Siasia: A Moment of Madness!

Well deserving of a.....

But by no means the sack!

Let us recount the events as it happened:

Deep in the game, with a 2-1 advantage, Samson Siasia decides to push on for a third goal which would ensure Nigeria finished above Guinea, in one of the most complicated and idiotic qualification guidelines ever designed by a football confederation, and one that only CAF and Hayatou have the special skills to pull out of their arses!

At this time he had the following attacking players on the pitch: Ahmed Musa wide on the right, Nsofor on the left, Emenike in the center and Ike Uche attacking just behind him. In otherwords he had FOUR attacking players on the pitch.

Simultaneously, Mikel Obi was pushing forward from deep in central midfield, and even Yobo was pushing into the opposition half with increasing regularity.

Then in his wisdom Siasia decides to bring on Ekigho Ehiosun for Joel Obi as the FIFTH attacking player in the team. What is worse, the team is not reshaped in midfield, Mikel continues to push forward, and the strikers begin to get in each others way!

Ironically, this is not the first time Siasia would make a move like this, which led me to some foray into his mindset. To understand Siasia's mentality here this is what his top assistant Simon Kalika had to say two years ago to Complete Sports:

I believe that what Samson has going for him is that he is not afraid and he is a good leader. He can decide to play six strikers in a game and is not scared to go against popular opinion if he believes it is right for what he wants.

His football philosophy, which is same as mine, is one of attacking but I admit that he has more guts than I do.

Samson can push so many players forward and I will be telling him that he can’t play so many players in front of the ball but he will say no, no, that he wants us to go for goals and that’s the only way we can win the game.
I remember one of the Olympic team’s qualifying games against Ghana in Abuja and we were losing two zero. Almost all 10 outfield players became attackers and we were able to win 3-2 in the end. LINK

The reality is that the ability to score is not necessarily a factor of how many forwards you can cram into a team.

At 2-1 Nigeria had a mathematical chance to qualify for the nations cup; conceding a tying goal wiped off this advantage. This should've been the primary factor that influenced the tactical decisions as the game drew to an end. If Joel Obi had tired, he could've reshaped his defence to bring Ogude into midfield, with Efe or Yobo moving to right-back and Adeleye coming on for the last few minutes.

Before this period Nigeria had controlled the game for long periods in the first half but lacked the finish and some cutting edge in the last third.

The use of Osaze in a somewhat free role in attack, allowed him ample opportunity to find or create space to recieve the ball, as well as constantly switch play and positions. Overall his movement was superb but he lacked decisiveness in the final third and was slow in recovering his defensive position in the non-possession phase.

However, the team played a little too narrow, especially on the right, which played into the hands of a Guinea team with numbers behind the ball in central areas. Some of this was due to the poor, poor performance of Obasi in both phases of the game. This is the second crucial game in Abuja that Obasi would fail to justify the confidence of his coaches!

What is more, repeated attempts at long balls over the top of the defence, seemed to force the issue where patience and a continuation of the passing game was required. Nearly 80 percent of successful counterattacks by Guinea resulted directly from failed attempts at the ball-over-the-top, especially from Mikel. The remainder resulted from allowing too much space between the defenders and the two central midfielders.

In wide areas, the poor defensive positioning of Obasi and Nsofor vis a vis the fullbacks in the non-possession phase often gifted Guinea space for the diagonal run from out wide.

But overall Nigeria dominated and should've killed off the game as a contest by halftime. At the start of the second half, the game was finely poised for the introduction of Uche and Musa, and both would make the vital difference. But the Guineans remained a threat on the counter, each time feeding off the Nigerian tendency to lose possession in critical areas or stages of the build-up process. Going forward, this has to be one of the biggest lessons of this game!

The result is that Nigeria misses out on the Nations Cup which should've been an important barometer for the Super Eagles rebuilding project.

Going forward, it is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL that the NFF retain Samson Siasia as coach. In spite of the huge dissapointment in missing out on qualification, there are enough positives in the overall performance of the team to justify continuation.

It would be a monumental error to sack Siasia now and will set the country's football back a few years. If anything, I strongly recommend that the NFF Chairman, Aminu Maigari issue an immediate statement of support for Siasia and that the rebuilding project continues with greater vigor to the friendly against Ghana.

Lack of support for the coach will undermine his authority as coach and the gains made so far in building team harmony and discipline.

If the NFF takes the ill advised route of sacking Siasia, I guarantee that we would almost certainly be looking to appoint another journeyman European coach on the eve of an important tournament.