Nigeria: Oliseh must adapt to overcome Swazi challenge

Last month's win over Cameroon ensured the critics sheathed their swords, now the new coach must seek a different motivation, as well as different tactics, to trump Sihlangu Sem...

COMMENT    By Praise Emmanuel Follow on facebook@emmeykeys praise

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The significance of Nigeria’s last international – a 3-0 result against arch-nemesis Cameroon – is purely a matter of subjectivity. This is a theme that is hard to dispense with where Sunday Oliseh is concerned: faith cannot be wholly reconciled to rationality, and we all see what we want to.

The scoreline was great, and the performance was much improved, but these were innately riddled with caveats: Cameroon played almost all of the second period with 10 men, and Volker Finke had the five-time African champions listing in the middle of nowhere by the end. Still, you can only beat what’s in front of you, and if for nothing else, the win at least gives the sceptics something to work with.

For the first time since his appointment as Super Eagles boss, Oliseh will go into an international window on the back of overwhelming positivity. This is as much a good thing as it is a bad one: while he gets breathing space, he also loses the chip on the shoulder that seems to fuel modern football management; the constant need to motivate a group of lavishly remunerated professional footballers by appealing to an artificial sense of injustice.

Can Oliseh build on the triumph over Cameroon?

Without it often comes a lapse into complacency, and this is precisely what adds an element of the unknown to a two-legged play-off against Swaziland. That, and the fact the small, landlocked Southern African side have absolutely nothing to lose in this context. The system of qualification for the 2018 World Cup makes the prospect of a surprise qualifier, a la Senegal in 2002 and Angola in 2006, a very remote possibility—Sihlangu Semnikati are well aware of this, and will be content to play the spoilers.

This is the sort of fixture Nigeria has always specialised in winning; five years ago, one might have rightly predicted a cricket score, with the likes of Obinna Nsofor and Ikechukwu Uche at the peak of their powers. The times are a lot leaner now. Ahmed Musa and Moses Simon carry the bulk of this team’s menace, and should have the considerable frame of Odion Ighalo ahead of them. For one so clearly deserving, it is somewhat disappointing that the Watford man essentially wins by default, following the selfless, sacrificial retirement of Emmanuel Emenike.

Having looked sharp from the bench on a number of occasions, he will be keen to prove he can deliver from the start in Nigeria colours. There is a sense that he does not quite have Oliseh’s trust, that the coach’s conception lends itself to a brawnier striker up top. It will be interesting to see who adapts to the other: Odion Ighalo likes to get involved in the play and pick up the ball from deeper areas, while the coach wants a threat in-behind.

For Oliseh’s will to be done, there is of course a bit of work still to do in midfield. Runs serve either as decoys, opening up space, or as a means of incision, yet the Super Eagles still lack both goalscoring threat from the centre of the park and a creator to knit it all together; they might struggle up against a well-organised deep block, who will have no qualms with having the play in front of them. (In Kelechi Iheanacho, the team does possess an incisive passer who is unlikely to start; it would certainly be interesting to see what Oliseh does around the hour mark if the tie remains in the balance.)

Will Kelechi Iheanacho make his debut from the bench on Friday?

John Obi Mikel remains a conductor within this set-up, at his best keeping the ball circulation fluid and setting the tempo for it, rather than cutting through opposing lines.

This might necessitate a tactical rethink, and is a good reason why the Cameroon result is to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Only the third goal, with the Indomitable Lions weary and decimated, came from precise build-up, and even then, the usually reticent Elderson Echiejile had the freedom of all of Brussels to saunter forward unmarked and clip the telling cross into the box and onto Ighalo’s head.

Swaziland are unlikely to be a threat in an attacking sense, and this is precisely why Friday’s appointment in Lobamba will ask more questions of Oliseh’s side than most imagine.