The strength of this Nigeria team is its defence. The Nigeria of the 1990s was a flamboyant, attacking side, full of explosive forwards and subtly gifted midfield creators. The present team is rooted in defensive resilience, with Ogenyi Onazi alongside Mikel John Obi at the back of midfield. They’re quite happy to absorb pressure and spring forward on the counter-attack, which is what makes the interplay of the forwards so vital.
At the Cup of Nations in South Africa last year, Nigeria conceded just four goals in six games–and there was something a little freakish about the first two of them: a long-range strike and a controversial penalty. The quarter-final victory over Ivory Coast was perhaps their best performance, but the 4-1 win against Mali in the semi-final was probably their most perfect game: they dropped back and picked off their opponents as each player over-committed.
In qualifying for the World Cup, Nigeria conceded four goals in eight games, their discipline never more in evidence than in front of a hostile crowd in the first leg of the play-off, during an away game in Ethiopia. The goal they conceded was highly controversial: the goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama deemed to have carried Behailu Gobeze’s cross over the line. That left them 1-0 down with a little over half an hour to play, but they came back to win 2-1. The turnaround was largely down to the incisiveness of the front four in the team’s 4-2-3-1.
The most important of the quartet is probably the center-forward, Emmanuel Emenike. A muscular, powerful striker, he averages a goal every other game for his country, but just as important is his willingness to work wide, pulling into the spaces behind the fullbacks to create openings for the other three forwards, the wingers in particular. So comfortable is he on the flanks, in fact, that at times Stephen Keshi has used him not as an orthodox center-forward but as a right winger.
Emenike, though, is a player whose career has been dogged by misfortune and controversy. He was 21 when he left Nigeria for South Africa and, the following year, in 2009, he left Cape Town for Karabukspor in the Turkish second flight. He scored 16 goals that season as they won promotion and was named the best foreign player in the division. A further 14 goals followed the next year in the Super Lig, but by the end of the season he sued the newspaper Haber Turk for claiming he was actually seven years older than he claimed to be.
In the summer of 2011, Emenike was sold to Fenerbahce for around €9million, but six weeks later he was arrested and questioned on suspicion of match-fixing. It would be two years before he was finally cleared. Fenerbahce, not surprisingly, had already decided to cut their losses, selling him to Spartak Moscow just two months after signing him. Emenike never really settled in at Russia: he was fined for an offensive gesture at Dynamo Moscow fans who had racially abused him and was then sent off against Zenit after celebrating a goal with a vein-tapping gesture that appeared to be a reference to heroin.
He rediscovered some form in the 2012-2013 season, but just as he seemed to be establishing himself, he suffered a thigh injury during the Cup of Nations semi-final that caused him to miss not only the final but also the rest of the season. Last summer he returned to Fenerbahce, but his season has been hampered by hamstring injuries.
Emenike tends to start centrally and drift wide, which makes him a perfect fit with the other guaranteed starter in the front four, Victor Moses, who tends to start wide and drift into the center. Moses was born in Lagos but represented England at youth level before committing to Nigeria in 2011. He was a key figure in the Cup of Nations, his pace a vital part of Nigeria’s counter-attacking approach, while his intelligence encouraged the link-up with Emenike. He also showed admirable composure to convert two late penalties in the group-stage victory over Ethiopia at the Cup of Nations. Moses joined Chelsea from Wigan Athletic in 2012, and was loaned out to Liverpool last season. That move was of only limited success as he made just 19 league appearances, but the positive is that he should be fresh for the World Cup.
Moses will probably start on the right—although he is equally at home on either flank—with Ahmed Musa on the left. Musa, all jinking feet and angled darts at goal, was one of the stars of the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia in 2011. Still only 21, he is far from the finished product, but he has matured since moving to CSKA Moscow, and adds a sense of urgency and directness.
Linking it all together should be Sunday Mba. He was one of the domestic-based players Keshi called up for the Cup of Nations in 2013, and more than justified what had been a contentious selection with a series of elegant performances and the winning goals against both Ivory Coast in the quarter final and Burkina Faso in the final. Mba has since moved to Bastia in the French top flight. Mba joined up late with the squad, prompting suggestions he might be dropped, but Keshi seems to have accepted his explanation that he had visa problems.
Keshi does have options: Shola Ameobi would add a muscularity at center-forwar—although he disappointed in last week’s 2-2 friendly draw against Scotland; Peter Odemwingie provides cover across the front line; Nnamdi Oduamadi, cutting on from the left, scored three against Tahiti in the Confederations Cup; Victor Obinna is an experienced second striker; Uche Nwofor and Michael Uchebo could both act as target men if Keshi wants to go more direct.
The likelihood is that Keshi will stick with the logic of the Cup of Nations, though, with six broadly defensive outfielders and a fluent front four. There may perhaps at times be an argument, particularly if Nigeria face a team who defends deep, to use a more physical presence up front; equally if he expects Nigeria to find themselves under pressure and without the ball having an outlet to keep possession of it may be beneficial.
But the evidence of the past two years suggests that Nigeria is at its best with Emenike creating space for Moses and Musa, with Mba almost as an old-fashioned number 10, sitting behind them, waiting to slide through passes. The interaction between the four has a multiplicatory effect— and that has been the strength of Keshi as a coach, creating a team that enhances the abilities of all the individual units within it.
Follow Jonathan Wilson on Twitter: @jonawils
Related: Read “Nigeria vs Greece” and “Nigeria’s Super Eagles”
For further coverage of the World Cup, see:
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