Super Eagles head coach Jose Peseiro has explained what his players must do to become Africa Cup of Nations winners again.
In an interview with Super Eagles media officer Babafemi Raji which was posted on NFF TV, Peseiro explained what he and his coaching crew observed about his players in the friendly games against Algeria, Portugal, Ecuador and Mexico.
He highlighted most especially the 4-0 loss to Portugal, pointing how the Eagles can take away from the game as they set their sights on winning the next AFCON.
“The objective is to win the next AFCON and to reach the objective we have objectives. We have been working on observation, player evaluation and team organisation. We had two qualifiers which ended 2-1 and 10-0. But the friendly games against Mexico, Ecuador, Algeria and Portugal we tried to check our players, we tried to check our ideas, our model to see if we can play this way or not.
“Against Portugal we tried to face them, though we lost 4-0 but we tried to face them and in the first half I didn’t like what I saw because we didn’t control the game as we want. But in the second half we had more possession than Portugal and almost scored from the penalty and also through Samuel (Chukwueze).
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“I liked the second half except for the last 20 minutes because after losing the penalty we then lost our balance and you cannot lose your balance against a team like Portugal. If we had managed to score at 2-1 it’s possible to draw the match.
“We can learn from these games and when I arrive I told my players that if they want to win the AFCON and be among the best teams in Africa you need to play like a big team. Morocco is a big team but playing defensive in the World Cup, that is different. I have quality players but need to evaluate them and I believe in them.“
Peseiro, who is currently in Qatar for this year’s World Cup, explained his thoughts about the African representatives and what make big teams like England, Brazil, England and Portugal standout.
“I have been to the last five World Cup and watching the games live and I’m in Qatar for the World Cup thanks to the support of the NFF. I think it’s important to evaluate the evolutions of teams in this World Cup because it is the biggest competition for national teams. As you know I’m the coach of the Super Eagles and I arrive Qatar 2nd of December and watch Portugal and South Korea and Cameroon and Brazil.
“It was possible to watch these games because the stadiums are not far from each other and I will watch the semi-finals, third palce and the final.
“I think Ghana, Cameroon and Tunisia they lacked the consistency to advance into the round of 16. For Senegal they had a good performance in the group Aliou Cisse did a good job and the big surprise is Morocco who are good in offence but are well organised. They defended very well, close down spaces and their coach is doing a fantastic job.
“After the World Cup we will make a technical report on technical and tactical level. I like to watch the game live because you can see all the pitch, the organisation, the space and later I watch the games on video. I can speak about Portugal, Brazil, France and England because they approach the game with offence process. They try to beat their opponent with offensive play. Brazil and France play with four players in front, for France Antoine Griezman he plays like the second striker and in midfield.
“Also like Brazil Neymar play like Griezman, he plays like a second striker but sometimes build up from the back. So Brazil and France are the teams that play more of offensive, Portugal and Netherlands also. They try since the start of the tournament, they pressure and play offensive.
“For Argentina, Netherlands and Croatia they try to be more effective and also offensive but I like Brazil, Portugal, France and England because of their offensive play.”
Peseiro went on to thank Nigerian fans, NFF and the media for their support to the Team Eagles.
“I like to say thank you to our fans, the media, the Football Federation for their support they should look forward to seeing the best of Super Eagles as we look forward to qualifying and winning the next AFCON.“
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COMMENTS
If there is one think I like about this peseiro it is his positive speaking which is in Sharp contrast with Rohr’s negativity ridden speeches.U get what u constantly confess according to the Holy Bible.The bible further says we believe therefore we speak….and without faith it is impossible to please God. To be very candid negative speaking was the bane of Rohr’s reign . The SE shall be Champions again under peseiro I believe . Happy Xmas in advance to all SE fans
@four four two
Is it talking positively without getting good results that matters to you, or talking negatively but getting the desired results that matters to you? If you think that Rohr talked negatively, so what? Did Rohr not meet his targets? Did he come short of any of the targets given to him? Your Eguavoen that talked most positively above the high heavens during the last AFCON, where is today? The truth still remains that, as far as any coach employed by NFF after Rohr, has not been able to do better than Mr Rohr, Mr Rohr still remains the best. So, as far as Peseiro hasn’t given us a better result yet than Rohr did, Rohr still remains the best. Peseiro is still speaking English for now. You can only offload employees that fail to meet targets. As far as am concerned, Peseiro hasn’t achieved anything yet. The days ahead will uncover the fact of whether he can deliver or not. It is not by noise-making. No one is saying that Rohr is the best in the world. What we are saying is that no coach after him has equalled or beaten his records as Super Eagles’ Coach. Until we have such, Oga Rohr remains the coach to beat.
Paseiro has only been on the job for 8 months and has not lost any competitive match yet.No point comparing his results with Rohr who was there for 6 years without much achievement, and who was losing grip and tailing out in his last one year in office.
Losing Friendly matches are immaterial as coaches use these to make tactical planning and organisational changes of the team in preparation for competitive games.
Too early to start critiquing Paseiro.
You easily forgot Rohr got us AFCON BRONZ in Egypt. Since when Rohr ignominy sacked, Nigerian football has gone to failure after failure. Dr Drey has written article after article about this in this very Forum. If so-called positive talks win games, Peseiro will still be the coach of Venezuela where he was sacked with ignominy. The ground is there for him to fight now, so far, it doesn’t look good to see.
Well said
It is PEOPLE like YOU that HATES being told the TRUTH and REALITY that is making NIGERIA where SHE is today..
It may look as if peseiro has not achieved anything because we blacks see failure as failure rather than seeing it as learning . He has been able to see the team clearly after their catastrophic performance in recent games and was able to point that eagles lack organization and effectiveness. Rohr games began to loose direction after the exist of Mikel and Victor Moses.
After watching Croatia play I noticed since the days of Davor Suker they still play play the same pattern—- patient football,allowing your opponent to play ,bringingthe game to a low pace and eng humble on the field of play. Their players are focused you hardly see fashion hairstyle or tattoos on their body,they are not aggressive or talking to referee rudely.look at the Brazilian team with different hairstyles, look at what Spanish caoch said that it is okay to have sex at world cup.we have a lot to learn from Croatia
@Respect is reciprocal you nail it all in the clause ”the SE began to lose direction when Mikel and VM left the team. To be honest the SE SE is missing those two guys terribly. I remember the two help SE destroy Algeria,3:0 and Cameron 4:1 and since they left we haven’t drawn Algeria much less record a win against them. Another salient point u raise that prick my heart is the Croatian model of football. It is so effective and I shall be happy if the SE can adopt it
This man has nothing to offer… He is just another fraud again!
Agreed with your cogent view. Peseiro is fake and a huge FRAUD. Nigerians everywhere will soon realize that they are taken for a ride.
They sold this man to us as a tactical genius. So far I’ve not seen any genius nor have I seen anything that suggests tactical knowledge. He claims his preferred style is 4-4-2. To me, that is a problem because a coach should not have a preferred formation but tailor his tactics and formation to the strengths and weaknesses of his opponent.
Nigeria has the same arrogance as Brazil, they both believe that playing their style would get them victory and the opponent does not matter. Like Brazil, Nigeria has no defensive game only an offensive game to attack opponents, but at least Brazil is the more successful even if they’ve barely passed the quarterfinals since 2002.
We need a coach that shows both an attacking and defensive game, and when this coach chose Portugal for a friendly I thought he was about to show his defensive game.
Croatia defeated Brazil with a defensive game, Morocco defeated Spain with a defensive game. Only an arrogant country thinks it can outplay every opponent with the same tactics. That is Brazil who at least have history of success at the highest level, but Nigeria has no excuse but poor coaching and game management.
Croatia apart from Modric is not better than Nigeria, when you look at team valuation,i.e how much their players cost on the transfer market, Croatia is at 13, Nigeria is at 15 while Brazil is at 2.
I have never joined in the praise or criticism of Rohr, Rohr was tactically astute but not very ambitious. In my view his ambition did not match Nigeria’s expectations. He was happy to just qualify for world cup and then falter. Our current coach is showing indications that he is not tactically astute and his ambitions are limited to the African stage and no more. If this is true he is worse than Rohr.
Peseiro Talks The Talk, Can He Walk It?
Nigeria’s last friendly against Portugal was heading for familiar, yet less damaging territory before petulant Emmanuel Dennis penned an alternative script. After a tempestuous first half which saw Peseiro’s boys were simply blown away by the Portuguese storm, the Super Eagles were starting to sail on calmer waters in the second half.
However, no sooner had a penalty award to Nigeria brought a ray of hope only for Watford’s Emmanuel Dennis to extinguish any such hope by illegally hijacking the penalty responsibility (to the bewilderment of his colleagues and coach) and then crashing the spot kick onto the bar: a useless act for a player that has been useless in Super Eagles colours.
A calmer head could have scored the spot kick bringing and probably ending the game in the now familiar 1 goal deficit friendly loss for Nigeria under Peseiro.
But In the mind of the Portuguese gaffer, the game did end 2:1 which in fairness would have brought the result on par with the outcomes of the previous three friendlies that he has presided over as Nigeria gaffer (2:1 to Mexico, 1:0 to Ecuador and 2:1 to Algeria).
This is however scant consolation for many Super Eagles stakeholders who are already calling for Peseiro to be issued the red card.
Truly, the match against Portugal was an outlier. After Dennis’ moment of penalty madness, the rest of the players just threw in the towel, leading to a scoreline that flattered Portugal.
But Peseiro, in the eyes of a microscopic few like myself, has done enough to prove that , given time, a free hand, patience, motivated group of players and a favorable working environment which starts with timely disbursement of emoluments, he can deliver the holy grail to the Nigeria fanbase.
In truth, Peseiro took over the reins at a most tumultuous time in Nigeria’s football. The Super Eagles’ Afcon campaign had kicked the bucket after a promising start that proved to be no more than a false dawn. And then to see the world cup ticket fly away with the Ghanaians from Abuja had both set the scene for a miserable and rotten rest of 2022 for Nigeria fans.
Peseiro’s Super Eagles would have had to literally walk on water for the remainder of 2022 for the ghost of Gernot Rohr’s premature sacking to rest in peace. But, the vindication of that vehicle is in the driving and it truth, it has been a bumpy ride for Super Eagles fans under the Portuguese gaffer thus far.
So, is there light at the end of the tunnel?
Peseiro, to his credit, loves goals, plenty of them. So his philosophy is predicated upon attack-attack-attack football. He doesn’t seem to believe in hugging possession for possession sake. This is just-in-time, quick turnaround one touch football progressive football with rapid incursions in dangerous opposition territories.
Against Ecuador, Nigeria had 14 goal attempts, more than the winners. Against Algeria, we had 6 shots on goal, 3 more than the eventual winners (with 1 Nigerian goal controversially ruled off). And as sour as the game against Portugal was, Nigeria still managed just 2 less shot on goals compared with Ronaldo’s colleagues.
And in the 10:0 hack job of São Tomé and Príncipe, the Super Eagles had – wait for it – 27 goal attempts (with some goals controversially chopped off).
So, we can see Peseiro’s philosophy play out in the numbers – not of actual goals – but in goal attempts.
He believes in himself and his boys but are his beliefs misplaced?
Gernot Rohr made no bones in stating that Super Eagles players were not intelligent enough to shake the world. Hence he elected for an ultra conservative brand that always had 60-70% of the players in defensive positions (either in his 5-2-1-2 or 4-2-3-1 formation). It worked for the German as he met all his targets. But, in truth, the wheels were starting to come off before his unceremonious dismissal.
But Peseiro has elected to throw caution to the wind with zero defensive midfielders in his 4-4-2 constellation which sees 50-60% of his players in offensive positions.
For him, the players presently available to Nigeria can lift the Afcon trophy at his first time of asking and nothing that happened thus far in the way of losses in friendlies has shifted his stance.
“[The fans and my NFF employers] should look forward to seeing the best of Super Eagles as we look forward to qualifying and winning the next Afcon.” Said Peseiro this week.
Brave words from an ambitious coach whom some are saying is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land with what they have seen thus far. But it is what they are yet to see that Peseiro believes will win doubters over.
It is only by returning the Super Eagles to winning ways against credible oppositions that Peseiro’s credibility will be crafted.
Until then, one can expect his statements, however laudable, buoyant and optimistic, to be largely met with a great deal of skepticism from those waiting for him to put emphatic victories where his mouth is.
“…a useless act for a player that has been useless in Super Eagles colours…”
Deo, you will give account of your ways on judgement day…LMAOoo
To think Rohr became a bad person for shutting that thing out of the SE makes it all the more laughable. I’ve not seen a better description of Dennis than that….LMAOoo.
Lol Dr Drey. Let’s hope like the prodigal son, Dennis will realise the errors of his ways and then turn a new leaf from 2023.
Erudite exposition. Bravo@Deo
Thank you Sir Four Four 2.
Even Pinnick finally admitted that he made a huge mistake by firing Rohr the way they did. That was why he tendered that wholesome Apology to the Nigeria people. Peseiro has no clue of what he is doing as a coach. Under Rohr, Emmanual Dinnis could never have behaved in such a rude and unprofessional manner and got away with it.
Of course Amaju will continue begging Nigerians till eternity because NFF elected the wrong person to be their president.
What do you expected from president like Amaju and his colleagues during his time?
If Pinnick have to be sincere with us, he and his members should have replaced Oga Rohr after the world cup in Russia, not few days to Ghana match. But just because he did not qualify to be the NFF president, that is why he did a shabby job with Oga Rohr by retaining the gaffer until its backfire.
You Edoman is part of it and including the rest of you Oga Rohr.
Did you see any of we patriotic Nigerians to regret our action? Have you seen anyone coming here on CSN to tender his or her apology to Nigerians?
Amaju Pinnick, Oga Rohr and his followers have to say sorry to Nigerians. Anyway, we are not here for that.
We want to bring Super Eagles back and by God’s grace, we will. So Edoman, you need to tender your apology to Nigerians as well. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
@omonja you and some ppl on this platform need to apologize just the way pinnick did, for rasing an unwarranted alarm over Rohr performance.
Such alarm that you and some ex together with odegbami sounded further confused an already confused NFF .
I think Tristan and Deo clarified Super Eagles coaching position in Peseiro rein and between him and Rhor on tactical style between them; Peseiro plays with pure offensive and attacking style of play he omits and unthinks drastic and regorous defensive style like Croatia and Morocco, he does not organize SE with drastic defensive midfield and back line; Rhor had made simple defensive style for SE; Peseiro plays with 4-4-2 as a pure offensive attacking style, but I think he must assort abd variate his tactics depending on strength of rival who play for example when he plays Mexico, Algeria , Portugal he must play with mixed tactic with concentration to a drastic defensive style just he must play with 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1, but if the rival is less stronger than these big team he must play with 4-4-2 or 4-3-3; genenrally if Peseiro likes SE to become Afcon. champions he must change his coaching managment mentality, he must put drastic and regorous ferocious defensive midfield and back lines with pressing style and depth and creativtiy on attacking midfield , that means he must recall strong and agressive players who have combative souls , love Nigeria green and white jersy; look at Morocco , Croatia they play with combative soul as one famliy team with unity as one person, so they reached World Cup semi final with this philosophy; if Peseiro can’t do this philosophy on SE , NFF must sack him then hire World class coach as Tite, Raymond Domenech or Dunga or Frank Deboer , they are so quality coaches can do this philosophy which I mentioned above, ;also NFF must put penal condition when the would like to hire a coach this condition orderd the coach that he must play with drastic defensive play with offensive attacking play like France plays mixed style of play with concenteration of defensive side; so hired coach must put code of conduct rules on recalled players that any players recalled to SE must play drastic defensive of play with play it with group team like Morocco; all players defend when the rival attacks SE, all team attack when they keep the ball with quick return back when the rival take counter attack; Super have failed in many tournments , have lost many matches cause of lacking drastic , rigorous defensive pattern of play with pressing and aggressive style of play; if SE perform this pattern and style of play I think they can rule Africa , they can win the next Afcon. In Qate De’Ivore 2024.
I would’ve commented but a certain Deo have said it all ooh and Tristan also.