Former Nigerian international Mohammed Gambo believes Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle’s tactical formations will determine how far Nigeria will progress at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Gambo made this known on the backdrop of the team’s 2-1 loss to Egypt in a friendly on Tuesday, where he questioned Chelle’s deployment of some players in different positions.
Recall that Nigeria will kick off their campaign against Tanzania on Tuesday, December 23, before facing Tunisia and Uganda, respectively.
In a chat with Footy Africa, Gambo, who was part of the Super Eagles squad at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, advised Chelle to play the players to their strengths.
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“I saw the friendly game and I believe Chelle decided to experiment with a few players, with most of them playing in different positions. The coach will have to know his players properly and where they play so that he can get the best from them.
“During the Egypt game, I noticed the boy from Italy (Akinsanmiro) playing behind the strikers, but I think he is better in front of the defence. I remember him from his Beyond Limits days when I was with the Pillars youth team and monitoring young players. He is more defensive than offensive.
“There are a few other players too, like Onuachu, who is doing well in Turkey but hardly does well for Nigeria. The coach will have to understand the players and play to their strengths. I know his tactics will depend on who we are playing, but he has to get formations that will help the players.
“If we can do that, then I see us going far in the competition. Most times, when Nigerians do not have hope in the national team, that is when they perform. I believe it will be the same.”
2 Comments
Oh yes!
Finally, in a tournament-based environment, we will be able to see what tactical arrows Eric Chelle has in his coaching quiver.
I was pleasantly surprised when Eric Chelle introduced Awaziem at the tail end of the match against Congo to make it 5 at the back. Honestly, I didn’t know the Malian manager maintains such an arrow in his quiver.
Now, that 5-2-3 formation employed late stabilized the Super Eagles and ensured the match went to penalties. Make no mistakes Congo were about to score, in fact, Congo did score but it was ruled out due to a contestable foul that another referee might not have entertained.
My point: I saw Chelle employ several formations in that match. Which ones will he employ predominantly at the Afcon.
Make no mistakes, for Afcon standard, the Super Eagles, Chelle’s Super Eagles is endowed with technically gifted players across the park. Chelle has no excuses for failure. Anything less than semi-finals will be failure.
Yes, tactics are important. But even more important is the football administration.
Look at the world cup qualifiers we just got booted out of. We lost the group to SA, a team of local champions whose biggest striker plays for Burnley, a club that is almost destined for relegation!
So on paper, we should have blown them away. But what they have, which we do not have, is good administrators. Their officials saw to it that the planning and logistics was on point, coaches and players paid on time, facilities for training provided, adequate preparation, player welfare, etc. They even bent over backwards so to speak by ensuring that “AWAY” games were actually played in and around SA, to the advantage of Banana Banana. All this while, our own NFF ONIGBESE were busy twiddling their thumbs, dragging their feet on hiring a coach, and shamelessly squabbling over the sharing of money. The result? SA won the group. Even with our useless administrators, we still had so many opportunities to win the group, but failed because we were so ill prepared!
We need competent people in the Glass House. People like:
1) Mike Emenalo – his work at Chelsea speaks for itself.
2) Mutiu Adepoju – La Liga ambassador. He must have learned a thing or two about running football by now.
There are several other Nigerians in the country and the diaspora who really know football business. We need football business managers, not politicians. I don’t care who they are or where they come from. As long as they are competent and driven, we need them!
I am not suggesting these 2 individuals above because I know them personally or am otherwise affiliated with them. I’m not even sure I like them. But at the moment, they are the type of people we desperately need in the Glass House. The change needs to begin after the Afcon, if we are serious about getting back to the top of African football.