It has been quite an eventful international break for Nigeria’s Super Eagles. They were in international headlines for unwanted reasons as their flight to Libya was diverted away from the capital Benghazi at the last minute. Instead, they were forced to land in Al Abraq over 200 kilometres to the east, where they found themselves locked in the airport for about 12 hours.
By Neel Shelat
Naturally, the squad and coaching staff were very concerned and displeased at such treatment, which is why they decided against playing their match and headed straight back home. CAF are investigating matters so no decision has been announced yet, but even forfeiting the match would not be a problem for the Super Eagles as they are well on course to qualify for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
Indeed, Nigeria’s recent record on the continental front is not bad at all. They were the defeated finalists in this year’s AFCON, having also finished third in 2019. However, their last title was all the way back in 2013, which is quite disappointing considering the quality in their squad.
Their World Cup record, though, has been pretty poor for a while. The Super Eagles have won just two games at the tournament since the turn of the century – the same number that they managed in each of their previous appearances. They have at least qualified for four of the last six editions of the tournament, but that record is also under threat.
Nearly halfway into CAF’s World Cup qualification tournament, Nigeria are winless and second from bottom in their group behind the likes of Rwanda, Benin and Lesotho. Despite the World Cup’s expansion from 32 to 48 teams, the Super Eagles could well miss out on consecutive editions for the first team since making their debut.
Clearly, they will have to be at their sharpest when World Cup qualification resumes in 2025, so they must use the next couple of months to put everything in order.
Imbalanced squad
One of the main challenges coaches face in charge of Nigeria involves managing one of the most top-heavy squads in world football. Unlike club sides, national teams obviously cannot entirely rely on recruitment to balance out their squads, so they are at the mercy of the talent pool available to them to a pretty big extent. The responsibility to make everything click then falls on the coach, who often has to make some very tough decisions when it comes to squad and team selections.
In the Super Eagles’ case, some previous coaches have been guilty of leaning towards player quality far too much and sacrificing the balance of the side. Nigeria seem to have an unending production line of strikers and forwards, including world-beating talents such as Victor Osimhen and Victor Boniface, lots of youngsters popping up around major European leagues, and a great deal of supporting options such as Ademola Lookman, Alex Iwobi and Samuel Chukwueze to name but a few.
Naturally, it is quite tempting to cram as many of these players into the same starting line-up as possible with the hope that their quality can blow away any opposition defence, but football is not quite so simple. The trouble for Nigeria is that they do not have an elite-level holding midfielder who can do the approach work.
They do not have any particularly exceptional defenders either, so picking a balanced side is really the only way to get the best out of this squad, even if it means benching some of the star attackers. Failure to do so will almost certainly lead to incohesive performances in which the attackers do not get enough service and the midfield is torn apart on the counter, as many have learnt the hard way.
Coaching instability
Such complicated squad dynamics make finding the right formula a difficult process that needs some trial and error. As a result, new head coaches need to be given a bit of time to figure things out, but in the world of international football where stakes are always incredibly high, such time is hard to come by. Nevertheless, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) would do well to justify making three coaching changes this year alone.
José Peseiro led the side in the AFCON campaign, though his success largely stemmed from a switch to a back five and a very defensive-minded approach that saw the Super Eagles just about edge past slightly weaker opponents. This was never going to work against significantly lower-ranked sides against whom Nigeria would be expected to dominate proceedings, so he left when his contract expired in March.
Financial issues also reportedly played a part in his decision, which was hardly a surprise given the NFF’s terrible track record of financial mismanagement and unpaid wages. Peseiro’s assistant Finidi George then took charge, but he only lasted a couple of matches in the hotseat as he too fell into the imbalance trap.
Bruno Labbadia was the NFF’s next target and seemed up for the job, but there was yet more financial trouble in store. Disagreements over tax details led to the German coach calling the deal off, so Nigeria’s search continued. Crucially, they failed to bring someone in before this window – when they might have had opportunities to experiment – and instead had to go back to trusty interim option Augustine Eguavoen.
Next candidates
Hervé Renard is likely the dream candidate for the Super Eagles given his pedigree and pragmatism, but he recently rejected their offer despite being promised a lucrative salary. Swedish tactician Janne Andersson was also said to be in talks at the time but had some issues around delayed joining dates, though that should not be a problem anymore if he is approached once again.
Besides them, nobody has been notably linked to the job of late. The NFF’s financial issues might make it difficult to convince any well-known and well-established names, so finding an internal solution might be the best way forward for the moment.
Nigeria quite clearly have the quality in their squad to ease past almost all opponents in their World Cup qualification group so all the coach needs to do is field a remotely balanced side. Eguavoen has done a sensible enough job in that respect in his previous stints, so he could well be the best candidate. He has, however, recognised the issues of instability surrounding the position, asking for a long-term contract to take up the role permanently. Given their lack of options, the NFF may well find themselves going down that route in the end.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
You can follow every Nigeria game on FotMob – with deep stats, xG, and players ratings. Download the free app here.