Nigeria in their second to last friendly before the world cup....What did we observe???
1. If we don't win we sure don't lose..
We have played the likes of italy,mexico and scotland and have drew all those games.
Keshi is making or made a team that is hard to beat.
But that bring us on to point
2. goals
We need goals and it is funny playing with our b team we concede but also score goals.
Is it due to too much finesse or tinkering.
Also is emenike who we should rest our goal getting upon?
He does give defences trouble but are we playing to his strengths?
Also does he really work well as the lone striker or with someone?
Odemwengie
did not really pose much of a threat or really work well with emenike.
How is he going to fit with the team?
Off the bench? Starting line-up?
Will he try to partner him again?
Will he try him up front?
3. What to do with Moses..
He is nigeria's jewel.. We saw in this game he is a handful for any team he plays against.
And he terrorized the Grecian defenders.He was just ready to run and run and run at them. They doubled up on him and fouled him but just could not contain him. (Which is good new to gervinho who will have to play them in the w.c.)
But Moses needs to upgrade from a flair player and morph into a killer, where every dribble is fearsome.
And he needs to work on his shooting accuracy.
Also up his goal tally because after awhile nigeria was just like pass him the ball.
Which other players need to exploit when those spaces open up.
Also decision making, i know victor has this mild mannered persona but you have to come to the pitch to be a killer.
And he should of came away with at least a goal or two.
So from now till the world cup practices that shooting accuracy.
Transforming yourself from a winger to a forward like cr7.
4.Dead balls
What is happening in this department and who is really in charge?
Why are three players standing around the ball? Who is assigned the role of set-piece taker or is it free for all?
Which was previously assigned to obinna in the fans mind since he scored a free-kick v ethiopia.
I see moses is tasked with long free-kicks and corners.
But we must become a threat from them and all those 6ft players must use that height to their advantage.
If none of our players can shoot well straight from the free-kick we need to start working on off the ball free-kick maneuvers. Like Greece did when they tried to chip the ball in.
Also
with Moses dribbling and at the moment no end product it gives the opponents no fear of committing those break-up pay fouls which disrupt Nigeria's rhythm because they are being squandered.
Though we are good from penalties and i saw that Moses was looking for that and trying to just get in the box before being fouled.
5.Babatunde
This guy is he there to be the scape goat because if that is the case that plan is flawless.
Because he offered nothing extra and i thought he may slot into midfield, nope just useless dribbling.
Doing body feints which fooled nobody.
6.Midfield structure
Big boss came out and said we need to improve and we did not play our game.
Well why was you only playing to actual midfielders if you want pass based football with possession mentality.Because of playing two midfielders we reverted to wing play but a defensive minded team can just crowd the box especially if there is only one man in there.And if we do not score many headed goals and also if our strikers don't have in the box movement it kinds of nullifies our attack.
Moses and musa are what i call cut back wingers. So they like to dribble the wing and cut back to a striker who has found space and then shooting from there is a easy way to score.
Well if a team is defending you may need to cut back past 3 -4 bodies, which doesn't help if the striker hasn't got that fox in the box movement or telepathic understanding.
Emenike wants space, since he is not a tight space striker. So we need balls in behind or space for him to shoot.
7.3rd man
So what is happening on this front?
Because in a 2 man midfield, mikel cannot be anchor,dm and creator. Because space and gaps appear and leaves us open to counter attacks which happened many a time.
Even yaya needed fernandinho to realease him from defensive shackles.
Many see mikel and onazi as a symbotic kind of midfield pairing.
Which is why the third man is needed and in burst uchebo can be that player.
With his silky touches and big frame just drawing players towards him.But that finesse and midfielders instinct is not really there.
Which why i was "slightly" outraged that keshi dropped a cm player for babatunde.
Because we need to play to our players strengths and a baller in midfield whether you want it to mikel or "azeez". Emenike wanted to be in behind the defence. So we needed that composed midfielder to be able to rotate with the other midfielders we got but also provided those passing skills.
To cut teams up and provide balls in behind not just long balls for Emenike to chase.
It's really weird that azeez has not played the last two games.
8.Yobo and the new players.
Is yobo trying to sneak in the starting line-up. he wasn't to bad. Strolling in to the squad has already been a tender point, what are there presence having on the team.
9.Nwofor
Professed as the fox in the box and deserving a spot. But the team did not play to help him out. He seemed like an outside also in the scotland game and if he did not score would he be in htis squad?
The teams shape needs to change to accommodate different players. I would like to see how he would play from the start with emenike playing off the wing and interchanging like he used to do with ideye.
Which allowed him to cut in and shoot a bit like robben does for netherlands.
Well on and upwards to the Usa game.
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