The coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro has revealed the reason why his team played in a formation that is more defensive at the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Peseiro used the 4-4-2 formation in all of the games he handled the team prior to the tournament, but at the tournament where they went all the way to the final before losing 1-2 to the host, the team played in two formations which was 4-3-3 in the opening game and 3-4-3 for the rest of their games.
It drew lots of criticisms from the ever demanding football loving populace of Nigeria, with many saying the approach didn’t make proper use of the avalanche of talented forwards available to the coach at the tournament.
One of those who was very critical of the approach is former Super Eagles midfielder Seyi Olofinjana, who said despite the team progressing to the final, the formation they used isn’t one that Nigeria is known for.
” But is that what the team want to play at the world cup or after the AFCON, I think that is not our style of football, I have been a member of the national team from under 17 to super eagles I can tell for a fact that the team won’t adapt to that style of football and I think that is not what we want for the country”, the midfielder who had 55 caps for Nigeria said.
Peseiro defended the reason behind the switch in formation in an interview with GoalFrance monitored by our editorial team, he cited the need to be more assured and secured in defence as the main key behind the switch of formation.
“ In our preparation for this tournament, I chose a different way to play. With my staff, we realized that we were playing offensively in our 4-4-2 system, that we were creating a lot of chances but that we were conceding avoidable goals on semi-chances. I felt that our team needed more solidity. More confidence in our defensive work and our organization”, he explained.
’So I chose differently. We opted for 4-3-3 and 3-4-3 systems. We started working on these two diagrams in Abu Dhabi during our internship. And the guys very quickly understood what we wanted to do”, he stated further.
“From the first match against Equatorial Guinea, even if we didn’t win, it bore fruit. They put into practice what we had worked on. Everyone got into tune, following the offensive and defensive instructions to the letter. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to work on the offensive aspect a little more. Defensively, there was nothing to say. The guys understood everything well”.
He however admitted that the formation failed to work in the 1-2 defeat to the host largely due to the pressure of the game which led to two costly errors.
”We were perfect until the final, where unfortunately two mistakes cost us dearly. And once again, I put it down to pressure. In 3-4-3, we played very well and it was best suited to our team. With wingers who help our attackers, and a 3-man defense which maintains our balance. And I told them that this system will allow us not to concede too many goals and to score one.
“This is what we did in the final at the start, by scoring first. It was very hard to create chances against us. But once again, offensively, we weren’t 100% of what we could do. I would say only 70%. We would have needed a little more time to be completely up to speed with this plan”, he concluded.
