It is better to be lucky, a saying goes, than good. On the evidence of his Nigeria tenure so far, Eric Chelle is not aware of it.
On Tuesday evening, the Nigeria B side kicked off their CHAN campaign with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of reigning champions Senegal. No shame in that, on the surface. However, accompanying the loss was an abject performance that contributed to a borderline unwatchable spectacle at times.
Quite why Chelle is even in the dugout for this tournament is difficult to understand, as there was never going to be any benefit. Here are three reasons why it was a bad idea from the very start.
Tactical inflexibility
Following the defeat on Tuesday, perhaps the biggest complaint revolved around Chelle’s continued insistence on his preferred diamond midfield.
While there are no foolproof shapes in football, the diamond is unusual enough that many facets of it are not intuitive. This means that, unless you have a chance to work on it for a long time, it is probably not a good idea. It is even less of one when what you have to work with are NPFL players. With the greatest of respect, even their European-based counterparts have struggled to interpret the formation.
To saddle this group of players with a coach whose tactical identity is this rigid seems almost cruel.
Inadequate knowledge of personnel
Further exacerbating the first problem is that, in all sincerity, Chelle knows very little about these players. His assistants, Fidelis Ilechukwu and Daniel Ogunmodede, stewarded the group through qualification, and have far greater information on their strengths and weaknesses, as well as tendencies.
It was a surprise to see criticism of his decision to field as many as seven players from Remo Stars. While the argument that if he was going to lean into their familiarity at club level, he should have also mimicked Remo’s formation made sense, did anyone stop to consider whether he was actually aware they were all from Remo?
Divided attention for Eric Chelle
In this context, being lucky is less about chance and more about sound judgment. While Chelle cannot be absolved of the team’s results and performances, even granting the aforementioned factors, he should have known better than to take a role like this.
At the end of the day, his primary KPI will be the performance of the main Super Eagles team under him, specifically as concerns the World Cup qualifiers. Well, even in a best-case scenario i.e. the CHAN team reaching the final of the tournament in Nairobi, he would have to go from that straight to camp for the Super Eagles’ crucial September double-header on the 6th and 9th against Rwanda and South Africa.
