Nigeria's match against Seychelles marked the beginning of the second half of the Gernot Rohr era, following a largely unremarkable world cup, defined more by what could've been.
Readers of my blog might have noticed that I am yet to pen a review of Nigeria's world cup performance. This is largely the result of the fact that in my opinion, the key issues in the overall performance reflect long term problems that relate more to Pinnick and his leadership of the NFF, than Gernot Rohr, and would need to be addressed separately.
The reality is that the production of talent, both in terms of quality and numbers has stalled badly in Nigeria, and this relates to issues in the organization of the domestic game, both at the technical and the management level. The Nigerian domestic game has proven to be incapable of developing players of international calibre, a situation that has existed since the early 2000s, with no serious attempt at resolution. Perhaps nothing underlined this sad state of affairs than the use of goalkeeper Francis Uzoho, from the youth side of a relegated La Liga side.
In addition the Nigerian clubs as currently constituted, are completely lacking a professional environment in which players can develop to be high level international footballers. This is the remit of Amaju Pinnick and the NFF. And until this is seriously addressed, Nigeria will continue to rely on individual players breaking through from all shades and tiers of European football.
Like it was at the World Cup, the result against Seychelles was as expected as it was unremarkable, and underlines the fact that Rohr's cautious approach is set to continue.
Nigeria largely controlled a game of poor quality and few remarkable moments rather easily, and on a pitch that once again underlines the lack of appreciation of the value of a good playing field by African football associations...
On the technical side, the game also highlighted CONTINUING issues on the personnel side that need to be addressed, if Nigeria must return to the pinnacle of the African game and rise above the muddle and mediocrity in the continent at the moment.
Attack:
In attack, the continued reliance on Odion Ighalo, while understandable in the short term, remains an issue in need of greater effort and urgency at resolution by the coach. Thus far, Rohr's approach has been to keep faith in the player, expecting that his hard work and experience will come through. In fairness to the coach, there are few, if any genuine alternatives. What we have instead are either unproven players or players with questionable potentials, often performing at low levels, with little consistency, and that would require patience and gradual introduction.
But this is not to say that Rohr is entirely blameless. He has more options than he has used consistently, as a result of his over reliance on the big burly striker, who can hold up the ball. Thus far, he has chosen to bring the wide players closer to Ighalo in the final third. But he has also not returned to the use of Musa in a central attacking role as he did successfully against Argentina in Russia, which could potentially open up space for greater use of the likes of Onyekuru....
There is also the continued lack of cutting edge in the final third, in large part from a reluctance to deploy midfield runners as arrivals in the penalty area, a quality quite evident in Ndidi and Joel Obi.
What is abundantly clear however is that Odion Ighalo is not an international level striker and continued reliance on him is foolhardy. Both the NFF and Rohr can do better in developing more capable options. In my opinion, the Liverpool striker Dominic Solanke is a very viable option that needs to be explored, his lack of first team action notwithstanding.
Midfield:
In midfield, Mikel Obi's continued presence is not assured and his international career is surely coming to an end. In a deeper role, his presence will not be missed as Ndidi is a very capable and assured replacement.
The challenge is in the roles on either side of Ndidi, in a 4-3-3 or besides him in a 4-2-3-1. The world cup clearly underlined some of the qualities of Etebo in central midfield, as well as his deficiencies. In addition, there are continued questions about the #10 role, which was filled today by Kelechi in a thoroughly unconvincing fashion.
Rohr needs to develop more options in central midfield, and he needs to do this in a forward looking manner, not by reliance on rethreads like John Ogu. It would require that we take more risks, especially through high level friendlies, as well as expand our scouting network.
Defence:
In defence, we need to develop better options in fullback positions, to enable Rohr return to his favored back four, and extend our overall qualities in wide areas.
There is also the need to develop more options in central defence. This would enable the team transition away from continued use of Omeruo, whose career has steadily declined since the heights of the AFCON triumph. His technical qualities on the ball, positional awareness and tactical discipline are lacking, as shown by the map below (#22) from the Argentine first goal, a situation that was not much improved today, even against a hapless Seychelles.
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