Peseiro said his Super Eagles had a hiccup against Guinea Bissau but still qualified Nigeria for the Afcon, so, the insipid 1:1 draw against Lesotho should be seen as another insignificant bump in an otherwise smooth qualifying journey eventually.
For those who choose to believe what is written in owngoalnigeria.com, Peseiro’s sack letter has already been written and will be delivered in the event of a loss against Zimbabwe.
Scorenigeria.com.ng have also been scathing in their condemnation of the coach, going so far as to claim in one article that Nigeria will not qualify for the World Cup with Peseiro in the helm.
For me, Peseiro is fast becoming what Femi Kuti will call Na-So-So-Talk-Talk No-Action Coach. Well we do see action in the way of creating scoring opportunities but far few mangoes are falling into the basket in the way of goals.
I don't really mind Peseiro. Personally, I love seeing the Super Eagles on the front foot. From the blast of the whistle, Peseiro’s boys are spraying the opposition box 18 with crosses like a deranged mass shooter in a horror flick.
It does get the blood pumping and makes for exciting football to watch in that regards. But pitifully few number of those crosses actually results in goals which brings down the whole experience and causes much frustration because the much awaited pay off seldom occurs.
Several fans and many stakeholders are already at the end their tether with this coach.
"The Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF must sack Jose Paseiro now, its better to grow with our own indigenous coaches than wasting $70,000 monthly for a coach whose stock in trade is to bring sorrow and pains to Nigerians in every game." wrote Harrison Jalla on scorenigeria.com.ng.
But sometimes, it takes time for a things to come together for coach. I am frustrated with Peseiro but I am willing to afford him some more rope to pull. That said, a defeat to Zimbabwe will be too hard for me to swallow but I will reluctantly tolerate a draw.
For me, I like the fact that I can see what Peseiro is trying to achieve. One touch football with no time wasted in whipping balls into dangerous areas. He cedes midfield to opposition with much emphasis on wing play.
We create chances but are not cunning enough in how we mask our internations, making it easy to defend against. To make matters worse, our defence is unreliable, our midfield is static and our goalkeeper has butter fingers (sorry Uzoho I still love you).
So we aren't clinical enough up front, thin in the middle and porous at the back, shortcomings that Peseiro can easily address with more guile in his team's play and overall presentation. If these shortcomings are corrected then we can be very ruthless.
Peseiro still has some currency in the bank for me but he is edging close to his overdraft limit!
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