My Take On Cro-Nig:
1. Croatia is overrated. With all the big name “ičs”, I expected far better than this. We gave them too much respect and made the “little” mistakes (like marking lightly in the box 18).
2. The 4-2-3-1 actually worked defensively but floundered when attacking. Etebo was suppose to be the mobile box to box midfielder but was largely ineffective. This left “old man” Mikel with too much ground to cover to support Ighalo. At half time, I expected Gerhnot Rohr to swap Mikel and Etebo. These would have allowed the younger Etebo run at the defensively weak double pivot of Modric-Rakitic( Rakitic was already on a yellow).
3. Iwobi’s talent is still continually being wasted when he’s isolated out wide. He’s no Victor Moses who can drive at full backs. He has quick feet to play one-twos and wriggle out of tight spaces. If no change to the 1-0 scoreline, Etebo should have been subbed and Iwobi shunted to midfield.
4. Someone should please tell Victor Moses to stay on his feet when driving at players. He’s no Messi or Neymar that will be protected when he goes down.
5. These Eagles aren’t so bad and they ain’t so good either. Ekong (and Balogun too) needs to step up his set piece marking game. He cost us both goals. Iceland are very good at exploiting these.
6. The coach needs to take risks especially when the going gets tough. Iwobi, Ighalo, Moses and Musa can all play together to achieve coordinated chaos.
Up Super Eagles!
~Darlington Iriogbe