Peseiro is a good coach - Musings of a new Era

[vancity eagle]

Congrats on a hard fought victory, it is not easy on such a disgraceful pitch.

Plenty of positives and I think SE will do very well with Peseiro as a coach, it will take a few more matches before he weeds out the dead woods and fully implements his system with HIS CHOICE of players.

Peseiro is an active coach. You can see this by his substitution at the beginning of the half, something Rohr would fail to do even when it was obvious a change was needed. He is flexible and will change formations within a match depending on how things are going.

The 442 created a lot of chances, and controlled the match for the most part, but we were vulnerable at the back and it was rightfully addressed bringing on Etebo at the half.

Also Peseiro can be heard screaming at his players barking instructions. He is far more passionate than Rohr, you could see the intensity on his face in the final moments of the match.

Peseiro's team is creating far more chances than Rohr's. Remember that one of the criticisms of Rohr's team is that they often could not answer going down a goal. The team showed great character to come back from being 1-0 down to win the match, and should have scored more.

THE PLAYERS

Uzoho -7 Did well, should be getting back some confidence

Aina -7 Is a boss attacking but was caught out in defence, you could hear Peseiro barking at him repeatedly to get back. His replacement by Shehu at the end shows that Peseiro LIKE ROHR has reservations about him defensively, but he is just too good going forward to drop.

Troost -6 Did well to stop a dangerous through ball which lead to his injury, but was found wanting on the goal we conceded. We need to look forward beyond Troost as a starter. Decent backup option for us but should not be a starter. His injury can hopefully give us a look at other combinations

Ajayi -6.5 Usually gets stuck in but has moments of lapses which can be costly

Bassey -6.5 struggled defensively, especially on the goal we conceeded. His crossing is always a threat

Aribo -7 Somewhat of a muted match, but always shows good touches, and passing ability

Iwobi -8 Bossed the midfield and continues to show energy with his high press, beautiful goal and his build up play is top notch. He is now showing to be Nigeria's MOST IMPORTANT PLAYER. No wonder we struggled against Ghana.

Simon -7.5 2 assists, played well, hustled and you can tell that coach Peseiro is making a strong attempt to coach Simon's uselessness out of him. He rarely made a wrong decision today, and did not run into his customary culdesacs. It is clear if we play a 442 Peseiro will prefer him over anyone else due to his energy and defensive cover.

Chukwueze -6.5 Showed glimpses of how dangerous he can be but should have scored at least one goal. Needs to do better, but this was actually a much improved performance from Chuks, one of his best in a long time.

Osimehn - 7 Tireless pressing, showed good linkup play, but needs to be much more clinical in front of goal.

Sadiq - 7 linked up well and showed some good movement in the box to create space and fashion a chance or 2. Too bad he was replaced to change formation. Is slowly solidifying his place as our #2 striker

Etebo -6 Looks a shadow of himself, was even beaten for pace at times. Really should not have been in this squad considering his lack of playing time and injury struggles this season. The likes of Onyedika, Nwobodo, Alhassan, Ejaria, need to be called up ahead of him, until he regains form.


All in all I am happy with the progress of our team.

[Tobi17]

Your rating of Moses Simon shows you can honest and unbiased

[vancity eagle]

Your rating of Moses Simon shows you can honest and unbiased

He did well today. Kept it simple and played FOR THE TEAM.

Something he rarely does.

[vancity eagle]

by the way what is with our giving the "oldest player on the pitch" the captainship.

This is something that needs to stop NOW. Why was Omeruo given the armband ?

One after another, our most useless players who are hanging on by fumes keep getting this responsibility.

The captain should be an important part of our starting 11

Ndidi or Iwobi IMO should be made captain.

[vancity eagle]

Another thing I will say and this may have been apparent for a while but

WE HAVE A DEFENCE PROBLEM.

Our best CB is will soon be 34 in a few weeks.

Troost has been poor and cannot start for a relegated team

Ajayi is a championship player who also suffers defensive lapses despite being mostly solid

Omeruo is a second division player

Awaziem has been dissapointing

Peseiro needs to bring back Akpoguma and play him at CB. He cannot be worse than these guys.

Peseiro has more to do with our defence than anything else. It just gives up cheap goals game after game.

[olu]

I would consider playing Bassey and Ajayi in central defense and starting Sanusi at LB. Ajayi and Bassey have their lapses as well, however, I think they are both more comfortable on the ball and more mobile than Ekong.

[Tobi17]

I would consider playing Bassey and Ajayi in central defense and starting Sanusi at LB. Ajayi and Bassey have their lapses as well, however, I think they are both more comfortable on the ball and more mobile than Ekong.

I second this motion, Bassey has been herculean for Rangers playing as a CB

[vancity eagle]

I would consider playing Bassey and Ajayi in central defense and starting Sanusi at LB. Ajayi and Bassey have their lapses as well, however, I think they are both more comfortable on the ball and more mobile than Ekong.

I second this motion, Bassey has been herculean for Rangers playing as a CB

Peseiro may play a 352 and have Bassey at LCB so he can cross as well as play in the middle.

[Damunk]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

[vancity eagle]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

That's why we continue to give cheap goals. It was very apparent in the 2 US friendlies.

[Tobi17]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

Peseiro truly has his work cut out for him in that defence situation, and it's even more worrying that we're not producing any top defenders right now so we're stuck with these lots...

[airwolex]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

Bassey is wasted at lb. He should pair Ekong for now. That should make things better.

[Damunk]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

Bassey is wasted at lb. He should pair Ekong for now. That should make things better.

I agree.
Zaidu is good enough at LB freeing up Bassey for left of centre.

[Tobi17]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

Bassey is wasted at lb. He should pair Ekong for now. That should make things better.

The problem here is that Ekongs positional awareness is very poor, I just don't rate that guy and I insist we can do way better than him, Bassey definitely should be moved into the CB position, the real issue now is finding a good CB who can pair with Bassey...we are desperately lacking in options and it's worrying.

[oyek]

This is when you wish Felix Uduokhai and Jordan Torunarigha are part of the team.

[Dammy]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

Bassey is wasted at lb. He should pair Ekong for now. That should make things better.

The problem here is that Ekongs positional awareness is very poor, I just don't rate that guy and I insist we can do way better than him, Bassey definitely should be moved into the CB position, the real issue now is finding a good CB who can pair with Bassey...we are desperately lacking in options and it's worrying.

I think Akpoguma should be recalled to pair with Bassey in CD.

[Enugu II]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

Bassey is wasted at lb. He should pair Ekong for now. That should make things better.

I agree.
Zaidu is good enough at LB freeing up Bassey for left of centre.

Damunk,

While, I have long believed we should have a better pairing at CD, that was not the big issue today. That CD was exposed because of poor play in the midfield by Aribo who little little to protect the CDs as Ndidi always does. If you re-watch the game via the posted video, I believe this will be confirmed.

It was so clear during the game. Aribo was stranded, too often, up field. That position did not stabilize until in the second half when Etebo stepped in for Umar. This moved Aribo further up and Etebo sat right in front of the CDs to protect it. Suddenly the disorganization evaporated.

[TonyTheTigerKiller]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

Bassey is wasted at lb. He should pair Ekong for now. That should make things better.

I agree.
Zaidu is good enough at LB freeing up Bassey for left of centre.

Damunk,

While, I have long believed we should have a better pairing at CD, that was not the big issue today. That CD was exposed because of poor play in the midfield by Aribo who little little to protect the CDs as Ndidi always does. If you re-watch the game via the posted video, I believe this will be confirmed.

It was so clear during the game. Aribo was stranded, too often, up field. That position did not stabilize until in the second half when Etebo stepped in for Umar. This moved Aribo further up and Etebo sat right in front of the CDs to protect it. Suddenly the disorganization evaporated.

EII

Our overall defensive game plan was weak. Even after Etebo came on, they were able, on occasion, to break into our half rather easily, with lots of space to run. We were extremely vulnerable to the counter


Cheers.

[Sunset]

We are really weak at CB
Ekong?
Ajayi?
Omeruo?
Balogun?
Awaziem?

This is a serious problem o.

None

Bassey is wasted at lb. He should pair Ekong for now. That should make things better.

I agree.
Zaidu is good enough at LB freeing up Bassey for left of centre.

Damunk,

While, I have long believed we should have a better pairing at CD, that was not the big issue today. That CD was exposed because of poor play in the midfield by Aribo who little little to protect the CDs as Ndidi always does. If you re-watch the game via the posted video, I believe this will be confirmed.

It was so clear during the game. Aribo was stranded, too often, up field. That position did not stabilize until in the second half when Etebo stepped in for Umar. This moved Aribo further up and Etebo sat right in front of the CDs to protect it. Suddenly the disorganization evaporated.

Our CB's were definitely our biggest issue today, even with Etebo's introduction though they were more protected they were still prone to poor positioning and reacting too slow on occasions. It's one thing for one of them to be starting, but both? That's a disaster waiting to happen and they're not done any favours by Bassey or Aina who are more interested in attacking