By Fred Edoreh
It is part of the fun of football to see fans imagine that they know better than their team’s coach and want to dish instructions to him.
It is normal and I do that too sometimes, because it draws from our passion for sports, especially for our teams.
At the 2005 African Games in Brazzaville, our women Basketball team was up against Mali whose girls were displaying great dexterity, seemingly overpowering ours in the semi finals.
I remember standing by the terrace, above the position of Coach Adewunmi Aderemi, “Owolo,” and dishing out instructions to him in frenzy to substitute this or that player.
I was mad but I didn’t reckon that he knew his players better than me and that I was distracting him. As I kept shouting, he would simply turn his head to me with a signal to calm down.
I didn’t calm down. In fact, I almost jumped down to the technical bench to take over the coaching, but he managed both me and the situation to victory.
Similarly, it has been interesting to read different comments by Nigerian fans on the performance of the Super Eagles at the ongoing AFCON and how they think the team should have played or should play.
Despite a draw with Equitorial Guinea that has shown great formidability to eventually trounce hosts Cote d’Ivoire 4-0, some persons are dissatisfied that we only managed to defeat the hosts 1-0, and that we played defensively.
They disregard the fact that we won two and drew one of the three group matches and have progressed to the second round.
Truth is, there is no one approach to football. Taking each game at a time, any approach or tactics will depend on the SWOT analysis of your team vis-a-vis your assessment of the opponent.
That will dictate if you are to emphasize defensive or outright attacking play.
Like in any war situation, two things are cardinal: first is to defend, so that you don’t get killed or concede goals. Next is to attack, so that you can kill or score goals.
It can be foolhardy to go on outright attack at the expense of your defence. While defending, you must develop a plan for counter attack and while attacking you must develop capacity for return to defend. Therein is the need for the delicate balance of tactics.
Both defending and attacking approach can be good, bad and tricky, all depending on the opponent you are up against and within the proceedings of a game. As we say in Warri, “anyhow waka dey tear cloth.” This indicates the need for caution and variations in the proceedings.
Thus, we need to cut Peseiro some slack. Seven points of possible nine points from the group games is not bad. Not to forget that at the last AFCON in Cameroon, we won all group games with nine points but got bundled out in the next round.
Sure, there can be improvements in our play. Sure, there need to be, but we must not pressure the team to act outside their plan and capacity.
Even with the presumed top teams in the world, football remains unpredictable.
Osimhen may not have displayed according to his rating but each day, each stage, each game will come with a difference.
The players have been selected. The competition is on. What is to be added is the support of the fans, at home and in Cote d’Ivoire.