As Nigeria head out to Praia on Monday, the German coach has his line-up pretty much dictated to him
For all that the performance and scoreline underwhelmed somewhat, Friday’s 2-0 win over Liberia was pivotal in getting Nigeria off to the best possible start to the World Cup qualifying campaign.
While few would have genuinely thought the Super Eagles were in any real trouble of failing to make it through the Second Round of African qualifying when the draws were made, stranger things have happened. Besides, there is a long, uncomfortable history of leaving it late to turn on the afterburners, an approach that famously singed the continent’s most populous nation in 2006.
Those days do seem to be long gone, however. Nigeria has hit something of a sweet spot in terms of its squad composition: relative to its contemporaries in Africa, this crop stacks up favourably against some of its more talented predecessors, while simultaneously being free of the egocentrism engendered by the standing of the late 90s to mid-2000s relative to their global peers.
As such, there are fewer incidents of important players simply electing to skip matches in difficult terrain, or wilfully turning up late; the sorts of hijinks that have undermined the Super Eagles in time past.
Nevertheless, ahead of Tuesday’s meeting with Cape Verde, Gernot Rohr finds himself without the services of as many as six starters. This time, however, it is less to do with their amenability to the altitude and uncertain footing of the turf in Praia, and more to do with the UK’s travel restrictions on account of Covid.
This is not, of course, an unexpected turn of events.
However, while the 68-year-old called up an expanded squad to cater to this exact scenario, the experience and aptitude levels of the replacements understandably has many concerned, not least of all the German himself. “It’s not easy to build another team in only two days,” he admitted in the aftermath of the Liberia result.
“Build another team” might seem a hyperbolic turn of phrase, even allowing for the unwieldiness of a second language.
After all, the extended squad contains only two players who have never been called up before. However, the fact that those two play in the area of the pitch most decimated means that Rohr is, in fact, essentially building 'another team', if Kingsley Michael and Innocent Bonke are taken as a pair in the heart of midfield.
It is a position of strategic importance, especially in a game where it is likely Nigeria will come under some distress.
The fact that the hard, unforgiving surface in store does not make for a pleasant change from the sodden, heavy turf of the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos tells its own story.
How a neonate midfield partnership might respond to that challenge is the key question.
If reports are to be believed, Rohr has hitched his mast to the Michael and Bonke wagon, but there is something to be said for the experience and solidity that a Shehu Abdullahi might offer alongside one or the other, even accounting for the fact the Omonia Nicosia man has rarely played in midfield under this coaching dispensation.
It would be damning if he is overlooked, and would call into question the wisdom of calling him up in the first place, seeing as there is already depth at right-back, the one position he has featured most often in while Rohr has been in charge.
Elsewhere, the team fairly picks itself, although not without stylistic concerns.
With Leon Balogun and William Troost-Ekong departed, not only is Nigeria without its starting central defensive block, but the complementary dynamic at the back is lost.
Chidozie Awaziem and Kenneth Omeruo are competent defenders most of the time, but are both front-foot stoppers by nature and impulse, and so can be drawn out and bypassed.
Valentine Ozornwafor, a Rohr favourite, is of a calmer disposition, but lacks the nous and match sharpness to be a real option for a game of any significance. (This again calls into question the purpose of adding him to the squad to begin with).
Maduka Okoye, Ola Aina, Jamilu Collins, Moses Simon and Victor Osimhen should all keep their places – the last of this quartet, in particular, will be crucial with his work rate if the Super Eagles are under the cosh and need a reliable outlet.
That leaves two positions up for grabs, and here there are some decisions to be made.
There will no doubt be a predilection toward starting Ahmed Musa upfront alongside Osimhen, as the Fatih Karagumruk man continues his inexorable march toward the record for Nigeria international caps.
However, as the 2018 World Cup has faded from view, it has become increasingly difficult to remember his last standout performance in green and white.
His pace is one the wane and his conditioning is far from optimal, but perhaps the biggest negative in his column is the sense he is played out at this point.
You know what you are getting from Musa, and even at his best it was as good as flipping a coin.
Terem Moffi could provide something a little more exciting instead. He possesses probably the best movement of the strikers in the team, and could really profit from attacking the box as Osimhen forages out wide.
On the opposite flank to wherever Simon starts, there are a handful of choices.
Henry Onyekuru has never quite convinced on the international stage, and his stock is at its lowest since he broke out in 2017, so he might find himself on the outside looking in.
Samuel Kalu and Chidera Ejuke are arguably the frontrunners, but it is the former who will likely get the nod, as Rohr appears to have taken a real shine to him, form and fitness notwithstanding.
Recommended starting line-up: Okoye; Aina, Awaziem, Omeruo, Collins; Kalu, Bonke, Shehu, Simon; Moffi, Osimhen.
