Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro admitted his players were not at their best in Sunday’s clash with Cote d’Ivoire.
Peseiro’s side lost 2-1 to the hosts Cote d’Ivoire in the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
The Elephants, who dominated the game rallied from a goal down to win the keenly contested encounter.
The Portuguese, who praised Cote d’Ivoire for their exemplary display said his players struggled in the game.
“My players did their best in this tournament, Cote d’Ivoire played better than us in this game. We didn’t show our level.
“The performance on individual and collective level was not good enough for us.
“Cote d’Ivoire played better than us. They played really well. I wanted to win this trophy, my players wanted to the trophy as well. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t do it.
“I’m sad, my players are sad too. The performance was not good enough but I can’t fault them. They gave their best in this tournament.
“These things happen in football. Sometimes things don’t go your way.”
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31 Comments
Yes, you’re right. These things do happen in football sometimes. For the first time, I am supporting you. If your contract with the NFF is renewed, then you have to drop some players. Go to Europe and look for highly talented players in the defence, midfield and goalkeeping. We need to have a good bench. The Ivorians won this game from the bench. Some players may have played their last match in the national team yesterday. Iwobi, Aina, Zaidu and Yusuf.
You don’t understand football that is why you are calling for the sack of those players. Give me 2 weeks you’ll start hearing good news of these players at their clubs. The team has not been playing well but winning which to many of us will not prevail against a team that attacks with skills and directness. I’m not blaming the coach since he’s friends with Mou and that’s all they know how to do park the bus. If NFF want to continue parking the bus they can renew Peseiro’s contract. For me this loss hurts but it’s also an eye opener for the future because for me parking the bus is not what we should proud about. On the other hand congratulations to the coach because I didn’t give him a chance to make it to semi finals.
Aina and Yusuf? Like seriously? Aina is one of the top performers in this tournament and because of one bad game he shouldn’t be called again? Yusuf showed us all he can be a better midfielder if given the time.
As a group yesterday we play very badly, the tactics were faulty, we came to defend thereby pilling the pressure on the defense.
An attacking game would have won us this game.
In the defense that have been solid in the tournament also didn’t do well..
Was the players not motivated enough!
Was it because of unpaid wages?
Was it because they didn’t have enough support from the fans or football association?
Too much questions without an answer
The boys played better in games before the final, and when it mattered most they left their playing boot in their hotel..
I think pesiro showed his inexperience in major games like the final, he has never won a final before.. yesterday he showed why he might never win one..
Chukwuwze had no business starting that game and a serious thinking coach will sub him off in the first half Or at most immediately they were about to start the second half, to tell the boys that they have to sit up, but he kept him which gave the message that nothing was wrong with how they played..
Did we have a good bench to help the team, I don’t think so.. aside Moses Simon what other Winger can give us what a young adingra did for civ.. Nigeria had an nwabali but waited till the last hr before getting him in… We should scout for more boys.. players to put iwobi on the bench, players to send chuwukeze out of the team and we should not restrict the search to only the big leagues, ekong the player of the tournament plays in Greece, nwabali the chosen one plays in south Africa.. invite players doing well in other lesser leagues, they could have the solution to our problems.. that should be the lesson from this tournament
I totally agree with you but the coach is not tactical sound , we need a local coach.
You are on point
I have always retained my opinion that coach peseiro and nff are an inconvenience and incompetent bunches! If we must lose we want to play ball and attack and defend not this outdated style of pack the bus! Like we are some division 3 club side, afraid to go toe to toe in all our matches! Always waiting for that only one chance like we are not a football country, it was an embarrassing site view to behold because some Nigeria people lost their life because of heart attack football me myself I merely survived o! Nff! Please tell peseiro thank you so much for his service and let him go peacefully without any amateur media drama ok! Get in EMMANUEL AMUNEKE ASAP… let him make little changes not much change and we will be OK…. I enjoy coach eguavon Team more than this nonsense. Get amuneke now
Hello Guys
Now! Where do we go from here? As for me, I think the best thing for NFF is to part away with coach Jose Paseiro, I know lots of people will disagree with me, but that’s the only way we can progress.
I have been a fan of the Nigeria national teams since 1985 when we first won the Fifa Under 17 World Cup in China. I don’t support club sides, but my National teams and I can say few things about our football, especially our pattern of play.We are not a defensive team, we attack our opponents with full force until they are broken into pieces. Paseiro is lazy coach who is not ready to scout for new players, he prefer to hang on with the old players he inherited from his predecessor, that’s why he could not search for a good creative midfielder that could fit in the national team, that’s exactly what exposed us big time in today’s final match against the Ivorians. More so, he’s scared of taking risk when needed, most of the boys he played today were tired due to the last match against South Africa. What stops Paseiro from starting fresh legs in today’s match? In 1994 Westerhoff took a risk at Afcon finals when we played Zambia, by introducing Amunike and he got us 2 goals in the match.
I will have to base all our victories at the just concluded Afcon on luck or fluke, but some Nigerians dont see it that way, as we have been dreaming of victory for a very long time, especially in a competitive match.
If NFF refused to part away with Paseiro, we may not qualify for 2026 Fifa World cup. Mark my word!
He is not a lazy coach.
He only made do with what he had. We can put all blames in him. Many factors contributed to this even from the beginning.
Many things happen behind the scenes in Nigeria that put coaches under undue pressure and influence.
Musa and Aribo have godfathers. With their spaces we would have had capable midfielders in this team.
If we let pesero go, we will be starting all over again. Let him learn from this and improve. He can improve.
If chukuwueze had produced the magic we won’t have blamed the coach. The problem is that chukuwueze is a waste of resources. I have lost all hope in him. Same thing with iwobi.
We can’t get anything much with iwobi leading our midfield. We can’t. He is over hyped. His club progression shoes it. From arsenal to lesser teams in EPL.
If Iwobi is overhyped, why did Peseiro keep using him? In the two cameo appearances Iheanacho had, he showed flashes of a real-baller than Iwobi showed all tournament. A coach that kept playing Zaidu when Chidozie Awaziem is on the bench? What was Chukwueze even doing in the team?
But he started two players that didn’t start against south Africa and they didn’t do much especially chukwueze..
I agree that bringing some new legs to support the tired legs was crucial but how best do you describe the performance of chukwueze.. those criticizing iwobi should also remember chukwueze, iwobi tried his best with little or no support from players around him.. if our coach had another play maker like Bashiru maybe it would make iwobi sit up but iwobi was the only attacking midfielder in the team, even a Yusuf that began helping iwobi as his direct sub wasn’t originally in the squad… This tells you that we are not getting it right with scouting!
If there is nothing we have learnt so far restricting invitation to players in the big leagues is wrong.. is Ekong is Greece can be the MVP then we must invite players in Switzerland, Austria and the rest.. If an nwabali in south Africa can become the revelation of the team then players in south Africa league, Egyptian league should be considered.. we have the players but we are not giving them the chance
Hahahahhahahahahah….these your view is exactly why most forumites hate @JIMMYBALL for nothing!
Once a player is good, regardless where he plays; bring him on
We saw ARGENTINA win the last WC with players in Portugal, Brighton, AJAX whilst benching Inter Milan players
Ivory Coast just won AFCON with a midfield trio of a HULL City player and 2 SAUDI based against a Star studded SE with a Midfield and attack of AC Milan, Atalanta, Napoli, Brentford and Fulham!!!!
It’s not in the players, it’s in the application and interpretation of Coach’s tactics!
The Oyinbo GASSET kept ADINGRA, KOSSOUNO, SERI, MAX GRADEL and HALLER (5 players) out of his starting lineups in their opening matches…see what EMERSE FAE did with them!
An IFEANYIN MATTHEW in Swiss might have given us more than IWOBI offered..BASHIRU? TELLA ?
Why keep AWAZIEM on the bench when CALVIN could have been shunted to the LWB? Or a very overused AINA substituted
The SOUTH AFRICA match took a big toll on AINA, Lookman, IWOBI. It was glaring
God bless you, Abbey. Well spoken. I have warned Nigerians many times about coach Paseiro but have been attacked here many times, but we all saw the result yesterday.
Not that Ivory Coast was better than us, but there were two things in yesterday match.
No1. Coach Paseiro has misused our players and failed to rest some players. The majority of our players were tired. There were some players who did not deserve to be in this tournament.
No2. The team lacks creativity in the middle, which I have been complaining about while the gaffer is very predictable. Had he had Nwakali in this team, then the story would have been different.
Zaidu is not a national team player. The gaffer should have replaced him in the early minutes of the second half.
Iwobi was not in this tournament due to the formation of the coach. Aina was very tired and did not do much yesterday, but the coach did not do anything to change the tactics. On a good day, Aina is one of the best defenders of Eagles, but he would have told the coac to replace him.
The coach should not be allowed to continue because we had the players that could get the job done in this tournament, but his tactics let the team down. Just like Oga Rohr, NFF is very corrupt. Bother coaches have something in common. Late substitutions, over relying on players.
The government needs to crap the NFF first, and allowing our ex players to be in charge of our football will the best option now. After that, Amunike should be giving a chance.
I believe in our own to this coach, Paseiro and Oga Rohr, but NFF will never go for our own because of the money they share with the foreign coach.
Amunike, Marnu Gerba, and Egbo should be on board from now on because we have time to waste.
Since I’ve been watching Super Eagles at the Afcon finals, yesterday match was the worst Afcon final that Nigeria really played woefully. Luck did not work yesterday.
The gaffer did not have plan B, and as you only have one plan the you win nothing.
So, I put the blame on the coach. I am not sorry to say this, not a good enough period.
Amaju Pinnick should stay away from our football. He couses all this problem.it is a pity. God bless Nigeria!!!
Too much distractions around the players, their hotel lobby became a market place of all sorts and you see the players with different individuals seated at the bar of the hotel, no discipline whatsoever.
#AFCON2023 The Nigerian situation exposed us again. Those blaming pesero should be careful to understand the Nigerian situation. In a country where sentiment, corruption, favoritism and high level power manipulation is the order of the day, you won’t be able to give your best. You need to visit government offices and ministries and local government offices to see.
Ahmed Musa and Aribo must surely have godfathers in NFF or in Nigeria. Two wasted spaces where we could have brought in and used players like Nathan Tella, Obinna nwobodo or discover other good midfielders just like we did with nwabili.
Before you begin to blame pesero, if you’re in his shoes, you won’t do anything different. The powers that be want them so they must be there.
Aribo does not deserve a place in eagles not to talk of the bench. And to make matters worse, he is putting on the iconic number 10 jersey!!!!! Won by greats like Henry Nwosu, Etim Esin, JJ Okocha (the best 10 Africa has produced) and Mikel Obi.
I believe he has played his last matches for Eagles – a waste of space indeed!!!!
Ahmed Musa, well you’re a legend and I celebrate you but you’re no longer useful so bow out now. I hope you bow out willingly because you are denying others the chance to contribute their quota and make their marks. We lost because we don’t have the quality on the bench to help that midfield.
I know the Northern quota must be filled at the expense of quality nff should look for a useful northern player that can contribute meaningfully to the team.
I miss ndidi. Iwobi is over hyped. Chukuwueze is over hyped. Even if they are invited they don’t deserve first team shirts.
It’s not bad to lose a final, it happens but it’s bad to lose so badly!!!!
And we lost to a team that’s not super. We only made them super with our awful performance.
A team we beat at the group stages like babies. A team that lost woefully to Equatorial Guinea in a match they needed to win.
We just handed the trophy to them on a platter!!!!
4th afcon trophy was close but it’s now very far.
Keep the bulk of the team. Retain pesero if he is willing to stay. Don’t force players on his neck. Add Boniface, ndidi, Nathan Tella, awoniyi to this team and the next afcon will be within our reach.
God bless Nigeria. God bless the Super Eagles.
Sorry to disappoint you. We have to blame the coach. Who selected the players?
The coach would have played smart by taking the 27-man list to the tournament, and when he got to Ivory Coast, no matter what the godfather said not is business but the job.
He would have played his best players. Why did he not play Musa then?
Simply put, the coach is not good enough, period.
If a local coach can win Afcon for Ivory Coast, our own should be given a chance to take over. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
@Abbey, the victories were not luck or fluke.Peserio chose to stick with the same playing pattern for six matches even though South Africa showed the deficiencies of the tactics: ball over the top , close midfield play and dominance, expansive wing play.Besides, abbey, the boys were drained , tired from playing six matches with that system that demanded so much from them.A sound and risk taking coach would have pulled out an exhausted Aina for Bruno to match Adingra strength for strength, Pull out a recoving Sanusi for Awazien or Osayi.Then switch from the defensive formation to a 4-4-2 to provide an extra man in midfield to writtle down CIV advantage in misfiled and the a second striker to play off Osimhen as he played the entire match facing our goal post!
Secondly our play is not based on defensive play, we are am offensive team with expansive wing play with supremely midfield players, all that was missing.
So yes Peserio can go to Zamalek, if he wants to. His cycle has ended.We now need a fully supported Amunike with the insurance of a three year contract to restore our play.
God bless you. You nails it. We can it luck though. God bless Nigeria!!!
The SE are very slow, no urgency at all. Imagine our players will hold on to the ball and use 3 to 8 seconds to decide where to pass the ball to, giving the opponent opportunity to cover up, block or take the ball from their leg. South Africa were also faster than us, just that they lacked the aggression of the CIV boys.
Guess what, most of the current SE players easily shut down at the face of aggressive opponents E.g Iwobi, Aribo, Ajayi, Chukwueze. We noticed this long time ago, you can ask Sierra Leone boys at Benin City encounter.
Some of our defenders also don’t know how to mark the ball….
Pls tell me why a defender will continue shrinking backward into his own 18 yard, giving the opponent space to cross the ball or shoot at will? (Aina and Ekong are guilty of this, both in this tournament and previous ones). Iwobi is minus one in tackling, he only escorts the opponent to his own 18 to score. Can’t even shoot the ball well. Let me mention here that Lookman has really improved in his physicality and strength against a physical opponent.
Pls who in the current SE team can shoot the ball very well with high precision? Maybe aside Iheanacho who was benched. It’s a shame. I keep asking is the coach not checking players individual qualities in picking his selections for a tournament???.
Messi once revealed to us in last world cup we participated that the Super Eagles abnormally give too much space for the opponent to operate through.
1). Going forward, we need some quality midfielders (CM s & AM s) with the tenacity and aggression and skill set and other qualities.
2) We need some strong and purposeful wingers in the mode of Victor Moses, Samuel Kalu of this world….. How can you call yourself a winger without a single cross in a whole match?
3) We need more solid Central defenders o. Ekong and Ajayi have tried. Trust me, you can have only Taribo West or a fit Yobo at the back and they will single handedly Marshall the defence and save the team on a one-to-two situations.
4) Osayi Samuel and Bruno Onyemaechi are very solid defenders that are very difficult to beat. They are the kind of a no nonsense defenders. Not like the soft Aina kind of defense or the wasteful and directional Zaidu passes. They should be properly integrated into the team.
5) PESEIRO has tried, he can go.
See how a dead or structureless Ivory coast boys came alive after sacking their coach at the group stage, outplayed the SE and snatched the AFCON cup.
But do we deserve the cup going by the recent political intrigues in the nation? When people see white and call it black and vice versa. I think this is a clear message. Well done boys you tried your best.
*directionless Zaidu passes
When I told said it was luck that make us took us past South Africa some people were wailing. That formation was decoded by aputhafrica. You can see it is not only Iwobi that is having dip in performance even lukman too couldn’t offer anything. Apart from semi final and final he completed full 90 minutes in all our matches but why didn’t he repeat those form against SA and Ivory coast? The truth team have studied us and have decided the pattern plus the the players are tired. I heard the players disagree with the coach about using the same formation in final but he refused. Did I hear people saying Iwobi, Sanusi and Chukwueze did not have business in the team? How gullible remembered most of you do say Ekong shouldn’t be in the team but today the same ekong was voted MVP of the tournament. I have been saying Nigeria have not been playing well even right from the beginning of the competition though we have been getting result. Anybody that watch the match yesterday knows that ivory coast deserve to win and the won. Lets us move on this is no time to blame anybody.
When I said it was luck that took us past South Africa some people were wailing. That formation was decoded by South Africa. You can see it is not only Iwobi that is having dip in performance even lukman too couldn’t offer anything. Apart from semi final and final he completed full 90 minutes in all our matches but why didn’t he repeat those form against SA and Ivory coast? The truth is teams have studied us and have decoded the pattern plus the the players are tired. I heard the players disagree with the coach about using the same formation in final but he refused. Did I hear people saying Iwobi, Sanusi and Chukwueze did not have business in the team? How gullible, remembered most of you do say Ekong shouldn’t be in the team but today the same Ekong was voted MVP of the tournament. I have been saying it Nigeria have not been playing well even right from the beginning of the competition though we have been getting results. Anybody that watch the match yesterday knows that ivory coast deserve to win and they won. Lets us move on this is not the time to blame anybody.
WE NEED A LOCAL COACH
LAST AFCON WAS WON BY A LOCAL COACH FROM SENEGAL
THIS AFCON WAS WON MY A LOCAL COACH FROM IVORY COAST
NIGERIA IS THE BIGGEST BLACK COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
WE DON’T NEED WHITE COACH ANYMORE ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Now, Nigerians are waking up. It is a scam. Do you think NFF we consider that? Where are they getting the money from? Fingers crossed. God bless Nigeria!!!
The previous one could only survive the stage, by the time the chips were down an unknown Tunisian assistant coach tutored him how soccer ⚽ is played tactically and technically.
U dey mind am
When we’re leading 1.0 I expect the coach to bring a defender and a defensive midfielder to chock ivorians already dominated midfield so that they can help iwobi and onyika. I also expect the coach to bring iheanacho on time! Anyway they tried..
How will they play well Oga Peseiro So why did you wait 80 mins to bring on Iheanacho and 88mins to bring on Moffi even after they showed what they can do against Bafana and for Goodness sake why is Osimhen left on the field when it was obvious from 68mins his legs cannot carry him anylonger? Why did 96% of that first 11 play 90 plus mins the entire knockout stages right from round of 16?. And for goodness sake which coach in their right mind goes to Finals with Parking Bus as game plan?.Dey there dey blame the players.. oga Peseiro you lost that game even more sadly to a make shift coach who does not even have his coaching colours yet.
You want to go to finals and play parking bus Tactics even after Bafana Bafana exposed you you bring the same tactics even after you know the games are televised and Ivory Coast would have seen what Bafana Bafana played. You bring Aribo instead of Kelechi Nwakali you mess up with Sadiq Injury
Seriously my people commend the coach for taking us to Finals but we deserved 3rd or 4th place in retrospect because Bafana Bafana exposed us and were unlucky and that Bafana I saw can Beat this Ivory Coast Hands down
If We are to qualify for World Cup against Bafana bafana peseiro is not the man he proves he is not Dynamic he is tooo cautious and cannot utilise a full squad adequately in a major tournament his substitution are too delayed and his coaching style can bring important players injuries. If that game went to extra time Osimhen would have been forced off with Injury Peseiro’s player management and poor tactics were exposed if we are to reach greater heights he is not the man for the job to take SE forward
Oga Peseiro, you’re not a good coach. I’ve never being your fan from day 1. Even when Nigeria won games and progressed to the final, I only praised the players. Some people came here with different theories that supports why Iwobi and El-Sanusi Zaidu must play ahead of good players on the bench. If NFF aren’t corrupt, this man should be fired immediately!
Yhe formation adopted by the coach weakens them and the players got wearied after the game against Angola. To make it worst the coach used the same line of players all through the tournament and this burned the players out.The formation requires the players to cover every blade of the field.
Let the coach go. We need a new coach that can discover good midfielders and that will enjoy the support of FA with honor and respect.
ANALYSIS AND FACTS
1.Peseiro is not a good coach.
2.The super Eagles did not play well throughout this tournament.
3.The players are not happy.
4. Individual talent took us thus far.
5.You can’t always rely on luck in a tournament.
1.Nigeria need COACHES- This has been the problem with all our national teams from Super Eagles to Super Falcons to the u17s. Which coach in their right senses hopes to win a final against a host country by parking the bus?
2.Super Eagles did not play well in this tournament do not let us deceive ourselves. We were grinding out victories just by the grin of our teeth.
3.The players weren’t happy with the way they were set up to play. No Nigerian team (even at the World cup against Argentina) played with 5 defenders haba! The coach made the set up from 4-4-2 simply because he lost Boniface and Sadiq. Chukwueze, Lookman, Iwobi, Simon, Iheanacho are most expressive playing attacking football and the coach reduced the African footballer of the year to a rugby player fighting off 3-4 defenders like an orphan.
4.The coach wouldn’t have played Ekong in his preferred 4-4-2 but Ekong came out the tournament best player. Individual performances from Osimhen, Nwabali, Lookman and ofcourse Ekong took us as far as a collective bunch in the final.
5.Tactical savviness and not luck wins a tournament. Peseiro is not tactically sound and he said in the pre-match interview that he just want to win Afcon but bros, you don’t just win a tournament but you PLAY to win a tournament and the best form of DEFENCE is to ATTACK and not PARKING THE BUS.