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Oh what a shame! We still have failed to see the wood for the trees!

Someone somewhere would be screaming now, "Leave him alone! He has not yet failed us; at least he defeated the French National team!”

But how can I leave him alone when he threatens to cause me further anguish and pain? How can I leave him alone when the only source of joy for several Nigerians is being toyed with like a child testing if an expensive phone would swim in his bath-tub?

How can i leave him alone when those who ought to be doing the talking and taking the decisions have suddenly become taciturn and a great deal more interested in collecting estacodes and fat salaries to go with the also portly sums they pilfer from the national coffers?Amodu Shuaibu has danced round the village garden for too long, and has still unfortunately failed to deliver to the Nigerian soccer loving fan, the football that we are known to possess and that which had set us a yard apart from other African teams in the continent suddenly seems unattainable.

Our brothers on the other side of West Africa, Ghana and Ivory Coast have shone like a million stars during this qualifying campaign and their exploits on the field of play has left no one in doubt that these are teams seriously seeking to qualify for the World Cup. On the top side of the continent, we have an Algerian team that is seriously seeking to knock out the current African champions Egypt for making it to the global soccer fiesta, with some dedicated brand of football.

These are teams that are serious about maiking it to the most prestigious soccer tournament in the world, and when you watch their games, you see the zest and fighting spirit in their gameplay (I recommend the Burkina Faso vs Ivory Coast game for those who wish to erase their memories of the sad event that occurred between Nigeria and Tunisia a few weeks back).

I felt slightly appalled on the 2nd of June when the Nigerian team defeated the Kenyan National team 3-0 in Abuja. I had a lost feeling of wooziness as I heard the final whistle, was I supposed to be elated as a few people around me were, or was I meant to question the lack of technical depth that was on display that day?It was about the laziest display of football you could get from any team in the globe.

The commentator even proclaimed that the better team lost on the night. I am not sure many people would disagree with him on that, even though I think result is the name of the game but there are surely better ways to get a result. In the just concluded Confederations Cup tourney held in South Africa, the less fancied United States of America dealt with Spain, and the approach of the American team was there for all to see. Soak the pressure of the fanciful Spaniards and hit them on the break. So what has Amodu’s tactics been so far?

The game at Rades was surely not so different from its predecessor, as the tactical deficiency of Amodu Shuaibu was still on display for the whole country to see. It has become a brand tactic of his to lull spectators to sleep with his esoteric brand of formation that makes onae wonder if it was a cricket game that was being shown on the screen.There are certain key deficiencies in the Nigerian National team that would alter the appalling pattern of our game for the better. These defects are so glaring that one begins to wonder why Amodu still has not been able to tackle them headlong.
The first and probably the most important is the conundrum surrounding our inability to find a natural playmaker in the heart of the Nigerian team.

Since the exit of Austin Okocha from the Nigerian team, we have had no replacement for that vital position, and the yawning gap left by his absence has contributed immensely to our blasé attacking style. There have been several talks about Mikel Obi filling in the position, but it should have become obvious to us by now that the Chelsea midfielder is more of a defensive minded player than a creator of goal scoring opportunities.We obviously need to dig deep into our local league and also those unknown Nigerians playing in foreign leagues for a natural playmaker. If you ask me, I would say Rabiu Ibrahim is the ideal candidate for that position. All the young man needs is support and encouragement and not the empty talk of “the player is not old enough”, bollocks!. How old is Jose Altidore? How old is Theo Walcott? How old is Paulo Rossi? I could go on forever, are these not members of their respective National teams?

Should we continually keep wallowing in that uninformed ideology of “the young should wait for their turn” and keep parading elder statesmen with weakened limbs as Super Eagles players?We also need to play the right players in ther right positions. This has contributed to the poor display of our foregn stars in the national team for years. Is not surprising that Yakubu Aiyegbeni would play fantastically for Everton FC scoring double digit goals during the course of the season, yet when he comes to the Super Eagles fold he finds it hard getting close to the opposing goal keepers? The same applies to Utaka and Osaze.

Definitely, there are few that display below par performance because of their poor personal character that makes them unpatriotic, but the majority suffer from the ignorance of the technical crew. After all said ( I would not soil my temper by even making any reference to the Nigerian Football federation), I still hold the position that Amodu has to be changed for effectiveness and progress to return to the National team. If we wait for him to fail first before we take the necessary step, then we would have probably waited for the gangrene to eat into the bone before paying a visit to the doctor.

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