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....

World Cup 2014 Watch: Three Strikers To Look For...

On the surface of it, Nigeria seems to have an abundance of attacking talent available to national team selectors. While that may be true, when subjected to serious analysis on the issue of quality and long term viability, many players would easily drop by the way...In addition, when differentiated in terms of 'top strikers' and support strikers or wide forwards, the picture changes

Take the case of Obafemi Martins. Since his blockbuster start to his career at Newcastle FC, a combination of injuries and loss of form have combined to stunt his career to the point where he has not only stagnated, but his career is currently in limbo. Different but equally poignant examples can also be made for Yakubu, Peter Utaka or Eneramo. 

The challenge to the coaching crew thus lies in determining who best to invest time and effort in, both in meeting the immediate (ANC 2012) as well as the long term (Brazil 2014) needs of the team.

For the purpose of this analysis, our emphasis is on 'top strikers', which means that the likes of  Peter Odenwigie, Obasi or Ike Uche are excluded. 

In my considered opinion, the three top strikers to watch who meet both our immediate and longer term needs are Emmanuel Emenike (Fernebace), Ideye Brown (Kiev) and Anthony Ujah (Mainz). Each player has transferred to a new club  meaning each one will face a new set of challenges in the 2011/12 season.

For Ideye Brown, this will be his third club in three straight seasons, having moved first from Swiss club Neuchâtel Xamax. to French club FC Sochaux. In all three clubs his role has remained largely that of a top striker, with the penalty area as the main focus of his movement and game. For the most part, he is not a striker who arrives in the box, but one who recieves the ball in the penalty area and creates space to recieve the ball. Primarily left footed, of the three strikers, he is clearly the best in the air, with a great vertical leap, even from a static position, and is adept at finding space at the far post, much like the ex-Stationery Stores great, Wakilu Oyenuga (www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6TrDSCCzRM)

The major addition to his game today at Dynamo Kyiv is that he is made to attack a lot wider from the left than at Sochaux, which in turn has allowed him to cut in diagonally and shoot with the right foot which is equally strong as the left. While he has begun his career at Kiev in tremendous form, we must be careful to balance our assessment of him with the reality that the Ukranian league affords him a lot more space on the ball than he had in France. I suspect that we will learn a lot more about his development in his games in Europe than in Ukraine.

Emmanuel Emenike will begin his third season in the Turkish Liga in  Fenerbahçe which represents the summit of Turkish domestic football (along with Galatasaray). Primarily right footed, he has greater acceleration than Brown and is at his best when attacking the diagonal ball in space, especially from wide right or the inside right channel (http://rutube.ru/tracks/3844792.html?v=d9b7f0e3516beb24fa624088540cd1df).

He has greater pace, power and balance with the ball at his feet than any of the others, and is better on the dribble. Most of his goals are scored by out-pacing the defender in open play, attacking the gap between the center backs and the dribble run. Relatively few of his goals come from headers as compared to Brown.

The new season will represent a much greater challenge than he has faced thus far, as the pressures of playing in Fener are very high, in addition to which he has the challenge of the UEFA champions league. Internally, he will have to compete with Mamadou Niang and Semih Sentuk both of whom finished last season with goals in double figures.

The 2011/12 season will be Anthony Ujah's second full season in Europe, after a blockbuster start with  Lillestrøm in the Norwegian Tippeligaen, on the basis of which he has recently transferred to FSV Mainz 05. According to the club’s head coach Thomas Tuchel Anthony Ujah is "a young player with great development potential..especially his tremendous jumping power and speed as well as his superior rate. He has "brilliant control over the ball in the penalty area and is a natural goal scorer ” he stated.

Although his experience in Europe has been in the modest Norwegian league, the variety of his goals and the quality of his movement are evidence of a superior talent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHks0IxKfBY). He is able to play as a top striker or in support, can play as a lone forward with back to goal, or in a partnership; is a scorer as well as provider, and can play off the shoulder of the center back or as a wide forward.

In my opinion, Anthony Ujah represents Nigeria's best long term prospect, if he continues on his current growth curve. While allowing him ample time to adjust to a new club and league, it is important that his integration into the Super Eagles be prioritized (over Ekigho Ehiosun), especially through the U-23 team.

Conversely, Ideye Brown and Emmanuel Emenike possess qualities to form a great partnership attack in a 4-4-2 formation that allows the Eagles handlers to field a quartet of 'real' midfielders rather than forwards in midfield positions. This will enable the team greater balance, especially when playing on the road.

Eucharia Uche: A Disgrace to Nigerian Women Football?

No offense, but I do not often get involved in female football. I have enough football watching men play. But it has never stopped me from following the Nigerian women team, the Falcons, especially since that epic game with Brazil a few years ago.

But recent events in the team have caught my attention, especially following the hard fought game against Germany in which they lost 1-0, and the unnecessary controversy surrounding comments by the coach Eucharia Uche.

Nigerian sports administrators have a long notorious history of unprofessionalism and maltreatment of sportsmen and women, from unpaid allowances, bonuses and general welfare of teams under their supervision. Those who follow female football closely in Nigeria will tell you that few sportsmen or women are as maltreated as women footballers in Nigeria, often by the very same people who have responsibility for their welfare, including especially women administrators or club owners who use these players as a basis for repeatedly attracting government funds for their personal use!

It is against this background that when Eucharia Uche was appointed coach, I was confident that we had a chance to finally begin to turn the corner, having hired someone who had walked in the shoes of her players and knew first hand what their most important needs were.

It was with shock therefore that rather than fight to uplift the welfare and status of her players and by extension female football in Nigeria, she would allow herself get embroiled in the damaging wedge issue of sexual behavior.

Let there be no misunderstanding! The problems of Nigerian women football obviously goes beyond the current coach. In some ways I actually sympathize with her...she cannot give that which she does not have!

For ninety minutes, our girls showed they had the tools to be successful if someone can figure out how best to use these tools. Even accounting for the extremely generous refereeing, when you can physically dominate a German team to the extent that they did, you certainly have something to work with...

After 5 world cup appearances and multiple continental championships, we need to do better than simply show up, considering the physical tools the girls have, which is what this match demonstrated.

Basic technical issues remain, with passes over 2-3yrds misplaced with consistent regularity..The left-back could not throw the ball properly, a corner kick was played straight out for a goal kick on the side it was taken! Poor decision making characterized all aspects of their game, with players unable to understand proper spacing on the pitch, repeatedly struggle with ball control, execute 15yrd run with the ball only to make/flub a 4yrd pass...I mean am talking about the basics here!
In spite of executing probably the best pressing game I've seen in this tournament, they never could muster a complete passing move on ball recovery, resorting to the long punt upfield with no prayer of getting the ball.

We can put as rosy a face to it as we want, but our female football and Eucharia Uche (not footballers) was a disgrace out there in Germany!