Former Coach of the flying eagles, Tunde Disu, on Tuesday 13th of June, has explained that the loss recorded on Saturday by the Nigerian Team is as a result of lack of adequate preparation on the side of the team. He noted that the number of friendly matches and winnings is not enough to tell how prepared a team is. Mr Disu submitted that Fitness must be married with sufficient balancing in player’s psyche and pitch tactics.
“It is sad that we lost to the Bafana Bafana of South Africa after they have bragged that they will beat us at home. It means that they have something in their sleeves and it brings to mind that the Eagles are not prepared for the game. Friendly match is good but not enough. The boys were not psychologically prepared to face the South Africans. Fitness is not enough for a match, there must also be psychological approach and tactically in-depth.”
Mr Disu revealed that the blame is on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for not fulfilling their part. He attributed the 2-0 loss as technical inefficiency on the part of the body. He accused the technical bench of relaying on assumptions, noting that one of their assignment is studying the pattern of play of opponents.
“After playing some couple of friendly matches, one must have thought that it would be a roller coaster but we still lost because of technical inefficiency on the part of NFF. The technical bench must have erroneously felt they knew South Africans but they did not. They should have ensured that they have the knowledge of how they play without assuming. The technical department must know the opposition and because we failed to know them we created a problem for ourselves. They should have spied on the South African team.”
Coming down to understand the situation of things in the country, with the knowledge of the ongoing recession, the former coach linked the deficiency arising from the technical unit to the underfunding of the unit. Recalling his strategies in his time, he disclosed how he used to travel to watch is opponents play in their homes before meeting with them on the pitch.
“The technical department has issues; they did not prepare well enough maybe they were short of funds. We should have watched our opponents play. That is what we did under Westerhof. During the Westerhof era, he always ensured that we watched our opponents and that is my job. I used to go to Cameroun to watch them either in Yaoundé or Doula.”
The former coach also identified the formation that which the match was based on as another error that needed review. He suggested that the team should have changed from the old 4-3-3 to 4-2-1-3 for an improved session.
Tunde Disu said: “Something should have been done to the formation of the team to make them more aggressive in front of goal because we have the players to prosecute that.” And, added that: “We (Nigeria) should have switched from 4-3-3 to 4-2-1-3 for effectiveness.”
