Nigeria may struggle for creativity in midfield
Nigeria's possible line-up
Nigeria have traditionally been the strongest African nation, at least in terms of the quality of players they’ve produced. The likes of Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon and Egypt have shown quality at points throughout the past two decades, but Nigeria has produced a stream of genuinely top-class players.
Off-the-field problems have undermined their chances of performing well at this tournament, however. Shaibu Amodu was sacked for the fourth time (yes, the fourth time) as Nigeria manager after the Africa Cup of Nations, despite having lead this team to the World Cup. He’ll doubtless get a fifth chance one day, but for now team selection is down to World Cup regular Lars Lagerback.
There are many differences between Scandinavian football to African football, but both are based around fairly rigid, structured formations, and in that sense Lagerback may fit in quite well, although how much opportunity he has to impose his playing style on the side with so little games before the World Cup is questionable.
He hasn’t broken the side up too much from the one that came third at the Africa Cup of Nations, though he has been hindered by the Chelsea injury curse, as Jon Obi Mikel has been ruled out. Mikel is a better footballer than many give him credit for, and in a Nigeria side short of technical quality in midfield, he is a big miss.
Lagerback may be forced to slightly re-jig his side, and the most likely shape looks to be a standard 4-3-3. He has the most options in the final third, where he’s able to leave out players of the quality of Obafemi Martins, John Utaka and possibly even Chinedu Obasi – all good footballers who would get into most other African sides.
Instead, Yakubu will be his poacher upfront, possibly supported from either side by Victor Obinna and Peter Odemwingie – so that’s two very direct, pacey forwards supporting a relatively immobile central striker, which has all the makings of a forward trio that won’t play particularly cohesively.
In Mikel’s absence, the midfield will be based around Dickson Etuhu, who will perform a similar job to the one he does with Fulham – sitting in front of his defence and leaving the creativity to others. That’s a tough ask of Sani Kaita and Lukman Haruna, neither of whom are naturally inclined to try and provide key passes. 19-year-old Haruna scored against Colombia last week and has come from nowhere to be in with the chance of starting – he provides more of an attacking threat than Kaita, who sits deeper on the left of midfield.
This makes sense considering the tendencies of the full-backs – Taye Taiwo of Marseille bombs forward from left-back and offers an attacking presence (and a fearsome long-range shot) whilst Chidi Odiah, the replacement for the injured Yusuf Mohamed, may play a more low-key role, although he does like to get forward for his club side CSKA Moscow. In the centre, Danny Shittu and Joseph Yobo form a physically strong partnership.
Conclusion
They have strikers to get on the end of chances, but will those chances be created in the first place? Nigeria, like almost every African side in this competition, lack a real playmaker and could struggle for that reason.
They might still be the best chance Africa has of a side progressing when you consider their group – Greece and South Korea are possibly superior teams, Argentina certainly are, but Nigeria have certainly got a more favourable draw than the other African sides.
Nigeria will look to physically overpower opponents, which may work against South Korea but will be tougher against Greece, where Lagerback may have to change his system.
Nigeria may struggle for creativity in midfield
Nigeria’s key player and main creative source has been Peter Odemwingie for quite a while now. Obi Mikel was supposed to be the actual playmaker in recent years, but after Chelsea flogged every bit of creativity out of him and turned him into the undisputed king of square and back passes that didn’t happen.
The Super Eagles will still miss Obi, but primarily because of his physical presence and ability to shield the ball, not his passing.
As for Lukman Haruna, he has been touted the next big thing out of Nigeria for several years now. Unfortunately he failed to live up to expectations so far. Maybe this tournament will see his breakthrough ?
Sorry that I can’t add anything really constructive to this article, but thought I’d pop in my 5 cents in defence of Obi Mikel.
I think it’s extremely harsh to refer to him simply as the king of backwards/sideways passes. I think apart from a fantastic engine he has what seperates the Makelele’s from the plodders – the ability to read the game well, be in the right place at the right time, and the ability to tackle with a surgical precision.
you’ve been busy lately! thanks for all the articles – has been a great way to get to know a bit more about the lesser-known teams
Not so sure about John “80 grand a week (supposedly)” Utaka and “quality” in the same sentence!
He’s not bad, certainly not worth 80 grand a week though…
Thnk heh’s better than his Premiership displays would indicate.
Why did the author not state his/her identity. Must be a crack smoking Nigerian. Nigerian will go home without a point in SA.
Good article. My worry is that against Argentina, this 4-3-3 might fail simply because Obinna and Odemwingie wont provide proper cover at the flanks, and if Haruna and Kaita cover, it might open penetrable spaces in the middle through which messi could run, run, and run, and score!
If Nigeria doesnt have good enough midfield players, why doesnt Lagerbäck change to a 4-4-2, so that he would get more quality players on the field?
The three friendly matches that Nigeria played especially the colombia and north korea games, Lagerback used the 4-4-2 formation with Nsofor on the left flank and yakubu and osaze as the main strikers. but osaze played more as a support striker. Kaita was sligthly to the right of the midfield. Creativity came mainly from haruna.
I suspect that this is the formation that lagerback will use against argentina.
Mikel is a big miss, but Nigeria will survive.
From the analysis of the African teams it seems the 2 positions where they are sought the most by European clubs is as forwards and Defensive Midfielders. All the African teams present seem to lack a creative attacking mid.
That’s not entirely true. Kwadwo Asamoah and Kevin Prince Boateng as two of the likely starters for Ghana are creative midfielders. Cameroon and Nigeria are probably the two main victims of the Papa-Bouba-Diop-bias though and while Lukman Haruna has showed some sparks lately the Super Eagle’s main creative force has been Peter Odemwingie, ironically a player who learned his trade in Russia.
The North Africans are generally not subject to the bias and have a few creative players in Ziani and Abdessadki for example. Their team is somewhat lacking in quality overall though and I don’t expect these guys to stand out at the World Cup. The Ivorians have Gervinho, although most people would probably call him an outright attacker rather than a midfielder. It’s hard to tell where Ivorian football is heading in this regard, as the Elephants’ successes have usually been flukes in the past. Given the extreme importance of Drogba on and off the pitch especially I wouldn’t be surprised to see them disappear for a while again.
I completely forgot South Africa. With Pienaar, Modise and Tshabalala the attacking midfield is arguably the strongest area of their team. Klate as one of the best offensive minded midfielders isn’t even on the squad.
The difference to Cameroon and Nigeria is that South Africa has a strong domestic league, both in regards to the level of play as well as finances. Note that three of the four players mentioned still ply their trade in South Africa. Modise as the side’s most skillful player and arguably the most popular current International amoungst South Africans would never have made the cut in Europe and the same probably goes for Klate.
Dikgacoi of all people has made it to the Premier League though, go figure.
looks like the games against south korea nad greece are going to be really tight. having an explosive player like martins to call upon from the bench could make all the difference – greece and the koreans don’t have such an option. i think martins might get one or two key goals late on to take nigeria through as the only african team to make the last 16.
creative midfielders from Africa are quickly converted to holding midfielders in Europe.
As a Monaco fan, I would like to tell you a little about the youngster Lukman Haruna .
As ZM stated it, he will have to play a key role in the midfield, since he is the only midfielder able to support the forwards and create something dangerous. In the absence of Obi Mikel, he sould be the real playmaker of the team.
In Monaco, he has been playing regularly for only 6 months. Despite being a box-to-box midfielder that could be compared to Yaya Touré in style and ability, he first played as a classic No. 10 in a 4-2-3-1. He needed a little time to adapt to this new role, but finally became a major player in the team, providing good passes, energic runs with the ball and long-range shots to the goal (he scored 4 goals from out of the box in half a season).
At the end of the season, he played in his natural position, as a box-to-box midfielder, and often was maybe the best player on the pitch.
His qualities are obvious, he’s gifted of a very good technique and plus, has very good physical abilities, being powerful, quite pacey, strenghtful and has got great stamina. The combination of all these qualities is quite rare and makes him a very useful player.
I think he’s one of the most promising players in the French League and I wouldn’t be surprised if one day, he played in a top-class European club. Despite he’s very young (officially 19) and this tournament may come a little soon for him, I believe he’s going to be one of the young stars of the World Cup.
Elsewhere, Kaita also belongs to AS Monaco. At his arrival in 2008, he played only a few games and showed very little. Since that, he has been playing on loan for 3 Russian clubs and it seems like he convinced. However, he’s a basic holding midfielder and I don’t think he could assume a real offensive role.
@Gallarno, good point about haruna.
You’re welcome !
I guess you’re Nigerian, how did he play in the games against Saudi Arabia, Colombia & North Korea ?
And how was the whole team ?
Haruna was nervous in the first game(maybe because mikel was still going come back into the team).
The last two game he played well, especially the match against Colombia , he was superb.
The whole team as a unit seems to be improving.
The first match against the Saudis that ended goalless. The Nigerian team did not play well at all. The team was out of shape and uncoordinated, the passing was bad. Haruna had a nervous start but he inclusion into the team changed the pattern of play despite this. He settled down by the second half and showed some promising touches on the ball.
By the 2nd match, Lagerback seemed to have imposed some discipline on the team and they looked a lot more coordinated in their passing. Such was the improvement that they did not seem to loose their shape even though they were a goal down to the Colombians . Haruna became the midfield general all the link play was through him. He eventually went on to equalize for Nigeria with a pile driver from 25yards out.
The North Korean game was dominated by Nigeria who the created most of the chances had most of the possession even the goal that North Korea scored was as a result of a defensive blunder. The left back made a square back pass straight at Korean attacker. The passing was good and creative offensive play had Haruna at its heart. He feed balls to the strikers all match long. The build up to the first goal in particular had him prodding at the Korean defence before finding space with Yakubu..
Superb, ZM! You have now completed the 32 analysis. I can’t think, as a rather football ignorant, of a better introduction to the WC. Thank you, so much!
Writing from Sweden, I am of course pretty interested in how the The Eagles will perform. Haven’t seen but a few minutes of their preparatory matches so I couldn’t figure out how Lagerbäck planted the team on the field. I was a little surprised reading in the article the suggestion that he might play a 4-3-3 and was not surprised at all when reading further down what Nkem writes on Lagerbäck using a 4-4-2 in all three friendly bouts. This is exactly what I would expect of our former coach, irrespectively of the material he may have on the pitch or the bench.
Lars Lagerbäck football’s principles were marked indelibly by Bob Houghton and Roy Hodgson’s tenures as club coaches in Sweden. This also applies to his buddy and second in command Roland Andersson. The system (4-4-2, flat and high-playing line of defenders, off-side trap, zonal marking) never changes, from a small club in northern Sweden’s regional league to the national team with record (for Sweden) consecutive appearances in World and European Cups. Well, the system did changed to 3-5-2 during 3 or 4 games in the latest WC eliminatory round, with disastrous results. So, back to 4-4-2 which is the formation most likely to be played by Nigeria in South Africa.
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