President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick has disclosed that Coach Jose Pesiero’s ability to ‘scientifically’ analyze the Super Eagles team among other reasons, deemed the Portuguese fit for the role.
Coach Peseeiro, whose appointment has been greeted with little optimism among some section of the fans, will be part of Nigeria contingents to the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon –as an observer, while interim boss Austin Eguavoen would be at the dugout.
The former Real Madrid Coach under the recommendation of AS Roma Manager Jose Mourinho, penned a two-year contract on the condition of qualifying Nigeria for Qatar 2022 World in November.
Defending his choice of Peseiro, Pinnick quoted the 61-year-old tactician as stating that but for errors and technical deficiencies, the Super Eagles would have played in their very final at the 2018 FIFA Worlds Cup in Russia.
“If you look at Peserio, when I was talking to him, he was talking as if he has been coaching the Super Eagles for a long time, the FIFA Council Chairman said in a programme on Arise TV.
“He said to me, ‘listen, Nigeria, you played against Croatia (at 2018 World Cup) in your World Cup opening match, they did not over dominate you.
“It was 45%/55% ball possession. And he said ‘Croatia eventually played in the final of the World Cup, it could have been Nigeria playing in the final. That maybe one or two things were not done properly,” Pinnick said.
“I got impressed. And he brought the wyscout, a software to analyse the strength of your players.
“He gave me the analyses of everyone of our players scientifically. I was taking aback.
“When he spoke with the technical group in the interview, I was just an observer, we are all impressed,” he stated.
