Poor, Dour and Uninspiring Nigeria

By Azeez Said  Poor, dour, uninspiring display. These are words that define the Super Eagles performance against Iran in their first group game yesterday.  The Super Eagles struggled to impose themselves, talk less of defeating an Iranian team that has been seen by some quarters as the underdog of the Group F. Even the 'Big Boss' - Keshi had defined the match before yesterday as a must win but I was surprised to see him embrace such an embarrassing tactics. He seemed to have gotten the formation spot on. With a 4-2-3-1 formation, Nigerians started believing after the disappointment in his final 23 man list had left Nigerians waiting for a miracle. But the way in which he set them out was wrong, lined up like they were set to play Brazil and Spain together. With the defenders and the keeper at their rightful place, he positioned two holding midfielders to protect the back line (please, for what) and the other three midfielders just positioned on the half way line with the striker farther forward in the opposition box.  This way, Nigeria were even defending in a match they were tipped as favorites and which was a must win to keep their hopes of going to the next round intact. Onazi and Mikel were instructed to sit back and not join in the attack, so we were playing with 6 defenders, gosh! Whenever the ball was even launched forward to Emenike, there was nobody he could give a knock down to cos the closest player was too far backwards. What could he have done better? I thought he could have released Mikel to join in the attack like a Yaya at Man city or Ramsey at Arsenal and Onazi sitting back and he could have also pushed his midfielders further forward to provide Emenike with support. This is not to say the tactics was the only thing wrong yesterday, with majority of the players also poor on the day. Moses in particular was poor all through and he was rightfully replaced early in the second half, he is rapidly turning into a 'Gervinho at Arsenal' but we have to pray he gets to his best form soon cos he is one of our best players. Azeez who was supposed to be assisting Emenike was playing like he was seeing him for the first time. Enyeama was is usual solid self and Osaze brought some spark when he came on but I am against any call for Osaze to start in the next match cos that would leave us with no game changer on the bench. Now, we are back to what we like doing best, calculating. But even the best mathematician knows that the party in Brazil could be over for Nigeria if they fail to beat Bosnia and Iran somehow gets maximum points against Argentina.