Brief thoughts on Poland vs Nigeria

While Gernot Rohr has not strayed too much in terms of his call-ups, he seems quite keen to experiment with the team’s shape.

For the second friendly in a row, he did something new. Against Argentina, he broke out a 3–4–1–2. Tonight against Poland, it was a 4–4–2.

How both sides lined up. With both Frankowshi and Kurzawa pushing up, the Super Eagles midfield was forced much deeper than was ideal.

Interestingly, one of the reasons given for playing with three central defenders back in November was that Argentina themselves would set up with a back three. It’s odd, then, that he did not do the same last night against Poland’s 3–4–3.

Unlike the Argentina game though, there was no 3 on 3 situation to worry about at the back. The Super Eagles had a spare man, and could have, in theory, applied pressure higher up. There was no clear pressing scheme however; surely a suitable plan would have been to try to force Poland onto one side (preferably toward the right, where Lukasz Piszczek was stationed). That way, compactness could be maintained and access to the ball would have been possible.

This would have made for a better pressing scheme. More compact through the middle, and better access to the ball.

Instead, both Ighalo and Iheanacho focused on cutting off passing lanes to Karol Linetty and Gregorz Krychowiak. However, this simply allowed Poland emphasize the benefits of a back three against two strikers: both wing-backs got very high and wide, pushing the Super Eagles midfield back and giving the central pair of Joel Obi and Wilfred Ndidi way too much ground to cover; the corollary was a high number of fouls conceded.

As such, balls straight into the feet of Robert Lewandowski were played quite regularly. In fairness, the pairing of William Troost-Ekong and Leon Balogun did very well tracking his movements: depending on what side he was on, one stuck tight, while the other covered. Still, it emphasized the lack of lateral compactness.

Another issue was the triple width dynamic inherently present in a system like the 3–4–3. This was particularly prevalent on Poland’s left, and led to the game’s first big opening, as well as a couple of others. The primary enabler (on that occasion) was Victor Moses’ ball-watching, but Abdullahi Shehu also displayed poor judgement on a number of occasions, getting sucked in narrow by Dawid Kownacki and letting Rafal Kurzawa burst forward on the overlap.

It is worth noting that this is the second straight game Shehu has had to face a back three system. He has excelled on neither occasion, either in defence or going forward. Uncertain of what to do in possession, or what runs to track, he seems best when he simply has one clear opponent to duel with.

THE POSITIVES

Well, the scoreline, obviously. Also, a great deal of grit and fight in midfield. Bar a few momentary lapses, the defence also largely remained focused and marshaled a world-class forward extremely well.

Francis Uzoho grew into the game in the second half, although I did not think he was terrible in the first anyway. What I saw was a nervous goalkeeper (it was his first start ever, and probably his first time in front of such a capacity crowd) whose confidence got progressively boosted as the game progressed.

Joel Obi put himself about, and showed glimpses of his overall ability. If he stays fit, there can be no keeping him out of the final squad, in my opinion.

THE VERDICT

The Super Eagles did not play well. The same problems that have been outlined here previously were in evidence: Ndidi’s lack of nous in possession makes it difficult to build from the back through the middle, and Kelechi Iheanacho continues to be neither fish now fowl. Here, he was too far away to help, and so there was no one for Joel Obi to progress the play toward. This is something Rohr needs to fix.

For a team that is essentially built on staying solid and picking its moments to break forward, the selection contained too many passengers: Iheanacho, aforementioned; and even Victor Moses, for much of the first hour.

Finally…

THE DIVE

Like I stated on Twitter, we are all hypocrites somewhat in this matter: no Nigerian would mind if a Victor Moses dive saw us break our World Cup Second Round glass ceiling. That said, I don’t have to like it.

What’s worse is that it wasn’t even a particularly good dive. Even in real time, it looked horrible. Maybe practise some more, Victor?