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The
new Super Eagles coach will resume office today if he makes it back
into the country from the United States of America. He was to have
resume on January 3, but that resumption date was postponed for
technical reasons.

During his trip to
the United States, the Nigeria Football Federation completed the
coaching department of the Super Eagles with the announcement of Ike
Shorunmu as the goal keeper coach and Salisu Yusuf as the second
assistant coach. Simon Kalika, the first assistant to Samson Siasia had
been chosen prior to these announcements. These coaches will either
make or break the next set of players that will make up the senior
national team.

Every coach has a
philosophy which he normally adopts in coaching his sides and as the
new era starts, we need to ask questions concerning the individuals
that make up the coaching quartet. On first hand basis, Siasia is a
hands-on coach who is said to be close to his players. This was the
prognosis of his team during the build up to the Olympic Games at
Beijing in 2008.

But that assumption
throws up further questions -will he be able to forge that kind of
camaraderie with the likes of Yakubu Aiyegbeni and the other senior
Eagles players?

What will be the
functions of the first assistant coach and the second assistant? What
are their antecedents? In a nut-shell, what are they bringing to the
table?

Though there is
still controversy on how the NFF came to pick Yusuf and Shorunmu, we
want to believe that best practices were followed in arriving at the
choices. Yusuf has worked extensively on the local scene, most
prominently with Kano Pillars over the past three seasons and his sides
have been known to play pleasing football.

Former Super Eagles
Coach, Christian Chukwu said recently in a local newspaper that, “I
cannot tell you I know the criteria used in picking the two coaches but
we all started the process which was inconclusive.” “We were told that
when the nominees were pruned from the number of text messages, Siasia
was supposed to have an input in the choice of who would be his
assistants. I do not know if from the names gathered through text
messages, Siasia was contacted to make his final choice. May be he was
contacted through the same way we were asked to send names, I cannot
confirm. Until we meet, I cannot exactly say what really happened.”

Moving forward

The second
assistant coach, Yusuf spoke to NEXTSports from his base in Kano and
said, “We are young and ambitious and we also want to make Nigerians
proud.” When he was asked what particular quality he would be bringing
to the national team, the Kano Pillars coach said,

“I have extensive
knowledge of the local league and even Samson (Siasia) does and since
we are in the process of rebuilding, the local league will have a say
in the formation of the new national team.” Nigerian football fans have
not been happy at the ‘plodding’ football that the national team
currently exhibits so the question was posed to the second assistant
coach for him to elaborate on what he thinks are the challenges that
the team currently faces?

Yusuf said: “The
problem that the Eagles face presently in my own opinion is that of
players playing out of their natural positions.

“The first thing we
need to do to build a viable team is to make sure that the players that
are chosen are placed in their natural habitats. There can be
emergencies in the match but firstly, players must play in their
natural positions. In the past few years, players have been used in the
wrong positions and that is why we have had defensive midfielders
playing as offensive midfielders and vice versa.” Yusuf and Shorunmu
have been with Siasia at different times. Shorunmu was around the U-23
team before the Beijing Olympics and Yusuf was on the bench with Siasia
at the FIFA U-20 World Championship in Egypt IN 2009.

The new coach has
drawn out a plan of action to revive the national team. They are of
short and long term duration; the question being asked is: how would
Yusuf and Kalika fit in to his plan?

Speaking concerning
Kalika in the new set-up on SuperSport, Siasia said: “Simon (Kalika) is
a useful ally in scouting other teams and that is how we got to meet.

“In 2005 in
Holland, he just came to me and said he would like to help the U-20
team by helping us scout the opponents. I was glad that he came but I
told him not to expect any form of payment and he agreed. I found out
that whatever reports he gave to me helped the team to prepare for our
matches and his analysis on the opponents’ weaknesses were always
accurate and that is how we started working together.” Kalika has been
with Siasia to the U-20 World Cup, the U-23 team at the Beijing
Olympics, and also at the U-20 FIFA World Cup in Egypt in 2009.

Siasia has said he
would not be introducing drastic changes but begin by looking around to
identify young and talented footballers who would be given the
opportunity to prove their worth, both from within and outside Nigeria.

His plan as he put it is to have for now, a mixture of some of the
old players in the team who are still relevant and some young ones who
have shown that they have the special talent to make the team.