Austin Eguavoen has had a fairly good run in his first couple of games as interim Super Eagles head coach, but it’s for stability and discipline in the team that he’s earning praise and calls to pick up the role on more permanent basis.
In three games – decided on the pitch – Eguavoen oversaw two wins and a draw – the team conceded no goals and scored four in the process.
The results are a big shift from the winless outcomes from two matches during the brief, ill-fated regime of Finidi George.
However, a common denominator and bone of contention, with both stewardships have been players invitation and how a Super Eagles invite is sold cheap.
For a team that last won a major title in Africa, over a decade ago, one would think the priority should be to build a strong unit with quality players who show up in their best forms to earn a call up.
Victor Boniface tries to dribble past Semi Ajayi during Super Eagles training session.
Rather, what it seems though, with the Super Eagles and over the past few years, is that the standards are either very low or mediocre.
Incidentally, it’s Eguavoen’s job as Technical director of the NFF to uphold standards in all the national teams, but when he invites a forward who is barely getting game minutes at club level, to rehabilitate them with important national team games, it’s baffling.
Umar Sadiq’s invitation for this AFCON qualifiers questions common sense, since a player of similar profile in Tolu Arokodare who has been in electrifying form did not even get a look in.
Umar Sadiq. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Sadiq has not been the same player since an unfortunate injury that kept him out for majority of his first season at Real Sociedad.
He has only featured in 8 matches across all competitions this term, registering one assist in 340 minutes of game time.
In contrast, Arokodare has 1,140 minutes, in 14 League appearances for KRC Genk in the League. The 23 year-old has also posted 11 goal-contribution (8 goals, 3 assists), and is the third youngest top scorer in Europe’s top 10 leagues.
Genk’s Tolu Toluwalase Arokodare celebrate after scoring against KAA Gent. (Photo by DAVID PINTENS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
Only a few football managers can get in a tenable justification for such an egregious call.
It’s a disservice to the team and even more to fans who have watched the values of a Super Eagles team once dominant and revered, all but eroded, and become a merchant’s piece.
On match day, the likes of Umar Sadiq, Kelechi Iheanacho, Samuel Chukwueze, and Victor Collins might get bench roles because the starters are the very top players and arrive with great form.
The football principle that’s basic in a team set up is to have a bench that’s equally as good and gives the team depth in game situations.
In his three games since taking charge, Eguavoen’s substitutions have lead to two goals, Victor Osimhen vs Benin Republic and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru vs Libya.
Nigeria midfielder, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru. Photo | X
One of the two is a regular starter and the other should have been a starter. And only once has the assist provider come from a substitution.
Whatever the justification is, to overlook better performing players for those who have exhausted their grace period, only causes a drawback for the Super Eagles.
