The writing was always on the wall. When Finidi hinted that he wanted to play attractive football en route winning games, alarm bells started ringing. The former Eyimba head coach said he learnt his lessons against South Africa and would start strong. And he did.
Nigeria looked comfortable on the ball, dictated tempo and showed attacking intent. Again, it was one of Finidi’s attacking midfielders that harmed the opponents with an emphatic finish, curiously the same player that replaced the midfielder who struck gold against South Africa, injecting a level of consistency into Finidi’s tactical approach.
Things were looking great and Finidi’s detractors were about to eat their words. But, no, those fans who fervently rejected Finidi as Super Eagles coach will have their pound of flesh with fire and fury!
And, do you blame them? In fairness, Finidi underestimated the importance of having players with solid leadership qualities on and off the pitch. Leon Balogun, William Troost-Ekong were available but instead the defense was entrusted to Ajayi, Bassey and Tanimu making the entire defensive infrastructure rudderless!
After the game against South Africa, which I thoroughly enjoyed for its entertainment value, I noted that the Super Eagles looked disjointed and lacked organisation particularly at the back. I felt Finidi overestimated his own abilities in trying to succeed with a vibrant style of football that failed Eguavoen and led to Peseiro and Rohr changing course to a more pragmatic approach.
Let’s face it, it is near impossible to get the Super Eagles, this Super Eagles, to play an attractive brand of football consistently.
Bassey plays in the English Premier League. How come he wasn’t alive to the danger posed by the Benin player lurking in the shadows? Who else could have shown leadership to alert him to that danger, Ajayi or Tanimu?
Finidi adopted a zonal marking arrangement which almost lead to a goal earlier in the match but will later lead to the kiss of death from Benin for 2:1.
Okay, Finidi was behind, for this second time but this time, he totally capitulated, dismantling his midfield and reverting to the 4-2-4 that failed Eguavoen and that led us to this point when Peseiro used the same formation to fail against Lesotho and Zimbabwe with 2 lame draws.
So Mr Finidi, you had your backs to the wall and reverted to proven failed strategy. Is that all your could conjure from your bag of coaching tricks?
The match ended 2:1 and the knives were out! Fans rained abuse on Finidi and those who supported him. Those of us who wished him well were not spared from their fury as angry fans took no prisoners in their anger and outburst. And, in truth, I dont blame them. The state of affairs is truly deplorable!
Now the stupid sports ministry are bring their shameless necks out of their wretched hole to complain and demand explanation from NFF. The same NFF who (in fairness to them) had put forward a foreign coach that the sports ministry rejected in favour of another indigenous coach that could have made things far worse than Finidi.
Bunch of jokers!
In 2 world cup qualifying matches, Finidi failed with his fluid and opaque approach. He panicked when he saw failure on the horizon. He showed lack of conviction in his own match day squad selection by returning Bassey and Tanimu to their natural positions when failure was looming.
He demonstrated lack of a viable plan b by reverting to a tried and tested failed 4-2-4 approach when push came to shove. He failed to identify and select true leaders on the pitch. He came across as being confused and naive by dumping his own’s attractive football with a whole 40 minutes of football to play – enough time to at least fashion out an equaliser to limit the damage.
Now Nigeria’s world cup qualification hangs by a tread of hopelessness – thanks to politics between NFF and sports ministry that produced a mediocre coach who in turn produced mediocre results.
By calling Finidi mediocre, I bear no ill-will. I have always maintained that he was unproven and untested in this level of football but hoped he will somehow rise to the occasion, but instead, he fell like a pack of cards.
In any event, the ball is now in NFF and sports ministry’s court. All hope is not lost. Nigeria can still finish strongly in this world cup qualification campaign to end up as one of the 4 best placed runners up for the play offs.
It is even doubtful whether Finidi can even mastermind a second place finish from our group.
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