Moving on....to Ghana.

In football, as in most team sports, players are taught to have a short memory, and the best cure to a painful loss is often another match! So we move on to Ghana....

Let there be no misunderstanding though. Missing out on the ANC is a major, major blow to the rebuilding project, but it is not terminal. While the on-field mistakes that led to this failure belong squarely to Samson Siasia as coach, the reality is that there were other issues that meant that Nigeria was forced to play catch up from the beginning of the qualifiers. I say this with specific reference to the 'toll collectors' and clowns masquerading as a technical committee at the NFF.

Following the abysmal failure at the world cup, the NFF had more than sufficient time to appoint a substantive coach with ample time to begin rebuilding the team. They failed! Instead Austin Eguavoen was forced into the untenable situation of leading an ad hoc team to Conakry and a 1-0 loss. Then there is the debacle of the botched travel arrangements to Ethiopia which I had described here. 

Some football associations plan for success; ours seem irevocably committed to serving their self interest.

Lost in the current anger and dissapointment, is the fact that the Super Eagles is actually getting better. As Samson Siasia himself said, "the team has grown younger, we are tactically stronger, we play the ball quicker than before, we create more than 7 chances in every game and we have not failed to score more than two goals. Except for the friendly against Argentina (Link).

I completely agree! But we can do better, indeed must do better. To the millions of dissapointed Nigerian fans out there, "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives...."

Ghana will start the friendly at Fulham's Vicarage Road the clear favorites, even without key players like Ayew and Prince Boateng. The GFA has done an outstanding job in building upwards, ensuring continuity, making the right decisions and sticking by it. The result is a Black Stars team that is able to reinvent itself with constant addition of new talent.

As usual the strength of the team remains in midfield and the tactical balance between offense and defence. Never been in recent years an explosive attacking team, its the ability to control games and the organization of the team in the non-possession phase that has sustained the success of the Black Stars team since 2005.

In defence, the game presents a great opportunity for the young Genoa defender Massawudu Alhassan who has a chance to challenge for the problematic left-back position in the absence of Daniel Opare. The rest of the selection represents a cast of regulars and squad players. Against Brazil, even before Opare's dismissal, the team had problems dealing with the rapid passing and movement of the Brazillian players, although the strength in defence was still visible.

On the Nigeria side, Ugo Ukah earns his first callup as Siasia evaluates new options in central defence, while Ekpo makes a return to the team after a credible cameo against Argentina.

Missing however is an invitation to the young right-back Terna Suswan who has broken into the starting team at Setubal. Without the ANC, a new sense of urgency is required in the invitation and trialing of new players.

A new attempt needs to be made to recruit the Manchester City right-back Nedum Onuoha as well as Sidney Sam at Leverkusen. There is a need for greater urgency in processing the nationality switch of Victor Moses and Shola Ameobi.

Even more important, a critical tactical problem remains the continued tendency of the team to give up undefended zones in wide areas, on the inside of the full-back in the non-possession phase, a direct consequence of the use of wide forwards with limited awareness of their defensive responsibilities, and a major factor responsible for Obinna Nsofor's continued backward slide in his club career from Inter Milan to Malaga, West Ham and now Spartak Moscow.

In goal, the reality is that Dele Ayenugba will probably never be a consistent high level performer, even with the occassional flashes of brilliant reflexes. What is more, there is not enough competition for places in the goalkeeping position. We need to begin to look seriously at new options, even when Enyeama returns. This would include Carl Ikeme of Middlesbrough and the young Dami Paul who had an outstanding tournament with the U-20 team.

Being a friendly, I look forward to seeing Nosa Igiebor, Odumadi and Ukah play prominent roles.

Prediction: A 2-0 Nigeria win, even with Osaze Odemnwigie's late withdrawal..Go Eagles!

Squad:

Ghana squad

Goalkeepers: Adam Larsen Kwarasey (Stromgodest) Daniel Agyei (Liberty Professionals)

Defenders: Massawudu Alhassan (FC Genoa) John Paintsil (Leicester City), Isaac Vorsah (TSG Hoffenheim), John Mensah (Olympique Lyon), Lee Addy (Red Star Belgrade)

Midfielders: Samuel Inkoom (FC Dnipro), Kwadwo Asamoah, Emmanuel Agyeman-Badu (Udinese), Sulley Muntari (Inter Milan) Anthony Annan (Vitesse Arnhem), Albert Adomah (Bristol City), Abu Mohammed (Stromgodest), Derek Boateng (FC Dnipro) Quincy Owusu-Abeyie (Panathinaikos FC)

Strikers: Asamoah Gyan (Al Ain), Prince Tagoe (Bursaspor) Dominic Adiyiah (Karsiyaka).

Nigeria Squad:

Goalkeepers: Austin Ejide (Hapoel Petah Tikva), Dele Aiyenugba (Bnei-Yehuda), Chigozie Agbim (Warri Wolves)

Defenders: Taye Taiwo (AC Milan), Joseph Yobo (Everton), Efe Ambrose (FC Ashdod),Elderson Echiejile (Sporting Braga), Chibuzor Okonkwo (Heartland FC), Dele Adeleye (Tavriya), Ugo Ukah (Widzew Lodz)

Midfielders: Joel Obi (Inter Milan), Mikel Obi (Chelsea), Fengor Ogude (Valerenga), Nosa Igiebor (Hapoel Tel Aviv), Nnamdi Odumadi (Torino), Emmanuel Ekpo (Columbus Crew)

Forwards: Kalu Uche (Neuchatel Xamax), Ikechukwu Uche (Granada), Osaze Odemwingie (West Bromwich Albion), Brown Ideye (Dynamo Kiev), Chinedu Obasi (Hoffenheim), Peter Utaka (OB Odense), Ahmed Musa (VVV Venlo), Emmanuel Emenike (Spartak Moscow), Obinna Nsofor (Locomotiv Moscow), Ekigho Ehiosun (Samsunspor)

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.

Samson Siasia: Management by Conflict?

...or simply a case of relentless ambition to succeed by a young coach looking to make his bones in the profession?

Even before he took over as Super Eagles coach, Siasia was reported to have clashed with Osaze and Anichebe at the Beijing Olympics and needed the intervention of the NFF to smoothen things over. And since becoming Super Eagles coach, there have been well publicized spats with Osaze, Etuhu and recently Vincent Enyeama.

A common trend in most of these conflicts is that they revolve around attempts by players to challenge the authority of the coach.

I have always been of the opinion that African players who are based in Europe typically leave their professionalism behind on their retrun journeys for national team assignments. Many of these players act out in manners that they would never dream of in their clubs. In some cases understandably so, it has to be said, as African FAs are notorious for poor management and total diregard for player welfare.

In the specific case of Siasia, my opinion is that these conflicts were always to be expected. The setup in the Nigerian team prior to his arrival required any serious coach with a semblance of professionalism and personal ambition to challenge an existing order that is based on the "golden bronze" mentality, where repeated 3rd place finishes or mere qualification for the world cup is seen as an achievement.

Indeed we have seen similar situations with Mancini repeatedly clashing with players (Adebaor, Bellamy, Tevez)  as he attempts to change the existing order at Manchester City. A similar situation is equally unfolding at Stamford Bridge as Andre Villas Boas attempts to change a long existing order at Chelsea, with Frank Lampard, a senior player venting his frustration recently.

However, no less a person as Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, has recently come out expressing his support for Mancini. "I think that Roberto Mancini has come out and shown his strength of character, his strength of management and I think that is important," said Ferguson. "We have all experienced our own difficulties in management and you cope with it as best as you can. In my own experience strong management is important and there is nobody more important than the manager at a football club." (Link) It is interesting that Ferguson did not question Mancini's man management, nor did he ask him to thread carefully for fear that his Board would abandon him.

The reality is that for too long, too many players have become too comfortable in their sense of indispensability, with every regard for self and too little for the team. The result as we saw especially under Amodu was a team with little regard for tactical organization or discipline, to the extent that it appeared sometimes that every outfield player had a free role! 'Big man football' had not only taken root, it was flourishing!

Against this background, any coach who sought to hold players accountable was bound to ruffle feathers in the Super Eagles. Especially if such a coach is not foreign! Much as I hate to say it, foreign coaches in Nigeria and many African countries, command much more respect, off and on the pitch than their local counterparts, from both players and officials. The reasons behind this are too long to go into here...

Respect they say is reciprocal. In football coaching especially, respect is earned or instituted. It is earned from superior knowledge or method of doing things, whether technical or simply management. Under such circumstance every new coach is typically tested by his players. For such a coach, the challenge is whether he has the convinction of his ideas to remain firm, yet fair in his dealings with players and to earn their trust rather than seek to force it. In this regard their is no one way and no approach is infallible.

The reality is that what we have in Samson Siasia is a young coach who is seeking to build a successful career as a top manager in the modern game in a country where there are no models to serve as a guiding light in the horizon. In this specific respect, Siasia is somewhat of a pioneer. Accordingly he will make his mistakes, and he will have to learn and grow from them. He will learn that things are never black or white, but the shades in between...That sometimes (not always) keeping things 'in-house' gives you the flexibility to manage conflicts without the parties adopting hardened positions or leaving collateral damage.

The challenge before all of us as fans and adminstrators is to recognize this reality. And having recognized it, the choice before us is to support and uplift Siasia with valid criticisms, so as to enable the emergence of a new cadre of professional local coaches, weaned in the culture of Nigerian football as players, and equipped with the professional knowledge and maturity that European experience offers.

The alternative is a return the status quo and the 'golden bronze' or worse still the nomadic european coach appointed on the eve of a major tournament.

Super Eagles: Lessons from Dhaka

1. This was always going to be a difficult match, not just because of the Super Eagles schedule in September or the high humidity of Dhaka, but for the simple fact that Argentina is on a higher level than Nigeria, at least at the moment.

2. Argentina's football may not be up there yet, but they can readily boast of not only having the best player in the world, but a plethora of world class players in multiple positions.

3. For this and a few other reasons, for me, the performance of the Super Eagles was always going to be more important than the result. In a game of two halves, the kindest thing that can be said of the team is that they lost the first half, woefully, and were forced to a tie in the second!

4. Irrespective of the absences of key players, and the physical condition of those who had played in the atrocious conditions of MADagascar, the basic organization of the team in the first half was beyond poor, with spacing between players inconsistent and hapharzard, and the tracking of opposition movement non-existent.

5. The familiar sight of a Nigerian team blissfully unaware of its responsibilities in the non-possession phase resurfaced, with Argentina repeatedly able to create a mismatch in numbers in midfield.

6. Even on the limited occassion of ball possession, the lack of movement and/or transition, ensured the team could hardly keep the ball.

7. With hapharzard organization, a defensive system that required the use of numbers to collapse around Messi in his 'trequartista' position and deny him room to build a head steam in his attacking forays, ended up merely providing an escort service!

8. The 'trequartista' position in front of the Nigerian defence thus became as open as the savanna plains in the Nigerian middlebelt, with all and sundry invited to freely forage!

9. With the defence playing square and the team unable to execute a high pressing game (understandable given the physical conditions), deep runners from midfield were repeatedly left unchallenged.

10. What is more, the two centerbacks somehow conspired to repeatedly allow an 'expressway' between them, which Higuain was more than happy to oblidge.

11. At left-back, woe was Echiejile, with everything elderly about his movement and positioning.

12. Upfront in attack, Ideye Brown had the unenviable task of the lone striker where the supply lines had drield out. Commendable as his effort was, Brown revealed himself as not our best option for a striker playing with back to goal.

13. When a team is struggling as we were in the first half, it behoves on the top striker to cleverly find positions from where to recieve the out ball, and the technical skills to retain it, so that the second phase of the build-up can begin. As I described here (Link), these are not Ideye's main strengths, which are evident when he is able to recieve the through ball in space, and recently especially wide left, from where to attack diagonally.

14. Second half adjustments by Siasia, including pushing up towards the ball in midfield, the overall team performance clearly revealed the potential of this team and how far Siasia's project can go if properly nutured.

15. It may be argued (with scant justification) that Argentina had pulled back in the second half, but it is without doubt the reshaping of the team in the non-possession phase that enabled it drastically reduce the influence of Messi, as well as improve in its passing game and share of possession.

16. The real value of games like this is that they enable you test yourself against the best, determine how far you have come and the length of the journey still to be travelled. Dhaka presented some very important lessons for the Super Eagles rebuilding project.

17. In defence, there were signs in the game that Efe Ambrose is starting to make the step up to international football. The real value of a centerback is in his ability to read the game and position himself accordingly. While Dele Adeleye remains for me the best physically equipped option in central defence, he remains incapable of reading opposition movement, relying almost entirely on his athleticism.

18. Samson Siasia is reported to have doubted the availability of better options in defence outside the squad, and signalled his readiness to invite any superior defender not presently in the team (Link). In that case let me remind him of the Torino FC captain and left-centerback, Angelo Ogbonna whom I had discussed here earlier (Link). He recently got invited to the Azurri even while playing in Serie B, but is still available as an option to be explored.

19. At right-back, Chibuzor Okonkwo needs to be commended for his tireless effort and then relegated to learn from the bench. His two-footed lunge was worthy of a red card! While I understand Siasia's position with respect to the Man City defender Nedum Onuoha, I believe it is time to revisit his involvement with the team. A senior player like Kanu Nwankwo can be very useful in this regard.  

Osaze’s Injury: Problem or Opportunity?

If every manager in the game used the unavailability of key players from injury or suspension as an excuse for an 8-2 drubbing at the hands of a major rival, there would not be accountability in football, and certainly no invention, as we would've killed its mother, necessity!

Barcelona started the new La Liga season with a spate of injuries and suspensions to key players in defence- Pique, Puyol, Maxwell, Adriano, Alves. This led Guardiola to field a team with only one, one natural defender, Eric Abidal in a 3-4-3 formation. The rest is a 5-0 drubbing of Villareal.

The optimist has a project, the pessimist, an excuse!

Osaze Odemnwigie is an important player for Nigeria. It emerged this week that he his ankle injury had recurred and would not be available for the Madagascar trip.

While there are multiple options available to the Nigerian coach, I have always thought that our use of two wide forwards like Ahmed Musa, Chinedu Obasi or Obinna Nsofor, has a recurring tendency of transforming an initial 4-2-3-1 to a 4-2-4 resulting from a lack of tactical discipline, thus weakning our game in central midfield.

While it is true that there are enough options to retain the current 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, the emergence of Ideye Brown and Emmanuel Emenike, equally gives us the option of playing a modern 4-4-2 formation, especially away from home. The idea is to field 4 natural midfielders, including Mikel and Ogude as central midfielders, with Joel Obi and Kalu Uche (or any of Musa and Igiebor) in left and right midfield respectively.

In possession, the two outside midfielders would stay wide to stretch the opposing defence, with the fullbacks expected to attack the zone between the opponent's fullback and centerback.

At the same time, the ablity of Brown and Emenike to attack from wide left and right respectively creates opportunity for a very fluid attacking system that allows the four midfielders to variously push into attacking positions in the last third of the field.

In the non-possession phase, it helps create a bank of four defensive players in front of the back four, limiting the space available to the opponent. In such a scenario, it even becomes possible to push the defensive line higher up the field as necessary, with three defenders, allowing the fourth play as a sweeper, especially if the opponent is playing with a lone forward.

Nigeria-Madagascar: Match Preview

I have often argued with a friend of mine that if the world cup qualifiers were to be restructured in a manner to pit all teams in Europe and Africa in the same pool, that no African country will qualify for the world cup! My position is not from a lack of confidence in the quality of African teams, but rather the weakness in their football administration, including especially logistics planning, and all other off-field intangibles that bring about and sustain success in football.

Take Nigeria's last competitive game on the road to Ethiopia. I am told that the trip was planned; correct that; expected to be a four and half hour direct flight,  leaving Nigeria at 7pm and arriving Addis Ababa, at 2am local time, Ethiopia being 2-hours ahead of Nigeria. This would've allowed the players a 6-8 hour rest before the match. Except that nobody appeared to reckon with Air Nigeria bringing an aircraft which needed refuelling enroute. So rather than fly four and half hours direct to Addis, the team first flew nearly four hours to Entebbe, spent over an hour and a half on the ground, then nearly two hours to Addis (Link). The rest is history....

While this does not entirely explain the poor performance in Addis, it certainly contributed! Over the years, a familiar cliche that 'there are no longer any small teams in African football' has emerged and taken root as a convenient excuse for the inadequacies of the top teams in Africa. While standards may have risen generally, too many of the elite African teams have simply proved themselves unworthy of the tag.

Nigeria's inability to get the result it sought in Addis against a poor Ethiopian team was a failure of professionalism, off-field as much as on-field.

The result is that the upcoming match against Madagascar is easily the most important game of Siasia's young tenure as coach of the Super Eagles.

Having only seen extended highlights of the game, I am reluctant to make any detailed comments, except to say that the goals conceded by Nigeria highlight continued weaknesses in central defence and the overall organization of the team game in the non-possession phase. In recognition of the former and his iron-cast committment to the national team, Danny Shittu makes a return to the team. Even with a mere one substitute appearance for Queens Park Rangers in the League Cup, I would take him (in the short run) over the uncertain performance of Efe Ambrose in Ethiopia.

In my opinion, Samson Siasia and his crew need to look strongly at redesigning play,  to allow the team more controlled possession in midfield. Road games in Africa to 2nd and 3rd tier teams grow increasingly difficult to the extent that the top teams allow an open game, which in turn ensures the home team can draw extra strength from the passion on the terraces.

On the evidence of Nigeria's last match in Antanarivo, the playing surface will present some challenge to the passing game and the team will need to adapt accordingly. This could mean that the first phase of the team's attacking game be moved higher up the pitch as necessary, which would suggest the use of strikers who can play with back to goal and hold up play accordingly.

Based on the squad selected, I would suggest a continuation of the 4-3-3 formation, with consideration to bringing in Fengor Ogude on the right of Mikel and Joel Obi as a box to box midfielder, protecting the zone behind Ahmed Musa on the right flank, and sliding in to cover the right centerback when necessary, a position he is familar with from his club Valeranga.

But more importantly, Siasia must sort out the problem in central defence as it spreads a cloud of uncertainty about the team. At left back, Echiejile makes a wellcome return from injury.

Solomon Okoronkwo retains his squad place. His invitation reflects the continued confidence in his abilities by Siasia, even if the evidence from his performances at Ålesund Fotball AS has ranged from average to good. Greater effort should be made to complete the formalities with FIFA to enable Victor Moses to join the team.

In goal I do worry that there is not enough competition for Vincent Enyeama whose old problems with crosses led to the Ethiopian equalizer, a fact that is certainly not helped by his current position as second goalkeeper at  Lille. Perhaps we should look at invinting Carl Ikeme who is on loan to Middlesbrough or Dami Paul who was excellent with the U-20 team.

With Shittu's return, understandable as it may be, and Okoronkwo's continued invitation, you get a sense there is not enough movement in the search for new players. In fairness that has a lot to do with not playing enough friendlies.

And talking about new players, I would like to recommend that Siasia and his crew keep a long term lookout for a young James Abiola Ilori, an 18-year old central defender who has just been called up to the first team at Sporting Lisbon. He is clearly a special talent.

The Squad:

Goalkeepers: Vincent Enyeama, Dele Aiyenugba, Chigozie Agbim

Defenders: Chibuzor Okonkwo, Elderson Echiejile, Joseph Yobo, Yusuf Ayila, Efe Ambrose, Dele Adeleye, Danny Shittu

Midfielders: Joel Obi, John Mikel Obi, Fengor Ogude, Kalu Uche, Nosa Igiebor, Solomon Okoronkwo, Ahmed Musa

Forwards: Obinna Nsofor, Victor Anichebe, Ike Uche, Osaze Odemwingie, Emmanuel Emenike, Peter Utaka, Chinedu Obasi, Brown Ideye

Good Start from John Obuh's U-20 Eagles

Five thumping goals scored and none conceded is as good a start as could be wished in tournament football.

But we must be careful to keep things in perspective; not so much because Guatemala were such poor opposition but largely the fact that the ultimate goal an U-20 tournament is to serve as a supply line to the full national team.

Accordingly, the progress of the Flying Eagles in Colombia must always be co-measured in terms of how many new genuine prospects are staking a valid claim for a future senior team shirt or a new contract.

Afterall, what does it profit a country's football to win the Golden Shoe and FIFA World Youth Championship most valuable player trophy and end up in  Karşıyaka S.K. who play in Bank Asya 1. Lig, Turkey's second-tier league like Ghana's Dominic Adiyah...

Four top prospects are at the core of this team: Ahmed Musa, who has already broken into the Super Eagles, Ramon Azeez in central midfield, and the two centerbacks Omeruo and Ogungbe.

John Obuh has setup his team well, but the challenge is to enforce organizational discipline in the heat of match. With first game jitters behind them, I expect a more disciplined performance going forward.

In defence, the use of Emmanuel Anyanwu, a centerback at right back, a position of acute need in the Super Eagles, does not in any way advance the cause of the national team. This is made worse by the use of Suswan, a right back at the left back position, which creates an imbalance for the Flying Eagles and denies Nigeria a chance to develop the talented Suswan in his natural position.

In central defence, Gani Ogungbe's speed, power and athleticism stands out, as is his tendency to go to ground too often, which led to a yellow card.

In midfield, the use of Ajagun and Azeez ahead of Daniel creates a hole in central midfield as the latter is made to sit. A more clever team will exploit this undefended zone.

In attack, Obuh's 2nd half tactical change in allowing Kayode more space to attack from wide right liberated the player and vastly improved his performance. What this suggests in my opinion is that the qualities of the front trio of Kayode, Musa and Edafe are constrained by being forced into fixed positions.

Perhaps a case can be made for a 'false 9', with all front three alternating? Perhaps....