With so many Super Eagles stars unavailable to Eric Chelle, it was anybody’s guess what Friday’s friendly against Russia could even demonstrate.
The team that took the field in Moscow had as many as six or seven regulars missing. Under the circumstances, the outcome was a commendable one, as were a few aspects of the performance.
There was also, surprisingly, some learnings on offer, provided the 47-year-old is willing to listen.
Why it is time for Eric Chelle to ditch the diamond
The Super Eagles started out in the diamond midfield structure that is now definitively Chelle’s calling card. As a selection, the deployments made sense; however, as the game kicked off and progressed, it became clear that too much was being asked of the personnel.
Aside from the fact that this, being a largely second-string team, was full of players who had never played together or in that structure before, there was the fact of facing, in Russia, an opponent that, on account of the war in Ukraine, has been hidden away from view for a few years now. It is tempting to conclude that there was not much time given to studying footage of Valery Karpin’s men: time and again, players were late to their posts and confused as to who they were meant to be picking up.
▪️Lack of familiarity, both with one another and with responsibilities out of possession, evident.
— Solace Chukwu (@TheOddSolace) June 6, 2025
▪️The diamond is weak to precisely that type of exploitation out wide, which is why @NGSuperEagles keep conceding same goal over and over.
▪️Bruno's level gets worse each time.
This really is the problem with using a structure as peculiar as this. In, say, a 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, the players are familiar with most of the trappings and out-of-possession responsibilities, and so can reasonably self-organise even in the absence of an in-depth tactical briefing. With a diamond, however, the spatial occupation is not always intuitive, as the shape does not line up perfectly with most opponents. So the duties have to be properly assigned and drilled beforehand; without it, confusion and frantic pointing is inevitable.
See: events inside a loud Luzhniki, where Chelle’s shouts were drowned out by a home crowd that seemed like it had been starved for quality international competition for far too long.
To be clear, the diamond is as workable as any other shape, given time and adequate preparation. It is precisely those resources, however, that are not available, by the very nature of international football and due to the peril in which the Super Eagles find themselves.
What shape should the Super Eagles play with instead?
To his credit, at the start of the second half, the Malian made an adjustment.
Without altering the personnel, the team went to more of a flat, narrow 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 shape, with Moses Simon and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, who had both been ineffectual in their prior roles as centre-forward and shuttler respectively, taking up the wide positions, while Christantus Uche played off Victor Boniface.
The Super Eagles looked almost immediately more stable as a result, and even though Simon continued to look jaded and in need of rest after a gruelling season playing through pain, there was a lot more clarity in terms of what players needed to be doing without the ball.
Not to say that it was perfect, of course. The pressing was less intense, partly due to fatigue probably, but also because the diamond is specifically designed for intensity against the ball, especially centrally. Because of this, as the half progressed and the players got even more tired, the Russians began to exploit their overload in midfield, and Eric Chelle will be grateful to Maduka Okoye for protecting the draw.
However, with a more intuitive, easy-to-grasp structure, the possibilities, especially with a team of regulars, are easy enough to see. Alex Iwobi on one of the flanks, Ademola Lookman partnering Victor Osimhen upfront, a competent left-back and Calvin Bassey returning to the back line and you have the makings of a dangerous proposition for any opponent. Not only would they carry endless threat, but with rational spatial occupation, they would also be able to problem solve in real time without recourse to the bench at all times.
The folly of sticking stubbornly with the diamond, especially with a team that not only lacks the riches of midfield personnel that were on offer with Mali, but that needs a rapid turnaround in form and confidence, could be his undoing.
