Super Eagles Coach, Gernot Rohr has been advised by experts to adopt the 4-4-2 formation maintaining that his change of tactics is responsible for Super Eagles' poor outing.
Former Super Eagles captain, Austin Jay Jay Okocha faulted the tactics employed by Rohr as the reason why Nigeria lost 2-0 to Croatia in their 2018 FIFA World Cup opener on Saturday.
The Nigerian legend said key players that would make Eagles direct the match were played out of position.
Okocha, who made his view known while analyzing the game as one of the guest analysts on SuperSport Channel, blamed the coach of the Nigerian side for playing his nephew on the flanks instead of giving him the play-maker role handed to captain John Obi Mikel.
He said the decision to play Mikel as the number ten of the team was largely responsible for the poor display of both Iwobi and Victor Moses during the game as both players didn't get enough quality balls to prove their worth.
“We didn't have a creative player today,” Okocha noted.
“Mikel has been a good servant to the national team. His best position is playing in front of the defense. We saw what he did playing for Chelsea where he had a glorious career.
“The most creative player in that team was Alex Iwobi but he was played on the flanks. Playing Mikel in that position didn't help Moses and Iwobi on the flanks.”
According to him, Iwobi plays from the flanks at Arsenal due to the presence of Mesut Ozil, who is a better playmaker but that is not the case with the national team of Nigeria.
“The most creative player in that team is Alex Iwobi but he was played on the flanks.
He can play on the flanks at Arsenal because they had better players in that role like Mesut Ozil.”
The Franco-German, while speaking at the post-match conference, said he and his players were aware they made some vital mistakes during the game.
This article was most recently revised and updated 3 years ago
