Nigeria v Sierra Leone: Peseiro's tactical adjustments that assisted Super Eagles win

Nigeria's Super Eagles beat Sierra Leone 2-1 yesterday, thanks to goals from Everton's Alex Iwobi and Napoli's Victor Oshimen in a stunning first-half comeback.

This victory marked the first competitive game for the new Super Eagles manager Jose Peseiro.

After two friendly game losses to Mexico and Ecuador, going one goal behind against Sierra Leone may have raised some concerns about Peseiro's team.

However, the Portuguese manager's tactical adjustments which assisted Nigeria's comeback win will be analyzed by allnigeriasoccer.com.

Fluidity

The Super Eagles were organized in a 4-4-2 mid-block while defending but a 2-3-5 buildup was adopted on the attack.

This maximized the chance of finding a free player in the opposition box every time the ball was played into the zone.

Compared to the rigid style against Mexico and Ecuador, this was an excellent shakeup which confused Sierra Leone defenders as they got confused if they were supposed to implement a man-to-man or zonal marking.

Early and decisive adjustments

In an earlier article in the build-up to the game, allnigeriasoccer.com recommended that Peseiro needed to add one more body to the midfield to combat Sierra Leone's 4-3-3.

Realizing that the two-striker system was not effective with Sadiq Umar off-form, the Portuguese was early and decisive in his adjustments by adding Oghenekaro Etebo to the fray which helped stabilize the midfield and wrestle control away from the visitors.

No overcomplication

With the game heading to a tense finish, it was an easier avenue for coaches to overthink and complicate things with bizarre substitutions and set-ups for themselves under pressure. Peseiro was different.

Lookman ,Abdullahi and Moffi were excellent like-for-like additions in the latter stages of the game. This kept things simple and gave the team the best chance of seeing out the game.

Sofoluwe Mayowa

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