By Ali Elias
Anyone who has football eyes would have observed right from the start of the Super Eagles game at the AFCON 2023 edition just concluded, that Peseiro was a copycat of Jose Mourinho’s style. It has no flare, no inspiration, no fluidity, not attack minded, but rely extensively on choking the defense. Such tactics doesn’t produce goals. Any wonder Victor Osimhen could not score goals because nothing was coming from the midfield to him save occasional break out from the wings, especially with Moses Simon and Ola Aina. Osimhen even had to go back sometimes to join the midfield. How can he be composed to score goals with that setup?
Peseiro’s adopted tactics is totally wrong. He lacked flexibility.
You do not invite a war to be fought in your backyard, in your territory, and not expect to have the greater casualties and destruction. You would have observed this from what is happening in Gaza in the ongoing Israel-Palestine war, the Ukraine-Russian war, and elsewhere. The United States of America, or any defense minded nation, that fully understands the dynamics of war would never allow it to be fought against an enemy country on its own ground or territory. Remember the famous age long saying that ‘the best form of defense is attack?
So why was Peseiro regaling in the hype of having a rock solid defensive strategy?
Each time we watched the team play, I prefer watching football match in the midst of others, the recurrent angry comments of those I was watching the game with was always “Why are they allowing the game to be played in their own half? Followed by “Take the game to them”. Yes, take the game to them; but that never happened all through. Poor boys! It was always at our own half.
But the players were not to blame; they were playing to the coach’s instructions. Under that kind of style you have to exert the highest amount of effort and strength to make progress; and that’s what happened with the team. Each player gave the highest of his ability to get us to where we got. Individual strength and skill brought to bear on the game, not the technical skill of the coach gave us the result we obtained.
“Even if we had won, let Peseiro go”, commented Mr Godwin Enakhena, during his sports programme, Sports Splash, on LTV (Lagos Television).
Bovi Ugboma, aka Bovi, the Nigerian ace comedian also put the blame of Nigeria’s loss on Peseiro’s tactics. “Blame the coach. We are a footballing nation of flare, fluidity through passes, dribbles, attack, not all out defense. Even if we had won I will still be pissed. The style was evidently alien to the players” he writes on his X (Twitter) handle.
In the same manner Kenneth Omeruo, one of the senior members of the team shares the same view. According to him the tactics of the coaching crew cost them the gain, adding that the Eagles’ defensive strategy and the failure to create impactful offensive plays were factors is in their loss. That’s an insider view.
Is Peseiro really a coach or a coach by proxy? Further, should Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) continue to pretend to be blind or deaf to all that have been experienced, seen and said about this coach?
Observing his all out defensive tactics at the AFCON he became suspect. knowing his relationship with Jose Mourinho. I kept asking myself, “Could it be he is calling Mourinho and getting his advice on what tactics to adopt? Could it be because he was winning, I mean managing to win, that he is continuing with the same tactics, unchanged? Who does that, except bad and unintelligent copycats? Such a person should have known that in a big competition like AFCON or World cup, other teams are watching and assessing each other’s strategy and devising ways to come round it. To keep to a strategy all through is therefore an invitation to be overrun and conquered.
There is nothing wrong in calling another coach for advice. It is a hallmark of humility; exercised even in other areas of leadership. What is obviously wrong with this kind of “copycatting” is that Mourinho, or any other coach, will not be there with you, the copycat, to see the players in training and assess them to know who to choose and what position to play them. Nor would he be there to assess the opponent and know how to counter each player and the team as a whole. Even at that, the special One’s tactics of all out defense is no longer yielding the desired results. Any wonder why he (Mourinho) is being sacked left and right of recent by clubsides?
The reactions as regards his choice of players at start the final game against Ivory Coast were instantaneous “where is Simon? Why Chukwueze? Iwobi again? More comments came as the game got off ground “oh the same tactics again”, why not take the game to them (offensive)? Why didn’t he play Terem Mofi instead of onyeka? “See? and “Why? punctuated the game at my viewing place until Troost Ekong headed in that opening goal. However, the relief was short lived as Ivory Coast struck twice before you know it, sending everybody back into the not-so-cheerful mood.
I agreed with all the “Whys” about the coach’s capacity. Even looking at our players as they came into the pitch before the start of the final game, it was as if they were all drained of energy or there’s something amiss or discouraging to them.
To me, the players gave their best; their capacity as a team and as individuals is not in doubt, including that of Alex Iwobi, but they have been exhausted by the defensive, instead of the attack, tactics of the coach.
Finally, to restate my stand, which aligns with so many people, even if we had won Peseiro should go. The spirit of the boys got us that far, not Jose Peseiro’s coaching prowess.