In my view, the solution is easy. Leave Peseiro to prosecute the Afcon and sack him if he doesn’t meet his target of reaching the semi-finals.
From how we have performed thus far, I very much doubt that this gaffer will meet his Afcon targets. So my Afcon expectations are rock bottom.
If we are lucky we can make it out of the group but if Peseiro doesn’t tweak his strategy I anticipate another second round heartache.
The good thing about this scenario is that it would lead to Peseiro’s sacking and hopefully pave the way for appointing a competent gaffer for subsequent World Cup qualifiers.
It’s just crass to sack Peseiro now. He hasn’t been terrible (he has been underwhelming but not catastrophic thus far). And sacking him will have grave financial ramifications.
Left to me Peseiro remains reluctantly manageable. Playing 2 deadly strikers upfront flanked by competent wingers can be productive. But insufficiency in defence, lack of midfield creativity and chronic predictability in attack all make for a frustrating and underwhelming Super Eagles outfit.
My gamble is that Peseiro will use extensive training period offered by a tournament environment to address glaring shortcomings of the team.
From my perspective, this team is not awful or abysmal by any stretch. Far from it, they are just rough around certain edges. To repeat myself: address goalkeeping training ; shore up the midfield; and instruct the strikers to be more resourceful and incentive. Then we can be talking about Afcon semi-finals.