In truth, Peseiro’s Super Eagles carved out an identity for themselves against Algeria (in their previous friendly) with their fluid and purposeful brand of football. Poor officiating and goalkeeping frailties in dealing with long range bullets nailed their Waterloo.
Now against Portugal tomorrow, they will need to demonstrate visible improvements to show their restoration recovery following World Cup qualification failure is moving in the right direction.
Of course, Nigeria should be in the Qatar World Cup. But that is now in our rear view mirror. The future beckons and many Super Eagles fans are grateful but not altogether bought over by what Peseiro has done thus far.
Granted he is being owed emoluments. But it remains to be seen whether his attack-attack-attack formula will take the Super Eagles to the promised land.
Against São Tomé and Príncipe, this approach gave birth to 10 goals which remains the only time in 5 games where the scores justified this philosophy. Even against Sierra Leone, his Super Eagles laboured to a slim come-from-behind win.
So, the ends are yet to justify his tactical and technical means.
With a near full house, Peseiro has a rich pool of incredibly gifted players to pick from. It is how he utilises them that will make all the difference.
Commentaires