Much as Nigerian fans would like to scapegoat midfielder Sani Kaita for his hotheaded but daft kick out at Greece's Vassilis Torosidis in their Group B match at Bloemfontein, which resulted in his being sent off and ultimately to the shifting of momentum in favor of the Greek, the  disappointing run of the Super Eagles at the ongoing World Cup is not ultimately the fault of the hapless player.

One can cite many examples in which a team, reduced to ten men, reorganizes and weathers the setback. There are times, in fact, when the team at disadvantage goes on to win a match. Inter Milan against Chelsea in their Champions League match is a recent example.

Another example from the ongoing World Cup is the ten-man Australia that matched Ghana strength for strength, even dominating the game. And except for a momentary lapse in concentration which allowed a goal, ten-man Germany could have won or drawn their match against Serbia. They were certainly the most enterprising side even with ten men.

The Nigerians on the other hand completely fell apart after Kaita was sent off. Pressure on the ball when Greece had it was none existent. They played a peculiar marking style in which their middle four  would retreat to the final third of their halve, allowing Greece all the time to think on the ball and execute their passes and shots. Inevitably, some of those shots were bound to register, and they did.

This lack of pressure on their opponent was present in their first match against Argentina. Christian Chukwu a former coach of the team has noted this as reported in Kick Off magazine on-line.

In his words: “That is the major fault we have. We give a lot of space to our opponents to operate; we don't press them. We must press. And when we have the ball, we are not mobile. We don’t move into space to receive balls. So if they come out to play, they have to be mobile. They must all press at the same time to get the ball and go on the counter-attack.”

Diego Maradona, the coach of Argentina, had noted this, after their match with Nigeria, saying that Nigeria  "on this occasion,  let us off the hook." What is obvious is that the Nigerian Eagles are not playing well, and the cycle of blame has begun.

"Everybody thinks we have good players in Europe, and don't need to prepare,"  says Amos Adamu to the BBC's African sport programme "Fast Track".

He continues: "Even if you give us 10 years to prepare, it will be the same because up till now many of these countries don't recognise professionalism in their preparations; one of the problems we must get right here in Africa is that we need to plan ahead. Because if you don't plan ahead, you're planning to fail."

This is all well and good and addresses the main problem of African football, but what readers may not know is that Adamu  himself is part of the elites of African sport administration. He has been involved in Nigeria's sport administration for about a decade or more. One wonders then at whom this finger of blame points.

Some, like Martin Osaile, another Nigerian sport administrator, think the Eagles' bad spell is karma catching up for the sack of coach Shuaibu Amodu, just five months to the World Cup, after he had successfully qualified Nigeria for the tournament. He feels the Nigerian Football Federation should apologize to the coach to ensure a return of good fortune.

Former Nigerian football star, Austin "Jay-Jay" Okocha echoes the sentiments of Amos Adamu, blaming Nigeria's shoddy preparation for the finals and the ill-timed appointment of Swedish coach, Lars Lagerback, for the Eagles' unimpressive showing.

“All of us back home in Nigeria knew that this group of players would not get anywhere from the start," he is quoted as saying in PM News.  "Their preparations were nothing to write home about while the Swede manager was brought into the fold too late," he continues. "The performance of the Eagles in South Africa is disgraceful and not acceptable. I feel very sad that the majority of Nigerians are here watching the Eagles in this terrible condition.”

Nigeria Internet sites such as Nairaland and the Nigerian Village Square have become riveted with calls for the sack of Lagerback since Nigeria's loss to Greece. This is not surprising but typical of Nigeria's reactionary custom. A similar clamor for the sack of coach Amodu followed the Eagles disappointing run at the Africa Cup of Nation, which eventually prevailed.

If anything, this shows how short the attention span of Nigerian fans and administrators is. In 2002, the same Amodu in question was sacked from the Eagles' job at the eve of the Korea-Japan World Cup. Worse, the then Eagles were disbanded.  Nigeria's run at that tournament was disappointing as well. It is therefore déjà-vu all over again.

With the cycle of blame and reaction beginning all over again, it is obvious that Africa is a long way off from solving her administrative problems. One would think that the apparent thing to do is to mandate  coach Lars Lagerback to build a new team for Nigeria. But no: Nigerians know nothing beside shouting for the sack of coaches even when a particular problem is not a coaching problem.

This is not surprising. When one lacks innovative ideas what options has he or she but a knee-jerk reaction? At the risk of sounding tedious, let me, again, state the obvious. The way to go now for Nigeria is to mandate coach Lars Lagerback to build a new team rather than sacking him and beginning the cycle of interviews and appointment again, wasting valuable time that  an on-ground coach could use to scout for new players.

Very soon qualifying matches will begin for the next Africa Cup of Nation, which will take place two years from now. The sooner Nigeria begins building a new team, the better. Winning a the next AFCON is a good goal to set right away.

A word to Nigerian fans: stop this senseless clamor for the sack of  Lagerback and use your heads for once. A word to the wise, they say, is enough.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/408980-cycle-of-blame-begins-as-nigerias-eagles-disappoint

This is a good write up,i have said it time without number that Amodu is not the main problem of Nigeria football,it boiled down to the calibre of players we have at present,fire bridgade preparation and most of it all our football administrators.
To add or support this write up,it took Westerhof 5years to perfect 1994 squad,because most of them have been playing for Nigeria before his arrival.
In light of this,this coach should be allowed to continue his job,if only his contract did not says he should stay back in Sweden and come to Nigeria 10 days before the match as we had before,and the NFF member should not think of interviewing any coach again,cos i guess they are making money from the interview.

To add or support this write up,it took Westerhof 5years to perfect 1994 squad,because most of them have been playing for Nigeria before his arrival.
In light of this,this coach should be allowed to continue his job

Exactly right.

The Eagles of 1990, who would eventually become the Eagles of 1994 were 97% home based. They went abroad after they had been playing for Nigeria and at the peak of their careers. This is a big difference from what is happening today.

boomshell you just don't get it, we cannot build a new super eagles with lagerback, the guy is a white amodu, just a caretaker not a coach. after worldcup we need a coach that would introduce youth, but with lagerback yakubu is an atomatic starter, the same with yobo. and thoe two players is enough for naija fans to lose hope on eagles

In as much as i am a proponent of continuity in our football set up, i dont think Lagerback is the right man and his contract should not be renewed. In his short time in charge, Super Eagles have made their worst performance ever. There's nothing promising from Lagerback.

I agreed with u all (JLY,12LARGE AND MEDJAI) partially,but in the first instance which country will release its best coach for us and i believe with his experience and if given time he will perform and drop all those big belle players,search for talent home and abroad,organise friendly at appropriate time,but if we allow him to go,we will give those NFF executive oppottunity to embezzle our money again in interviewing several coaches again.
Moreso,remember Westerhof most time report to presidency direct and ignore the then NFA.So let give a chance and see wht he will do btw now and coming nations cup.

@ boombell
i think we have very good local coaches. We dont have to go outside of our shores to get a good coach. If we give our local coaches the neccessary support and time and are also well motivated, they will do great. The few times we have given them the chance, they have not done badly.

@Medjai,using what we get is actually the best for us but u and me know,what will happen too much influence on our coaches from those in administration amd top sport guys and if he refuses they will kick him out,High Chief Onigbinde did it for Amodu in 2002.But if all these can be erased,at least 4 years is enough for an indegenious coach to prepare our boys.

medjai:

In as much as i am a proponent of continuity in our football set up, i dont think Lagerback is the right man and his contract should not be renewed. In his short time in charge, Super Eagles have made their worst performance ever. There's nothing promising from Lagerback.

I doubt if you are a proponent of continuity.

@Poster

That is a great post from you. The era of instant gratification for Nigeria as a country in every aspect of our lives must stop. The only reason why people will lik the Amodu style of coaching is because of the backward thinking of instant gratification which will only give them a short term success. Football development is it and that is what it should be if we must achieve anything meaning and sustainable in the football circle. We should retain Largs for at least another 4years to develop our football because that is what we need. We could see the improvement in the super Eagles play in his short time but that is not enough we should allow him develop the team to an unbeatable state and to achieve that we need development programmes like the likes of brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Holland and the rest of world football powers

That is a great post from you. The era of instant gratification for Nigeria as a country in every aspect of our lives must stop. The only reason why people will lik the Amodu style of coaching is because of the backward thinking of instant gratification which will only give them a short term success. Football development is it and that is what it should be if we must achieve anything meaning and sustainable in the football circle. We should retain Largs for at least another 4years to develop our football because that is what we need. We could see the improvement in the super Eagles play in his short time but that is not enough we should allow him develop the team to an unbeatable state and to achieve that we need development programmes like the likes of brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Holland and the rest of world football powers

Thank you. I sincerely believe that sacking Lagerback would be a mistake, and it would only begin the same cycle of hiring and firing anew. This is not to say that I'm an advocate of foreign coaches necessarily.

Were it Siasia or Keshi who had taken over from Amodu and had only a little less than three months to prepare the Eagles for the World Cup, I wouldn't blame our failure on them either. I would advocate the same thing: build a new team of home based players primarily. This will accomplish two things: It will afford us an opportunity to begin development anew, and it is a way to develop new players.

Some are using strawmen arguments to the tone that Lagerback did not qualify Sweden for the present World Cup and thus he is a bad coach.  The question is, how does this supposed failure fit into his record as a whole? World class coaches such as Guus Hiddiink, Luis Van Gaal, Aimé Jacquet, Felipe Scolari, et cetera have all had their set backs at one point or the other. That does not take away from their successes. Or should we say that since Siasia's under 23 team was a failure last year at the  world championship in Egypt he is therefore a bad coach?

I still  maintain that Nigerians have a penchant for knee-jerk reaction to situations rather than using their heads. Employ Siasia, and let him have two a three defeats and the myopic nationalists would be calling for his head.

@JLY,thats the greatest problem Nigeria soccer fans have,we want to win all time and is not possible especially in football,which means Nigeria football problem is in many fold ranging from administrators,to players,coaches,press,fans etc.
Our premier leagus should also be develop,we av lots companies who can sponsor our team,matches etc,i was at behind Teslim Balogun stadium one day,when NPA players arrived from training pitch and most of them begin to soak garri to drink that afternoon.This is bad.

Our premier leagus should also be develop,we av lots companies who can sponsor our team,matches etc,i was at behind Teslim Balogun stadium one day,when NPA players arrived from training pitch and most of them begin to soak garri to drink that afternoon.This is bad.

That's exactly part of the problem which is a shame. The NFF is simply the face of the pervasive rot in sport administration in Nigeria.

One of my hopes is that some of our former football stars would get involved in sport administration, not necessarily at the national level as Okocha is trying to do, but at club level--become chairmen of domestic clubs or some such thing (however feasible that may be, though I know it is not impossible) . Perhaps being former players themselves, they'd be sympathetic to the plight of domestic players.