Walter Townsend asks if Nigeria are truly worthy of being FIFA's top ranked team in Africa after the defeat to the Ivory Coast on Monday...
Yesterday's disappointing defeat to the Ivory Coast in Nigeria's opening game in Group B underlined several of Nigeria's deficiencies, most notably their inability to supply any worthwhile service to their frontline. What's more, defeat now leaves them requiring a win against Mali if they are to retain hopes of keeping qualification in their own hands.
Nigeria came into the tournament as one of the favourites for the title. The 23 man squad that German coach Berti Vogts announced certainly indicated that Nigeria were planning to go for the win, with 8 strikers named in the selection.
With bold pre-tournament claims of turning Nigeria into the "Germany of Africa", Vogts has indeed kept to his word. Unfortunately from Nigeria's perspective, though, Vogts appears to have modelled the side on the German side of 1998. That year, under his management, they crashed out in the quarter finals of the World Cup, having been thrashed by Croatia - it was widely considered to be one of the worst German national sides ever.
The performance against the Ivory Coast was slammed in local media, with the Times of Nigeria describing the defeat as "humiliating" and the team as "listless". But Vogts, the former Scotland manager, preferred to concentrate on lavishing praise on their opponents claiming that his men "have lost against the best team in Africa".
The main area of weakness highlighted in that defeat was the service to the strikers. Whilst the match between Africa's highest ranked side in the FIFA rankings and arguably the strongest team in the competition, was always going to be a tense affair with little to choose between the two teams, the initiative was always with the Ivory Coast.
With 4 strikers on the pitch from the outset Nigeria were armed to the teeth with forwards; Yakubu and Martins started up front whilst Kanu and Utaka started from behind the front-line. The underlying principle behind the formation was to use Kanu as a withdrawn forward playing between midfield and attack, using him as a focal point, exploiting his ability on the ball plus intelligence to pick his moments to get ahead of his strikers.
Unfortunately from the Super Eagle's point of view, it didn't work out that way as Kanu was marked out of the game by Didier Zokora for the Ivory Coast, and both Martins and Yakubu struggled to make any sort of impact on the game. With 4 strikers on the pitch to begin with, a large gap quickly developed between the defence and attack as both sides sat back in the early stages, understandably keen not to let the first goal in.
Enforced changes in the second half had little effect as Kanu limped off after an hour and was replaced by FC Zurich based midfielder Okonkwo. The three remaining strikers being used in a more orthodox 4-3-3 formation helped little as the Ivorians retained their dominance in midfield.
Furthermore the switch to 4-3-3 meant that Martins was obliged to move wider to accommodate the arrival of Utaka in the frontline, a position he doesn't relish either in the colours of Nigeria or Newcastle. Other personnel changes in the second half saw Lokomotiv Moscow striker Odemwinge come on for Utaka and Lazio forward Steve Makinwa come on for Martins. But even the new arrivals couldn't affect the flow of the game as no service was forthcoming.
The 23 man squad Nigeria doesn't possess any player who can assume the role of Jay-Jay Okacha, the former Bolton Wanderers and PSG midfielder who has since retired from international football. Later in the match Chelsea midfielder Jon Obi Mikel was asked to push further forward and try and play a few passes through in homage to Jay-Jay, but this isn't Mikel's natural game. He is a midfielder who brings hard-work and tackling to the midfield, not clever passing.
Of the 8 forwards called into the team, only Kanu and Odemwinge have any experience of playing in a withdrawn role. How Nigeria must have envied the Ivory Coast after they made changes at half-time to give them a better shape. With Lyon's record signing Kader Keita coming on down the right side to introduce some extra width, and Bakary Kone, the Nice midfielder, slotting into the whole, the Ivory Coast are much better equipped to change tactics.
With so many good strikers available Nigeria still have plenty of fire power within the team, but finding a player capable of providing the service must be high on the list of priorities. Using Odemwingwe as a winger may be a possibility; he has played as a left winger in the past for Lille prior to his move to Russia, although that would still leave an imbalance on the right. Another option would be to switch to 5-3-2 with Taiwo - who looked good on the run - and Apam given more licence to get forward from wing-back positions.
Whatever formation Vogts decides to play with, raising the morale of the team will be critical to Nigeria's further progress. The Super Eagles looked devoid of ideas in the second half against the Ivory Coast as self-belief visibly drained away.
A victory against Mali will keep qualification in Nigeria's own hands whilst a draw would leave Nigeria needing the Ivory Coast to beat Mali in the final game of the group and Nigeria needing to beat Benin by more than 1 goal.
With Vogts being told that only ultimate victory in this edition of the tournament will keep him in the hotseat, unless a rapid solution to Nigeria's service problems is found the German may be back on the job market sooner than he wishes.
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