »

Ayo, that was a very accurate analysis of the problems faced by Nigeria. There midfield is ironically, lost in the middle of the field. Engulfed by the vast space and possibility. Because the so-called Super-Eagles, have chosen to play in such a one-dimensional fashion, they lack the fluidity of their european counterparts.

Indeed there is a call for improvement, but such screams are muffled by the popping of wine bottles and gnashing of teeth, as the pirates upstairs, toast their most recent looting.

As was mentioned above, in a rather disapproving tone, the issue of the Nigeria midfield does indeed coincide with the tactics debate. After all, how can we achieve solidity without including the must-have nonchalance and arrogance that plagues Nigerian football. Contrary to the above remarks, the talk of tactics and midfield crisis, walk hand-in-hand. If football was simply a matter of chaning your personnel, then Chelsea would be in the FA cup semi-finals, top of the prem, and whistling their way to the Champions League.

We cannot propose a solution to our problem without looking at the wider picture, the tactics, the style, the purpose, the players andso on.
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Post by Blakes »

Ayo Akinfe wrote:
Blakes wrote:man anything Ayo posts nowadys tie's into the 3-5-2 system in one way or the other...Even if the thread is entitled "cows can fly" the content of the post will still relate to the 3-5-2 formation system in some way....I dont know where u got this kinda confidence for the system, abi has Miss Cleo told u something that we dont know...
Were you taught how to read? Please show me one mention of 3-5-2 in my piece.
u no need mention am now...na wettin u want be that, u wrote all over the place inbetween the lines....that is what will make the midfielfd perfect for u..abi?
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Post by Jimi »

I see some minor contradictions in your above write-up. I am under the impression that you favor a system where as one midfielder moves forward, the other plays a holding defensive role. But then you said Olofinjana and Obodo did that against Malawi to your displeasure. Then you said Cameroon played poorly at he ANC, even though they implemented your system. My guy, give me a chance to understand your position. Honestly , I support a 4-3-3 formation with a solid back four. Consequently, the rest of the squad dropping back and forth as required , with the main striker ready to lead the break.
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Post by omotori »

I think Ayo made some very good points. I think his comments on the 94 eagus are meant more a call for improvement than a criticism. I can see where he is coming from squarely with the 2004 Tunus team. With the 94 team, yes its true SiaSia played more offence than Oliseh but that may be more a reflection of individual skills than a lack of "interchange tactic"

the important point though is that having two solid 2-way DM's who interchange seamlessly in a balanced way can cause major problems for the opponent.

As for 2004 eagus, there was a noticeable lack of balance in the midfield essentially due to playing Olofin & JJ at DM.

The core issue that I would like to see Ayo address though is how JJ should be played in the4-4-2 or 4-5-1 as these are the only formations the eagus will play in the forseeable future.

If we had played 2 dedicated DM's (JJ did not play as a dedicated DM, and there was zero interchange between him & Olofin) we would have done better in tunisia.
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Post by maceo4 »

4-1-9 coach don come again :twisted: :twisted:
Coach wrote:Ayo, that was a very accurate analysis of the problems faced by Nigeria. There midfield is ironically, lost in the middle of the field. Engulfed by the vast space and possibility. Because the so-called Super-Eagles, have chosen to play in such a one-dimensional fashion, they lack the fluidity of their european counterparts.

Indeed there is a call for improvement, but such screams are muffled by the popping of wine bottles and gnashing of teeth, as the pirates upstairs, toast their most recent looting.

As was mentioned above, in a rather disapproving tone, the issue of the Nigeria midfield does indeed coincide with the tactics debate. After all, how can we achieve solidity without including the must-have nonchalance and arrogance that plagues Nigerian football. Contrary to the above remarks, the talk of tactics and midfield crisis, walk hand-in-hand. If football was simply a matter of chaning your personnel, then Chelsea would be in the FA cup semi-finals, top of the prem, and whistling their way to the Champions League.

We cannot propose a solution to our problem without looking at the wider picture, the tactics, the style, the purpose, the players andso on.
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Post by mastermind »

nigeria get it right in 1994 and that is why we won nation cup and was ranked # 5th in the world. Unbalanced african team will be ranked as #5 in world. Even is Olympic 1996, our midfield is solid, if not we will be able to win that brazil and argentina team.
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Post by HAWKEYE »

The title could be modified as "Nigeria has not got its central midfield strategy right with JJ"

TXJ rightly alluded to this in his post, and this has nothing to do with JJ as a player, but with different coaches, starting from Westerhoff to CCC now. The former simply dropped him from his starting 11, whilst the later made the team to revolve round him

Ayo - I refer you to Oliseh/Adepoju combo, vs Spain in the 1998 WC with Adepoju heading in the first goal and Oliseh icing the cake with his half volley - both IMO, played the system the way you described it with "interchageably mobility".

Watch the film at your leisure and observe the two. (Atuegbu/Lawal combo also was mobile and interchanged effectively in their time).

As pointed out above, that partnership was aborted when Mobi became a liability during WC '98, but the "Olympic '96 mafia" would not allow Egu into the first eleven, and the "11th hour" coach had no choice but to draft versatile Adepoju to the right back position moving JJ to partner with Oliseh in the CM and, katakata come burst against Demark in the "better forgotten" quarter-final game.

Bonfere Jo also could not weave JJ into the team successfully, coupled with the straight "from plane to field" attitude of the "senior boys" themselves.

Methink the Bolton coach has somehow solved the riddle with his 4:1:4:1 formation. Campo in front of the back four and JJ with Djonkaeff in the middle behind the top striker with the wide players on either flank.

Can this formation work for the SE? I think it can, especially if Oruma is re-called and plays alongside JJ like Djonkaeff, with Uttaka/?? and Lawal/?? on either flank and Kanu/?? as top striker . This leaves Seyi/?? as the Campo in front of the back four.

Ayo's point about mobile CMs is right on the button and the SE coaching crew has to fish for individuals with the lung capacity for this position with 2 vacancies without KANU and JJ in the equation though. CCC should use his so called non-FIFA dates to implement this.

Presently, I have read/ heard or seen some of the following budding CMs:
Olofin - seen
Obodo - seen
Christopher - seen
Ogunbure - heard/read
Okonkwo - heard/read
Omoefe - heard/read
CCC should start with these 6 and only subtract and add.

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Post by Mudi E »

Ayoakinfe is really passionate about this midfield thing sha...Chei Ayo, you're hot over this issue. I do agree with you. However, what do we do about the wing play? You know that Ikedia still factors in our plans and is likely to feature in the world cup qualifying. What happens if Ikedia plays and is contributing immensely to the team? If we use two anchormen as you said, the wing play will be virtually none-existent. The attack will come solely from the middle and that will make the team predictable.

What i'm suggesting is that we have to find a way to combine both wing play in the two anchormen formation, that's diversify the attack and middle defense. Any input to this?
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Post by Obong »

Ayo Akinfe wrote:Waffi, Cameroon did not play 3-5-2 in Tunisia 2004. By the way, Oliseh/Siasia and Oliseh/Adepoju did work as well as it should have. One was on permanent defensive duties. That is not the way the system is designed to operate.


Ayo,go back to the Cameroun v Zimbabwe match.The Camerounian back three comprised Ndoumbe-Song-Tchato.Mettomo missed the game.The midfield was Attouba-Mbami-Djemba-Makoun-Geremi;the attack was the usual Mboma-Eto'o pairing.
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