Super Eagles Evolution: Nacho and the 'Raumdeuter'

 On November 13, 2020 on Match Day 3 of the Africa Nations Cup qualifiers, Nigeria raced to a four goal lead against Sierra Leone in under thirty minutes. The match would end in a 4-4 draw, with the Super Eagles barely hanging on...

The match would have a profound effect on the thinking of erstwhile manager Gernot Rohr, who would begin a long process of trying to evolve the team around a less expansive approach, including the eventual return/transition(?) to a 4-4-2, with Kelechi Iheanacho in the role behind Victor Osimhen, and the combination of Wilfred Ndidi and Joe Aribo in central midfield.

With Wilfred Ndidi and Joe Aribo established as the pairing in central midfield (as further confirmed at AFCON), the tactical questions around the team have revolved around:

• First the role of Kelechi Iheanacho, ahead of the central midfield duo and behind Victor Osimhen; and
• Second, the potential for a further evolution of the team to a 4-3-3, especially with the emergence of the talented FC Midtjylland midfielder, Raphael Onyedika, to possibly play on the right of an inverted triangle in central midfield.

However, given the immediate challenges facing the team, a world cup qualifier vs Ghana, the focus of my piece is naturally on the current squad, specifically the role of Kelechi in a 4-4-2, and the continuing lack of fluidity in the attacking design of play.

For most managers, including the most team-oriented managers, the focus of the attacking design of play is often how to get the best out of their most important players. And in the case of Nigeria, that is obviously Victor Osimhen.

In the final year of Gernot Rohr's tenure as coach of Nigeria, the lack of clarity in Kele's role, the tentativeness of the manager, coupled with the weaknesses of the player himself, combined to produce a team of mediocre attacking intent and anemic execution.

In the support striker role, since 2020, Iheanacho has scored four goals for Nigeria in 17 appearances. In the history of the Super Eagles, this is not a new role, having been executed to brilliant effect by Nwankwo Kanu, who brought a level of intelligence beyond the reach of the Leicester City man.

In the current game, this is a role most aptly defined by Bayern Munich's Thomas Mueller, as the "Raumdeuter position", literally translated as a space investigator, which combines football intelligence, understanding/appreciation of space and the movement of players, as well as the selflessness to place one's technical skills in service of the team.

At his best, Kelechi brings a decisive finishing ability in the box. But he also brings average individual technique, a limited appreciation of space or understanding of movement, an inability to play between the lines or out wide. Too often in the final attacking phase, going back to his days at Man. City, is the familiar posture of a static Kele, hands spread wide besides him calling for the ball, rather than making the movement to open up play and advance the attacking game.

If Kelechi is to be a decisive player for Nigeria, we must accept the fact of what his game is about and place him squarely in the penalty area, as a sub for our main striker Osimhen, and use the place he vacates to strengthen the attacking game from midfield.

On paper Nigeria will start with a stronger squad than Ghana. Both countries possess distinctly dysfunctional federations, both of which are scrambling at the moment, with Nigeria only marginally better. I expect that Ghana will bolster the squad from AFCON, but a lot will depend on the ability of Otto Addo and George Boateng to quickly build relationships to bring all eligible players in the fold. An unenviable task to accomplish within the next five weeks...

With Ademola Lookman now eligible, I would seriously consider him for the role behind Osimhen, especially if the team does not transition to a 4-3-3. 

Lookman's ability to play in small spaces, between the lines in the center, as well as from wide, bring a dynamism and tactical flexibility that Kelechi cannot offer the team.

The Amaju Pinnick Rhapsody

 As at the time on November 28, 2021 when Gernot Rohr submitted the Nigerian provisional list for the Africa Nations Cup (AFCON), a team five years in making, there were reasonable grounds to expect a proper Nigerian challenge for the title.

Over these past five years, a competitive squad had emerged with a mix of top young players and experienced players, and especially with options in several positions to allow for proper internal competition for places. In defence however, quality options continued to be limited. 

Still, with the excellent Wilfred Ndidi screening in front of the back four, there were reasonable grounds to expect defensive solidity.

In terms of the team play and the development of the team's game, the Nigerian game had not progressed since the last AFCON, and with unexpected losses at home to Central Africa Republic, a manager of five years was expectedly under pressure.

A conservative manager continued to string along, with a football that was as inspiring as watching paint dry, and a demeanor that reminded one of the Godfather character Ayman Roth...

Yet, in spite of those embarrassing losses, the team always met the sole objective of a qualification campaign- qualify!

Two and half weeks from the release of the list, Nigeria would fire its manager and Augustine Eguavoen appointed as interim manager. Eguavoen would formally meet his full team at the AFCON venue in Cameroon and would reportedly hold only three sessions, including a practice match, before its opening encounter to Egypt.

In explaining the decision to fire the manager with about 13 days to the tournament opener, the Nigeria Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick would state that the intervention was made to "avert a disaster". 

Recall that it is the same Pinnick that resisted the initial clamor to separate from the manager post World Cup 2018, then resisted making a decision on the manager post AFCON 2019, each time pointing to the big picture perspective...

But with 13 days to the tournament, decides that Nigeria faced looming disaster and thus needed to fire the manager.

Not once in several press appearances did Mr Pinnick identify the indicative factors that led to this conclusion, nor a thoroughly compliant and useless Nigerian sporting press corps question him properly to justify this decision.

Nigeria would thus, ironically, snatch a second round exit from a potential AFCON title challenge! From a potential AFCON challenge to a second round exit, after having only played a proper half of football!!

The Pinnick rhapsody is unfortunately typical of the kind of hubris that surrounds decision making by Nigerian public officials, with little or no critical thinking and zero consultations with credible experts.

The Nigerian exit to Tunisia is entirely on the NFF President Amaju Pinnick!

The results from the group games cannot and should not absolve him from the disaster that he manufactured and the one that ultimately befell Nigeria. Football is not that simple that we can serially make bad decisions and expect to be successful!

Its more than two years since Nigeria appeared in any FIFA youth tournaments.

The Nigerian domestic league continues to flounder.

Player salaries cannot be guaranteed. Coaching and player development is decades behind modern trends,

And in response, the NFF President Amaju Pinnick has now fully outsourced the development of national team players to the diaspora!

Nigerian football, like a troubadour continues to traverse the football landscape, but unlike a Dennis Brutus poetry, with neither rhyme nor reason.

And now on comes José Vítor dos Santos Peseiro as new manager.

What is his philosophy of the game? How does that sync with our football culture and quality of available players? What is the long term vision?

Who is asking these questions?

Listen to Pinnick: "We are proud of the efforts of the players. They gave their all and tried very hard to win even when they had numerical disadvantage. It was just not our day," he said Link.

Just like that, a troubadour continues to traverse.....

The Evolution of Nigerian Wingers

 

In a recent interview, current Nigeria Interim Coach and NFF Technical Director Austin Eguavoen spoke about a Nigerian football philosophy and the integral role of wingers in this.

Against Egypt in Nigeria's opening game of the African Nations Cup (AFCON), as if to reprise this, the Super Eagles played with great emphasis on attacking wide spaces through Moses Simon and Samu Chukwueze.

Traditionally, Nigeria has always been blessed with pacy wingers. The roles of the wingers have typically been based on using their athleticism, speed and dribbling ability in going down the flanks and delivering crosses for the central strikers.

Seventies and Eighties

In the 1970s and 80s, this was typified by the performance of such players and Kunle Awesu, Ogidi Ibeabuchi, Baba Otu Mohammed. These players defined the role by their speed and dribbling, and the ability to deliver crosses.

In the 1980s, Nigerian wing play was largely defined by the performance of Segun Odegbami and Adokiye Amesimaka. But unlike the prior generation, in addition to the qualities of speed, dribbling and crossing, these wingers added the role of scoring, by cutting from wide to shoot on goal. While the likes of Awesu and Ogidi did score goals, but not at the level of the likes of Odegbami, Willie Nzeakor, Tarila Okoronwata, Friday Elaho, Ndubuisi Okosieme, etc.

In both generations, their positioning was typically high upfield, with cross field balls delivered into space for them to utilize their speed and athleticism to get past the lateral defenders.

Westerhof -Finidi Transition

But by far the most significant evolution of Nigerian wingers (and wing play) would occur with the arrival of Dutchman Clemens Westerhof and his conversion of George Finidi, a right-sided central midfielder with Calabar Rovers to a wide midfielder in a 4-4-2 formation. 

In this redefined role, his game would begin from midfield and would also involve defensive responsibilities in support of the central midfielders and the fullbacks.

Within this same period, the Nigerian winger would be further redefined by conversion to central striking roles, sometimes as a support striker or lone striker. This new role was perhaps best exemplified by the success of Victor Ikpeba as a striker with FC Monaco, in what was easily the high point of his career. Similar to him was Amunike's role, first in Portugal and then at Barcelona, although constrained severely by injury, as well as Christopher Ohenhen who would excel in this role with SD Compostela in Spain.

Wide Forward

In recent times, the role of the Nigeria winger would further evolve to wide forward, running diagonally from wide to support the central striker or as part of a dynamic trio of strikers, from both the left and right wings. This largely began with the likes of Tijanni Babangida, Pius Ikedia, Victor Moses, and is currently seen in the roles of the aforementioned Simon, Chukwueze, Ahmed Musa, etc.

In more recent years, this evolution would involve their use in inverted roles, to allow them cut in from wide and arrive in the last third on their stronger foot, with the right footed Simon on the left and the left footed Chukwueze on the right.

Further Transition

Against Egypt, Nigeria deployed Simon in a predominantly wide position on the right, with a seeming throwback to the 70s and 80s in the manner in which he used his speed, athleticism and dribbling to repeatedly overpower the hapless Al Ahly defender Akram Tawfik and later Mohamed Abdelmonem.

This approach to use of wide players is replicated in many domestic teams and in the youth national teams, with the dominant play relying on the dribble to overcome in 1v1 situations out wide.

While Simon is a good player as underlined by his performances at Nantes, his performance against Egypt was as much testimony to his abilities as it was the weakness of the Egyptian defenders, who never got their spacing right or provided enough support to deny him space. 

In any case, despite his overall influence on the game in the first half, the performance often lacked quality end product, and by the latter part of the second half, had become quite predictable. And if he and Chukwueze have to be played as traditional wingers, perhaps there's no need to invert their positions so that they cross with their stronger foot.

As teams increasingly deploy low block defensive systems and space becomes a premium, there is a need for Nigerian wing play to further evolve and rely less on overcoming 1v1 situations with the dribble, to a more nuanced approach. An approach that relies on first creating space and then positioning the likes of Simon to accelerate in open play, either on the flanks or centrally (Tijani Babangida vs South Africa).

Let there be no misunderstanding. In the modern game with limited space, the value of players who can run at a defence cannot be overstated. 

But the key is in finding space; in being able to position such players within the time and space for them to constantly break defensive lines (central or wide) and unbalance defenders squeezing the lines between zones, without frequent loss of possession as we see for instance with Dembele at Barcelona.

For the current Super Eagles, this would require greater patience and more control in central midfield and Nigeria has enough quality in Joe Aribo and Wilf Ndidi to do this. It would also require the use of Kelechi and the fullbacks to create triangles, high and wide, before the delivery into space for a late run behind the fullbacks.