As many as five players of the senior national team of Nigeria have expressed their joy at the appointment of Austine Eguavoen to handle the World Cup qualifiers playoff game against Ghana.
Satisfied with how the coach handled the entire team during the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), the players however want the coach to adjust some areas ahead of the game against Ghana in March.
One of the players said he need to basically be more firm in dealing with external influence as during the AFCON, unauthorised staff were allowed access into the team’s private area particularly board members of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
” They were too many around the team. In the bus, hotel and even training. That wasn’t the case before now. He need to draw a line on where they are allowed to be at. Gernot Rohr was very firm in that regard”, he said.
Another player said the coach need to have faith in his players and turn deaf towards what anyone has to say citing the issue of not starting Sadiq Umar against Tunisia as one case, where public opinion proved costly.
” To me he has to show unwaivering faith in his players regardless of what anyone is saying. Prior to the Tunisia game he had plans of starting Sadiq because he believe he can trouble them with his size and physical approach. The pressure from public opinion made him start Taiwo Awoniyi. He need to make decisions and stand by it”, he concluded.
On tactics, one of the player said they most times approach games with the mindset of how they want to play not minding what their opponents come up with. It proved costly against Tunisia.
” If we had approached the Tunisian game differently maybe the result would have been different. They did a good job on curtailing us but we didn’t know how to properly punish them until the second half of the game then the red card. We didn’t set up to expose their weakness”, he stated.
