After the disappointing and toothless performance of the Super Eagles against Croatia, one would wonder if there is any hope left for this team in this world cup. A tactical look into the organisation and pattern of play of our next group opponent Iceland, it will become difficult to see a light at the end of this dark tunnel we have found ourselves.

Truth be told, our team may be a young team but it has the potential to cause major upset at this very tourney but our major problems (especially from the coach) has been selection and tactical use of players in their most effective position. This has been the plague of the team but only few teams have taken advantage of this fact.

I will still reiterate that a 3-5-2 formation best suit this team especially against a defensive oriented Icelandic team. Uzoho should definitely keep his in goal with the cover of a back three of Omeruo, Balogun and Ogu.

For the midfield, Mikel and Ndidi in the middle while Ebuehi and Victor Moses run things on the flanks. Place Iwobi in the AMC role just behind Etebo and Iheanacho. The good thing about these three forwards is that they can easily swap roles to unsettle the Icelandic defense. Simy and Musa will come in as handy replacement for that forward line

With a setup as this, it is expected that Ndidi breaks up play while Mikel does the ball distribution and playmaking from a deeper role. Going forward, Ebuehi and Moses will provide width for the team with Ebuehi delivering more of cutbacks than crosses while Moses can occasionally cut in from the left to destabilize the opponent’s defense with his classy dribbles.

After all said and done, it is left for the coach to bring out the best in each of these players. They can still make it out of the group if everyone puts their heads down and play for the team. If at the end of the day we don’t qualify from the group, we can take solace in the fact that this young team has the potential of doing great things and the young ones in the team can still play with a calm head even at the biggest stage like they did against Croatia.

King Divine

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