Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle has defended his starting lineup in the Super Eagles 2-0 win over Rwanda in the world cup qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
A brace from Victor Osimhen handed the Nigerian their first win in the qualifiers, putting them in good stead ahead of Tuesday’s game at home against Zimbabwe.
Chelle made some bold moves in his starting lineup with the duo of Bruno Onyemaechi and Victor Boniface who were ever present during the AFCON qualifiers dropping to the bench.
“Every player in the team can play, we need to work together and achieve the goal of qualifying for the World Cup. We have great players. Today, the team was good, my job is to make the decisions, decide on the system and personality”, he explained.
The coach started with a 4-3-2-1 diamond formation before switching to 4-3-3 in the second half as they sought to have more dominance and also keep the ball. Chelle said they trained in both ways in the buildup to the game.
*It is my joy to set up the system, we tried two different systems in the team. We need to improve, it is the first game and we are going back to work for the second game.”
“It was a difficult game, Rwanda has a great team. I am proud of my players performance. We work a lot within the few days. We had just two full training sessions. We keep the ball in the second half, good performance from my guys (players)”.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
