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Five Reasons Why Super Eagles Need Foreign Coach
After the Super Eagles failure to qualify for the 2016 African Cup of
Nations in Gabon and with a substantive head coach yet to be named,
Completesportsnigeria.com’s JOHNNY EDWARD offers five reasons why the
Nigerian Football Federation should hire a foreign coach…
1. Battered reputation of Nigerian coaches
After the 2013
African Nations Cup triumph, the Super Eagles have had three indigenous
coaches in charge and that hasn’t helped the team from a steady decline
three years on.
Importantly, the reputation and tactical acumen
which the foreign coach will bring to the Super Eagles will be an
invaluable asset during what will presumably be a phase of
restructuring.
The Nigerian coaches’ inability to qualify for the
African Nations Cup for a second straight time has seen the country’s
football at a crossroads. So hiring a technically sound coach could see
the country instantly propelled back to the top with the right mix of
talent, team bonding and NFF support.
The Super Eagles need a
manager who can command the immediate attention and respect of the
so-called ‘senior men’. Past coaches of the team have had issues curbing
the excesses of these influential figures in the team which ultimately
cost the team the AFCON ticket.
And of course not only can a
foreign coach do just that, but can even inspire the likes of Mikel
Obi, Ogenyi Onazi Victor Moses, Elderson Echiejile and the emerging
talents like Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho to become leaders and
winners.
2. Tactics
Currently the Super Eagles don’t have a
defined style of play. What has been noticed recently is that the team
often times showed naivety and a lack of quality both in attack and
defence and have relied heavily on some individual brilliance to pull
through in recent games.
The Super Eagles need a coach who can
harness the current crop of emerging talent and use them effectively in
their desired roles.
For instance, Mikel Obi is a player who has
been a key member of the national team for over a decade and features
for one of England’s biggest clubs Chelsea and yet Mikel has never hit
the heights he promised since bursting onto the scene in 2005.
Some
blame his lack of tactical application in game situations and his
inability to become a thinking player like the Okocha’s and Nwankwo
Kanus of this world.
Having stretched the Egyptians above board in
the first leg draw in Kaduna, Coach Samson Siasia team never looked
like a team that had a plan B to outwit a determined and resilient
Pharoahs side in Alexandra. The team needs a bench that thinks faster.
3 Nigerian coaches can’t be trusted in player selection
Under
the watch of local coaches, the Super Eagles have seen players nowhere
near as good as their predecessors called up to represent the country.
Whether or not it’s the local coaches who selects the players, they
surely have final say, and under their tutelage Nigerians have seen
players not deserving of a place in the Eagles training.
Coach
Samson Siasia needed a massive campaign on Twitter to call up Nigeria’s
most in- form defender Leon Balogun for in his list of 21 foreign-based
players for the Egypt games but there were places for Aminu Umar,
Stanley Amuzie who has played two games since recovering from a cruciate
ligament injury for Portuguese Second division side Olhanese and U-23s
skipper Azubuike Okechukwu who was handed his debut in a crucial game
against Egypt.
Sunday Oliseh too brought in average players like
Rabiu Ibrahim, Haruna Lukman, Izunna Izuchukwu and Sylvester Igboun.
Stephen Keshi had his own low-standard players like Reuben Gabriel,
Michael Uchebo and the like.
4. Indigenous coaches don’t know their best team
There
are lots of examples of managers whose tinkering on the job works for
them. It has certainly not worked for Samson Siasia and his
predecessors.
At the expense of a more experienced Ogenyi Onazi
and Elderson Echiejile, Siasia opted to start his inexperienced Olympic
players Azubuike Okechukwu and Stanley Amuzie which cost the team in
Alexandra.
He also started Moses Simon and Alex Iwobi on the bench
in the second leg despite been impressive in the first leg in Kaduna.
The duo would have fared better than Ahmed Musa and Aminu Umar who
started.
This also happened often under Oliseh and Keshi.
5. Nigerian coaches’ inability to motivate
Past
coaches have failed to motivate the invited players to the Super Eagles
due to their methods in favoring one player to the other which has left
most of them looking woefully short of confidence.
The past three
coaches had a knack for calling up their favourites for games at the
expense of players who could actually make impact in games.
That
defeat to Egypt which finally nailed Nigeria was a good example of the
Eagles coming off second-best in a majority of the duels; not making
good use of the ball, even though they played a possession game.
In
such a scenario, a motivator who employs strategies to increase team
unity and create a ‘siege mentality’, which makes his teams stubborn in
defence and ruthless in attack was needed. A seasoned European coach
should be able to do it.
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