When Nigeria were trailing to Tunisia at the ill-fated Afcon second round encounter, coach Eguavoen tinkered his 4-4-2 formation.
It become 4-1-4-1 by removing Iheanacho (because this formation does not have a support striker) and instead he introduced Iwobi thereby having a midfield trio Aribo-Iwobi-Ndidi with Simon and Chukwueze retained on the flanks and Olayinka replacing Awoniyi up front as now the sole centre forward.
The 1994 Nigeria right fullback also started with this 4-1-4-1 against Ghana in Abuja in the doomed 2022 world cup qualifier.
On both occasions, it backfired. We all know the story: Iwobi’s red card, Uzoho’s Butterfingers and Eguavoen’s inability to read games all worked against his own strategy.
But, I really like this formation. I think any of our strikers can play as the lone centre forward. We have players who can hold their own in attacking midfield. Ndidi easily slots into the centre defensive midfield position while my faith in the centre defensive pair of Bassey and Akpoguma is huge. The fullback posts are also competently manned.
I am just waiting for this Qatar World Cup to be over and the Super-computer’s predictions on Ghana to come to pass so I can focus on better things.
I do hope Peseiro experiments with 4-1-4-1.
Below is ” a table soccer 🙂 ” illustration of how potent this formation can be.