I have read many contributions where fans blaming this player or that player for Nigeria’s shambolic 2:0 friendly loss to Mali.
Left to me, these same players under a different philosophy and tactical instructions and arrangements could at least have nailed out a draw from this encounter.
It then begs the question, what was the philosophy?
Nigeria embarked on high press but the formation did not allow it to work well.
Playing out from behind gifted Mali their first goal and looked often poorly executed throughout the encounter.
The extra man up front in midfield (Iwobi) failed to really create ample goal scoring chances.
To make matters worse, the same Iwobi had to drop deep to collect the ball when he was redundant up front, thereby returning to the same centre midfield that caused him to be insulted by fans in the Afcon.
Moses Simon was played as a Support Striker which arguably contributed to his injury and proved laughable as he rarely plays that role for club and country.
The Super Eagles were disjointed particularly at the back which allowe Mali’s beautiful football to shine and for them to create plentiful credible goals scoring opportunities.
The Super Eagles struggled to generate attacking momentum.
All in all, the Super Eagles lacked tactical organisation across the park. It was difficult to get behind what they were trying to do because it wasn’t evident.