Afolabi Johnson
Super Eagles Coach Jose Peseiro has plenty of work to do as he prepares his wards for the second friendly against Ecuador on Thursday.
The Portuguese who lost his first match in charge 2-1 to Mexico last Sunday at the AT&T Stadium in Texas, the United States must improve on his strategy to avoid another defeat against the Southern Americas.
Peseiro has admitted that he committed some tactical blunder in his first match with Mexico.
All eyes will be on him on Thursday to determine is future on the job when he takes on Ecuador in another warm prior to the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sierra Leone and Mauritius in Abuja and St. Pierre on June 9 and June 13 respectively.
Peseiro admitted his side’s played badly against the Mexicans especially in the first half where they did not had any shot at goal.
A change of tactics is what Peseiro required against Ecuador to avoid the wrath and anger of Nigerians.
Peseiro strategy failed against Mexico with Eagles’ midfield and attack failing to click thus given the Mexicans room to overwhelmed them.
An unfortunate Troost-Ekong own-goal handed returned the advantage to Mexico and sealed their second consecutive victory over Super Eagles.
Peseior told journalists in a post match interview : “We cannot hide it; we played a very bad first half,”.
“We had five players in defence, and they had two players playing forward and the two players controlled the five. They were pressing and we did not solve it. We cannot have that.
“We decided that if the two was controlling the three, then we have to make it a four and have more control in midfield.
“And it helped us take control of the game because as a coach, my philosophy is that I like control, to control the game.”
