Why Did Ladan Bosso's Flying Eagles Fail To Deliver The Goods in Argentina?

Factors That Curtailed Bosso's Success In Argentina:

The Flying Eagles failed to attain a podium finish at this year's U-20 World Cup in Argentina under the tutelage of perennial youth coach Landan Bosso.

A solo header from South Korea was the thin end of the wedge that eventually knocked Nigeria out in the quarter finals.

The factors behind this failure can be divided into two parts before being subdivided. These are macro and micro factors.

Macro: 

The management of football across Nigeria is definitely not a blueprint for success. The domestic leagues are poorly managed and the national teams are poorly primed and motivated. 

These have to change.

Micro:

1) Cracked Codes: Our coaches (Eguavoen, Ugbade, Danjuma) and now Bosso all have credible and compelling methods and philosophies that could bring success. The problem emerges once their methods have been dissected and decoded by savvy opposition coaches. This often leads to these Nigerian teams being dismantled.

Not until our coaches know how to neutralise attempts made at neutralising their own methods will we taste success.

Eguavoen zoomed into the round of 16 with a compelling method only to be dismantled by a savvy Tunisian. Danjuma was as explosive as a rocket in the group stages of the U-20 women's world cup only to be brought back down to earth in the quarter finals once his coaching code was cracked.

Same as Ugbade and yesterday, the Koreans cut of the wings, loaded the box 18, bided their time to score the 1 goal that they know Ugbade and Bosso will forever struggle to overcome.

2) Team selection: Bosso's boys could not break the stubborn Korean defence simply because they lacked the guile, trickery, imagination and cutting edge to wreck havoc.

It begs the question: were these the best legs he could assemble at home and abroad?

Ugbade lost his midfield to MRI and it experienced a meltdown. Isn't Nigeria big enough to produce suitable replacements?

Eguavoen left out some rather skilful players against Ghana and Tunisia because he never heard of them :) .

Questionable player selections is killing our chances of success.

3) Available players: Actually, are our players good enough? Eguavoen, Danjuma, Ugbade and Bosso will unleash these players to attack attack attack as if they are Barcelona, Manchester City or Liverpool.

Our opponents will just sit back, soak pressure, bide their time and score the ONE goal they need for victory. Then they will give us back the ball to play with like kindergarten children for the remainder of the match, funny isn't it?

Against Tunisia Eguavoen bossed possession and lost 1:0. Ugbade bossed possession against Burkina Faso and lost 2:1. Yesterday, Bosso monopolized possession and also lost by one goal.

Perhaps FIFA should make possession the deciding factors in games so that all these possessions of Nigeria will not go to waste.

Gernot Rohr cried, cried and beg Nigerians not to over-estimate the capacity of our players, but no one listened. He would ask his Super Eagles to be humble, cede possession, sit back and hit opponents when they are most vulnerable. 

He just didn't feel Nigerian players were technically grounded enough for attack attack attack football.

We said the German gaffer was disrespectful of our players. But time and time again we now see these same players (under local coaches that know their worth :) ) collapse like a hapless pack of cards.

God help Nigerian national teams o!