Ex-England and Manchester United defender has criticized the Super Eagles for ‘making the wrong choices’ during their goalless draw with Iran in their opening Group F Brazil 2014 World Cup match on Monday.
The African champions laboured to break the well organized Iranians down and created very little as the clash ended in the first draw of the tournament.
“The decision making in the final third when Nigeria managed to get there was poor,” Ferdinand wrote on the BBC moments after the drab draw.
“They made the wrong choices. The quality of the balls into the box was poor and they didn’t play to their strengths.
“This is the game they should have wanted to go out and win and you would think there would be more urgency in their play.”
Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon, who worked with Nigeria right-back Efe Ambrose last season, was also not impressed with the Eagles.
“I thought both teams were poor. You can understand it from Iran. The one saving grace for Nigeria is maybe they are better counter attacking and against Bosnia and Argentina that might suit them better.”
Former England winger Chris Waddle added: “I’ve been very impressed with Iran’s organisation and discipline. They fought for everything. We all expected Nigeria to put two or three goals in so Iran should get the praise.
“Nigeria lacked a lot of quality and that will cost them in this tournament. They’ll do very well to finish second in this group. You can see Iran getting three draws if they set their stall out like this.”
<script async src=”//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js”></script> <!– 300×250, created 11/8/11 –> <ins class=”adsbygoogle” style=”display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px” data-ad-client=”ca-pub-9452882342138416″ data-ad-slot=”0923930052″></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>
COMMENTS
My blame goes to Nigerian coach Stephen keshi for his poor performance in wrong positioning of his players both in first half and second Half
Well said