Former Nigeria international Sam Sodje has said there are reasons to be worried about Jose Peseiro’s 25-man Super Eagles squad for the AFCON 2023.
Speaking on Brila FM, Sodje posited that Peseiro is taking an imbalance squad to this year’s tournament in Côte d’Ivoire.
“We are going to the AFCON with an imbalance squad, we are taking too many strikers, we are lacking that creativity in the midfield where players can pass the ball forward and create chances to win games.
“We are going with too many side passes players, no disrespect to the players and we’ve been conceding goals left, right and centre. We should stop that because a solid defence is the benchmark to win a tournament.
“Also, it is a well known fact the problem we have in the goalkeeping department.
“So if you put all these together there are reasons to be worried but we are fans of the Super Eagles and we will support them.”
Also Read: Osimhen Makes Serie A Team Of The Year
The Eagles training camp in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has officially opened.
Meanwhile, there are reports that Leicester City duo Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho could miss out of the AFCON due to injury.
Terem Moffi and Alhassan Yusuf have been mentioned as possible replacements.
They are in Group A with Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
The competition will begin on 13 January and end 11 February 2024.
8 Comments
God bless Sodje for saying that. You said it well. The truth is bitter, though. This is why I said that I do not expect too much from the gaffer. Not that we don’t have quality players, but Super Eagles doesn’t have a reliable coach and FA.
“Peseiro is taking an imbalance squad to this year’s tournament in Côte d’Ivoire.
We are going to the AFCON with an imbalance squad, we are taking too many strikers, we are lacking that creativity in the midfield where players can pass the ball forward and create chances to win games.
So if you put all these together there are reasons to be worried but we are fans of the Super Eagles and we will support them.”
It is well. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
The coach is an old apprentice that refuses to adapt to football development alongside greedy NFF who claims they can’t afford 27 man list. When did Nigeria become this cheap???
His contract expires this month.
I’m the happiest man for this reason but we know the person taking the 20k will not let go this man by paying some cheap bribe. NFF is political else by now they’ll have pencilled down Ptiso Mosiame and watch Nigeria conquer World Football..
The problem with that 25 man list is that our coach chose only 5 midfielders.
It screams 4.4.2 or 3.5.2 (which this coach has never played) all day long, because with that list (and considering the nature of the tournament), we can only play 2 central midfielders at a time. Everyone opponent can see us coming from a mile away, and all they have to do is crowd us out in midfield and we’ll struggle even against weaker opposition.
The injury to Iheanacho is an opportunity to add another creative midfielder to the team to reduce the burden on Iwobi. If the coach does not do that, then we should not be surprised if our strategy becomes shooting the ball straight from the keeper to the strikers, and hope they win the second balls. 1980s football.
Common sense should tell the coach to replace Nacho with Nwakali..he is the missing piece in this team. I don’t understand if nobody watched when he played in the last AFCON..he passes were accurate and he should be a main player in the team but this coach and NFF are clueless. OK fine if they want to have a home-based player in the team why not include only attacking midfielders? This has been our problem for years but u have clueless lot that can’t resolve the problem. Shame
This coach ought to have worked on a formation. Having Boniface and osimhen upfront only 433 or 442 with disciplined midfielder who won’t run out of position or be able to cover up. That 424 is too porous and has too many loophole.
If Peseiro ordered defensive midfielders that they won’t run out thier positions and cover tightly, press on the competitor, play strictly and strongly on defensive midfield ; also oredered Iwobi and Simon and Chukwueze to play throguh and crosses balls to the forwards Osimhen and Boniface , I think Super Eagles will win this tournament.