Finidi George has expressed delight for the Super Eagles as they beat Ghana for the first time in 18 years.
Goals from Cyriel Dessers and Ademola Lookman earned the Eagles a 2-1 win in Friday’s friendly game in Marrakech, Morocco.
“I feel happy it’s not easy, we know the rivalry between Nigeria and Ghana,” Finidi said in his post-match. “Coming here to win is a good one for me.
“First win against Ghana in 18 years, I feel happy for the players, as a coach I just want to do my job and if we get victories like this it would keep me happy.”
The former Nigeria international explained the formation used against the Black Stars.
“We didn’t keep same formation (which was used by Jose Peseiro) we played 3-5-2 but in the AFCON it was only Osimhen and we felt he was doing so much running alone.
“So I wanted another player to also do the running, that pair would help. Once a player gets the ball there was an opportunity for a pass. We had to risk it somewhere but we had to get something going forward.”
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Ahead of Tuesday’s friendly with Mali, Finidi hinted that there might be changes in the line-up.
“We don’t want to overload the players, some would definitely come in and we would see the areas where they can come in.”
On the performance of debutant Benjamin Tanimu, he said:”Tanimu is a player that I wanted while he was still a player at Bendel Insurance but it didn’t work out. So with all the injuries that we had, we had to look for a player that can substitute and he came to my mind to invite him.
“His (Tanimu) performance was not bad being is first time, it’s not easy wearing that national colours but overall I would give him credit.”
5 Comments
Some power broker close to the presidency are already talking to the president on having a Nigerian as coach . Hopefully if finidi wins the second game against mali ..the team wil be camped in faro Portugal before the game against south Africa. .
And the wife of the president wants the falcon to get to camp quickly for the Olympics qualifers first leg.
Inside source:
The same power brokers that are fighting for him will influence his team with the wrong mentality. They will demand for players from their village at the expense of better ones.
Finidi’s paddy from the 94 set will call for their own share and players with interest from these folks will continue to act like they own the team.
We witnessed what happened to Oliseh with influential players and wicked nff officials.
Iheanacho tried it with Pesseiro and because we all saw how it ended.
Finidi will be influenced by Papilo’s interests to get fumbling Chukzy into fiest 11, Okocha will use media to get his boy on starting 11 like he did with Cerezo. Will he be able to ignore his friends interests ?
A foreign coach with class doesn’t care about where players come from, he is only interested in results.
Until our coaches learn to stick to professional ethics devoid of tribal and corrupt mentality with free hand from nff, the super eagles job should go to a foreign coach with track records.
We should not just stereotype every Nigerian coach because other ones acted in a certain way. Lets give people benefit of the doubt. By the way, even foreign coaches just like any human being can have favorites who they believe can do the job. NFF just needs to allow the local coaches their free hand and they can perform as much as or even better than a foreign coach. We should learn to respect ourselves. This mentality of it has to be a white man for it to work appears like inferiority complex and should stop.
You are so right @Larry. Local coaches are easily influenced.
Finidi must give honor to whom is due otherwise we begin to look for his replacement. Eguavoen’s technical department of the NFF did that selection though im not here to decode who invited Taminu. For all we know, Finidi would’ve have the nations cup if he was in charge.