It is the beginning of a new year. It is time for resolutions, which serve as guide for good or bad conducts in the course of the year. For the Super Eagles, 2013 offers the players and coaches best opportunity to shed off the toga of Super Chicken.
This unwholesome sobriquet arose from the Eagles’ grace to grass status in global football after their meteoric outing at the USA’94 World Cup, where Nigeria emerged as the fifth best entertaining team in the world, despite our second round ouster from the Mundial.
Several methods have been adopted to rejuvenate the Eagles, with little to show for it. Coaches, players and even chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) were removed to make the Eagles fly.
Many pointed at the gross indiscipline in the team. A few others hinged the team’s sloppy display on lack of determination, commitment and the will to win among the players.
The rebuilding of the team started in 1998, with many asking when it would stop. But the new helmsman, Stephen Keshi, has promised reforms which appear to be manifesting, if this writer isn’t accused of jumping the gun.
Suddenly, it is dawning on us that we need to rebuild the Eagles by giving the domestic league players an opportunity to fight for shirts with the better exposed stars in Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Diaspora.
Home grown players have broken their yoke of naivety and have stood toe-to-toe with the foreign legion such that Keshi feels strongly that they could make his final list to the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations holding in South Africa from January 19 to February 10.
The biggest impetus in the Eagles today can be traced to the fact that the foreign legion recognises that the home lads can play the game with their hearts, because they too want to join them in Europe.
Again, Keshi is prepared to drop anyone who doesn’t play well in training and matches. There is no second chance for flops. This trait rubs off on the team’s play during matches.
Interestingly, we are beginning to see bigger boys playing in the Eagles, unlike in the past where pint-sized players dominated the team and were easily out-muscled in ball possession battles. Muscular, athletic, taller and determined players make Keshi’s squad. What this writer feels is lacking in the team is the variety of tactics during games.
Eagles’ style is predictable. The only difference with the past is that Keshi may have told them to fight for the ball as soon as they lose it.
Secondly, Keshi appears to have broken the fixation that haunted previous coaches when selecting players. It was easy for fans to sit at home and pick those to be fielded. This flaw gave room to certain players to feel that the Eagles shirt was their birthright. This group formed the cabal that held the team and the nation hostage anytime they felt aggrieved. They chose the games they wanted to play, picked the coaches they wanted to work with and cared less about how the country plays during big time competitions, such as the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.
With 16 days to Nigeria’s first game against Burkina Faso in South Africa, it is difficult for anyone to pick the 23 players that Keshi will take to the Africa Cup of Nations.
The last two matches against Venezuelans and the Catalonians on Wednesday in Espanyol further heightened the suspense in the camp in Faro, Portugal.
Watching the Eagles against Catalonia on Wednesday, what struck me was the confidence of the home-grown goalkeeper Agbim. He was calm and even controlled his defenders, a trait goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama lacks, resulting in some cheeky goals he has conceded recently.
Agim’s positioning was awesome. He gripped the ball firmly from set-plays, especially from the corner kicks. His judgment of aerial balls was impeccable. He was calm enough to initiate the team’s attacking onslaught by throwing the ball to the nearest defender, not kicking it aimlessly towards the opponent’s goal area.
One will not be surprised if Vincent Eneyama doesn’t start Nigeria’s game against Burkina Faso. If Keshi drops Enyeama from the first game, he would have solved the problem of using experience to pick players for matches than their current forms. Younger players garner experience from playing games instead of sitting on the bench.
The Eagles defence has been problematic, although some of the cheap goals conceded have come from poor goalkeeping. Perhaps, keeping Enyeama on the bench in South Africa will be the panacea since the team has conceded just one goal from two games without Enyeama.
Joseph Yobo’s inclusion in the defence could strengthen it, more so when John Mikel Obi is made to play in the defensive midfield like he does at Chelsea. Interestingly, Mikel hasn’t been playing for Chelsea, no thanks to the three-match ban occasioned by the punishment from using abusive words on referee Mark Clattenburg.
Eagles’ defensive network would be impregnable if Keshi includes Nosa Igiebor and Dike in the midfield quartet. Keshi should play Victor Moses to complete the Eagles’ midfield quartet, comprising Mikel, Igiebor and Dike. Mikel and Moses will propel the Eagles’ attack like they do in Chelsea. Keshi got a tip of this fluid midfield play against Liberia in Calabar when Mikel spotted Moses with a curly lob which the diminutive midfielder converted with aplomb.
If Keshi parades selfless players who would be prepared to pass the ball upfront for freer strikers to convert into goals, then half the assignment of beating Burkina Faso and others at the Africa Cup of Nations would have been decided.
Eagles’ attacking options are legendary, although a few of them are wasteful with converting goals. Keshi can ignite adequate competition among the strikers, if he teaches them how to handle one-on-one situations against the opponent’s goalkeeper.
The strikers should be taught how to inter-change passes such that they know who to pass the ball to in match situations. Rehearsals in training are perfected on the pitch. Scoring goals is no guess work. A team that does not encourage its players to shoot the ball accurately cannot win matches. The catalyst that wins matches is goals, not the number of passes strung together to elicit applause from the spectators. Practice, they say, leads to perfection.
Keshi’s substitutes must be as good as the first choices. Matches are won by those on the bench. There shouldn’t be any form of sentiments. Recuperating players should be asked to go home. We want a squad of equally likely players not 13 stars and 10 wastepipes. Every change made during matches should galvanise the team to play better.
A team is as good as the coach’s proficiency in reading matches. Keshi should open his eyes during games and ensure that tactical changes are informed and not based on panic.
The fruits of Keshi’s rebuilding exercise must be evident in the way the Eagles play in South Africa. The team’s style should be inspiring. They must be made to give their best. Anyone who is not prepared to lay down his life for Nigeria should be excused to go on holidays. Nigerians have been left crest-fallen by Eagles’ shambolic outings in big competitions. The time to stop that trend is now.
Nigerians are tired of praying and banking on luck for the Eagles to win matches. We are also tired of permutations to ensure that the Eagles progress during tournaments. If we can beat a team, we should do so convincingly. There should be no half measure; after all, we know that it takes seven matches to lift the Africa Cup of Nations’ diadem. It is a task that can be done, with the right attitude from the players and sincerity from the technical crew when picking players for games.
This writer feels strongly that the Eagles can spring surprises in South Africa. You want to bet on it? Don’t dare; you rule the Eagles out at your own peril.
Good luck Keshi; good luck Super Eagles. Please, make this a happy year for your fans.
