Seeking solutions for the second Jollof Derby

As I observed in my pre-match piece, derby games between Nigeria’s Super Eagles and Ghana’s Black Stars have a distinct shape and character, which regularly thumbs its nose at the formbook.

Friday’s goalless draw at Kumasi’s Baba Yara stadium was eloquent testimony to that.That said, there is no question that the result was far more satisfying to Nigeria, who returned to Abuja with a clean sheet and qualification for Qatar firmly in their hands on home soil, than it was for their Ghanaian cousins, who huffed and puffed at their Baba Yara ground but were unable to conjure a winning formula that would have put them in the driving seat of this epic World Cup qualification battle, which will inevitably come to a conclusion - perhaps a dramatic one - on Tuesday, at the MKO Abiola arena.

What did the team managed by Austin Eguavoen get right in Kumasi?

Putting Francis Uzoho in goal: When Maduka Okoye, the Eagles’ first-choice goalkeeper, unexpectedly pulled out of the game, as a result of illness, there was great apprehension about who would replace him. Uzoho, previously Nigeria’s first-choice ‘keeper at the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), has failed to keep a regular shirt at his Cypriot club Omonia Nicosia, leaving many to question his form and mental capacity to man the sticks in the Kumasi encounter. But his calm and confident goalkeeping provided a fitting answer to those who doubted him. Maduka could struggle to get his shirt back, after the qualifiers.

A well-drilled central defence: The regular central defensive pairing of William Troost-Ekong and Leon Balogun, the latter returning to the Eagles after missing the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, as a result of an injury - kept things extremely tight and gave little room for the Black Stars to do damage throughout the game, as the attacking surges of the Black Stars, led by Jordan Ayew and the debutant Felix Afena Gyan, met an impregnable wall.

Using Innocent Bonke as a defensive midfielder: The absence of the dependable Wilfred Ndidi, whose injury, while on duty at Premiership side Leicester, was a huge blow to the match plans of the Eagles. But the Lorient player called up to replace him did a creditable job, despite the fact that Nigeria’s midfield was not tactically set-up for optimum performance, as they were dominated by the Black Stars in the centre of the field.

Why were Eguavoen and his Eagles unable to win in Kumasi?

There is one obvious, overriding reason, which had several consequences for the Eagles in Kumasi - the tactical set-up of the team.

Eguavoen, a former defender and member of the historic Nigerian side that qualified for their first World Cup appearance in 1994, known for its strong wing play, strongly believes in maintaining that tradition. But this often means that his team functions with just two players in the centre of the field, with two other players running down the flanks to service the central striking pair.

The yawning gaps this style creates in the middle of the field are easily exploited by an opponent that plays with a more compact three or four-man midfield and are able to maintain possession and surge forward, whenever Nigeria loses the ball.

Tunisia exploited the flaws in Eguavoen’s system to eliminate them in the round of 16 at the last Afcon, cutting off the attacking supply from Nigeria’s wingers - Moses Simon and Samuel Chukwueze - to the central strikers, who are then starved of service. Ghana adopted a similar playbook in Kumasi.

Nigeria’s defence, as a result of the distinct lack of creativity and invention from the midfield, were often forced to play a rather high line in Kumasi, in order to engineer an attack.

Fortunately for the Super Eagles, the Black Stars lacked the required counterattacking bite to take advantage of the open spaces defensive high lines often create.

Victor Osimhen, Nigeria’s attacking arrowhead, clearly frustrated by the lack of service from the midfield, ended up going deep into midfield to fight for balls to gain possession, which made him ineffective and tired.

“We were all shocked [with Eguavoen’s team set up],” a leading Nigeria Football Federation (NFF*) official told me.

“He suggested that he will go with a 4-3-3 formation, so as not to give Ghana space in the midfield. It ought to have been (Innocent) Bonke, (Joe) Aribo and (Oghenekaro) Etebo in the midfield with Moses Simon, Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman in attack. He finally decided to play with Kelechi Iheanacho [as an attacking midfielder] and we were back to the way we played at the Afcon [against Tunisia],” he said.

Despite his obvious talent, the question of Iheanacho’s permanent role in the Super Eagles has been a nagging, frustrating question, for the simple reason that the team is not set up to play in the way in which he is most effective at Leicester City, whenever he gets a decent run of Premier League games - playing deep as a striker, latching onto passes from the middle and the wings and making the best use of space, to score goals.

This leads to the obvious question - What should should the Eagles do, in Tuesday’s decider?

It doesn’t require a coaching genius to figure that out - keep the existing defensive formation and reengineer the midfield, within a 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1 formation, which would perform its required dual role - as a first line of defensive cover - which would put less pressure on the back four to play high, as well as serve as the attacking lynchpin, giving Victor Osimhen and his colleagues a quality supply of service to do the required damage against the Black Stars.

Player-for-player, in a Nigerian team with the correct tactical set up, the Black Stars will certainly come up short in Abuja.

But will Austin Eguavoen make the requisite tactical alterations to the way his team plays, in order for Nigeria to book its place in Qatar? Only Tuesday will provide the answer to the $12m question