FORMER Technical Director, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Tunde Disu, has attributed the Super Eagles 0-2 loss to South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in the AFCON qualifier on Saturday to tactical deficiency.
The former Flying Eagles Coach said on Tuesday that the loss in Uyo was as a result of unpreparedness of the technical crew of the Eagles.
He said it was sad seeing the Eagles lose to South Africa for the first time, adding that it was a bad start for the Eagles in their quest to qualify for AFCON.
“It is sad that we lost to the Bafana Bafana of South Africa after they have bragged that they will beat us at home. “It means that they have something in their sleeves and it brings to mind that the Eagles are not prepared for the game. Friendly match is good but not enough.
“The boys were not psychologically prepared to face the South Africans. Fitness is not enough for a match, there must also be psychological approach and tactically in-depth.
“After playing some couple of friendly matches, one must have thought that it would be a roller coaster but we still lost because of technical inefficiency on the part of NFF,” he said.
Disu said that the technical bench must have failed to study the Bafana Bafana, hence, they were unable to match their tactics.
“The technical bench must have erroneously felt they knew South Africans but they did not. They should have ensured that they have the knowledge of how they play without assuming.
“The technical department must know the opposition and because we failed to know them we created a problem for ourselves. They should have spied on the South African team.
“The technical department has issues; they did not prepare well enough maybe they were short of funds. We should have watched our opponents play. That is what we did under Westerhof.
“During the Westerhof era, he always ensured that we watched our opponents and that is my job. I used to go to Cameroun to watch them either in Yaoundé or Doula,”he said.
Disu said that part of the tactical error was the inclusion of the goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi in the team knowing full well that he plays in South Africa.
“Part of the error was the inclusion of Daniel Akpeyi to man the post. It should have struck the minds of the technical crew that he plays in the South African league.
“The South Africans know him and his weaknesses; they should not have used him. If we consider the first goal it was where he covered but the ball still went in between him.
“The second goal was not much of his fault but he failed to control his defense because it was a counter attack. One or two defensive midfielder should have waited behind.
“We have two defensive midfielders; Wilfred Ndidi and Ogenyi Onazi, yet they failed to foil the counter attacking display at least there should be one players left,” he said.
Disu said that the team should have switched the formation from the traditional 4-3-3 to golden 4-2-1-3 to contain the South Africans.
“Something should have been done to the formation of the team to make them more aggressive in front of goal because we have the players to prosecute that.
“We should have switched from 4-3-3 to 4-2-1-3 for effectiveness. We have the midfielders that can switch because they are professionals.
“Also, we should have ensured that we got a goal in the first half because our inability to score boosted the courage of the South Africans to attack us.
“For the next match, we need to watch the clips of our next opponents, Libya and if we are unable to do that, we should contact the Libyan embassy to help out,” he said.
