Two games do not normally constitute enough body of work to assess the performance of a coach, and I will not attempt to do so with respect to Sunday Oliseh's tenure so far.
However, his much publicized selection policy is of interest to me, especially because of the vital role that this has played in the failures of successive Nigerian coaches of the Super Eagles.
The pool of players available to national team selectors in Nigeria can be divided into four broad categories.
The first pool of players comprises established national team players among whom are the following: Enyeama, Ambrose, Omeruo, Oboabona, Uwa; Mikel Obi, Onazi; Emenike, Musa, Moses.
The challenge for national team selectors is the fact that apart from Enyeama who has played at a consistently high level, the rest of this group have had their careers either stagnate, become inconsistent or out-rightly decline.
The second pool comprises fringe players who have made periodic appearances in the national team. This comprises a long list of players some of whom are Ejide, Egwueke, Oshaniwa, Kwambe, Raheem Lawal, John Ogu, Aaron Samuel, Obiora Nwankwo, Gbolahan Salami, Rabiu Ibrahim, Michael Babatunde, etc.
The difficulty for national team selectors in assessing this group is the clear lack of consistency in the careers of many of these players, with several shuttling between the NPL and trials in Europe. Under Keshi, For example, under Stephen Keshi, Oshaniwa made his debut and remained a regular until his international transfer, after which he seemed to disappear, only to return and feature prominently at the world cup, following an injury to Echiejile. Others have shuttled between minor clubs in the low tier European leagues.
The biggest challenge for national team selectors especially resides within this group, with many of the Euro-based players having had nomadic careers, shuttling between minor leagues, and their homebased counterparts navigating successive failed trials in Europe. The result is that few from this group have had settled careers, and overall have contributed least to the national team, compared to other groups.
In my considered opinion, any call-ups from this group will need to be made with the most careful consideration. An analysis of call-ups by Sunday Oliseh so far shows that invitees from this group includes, Lukman Haruna, Sylvester Igboun, Izunna Uzochukwu, Rabiu Ibrahim, Obiora Nwankwo and Solomon Kwambe. None of these players have put in anything resembling a quality performance.
What is more, under Stephen Keshi and Siasia before him, players from this group have equally performed poorly, especially under the former. Analyzing this group further, one can conclude with certainty that the stagnation that followed Keshi's performance post-ANC 2013 can be traced to his repeated call-ups and persistence with players from this group, even when their contributions did not warrant a recall. The highlight of this being the notorious case of Gabriel Okechukwu including the decision to go to the world cup with the likes of Michael Uchebo, Reuben Gabriel and Uche Nwofor. Indeed, ten of Nigeria's world cup squad was drawn from this group!
The third pool of players comprise some emerging talent from both the domestic as well as European leagues, comprising such players as Moses Simon, Leon Balogun, William-Troos Ekong, Ighalo, Ujah, Kingsley Madu, Prince Aggrey, Mohmmed Usman, etc.
The fourth and final pool of players comprise players from our youth teams, many of whom are yet to make their international debuts with the Super Eagles, as well as diaspora Nigerians (including those with Nigerian parentage). Among these are such talents as Kelechi Iheanacho, Taiwo Awoniyi, Genk center-back, Wilfred Ndidi, Michael Olaitan, Godswill Ekpolor, Kelvin Akpoguma, Kenneth Otigba, etc.
The challenge for Sunday Oliseh and national team selectors is to focus player call-ups on players whose growth curve is trending upwards, wherever they may be domiciled, regardless of what experience they may have or how young they may claim.
Perhaps the greatest irony of Nigerian football is the fact that at any one time, the best players from the Nigerian domestic game can be found in any one of our youth teams. And when they perform brilliantly at this level, we delude ourselves into thinking they are too young for the senior team!
Take the case of Stanley Okoro, who at the time of his superstar status with the U-17 'Golden Eaglets' was a top scorer for Heartland in the CAF Champions league, ostensibly considered 'too young' for the Super Eagles even when his standard was at least at the top end of the African club championship! The result was that he would go from playing in the finals of the CAF champions league to the reserves at Spanish basement club Almeria, as an academy scholar! From Almeria he would be sent on a season long loan in 2013 to the anonymous Bulgarian team, Cherno More. Nothing more has been heard of him since then...
The moral of the above story is that the only victims of our approach to youth football is Nigeria. Many of the players we parade from the U-17 to the U-23 levels are some of the best players in the domestic game in their positions, including some of those strategically 'parked' at our local academies to facilitate their international transfers.
While the MRI test might analyze the bone density of our players and certify them eligible for the U-17 team, they will not, and cannot reveal the iniquities underlying an approach that wastes some of the best years of our most talented footballers, like Macauley Chrisantus, top scorer and Silver Boot winner at the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Korea, a veteran of European basement league football at 25, having migrated from Hamburger SV to Hamburger SV II, Karlsruher SC, FSV Frankfurt, Las Palmas, Sivasspor and AEK Athens!
In the very short period of Sunday Oliseh's tenure, there are some encouraging signs from his selection policy and decisions, specifically his decision to set standards and his decisiveness in holding Lukman Haruna accountable for his disastrous performance in Tanzania. However, aspects of his selection decisions so far point unequivocally in the direction of the locust years of Stephen Keshi.
From the foregoing analysis, it seems crystal clear to me that to succeed, Sunday Oliseh must draw the majority of his national team call-ups from a viable core of established players in combination with high performers from the third and fourth selection pools outlined above.
More importantly, it is vital that irrespective of the group a player is drawn from, that subsequent call-ups be made to reflect performance and accountability, not wishful thinking or worse, the desire to facilitate the international transfer of players.
No comments:
Post a Comment