June 12, (THEWILL) – After originally parting ways with the Portuguese manager Jose Peseiro as coach of the country’s senior men’s national football team, the Super Eagles, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), as part of the reorganisation of football governance in the country, named Peseiro as the team’s new head coach for the second time.
In a Sunday, May 15 statement, the Federation stated that the appointment was contingent on the signature of agreed-upon agreements, while indicating that the Portuguese would begin work immediately. That meant Peseiro had little or no time to put a team together, get his ideas for how he wanted them to play understood by these players and make them execute these ideas on the pitch in the grade ‘A’ friendlies arranged for the Super Eagles against World Cup-bound South American sides Mexico and Ecuador in the United States.
However, given the depth of Peseiro’s knowledge of the Nigerian squad, which he impressively displayed to awe the NFF President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, at his interview with the Federation, the Portuguese manager had put one hurdle behind him.
The story, as reportedly relayed by Pinnick himself, goes that Peseiro has a panoramic knowledge of the players in the national team that is impressively hands-on. In the words of the NFF President: “If you look at Peseiro, when I was talking to him, he was talking as if he has been coaching the Super Eagles for a long time. He said, ‘Listen, Nigeria, you played against Croatia in 2018, in your World Cup opening match. They did not over-dominate you. It was 45/55 per cent ball possession’. And, he said, ‘Croatia eventually played in the final of the World Cup, it could have been Nigeria’.”
Pinnick continued: “I got impressed. He brought a Wyscout, a software to analyse the strength of our players. He gave me the analysis of everyone of our players scientifically. I was taken aback. When he spoke with the Technical Group, I was just an observer, we’re all impressed.”
Such glowing testimonial from the NFF President meant that the coach could immediately hit the ground running without too much of the intervening time spent getting to know the players. He could swiftly go to the next phase of bringing his technical preference to bear in the tactics, formation and strategy that the team will embrace with him at the helm. In the absence of a handful of first-team players such as leading striker Victor Osimhen, first-choice keeper Maduka Okoye and injured forward Emmanuel Dennis, Peseiro was thrust into his debut game, the May 29 friendly against Mexico at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas in the United States. And, exactly two months after Nigeria was disappointingly dumped out of the World Cup by Ghana in the continental playoffs, Mexico added to the poor run, handing Peseiro a 2-1 loss in his first outing as coach of the Super Eagles. The presence of Feyenoord’s standout striker Cyriel Dessers, who was playing in his first starting XI role, helped as he scored Nigeria’s only goal only for the Eagles to be undone be a William Troost-Ekong’s own-goal in the 56th minute, which proved decisive for the final score.
What was the consensus in the reviews of the game post-match was that the Super Eagles began slowing and only grew into the game with time in the flexible 3-5-2 formation that the Portuguese deployed in the first half. The formation played into the tactics of the Mexicans, who were able to take control of the movement in the middle of the park, take the bite out of the Nigerian attacking duo of Dessers and Terem Moffi while creating scoring chances on the counter. A change to four at the back and four in midfield made for more fluid play and after having no shots on target in the first half, the Super Eagles were able to equalise through Dessers.
In his own assessment of the performance, Peseiro was candid. He said: “We cannot hide it; we played a very bad first half. We had five players in defence, and they had two players playing forward and the two players controlled the five. They were pressing and we did not solve it. We cannot have that. We decided that if the two was controlling the three, then we have to make it a four and have more control in midfield. And it helped us take control of the game because as a coach, my philosophy is that I like control, to control the game.”
Peseiro was positive as well. He said: “I am not happy that we lost but I’m happy with the performance of my players because they showed character especially after what Mexico did in the first half. I think in the second half there was improvement.” This poor start to a game, which could have been put down to the team starting to learn the ways of a new manager, was again a bother when Peseiro took charge of his second game, against Ecuador on Friday, June 3 at the 25,000-seat Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, United States. Pervis Estupián’s third minute goal was enough for Ecuador to beat Nigeria. The team maintained the 4-4-2 formation that helped the team in the second half of the Mexico tie but the late progress was again noticeable even though the team performance improved. Peseiro was insistent on his mantra of ball control in analysing how the team fared in his second game while not failing to mention the limited training sessions they have had together: “Against Mexico, we trained two times; for some players, it was once. The reason for the improvement is we have now trained four times, so we had to improve.” The Portuguese manager had one week to get training minutes up and the improvements sychronised in time for the first TotalEnergies 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers opening tie against Sierra Leone.
When the team filed out against the Leone Stars on the poor quality of the surface of the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja on Thursday, June 9, more of the starting XI of the Super Eagles squad were back in the lineup apart from the injured duo of midfield impresario Wilfred Ndidi and Watford’s Dennis. Peseiro appeared to have settled for the 4-4-2 formation and employed it again to etch out the 2-1 victory for Nigeria. However, it was not smooth sailing as not only were the Eagles behind with another early goal for the third straight match, they were in danger of conceding more but for the reflexes of Francis Uzoho, in goal, and the upright, which stopped the ball from nestling inside the Nigerian net. But, referee Ibrahim Traore could have also given Nigeria a penalty if he did not ignore John Kamara’s handling of the ball in the Sierra Leonean box. In typical form under Peseiro, the Super Eagles grew into the game as Alex Iwobi and Victor Osimhen, in the 16th and 41st minutes, gave Nigeria the goals necessary to take all points in the tie.
Apart from a muted performance by Umar Sadiq, who partnered Osimhen in attack, Peseiro’s decision to use Iwobi and Sam Chukwueze on the flanks to progress with Ola Aina and Calvin Bassey supplying in the build-up from behind worked for the squad with Moses Simon doing a proper support job of the strikers. William Troost-Ekong was initially poor in marking out the rampaging Sierra Leone forwards but he improved with the team as time progressed. The 58% ball possession and 15 total shots, with four on target, were indications of the team’s slow but consoling progress. Yet, Sierra Leone are ranked 108 in the world compared to Nigeria’s ranking of 30. The gap in that ranking did not accurately translate to the performance and indicate that the coach will have a lot more work to do in getting the talented players at his disposal work as a well-oiled machine in cohesion and as a team while he stamps his style of football on the squad.
What positives there are to give football fans in the country the confidence to renew their faith in the team revolve around what is becoming clear as the overall positive mindset of the coach. Post-match comments attributed to Peseiro after these games provide an inkling into the mentality of the man and have been encouragingly upbeat. He had cause to call out a refereeing decision in the game against Ecuador but admitted that mistakes happen saying: “No VAR but in the start of the show, there was a clear penalty.
The goalkeeper touched the foot of our striker. I don’t know but I was told we had another penalty also, but the referee didn’t give it to us. But it is okay, anybody can commit mistakes. Even the players can make mistakes also.” Also, when queried why he had no defensive midfielder against Sierra Leone before the match, he demonstrated the confidence of his selection: “I can play any player, I make the final decision. If I ask you to give me your XI, it will be different from others.I believe in my players, it’s my responsibility to select the players according to our plans.”
Peseiro can heave a sigh of relief now that he has his first win under his belt but not for too long. On Monday, June 13, Sao Tome and Principe will welcome the Super Eagles to the Stade Adrar in Agadir for a Group A matchday two fixture.
In their first AFCON 2023 qualifier, the Sao Tomeans were drubbed 5-1 by Guinea Bissau and the former will be out to make a point of the qualifiers. Still, it is a very winnable game for Nigeria and one that will show more of how Peseiro is making a difference in the way the Super Eagles play.
So far, it is still too early to say give the Portuguese a scorecard as even some of the best managers in the world need time to impress their style of play on their sides. If there is a summation of how Peseiro has fared so far, his words themselves say it all. “We created a lot of scoring chances, we could have won with a bigger margin, but the team needs more time and we must work.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
