Line-ups
Nigeria
Formation: 4-4-2
Starting Eleven: 1 M. Okoye, 22 K. Akpoguma, 5 W. Troost-Ekong, 6 L. Balogun (S. Ajayi 62’), 17 Z. Sanusi – 11 S. Chukwueze (C. Ejuke 78’), 8. O. Etebo, 10 J. Aribo, 18 A. Iwobi – 7 A. Musa (Captain) (K. Iheanacho), 9 V. Osimhen (P. Onuachu 78’)
Substitutes: 23 S. Osigwe, 16 D. Akpeyi, 19 P. Onuachu, 20 C. Awaziem, 3. J Collins, 4 C. Ejuke, 2 O. Aina, 13 S. Ajayi, 14 K. Iheanacho, 2 O. Aina, 21 Ebuehi, 15 Bonaventure, 12 Shehu
Sierra Leone
Formation: 5-2-3
Starting Eleven: 1 M. Kamara, 24 M. Dumbuya (O. Kakay 69’), 17 U. Bangura (Captain), 5 A. Sesay (R. Strasser 58’), 15 Y. Dunia, 3 K. Wright, – 6 J. Kamara (A. Kamara 58’), 4 M. Kamara – 7 Q. Quee (M. Bundu 69’), 10 K. Kamara, 11 M. Buya Turay,
Substitutes: 16 U. Conteh, 22 I. Caulker, 2 O. Kakay, 8 R. Strasser, 9 A. Williams, 12 P. Barrie, 13 K. Alhassan, 14 A. Samura, 18 A. Kamara, 19 M. Bundu, 20 H. Koroma, 23 E. Sahir Samadia
The Super Eagles (leaders of Group L) faced bottom of the group Sierra Leone in their third match of the African Cup of Nation qualifiers.
It proved to be a shambolic and complacent performance as Nigeria allowed the away team to come back into the game and draw the match 4-4 despite being comfortably ahead 4-0 after just half an hour.
Tactics
System and Personnel Changes
Geront Rohr maintained the 4-4-2 formation from the previous match. The introduction of Victor Osimhen, Aribo, Etebo allowed for a line-up that is arguably the strongest possible with the players that are available.
-Victor Osimhen came in for Iheanacho allowing for a physically adept front-two.
-Aribo and Etebo also came into the midfield allowing for a more balanced center-midfield pairing — the former is quite technical and the latter has exceptional work rate. Their introduction, however, saw Ajayi and Moses Simon drop out of the starting eleven, and pushed Iwobi out to left midfield — a decision that allowed Iwobi to be more influential in attack without having to take up as much of a defensive responsibility.
-Troost-Ekong also made a return to the eleven, taking his place back from Omeruo.
Open Play
Offensively, Nigeria’s tactic for this match was to play everything direct to the strikers, Osimhen and Musa.
They usually have a direct style of play, but today it was taken to extremes as they opted to cut out the midfield in a large amount of their transition play. Apart from that, any other form of transition from defence to attack mostly went through Etebo, who was usually the first to receive the pass from defenders.
This tactic could have been alluded to by the slow pitch as the grass seemed dry and slightly high, which did not allow ground passes to move as quickly as they should. Despite this, build up and playing on the ground was still easily possible as Sierra Leone left a lot of space to operate in. Focusing more on playing on the ground would also have proved useful in the match especially after they went up 4-0.
Alex Iwobi being shifted to left midfield gave Nigeria more of a creative outlet and allowed them to be stronger offensively. Iwobi would often drift into the middle of the pitch which would usually create space for Zaidu Sanusi to overlap. This action led to the second goal in the 21st minute of the match, where Zaidu assisted Osimhen with a great cross.
From a defensive point of view, the Super Eagles went with their usual medium block, and did not give much license for the right back Akpoguma to get forward.
The two center midfielders, Etebo and Aribo, also stayed rigid to their positions and did not join the attack at all.
When Nigeria were well ahead, they did not seem to have a completely understood game plan. Coming into the second half they could have continued as normal and tried to extend the lead, or decide they were going to try and keep what they had and try and be compact and possess the ball, and play out the 4-1 result. They did neither.
Set-Pieces
Set pieces were a bit more altered compared to previous matches as both in swingers and out swingers were employed from wide free kicks. Compared to the usual one-man standing over the ball style that was used in previous matches, two men sometimes stood over the ball in this match, which was good in terms of being less predictable.
Defensively, Nigeria employed a zonal and man-marking mixture. They also went with one-man standing on the goal line during corner kicks (usually Iwobi).
Offensive and Defensive Positioning
When attacking, Nigeria had their two strikers always high up the pitch trying to get In the box and contest for long passes. Musa was the slightly more withdrawn of the two, but in general, neither striker dropped much to receive the ball.
Rather than stay fixed to the touchline in left midfield, Alex Iwobi looked to spend as much time in the middle of the pitch as possible, allowing Zaidu fill in the space that he left vacant.
On the opposite flank, Chukwueze stayed closer to the touchline and played more of a traditional winger’s role.
Defensively, everybody got behind the ball, while Osimhen stayed up high for counter attacks and to relieve pressure from the defense.
Team Performance
The Super Eagles dominated the opening 29 minutes of the match and seemed to be scoring at will, but despite them having 64% of the possession and 8 shots to Sierra Leone’s 4 in the first half, there were still cracks being shown that would prove to be a foreshadowing of something far more serious later in the game.
Despite the Super Eagles scoring so many goals, they still gave away two corners and conceded a goal a few minutes before halftime.
Nigeria defenders were already struggling with the few attacks that Sierra Leone created.
Any positives about the Super Eagle’s team performance ended as soon as they scored the fourth goal.
In taking such a “comfortable” lead and likely underestimating their opponents, they became complacent throughout the rest of the match.
This was especially noticeable in the second half where there was a major drop in intensity from Nigeria. Everything was done languidly, there was less effort to score more goals, passing was slow, runs off the ball were few, and they lost their organisation.
The third goal scored by Sierra Leone in the 79th minute of the match was due to both Etebo and Aribo being out of position. Iheanacho was seen hustling to cover for them.
More complacency was shown when Iwobi was caught on the ball in the 86th minute close to the box before a Sierra Leone player carried and crossed the ball in for the equalizer.
Notable Individual Performances
Victor Osimhen
Osimhen was perhaps the only player who could hold his head up high after this game. He was one of the reasons why Nigeria’s long ball tactics led to so many goals. He showed a lot of pace and power and often did well in bulldozing his way through Sierra Leone’s defense until he got injured — an injury that was ironically caused by him trying to fight for the ball after a long pass was played to him while he was surrounded by three defenders.
Aside from why he was in so many situations like that to begin with, he did his job and showed a lot of commitment scoring a goal and assisting 2 (getting on the end of a cross and two classic striker assists in laying off the ball for Iwobi and a flicked on header of Chukwueze).
He also struck the post with a header in the second half. He was also no longer on the pitch for a large part of the Super Eagle’s collapse, which may be a contributing factor to why he won’t get as much flack as other players.
Maduka Okoye
He made two goalkeeping errors that contributed to the first two goals. When Quame Quee was through on goal for the first goal, he rushed out without getting set before the players shot at goal. He may still not have saved it but, his chances of doing so would have increased dramatically.
On the second goal, he failed to come out at the right time for the cross, and was then caught in no man’s land for the Al-Hadji Kamara’s header.
Ahmed Musa
He was invisible the whole time he was on the pitch and did not really contribute anything.
Alex Iwobi
His game was quite representative of the Super Eagles as a whole. He did well to produce goals, but was not good in the second half and made the mistake that led to the equalizer.
What We Learned
-There is leadership lacking in the team. There was nobody charging the players to take things more seriously and focus more. Simply continuing with a good level of intensity for the entirety of the match would have likely led to a better result.
-The Super Eagles are still not good at possession football. If they can’t control the tempo of the game against a team that allows them so much space, when will they be able to do it?
Even though Nigeria’s tactics were obviously not perfect on the day, this felt like more of a mental collapse than it did a tactical one.
Leadership and focus were lacking and if the team had played the entire game with a respectable amount of intensity instead of thinking the game was over at half time, things could have been different.
Luckily, Nigeria have a chance to put this game behind them in the return fixture on Tuesday.
By Adeyanju Abiodun,
H&B Global Sports
