By John Essien
Super Eagles Head Coach Jose Peseiro has identified key areas that needs to be improved in his team as Nigeria prepares for their international friendly game against Ecuador.
The Portuguese had lost his first game in charge of the Super Eagles, but was full of praise for the talented players he has at his disposal.
The former FC Porto Manager while speaking during the pre-match conference said Nigerians should be proud of the talented Super Eagles players.
Recall that the Super Eagles lost narrowly to a World Cup bound Mexico team in Sunday’s friendly despite the withdrawal of many high-profile players such as Victor Osimhen, Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Maduka Okoye, and others.
However, Peseiro who is still very much pleased with the players at his disposal, highlighted three key areas that need to improve for Super Eagles to start competing for trophies again.
“If I am a Nigerian I will be happy with the Super Eagles because they have good players. We have too many qualities in the team but all that need to improve are; organization, good system, and consistency.
“We need to improve all that but our national team has the quality and there is room to improve a lot.”
In his first game, Nigeria lost 2-1 to Mexico and he accepted responsibility for the loss but blamed the defeat on a lack of adequate preparation before the game.
“Like I said earlier, in the first half against Mexico we didn’t play well and I’m responsible for that because I was the one who picked the team. Due to lack of enough time for practice, we could not play well, we only had two trainings before the game against Mexico.
“In the second half we changed the system and we improved, showed good character, good quality only the result wasn’t good, no team wants to lose any match.
“For the game against Ecuador I want us to do well, I want us to do better than Mexico. Everybody knows Mexico are in eighth position in the FIFA ranking and you have to play better against Mexico.”
Nigeria will play Ecuador in New Jersey on Friday, 1:30 am Nigerian time.
