What Next for Nigerian Football?

The NFF has just fired Samson Siasia from his position as coach of the Super Eagles. Based on his contract and the minimum expectation from this contract, the decision is understandable. However in the full evidence of performance data and the big picture perspective, I am left with no conclusion but the fact that this was the wrong decision. But such is the nature of football, and coaches come and go.

The good news here though, is that the Federation has established the will to enforce a minimum performance standard.

However, as I explained here, there were two issues involved in the failure of Samson Siasia as coach of the Super Eagles. One is technical, the other is administrative.

While the NFF by its decision has dealt with the first, not suprisingly, no mention is made of the administrative failures that led to Nigeria dropping points in Guinea and Addis Ababa. I say this not to provide an alibi for Siasia, but a protective shield for the new coach, especially if the Federation as expected decides to continue with Nigeria-born coaches.

The bad news though is that the Federation has put itself in the same tight rope that a referee who begins issuing yellow cards from the first minute finds himself in, and would inevitably face pressure to sack any coach who fails to meet the minimum standards set in his contract, irrespective of any valid countervailing issues...

If the history of the Federation is anything to go by, it could be six months before a substantive coach is hired, with a caretaker coach handling the next couple of games and perhaps leaving the new coach to start from the very same hole that Siasia was made to begin with.

In sacking Samson Siasia, the options going forward appear to immediately center around Stephen Keshi and Sunny Oliseh. But there is always the possibility of the Federation hiring a foreign coach. 

Of the two, Keshi brings greater experience from coaching Togo and Mali. He also brings considerable leadership qualities and a power to motivate, as well as I suspect, a greater ability to 'work within existing structures'. But having watched his teams closely, there is a consistently worrying lack of detail in the tactical organization of his teams. In many ways he reminds me of Mike Singletary, whom followers of American football will know was the last coach of the San Francisco 49ers. A top, top player in his active days, he brought to the job and his players the demand and expectation of a high performance standard that he was never able to teach or communicate, and was left stranded on the sidelines screaming in frustration at his players.

On the other hand without the benefit of a prior coaching experience, Sunny Oliseh can only be evaluated on potential. As a player he had game intelligence, he understood the tactical aspects of the game and was a model professional. As a captain he expected and demanded minimum professional standards from both players and officials, a position which cost him a world cup place in 2002. To these he has added a UEFA coaching license. How all this will play out on the ground is anyone's guess. In my opinion, he and Siasia currently represent the two best prospects from the class of  '94. But unlike Siasia, he brings no prior experience of coaching within the dysfunctional and unprofessional environment of Nigerian football, which maybe a good or bad thing, depending on the angle you look at it from.

The decision to sack Samson Siasia leaves Nigerian national team football at a crossroad. For the NFF, going forward, the decision is whether to continue with local coaches or seek a foreign coach.

If they choose the former, the major lesson from Siasia's tenure is that the Federation must make a conscious effort to provide the enabling environment for our young coaches to succeed. The NFF must empower these young coaches to enhance their control of the players, not undermine it. The Technical Committee should use its position to provide scientific data to enhance the performance of the coach not constitute itself to be a screening body for evaluating a coach's team lists. And all of us must reconcile ourselves to the fact that these young coaches will have to grow on the job and will need time to establish control of their team and imprint their ideas.

The Class of '94 ex-footballers represent our only real opportunity to develop a cadre of top coaches. As footballers, their playing experience constitutes a far stronger basis on which to build a coaching career as compared to their homebased counterparts, even accounting for other important factors.

For many of these ex-footballers, the reality is that our national teams represent the only real opportunity to build a coaching career. The reality is that few European teams will readily give our ex-players the opportunity to learn the profession and build a coaching career. And even where an opportunity arises, they often get shut down by pre-existing prejudices as we saw with Mike Emenalo at Chelsea. Ordinarily, the NPL should present a ready platform. However anyone with a basic knowledge of our domestic game will know that as presently constituted, the Nigerian football club is not organized for the development of football, footballers or coaches. It is organized for the enrichment of the politicians affiliated to it and their hangers on masquerading as administrators.

For these young coaches, there needs to be the clear understanding that there are no shortcuts to professionalism in coaching. They need to understand that in the Nigerian setup where, with the average foreign coach everyone falls in line, from players to officials, the same courtesy will not be afforded them. They will have to fight for their right to be successful, the right to control their own players or select them, understanding that compromise is the path to mediocrity.

Should the NFF instead decide on a foreign coach, I would urge them to give considerable thought to changing our overall approach to recruiting foreign coaches, by instead hiring a foreign technical director, preferably from Dutch football. Such a coach should be given a much broader mandate than simply coaching the Eagles to include the redevelopment of Nigerian youth football through the Goal Project. His responsibilities should also include supervision of all youth national teams to enable him provide hands-on guidance to our young coaches. Such a process should enable us provide a viable path and support system for our young coaches to enhance their skills under the guidance of an experienced coach.

I will be discussing the redevelopment of youth football in much greater detail in subsequent write-ups.

Siasia and the Super Eagles: Crossroads or Stalemate?

I believe it was Chief Onigbinde who once said that the problem with Nigeria is that we never truly analyze or successes or failures and therefore never really learn the right lessons or apply the right solutions. The result is that we have the dubious distinction of having hired a total of twelve coaches in eleven years.

 

 

On the surface of it, it would appear that our problems are rooted in the lack of continuity, an arguement currently being advanced by those in support of retaining Samson Siasia. I disagree!

 

 

In my opinion, our problem is not simply a lack of continuity but inability to correctly diagnose our problems, including our successes and our failures and thus apply the right solutions. Continuity for its sake is meaningless. There has to be evidence of improvement on which to base the expectation of continued growth. Continuity is what kept Amodu on the job even on the clear evidence the Eagles were not growing in spite of the positive results. On the contrary failure to correctly diagnose the problems of the team and in a timely manner led to the horrendous mistake of sacking the said coach on the eve of the world cup.

 

 

Going by the published comments of some members of the NFF's technical committee, the conclusion from Nigeria's failure to qualify for the ANC  is the enforcement of the appropriate clause in Siasia's contract and perhaps a recommendation for the hiring of a new coach.

 

 

But let us review the ANC qualifiers and the management of our football after the world cup:

 

 

1. Nigeria's last match at the world cup in South Africa was a 2-2 draw against South Korea on June 22, 2010.

 

 

2. Three months later, the ersthwhile coach Lars Lagerback is not replaced and Nigeria begins the ANC qualifiers in Calabar with Austin Eguavoen as caretaaker coach, defeating Madagascar 2-0 on September 11, 2010.

 

 

3. One month later Nigeria's suspension from international football is rescinded in time for the second qualifier with Eguavoen still as caretaker. Under a cloud of uncertainty and near chaos, Nigeria loses to Guinea in Conakry on October 10, 2010.

 

 

4. It would be another month before a substantive coach, Samson Siasia is appointed on November 4, 2010. At this time Nigeria is 3 points behind Guinea in the qualifiers.

 

 

5. Perhaps because nobody was focussed on it, a FIFA friendlies window would  pass by on November 17, 2010 with Nigeria playing no match. It would be four months before the next FIFA date!

 

 

6. The result was that 9 months had elapsed from the conclusion of the World Cup, before a substantive national team coach was appointed by the NFF. Nine months!

 

 

7. Nine months had passed before our coach had his first training session with his players, three points behind in the qualification table! March 26, 2011 Nigeria beat Ethiopia 4-0 on an Abuja stadium pitch that appeared unfit for grazing cattle!

 

 

8. Three months later on June 5, 2011 Nigeria met Ethiopia again. As I had written here the travel arrangements for this match was botched. Speaking to SuperSports.com Siasia attributed the laboured performance of the team to jetlag, saying that "the travelling plan, which was supposed to last four hours, claimed an additional three hours, leaving the players with little time to rest before the game". So the players got there jetlagged...". The match ended 2-2 and Nigeria fell further behind to Guinea.

 

 

9. After the match, the team's media officer commented as follows: "For the next game, all concerned are in agreement that the arrangements need to be better...".

 

 

10. That next match, with better travel arrangements took place in Madagascar on September 4, 2011. Nigeria won 2-0.

 

 

A review of our ANC qualifying series shows that the games in which Nigeria dropped points were in Conakry, Addis Ababa and the final match against Guinea in Abuja. The first two of these games was marred by administrative screw ups by the NFF, while Siasia lost the third.

 

 

In football there are no guarantees. Nobody can tell if Nigeria would've won in Ethiopia with better travel arrangements. But there is overwhelming evidence that the better prepared a team is, the greater its chances for success. 

 

 

Administrative screw ups have consequences. It is therefore the height of folly to see members of the NFF technical committee like Paul Bassey and Ikpeme speak about enforcement of the relevant clause in Siasia's contract instead of providing the Board of the Federation a technical analysis of the current state of the Super Eagles and a scientific basis on which to make informed decisions.

 

 

The issues before Nigeria going forward with respect to Siasia and the Super Eagles is neither legal nor contractual. It is technical and administrative. Similarly, the case for retaining Siasia is not simply about continuity

 

 

Nigeria does not have a reservoir of top managers in football. If anything the quality of coaches has declined steadily since the days of Dan Anyiam. Many years ago while writing in the Guardian Newspapers, I observed that  a new generation of Nigerian coaches would only emerge with the retirement of the 1994 Eagles and their transition to coaching. Samson Siasia and Sunny Oliseh in my opinion represent the most promising of this group at the moment.

 

 

Their transition to top level management will come with bumps along the road. The challenge before Nigeria is thus two fold: persevere with these young coaches and create the enabling conditions for them to grow or hire a foreign coach.

 

 

From the events unfolding about Siasia's tenure, I fear that the careers of these two young coaches might be destroyed before they had time to make a mark in coaching, as a result of our inability to create an enabling environment for them to grow.

Nigeria vs Ghana: A Severe Case of Tactical Imbalance

A poor game mercifully came to an end in the 89 minute. Even referee Mark Clattenburg appeared tired of the tedium...

Ghana dominated in midfield for large parts, evidence of superior team chemistry and the GFA's wisdom in maintaining consistency in playing philosophy even while changing coaches, but with little cutting edge in the final third, save for the brilliant slide pass from Asamoah that Gyan wasted in the second half.

Early on Quincy Owusu troubled a Nigerian defence short on confidence, morale, and not a little pace. But his influence would decline as the game progressed. Some players flatter to decieve; Quincy simply flatters, having long lost the power to decieve!

Overall Ghana coach Goran Stevanovic should be the more satisfied of the two managers, having seen a string of fringe players in action, especially the young Massawudu Alhassan at left back, who appears a good prospect.

The Nigerian team again showed the fallacy in its 4-2-3-1 tactical formation, whose imbalance was repeatedly exposed by the cross-field diagonal pass, with acres of undefended space in wide areas.

The default defensive position of the wide forwards, Nsofor and Musa in the non-possession phase was to slide horizontally into central midfield, which then had them struggling to cover the wide areas when Ghana switched play to the flanks.

What is more, the use of another forward, Ike Uche in the middle of the trio behind the central striker produces another imbalance in the center of midfield and an undefended zone in front of the the two deep-lying central midfielders. In possession and on the offense, his performance was very good, but the role itself, compromises the defensive integrity of the team in the non-possession phase.

The issue here is not so much the use of attacking players as wide forwards and behind the central striker, but the role definition, work rate and tactical discipline of these players. The organization of the 4-2-3-1 under Siasia requires tremendous work rate from these players to maintain the tactical balance of the team. I am unconvinced that any of Nsofor, Musa, Obasi, Osaze or Uche can provide this on a consistent basis.

In my considered opinion, the options before Siasia is to transit to a 4-3-3 formation as I had recommended here.

Another option is to introduce a midfield player in the role behind the central striker, much like Steven Gerrard's role behind Fernando Torres at Liverpool a few years ago. However such a player must by nature have the turn of pace to maintain the  high tempo attacking game that Siasia seeks and that matches the qualities of our attacking players.

Nosa Igiebor could be a valuable player in this role. Another option would be John Chibuike at Rosenborg, who has experience in midfield and attack.

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.