The Nigeria U20 team yesterday crash out of the ongoing Poland 2019 U20 World Youth Championship after losing 1-2 to Senegal in the round of 16.
Owngoalnigeria.com takes a look at the five possible reasons why the boys of coach Paul Aigbogun fail to impress at the tournament and subsequently crashed out at the round of 16.
1. Poor Squad : From the selection of his squad of players for the tournament it was clear that the team will have a problem of cohesion. As many as 12 new players were drafted into the squad from the team that played at the U20 Cup of Nations. In actual sense, the team only added five players to make them better.
2. Lack Of Cohesion – One of the players told Owngoalnigeria.com after the first game against Qatar that they don’t seem to know each other well. He complained about the lack of time they spent in camp and the manner the coach kept on changing the starting lineup of his team during the tournament proved him right.
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3. Played Players Out Of Position – The starting lineup of the team had players playing out of their regular positions. For instance the right fullback Mohammed Zulkifilu is originally a defensive midfielder while Aniekeme Okon normally plays as a winger but was played as a central midfielder with Success Makanjuola playing in wide position as opposed to his original role as a striker or behind the striker.
4. Lack Of Firepower In Attack – At the U20 Africa Cup of Nations the one area that needed urgent improvement was the attack. Aigbogun responded by dropping the attackers in his team but their replacement Jerome Akor, Emeka Chinonso and Tijani Muhammed failed to live up to expectations.
5. Lack Of Technical Input – The way the players played showed the lack of technical input from the bench. Wrong formation, faulty approach to games and substitutions showed the tactical and technical naivety of the technical crew.
