GERNOT ROHR’S UNPATTERNED SUPER EAGLES

BoomRadioNG | June 26, 2019

Gernot Rohr’s tortuous coaching of the Super Eagles continues well into the second game of AFCON 2019 in Egypt. A second 1-0 victory against Guinea in Alexandria ensures that Nigeria advances to the knock-out stage as Group winners.

Regardless of the result, many remain perplexed why and how it has taken Rohr this much time to stamp his identity on his team. With Rohr’s appointment in August of 2016, by anyone’s standard three years is enough to watermark his identity on the team.

<img src=”https://newfanzoneblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/super-eagles-gernot-rohr-football-nff-nigeria.png” alt=”” width=”474″ height=”291″ class=”size-full wp-image-4440″ /> Super Eagles Technical Adviser Gernot Rohr<br />photo credit: @TheNFF

<strong>What really is Rohr’s football philosophy?</strong>

ChrisBest Oguguo, one of Nigeria’s seasoned Sports Journalist says Rohr’s football philosophy is a counter-attacking one.

“Rohr favours a counter-attacking style of football. It hasn’t been the best brand but so far it has been very effective when you look at the result he gets”.

“When we play against better teams, the team doesn’t get overrun or overwhelmed which is good because he has a compact squad”.

By all measure, Rohr is not a bad coach for the team, after all, has he not surpassed many? With 23 wins out of 39 and a win ratio of about 59%, he measures up. Maybe not quite where the Super Eagles should be but certainly he’s on track.

The point here is that when Nigeria plays you aren’t quite sure what to expect neither is it glaring what kind of football they try to recreate nor the players he chooses. For instance in Nigeria’s latest defeat of Guinea (1-0), three changes were made to the team that won its first game in Alexandria against Burundi (1-0) and still there wasn’t much of a difference comparing both teams he has started.

<img src=”https://newfanzoneblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/eagles-zimtraining-e1559869052169.jpg” alt=”” width=”474″ height=”276″ class=”size-full wp-image-15164″ /> Super Eagles at training

Odion Ighalo, Moses Simon, and Ahmed Musa were all chosen to start against Guinea but the result wasn’t different neither was the style of play nor was performance.

Against Guinea, Nigeria had less of the possession 48%-52%, less passes 352-384, less pass accuracy 77%-79% but slightly more shots on target 4-3 and more corners 10-1. The stats quite frankly agree with ChrisBest Oguguo.

Many aren’t seeing this Super Eagles as convincing yet, but are quite happy with the result, which is the ultimate in football and with a knock-out stage guaranteed, maybe Rohr’s team will be re-birthed in Egypt.