Ahead of Nigeria’s all important World Cup 2018 qualifiers against Algeria later today, coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has given a big hint on how his team intends to approach the game.
Rohr confessed that his team has problems in the right full back position and will need offensive players to do a job for whoever gets the nod to start at right back.
The German tactician was quick to point out that snuffing out the threat of Riyad Mahrez, who will most likely start on the left for Algeria will require Victor Moses, who plays as a wing back for Chelsea to put in a shift defensively even though he will be played further up the pitch.
He categorically stated that the Eagles defence will be set up in a similar way to that of Chelsea, but lamented the lack of time and players to properly execute the plan.
“We have been trying some different systems in training this week.
“We have a problem in the right back position. The reason for this is because our right back when we played against Tanzania (in Uyo on September 3) has not been playing regularly at his club” Rohr said.
“So it is difficult but we have been trying to find another right back and that was Tyrone (Ebuehi) but he chose not to come at the last moment.
“So for this game against Algeria, we have another solution or the same solution (as we did for the last game against Zambia) because Ndidi was not so bad (in Ndola).
“We know that he will likely be coming up against Mahrez who is a very good player, We must be strong on the wings and defensively too.
“(Victor) Moses plays on the right (for Chelsea), not as a defender but mostly from a midfield position.
“He defends when they lose the ball and attacks when they have the ball so we have to do a lot of work on the right side.
“We will try to play like Chelsea (in this regard) on Saturday but they usually have three defenders but we have two in that position.
“The major challenge we have had is that the time is too short to perfect these things.
“We have played two games together (against Tanzania and Zambia) and changing too much for the game against Algeria will be too much to ask,” he concluded .
