Attention of football aficionados in the African continent is already
focused on Egypt as 24 teams will battle it out for a trophy.
For Nigerian fans, the question is whether the present crop of players
in the Super Eagles squad can lift the trophy for the fourth time in
the history of Nigeria.
However, for the team to progress beyond the group stage or have any
chance of winning the 2019 African Nations Cup in Egypt, Coach Gernot
Rohr’s team will need to break their scoring duck as early as the
first match and even go on to add a bucket of goals.
Despite having a plethora of strikers in the current squad, the Eagles
have found goal scoring an onerous task especially in the build up to
the 2019 African Nations Cup.
The team had earlier played a goalless draw with Zimbabwe before
losing 0-1 to Senegal in the subsequent match courtesy of Idris
Gueye’s strike.
The Eagles will begin their chase for a fourth AFCON title on Saturday
against Burundi and Rohr will need to get his lads ready for this huge
task including those who recently took ill and those battling issues
in camp.
One area the coach must concentrate on to ensure a win for the Eagles
in this crucial match against the Swallows, is creation of chances and
goal scoring. A win for the team will in no small measure boost the
confidence of the players ahead of the next match.
In training, Rohr must try out all his options in attack to ascertain
the right combination for a match. With as many as nine attackers, the
German tactician surely has enough Arsenals to threaten any defence in
Egypt. However the onus is on him to pick his attackers based on form
and not previous records in the team. The Eagles’ attack is made up of
young bloods except Odion Ighalo and Ahmed Musa. The likes of Henry
Onyekuru, Samuel Chukwueze, Moses Simon, Paul Onuachu, Victor Osimhen,
Alex Iwobi and Samuel Kalu are all debutants at the AFCON but could
turn out our most effective players in Egypt only if the coach gets
his tactics and selection right.
However for the attackers to deliver on their mandates – goal scoring
– they will no doubt rely on accurate and defence splitting passes
from the midfielders.
The likes of John Obi Mikel, Wilfred Ndidi, John Ogu and Oghenekaro
Etebo (depending on who gets the nod of the coach) will have to supply
the right passes for the strikers to do the damage. Meanwhile, should
our midfielders struggle to create chances, the Eagles may have to
penetrate their opponents through the flanks. Under such arrangement,
our full-backs will need to rise up to the occasion, interestingly;
the team is blessed with arrays of players with lightening pace. For
countries like Cameroon and Senegal, who have midfielders with
presence, the second approach may come in handy.
__________________
