A UCL place was claimed with plenty to spare and the club’s self respect and fear factor were restored. However, fast forward to November 2014, and the two successful managers have practically undone the brilliant work they did last season.
Nigeria shockingly failed to qualify for the 2015 AFCON and as such cannot go and defend their title despite being handed a very benign draw at the start of the qualifiers. That the Eagles finished third in a group that featured South Africa, Congo and Sudan proved the point beyond any doubt the reality of our team’s current abject state, a decline that set in moments after that glorious February 2013 night in Jo’burg.
The Eagles managed eight points from six matches. When you realize that the two teams who qualified for Equatorial Guinea from our group notched seven points each from THREE AWAY matches, then you accept the painful conclusion that: 1) We didn’t deserve to be at AFCON 2015 and 2) The Super Eagles need a total overhaul from the technical crew to the players; simply put, we were not good at all, never mind good enough.
When I look at Keshi’s Eagles I see three types of players, namely:
1) Those who are tired of playing for Nigeria. I mean those players who believe they are doing us a favour by donning the national colours. These unmotivated players can’t really be bothered what happened to Nigeria, pride and all that. Yet they dominate the Nigerian senior national team like plague.
2) Players who have the hunger to play for Nigeria but who lack the necessary talent to merit a national team call-up. Yet they are many in Keshi’s Eagles. Worse still, most of these are bench-warmers at their various clubs, most of which are not even top clubs in modest leagues.
3) The third category are players who have the hunger and the requisite talent to play for the Super Eagles. Unfortunately, this last group of players is in the minority in Keshi’s team.
Little wonder we could only manage one point in six matches better than what RSA and Congo managed each in three road fixtures. And we were the only team to lose to Sudan. In fact, the East Africans only points in our kind group were notched against the deposed African champs. Shame!
Let’s take a trip from Abuja, Nigeria to Anfield, and you’ll find Rodgers has done exactly to Liverpool what Keshi has done to Nigeria. After taking the club to the brink of title success last season, the Reds are out of the title race after just 12 matches this term! Their 3-1 defeat to struggling Crystal Palace Sunday makes it their sixth league defeat of the new campaign, and their fourth reverse on the trot in all competitions.
To put things in sharp perspective, Liverpool only lost six league matches for the whole of last season. They have lost that same number in just a dozen matches this term. And to think the manager spent an eye-watering 120 million quid on recruitments. Yes, Luis Suarez is gone and any club in the world would miss the Uruguayan’s world class talent. But nobody could have imagined the abyss to which Liverpool have sunk in only six months, especially after the fortune splashed to strengthen the team!
Watching today’s Liverpool reminds one of Keshi’s current crop and vice versa. The two teams lack confidence as evidence in uncountable lateral passes between centre-backs. My little knowledge as a Grade 2 coach from NIS tells me that when a team plays such that two centre-halves swap passes for eternity, that team lack confidence and have no clue on how to attack the opponents.
And like Keshi, Brendan brought this recent calamity on himself as he has systematically dismantled a virile team by replacing quality personnel with mediocres. Or how do you chase Pepe Reina away for error-prone Simon Mignolett or Daniel Agger away for Dejan Lovren just to mention two cases of swapping class for cluelessness.
In his post-match chat after the latest debacle at Palace, Rodgers said there was no crisis at Anfield! I beg to differ sir. And knowing the FENWAY group (owners of Liverpool) and their zero tolerance for regression, BR’s days appear numbered unless he could turn results around very quickly, starting with the UCL road trip to plucky Ludugorets.
If he is not sacked by the time you read this, I’d like to think UCL progress is the only reason he is still hanging on to his Anfield managerial career. And even that could be sorted out on Wednesday when Liverpool clash with the Bulgarian underdogs because anything other than victory will almost end the Reds interest in this season’s UCL.
But while Rodgers may soon be sort out, Keshi remains untouchable because the “owners” of the Super Eagles apparently like him. God help Nigeria!
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