AFCON 2025: Emenike, Omeruo spot holes in Super Eagles’ campaign

Former Nigeria internationals and 2013 AFCON  winners, Emmanuel Emenike and  Kenneth Omeruo, have both pin-pointed  areas  the Super Eagles need improvement in their drive to succeed at the on-going  AFCON  2025 in Morocco.

While Omeruo  advised the coach Eric Sekou Chelle-led side to pluck  its leaky  defence that has conceded three goals in two matches, Emenike feels the team need  some tactical readjustment so that its  talented players can function effectively.  

Nigeria opened  their Group C campaign  with a narrow 2-1 victory over Tanzania, where a lapse in concentration allowed Charles M’Mombwa to equalise before Ademola Lookman found the winner. On Saturday, the Super Eagles raced to a 3-0 lead through Victor Osimhen, Wilfred Ndidi and Ademola Lookman but the defence was breached twice with late strikes from Montassar Talbi and Ali Abdi in a 3-2 win against Tunisia.

“The defence is still porous and we must stop conceding,” Omeruo, speaking on Afrosports as an analyst, said. “It is something the coach must work on in subsequent games. The attack we know is solid, but we can’t keep on conceding goals like we have done so far.”

Yet Emenike, the  2023 AFCON top scorer, was even more forthcoming on the team’s tactical approach even as he  asked Franco-Malian coach Chelle to design the best strategy in order to bring out the best in the players.

 “I think we have a lot of good players but what we don’t have is a game plan; I think we need a game plan,” the  former  West Ham and Olympiacos striker reportedly  said on the ATHLST podcast. “It’s not about throwing players, especially big players like Chukwueze and Victor Osimhen. You need to tell them what you want from them.

 “I like the coach anyway. I was one of the guys who voted for him but at the end of the day, we need to know what the game plan is( because when Tanzania played, they had a game plan).”

“They had the Super Eagles on one side of the pitch before eventually switching the ball to the other side, so they could take on our players one-on-one.

 “They tried to exploit Zaidu Sanusi a lot and their goal came from that. That’s what I’m talking about.

 “We have a lot of top players in our team, but what I’m seeing is that there’s no game plan,” Emenike noted.

The Super Eagles will  round up  their Group C  campaign with a clash against  another East African side, Uganda, in Fes tomorrow.