Rohr Plans To Set Up Mourinho's 4-2-1-3 Formation Vs Croatia; Shehu, Etebo, Moses Tipped To Start

Published: June 12, 2018

The Super Eagles are preparing for their first training session on Russian soil following their arrival at their World Cup base camp Essentuki in the early hours of this morning, around 0100 hours local time.

Allnigeriasoccer.com understands that this afternoon's training session is scheduled to begin at the Essentuki Arena 1615 hours local time, which is 1415 hours here in Nigeria.

Four days before the Super Eagles World Cup opener against Croatia, this website can exclusively report that manager Gernot Rohr already knows the formation he will use against the Balkans plus the eleven players that will start the game, barring an injury in training.

Based on the Super Eagles workouts prior to their trip to Russia, the German plans to set up in a 4-2-1-3 system, which was developed by Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho while at Inter Milan.

There are no prizes for guessing that Deportivo de La Coruña's Francis Uzoho will be in goal vs Croatia, and he will be protected by central defenders Leon Balogun and William Troost-Ekong, with Abdullahi Shehu and Brian Idowu taking up the right-back and left-back roles respectively.

New Stoke City signing Oghenekaro Etebo is expected to start as the box-to-box midfielder, Ndidi as the holding midfielder and captain Obi Mikel as the number ten.

Rohr has opted to play Odion Ighalo centrally in attack, with Chelsea star Victor Moses and Arsenal's Alex Iwobi supporting the Changchun Yatai frontman from the right and left side respectively.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : twitter.com/victormoses