Our attack remains blunt 
By Ayo Akinfe 

Sitting comfortably on top of Group Four of the African series of the 2010 World Cup qualifying preliminaries with three wins from three, surely looks good. Having picked up the maximum possible nine points, scored four goals and not conceded any, gives the impression that the Super Eagles are once again in championship-winning form.

Our situation looks even more convincing when one considers the fact that two of the three victories came away from home in Freetown and Malabo respectively. However, if one looks beyond the surface, it is noticeable that defenders have scored three of our four goals.

At a casual glance, this may not look worrying but when examines the inconsistency of our forward line over the last four years, a fearful pattern begins to emerge. During the 2006 qualifiers, we only scored 11 goals in our first six matches, of which two were scored by defenders and it was not until the Kano debacle that we finally discovered how to find the back of the net again, scoring 10 goals in two matches.

This phenomenon has plagued the Eagles ever since and in Ghana 08, we saw how toothless our attack was, scoring a paltry three goals in four matches. So far, a lot of the criticism of the Eagles has centred around the fact that the team is not playing well but I find the fact that our boys have forgotten how to score, as equally worrisome.

Last weekend, we huffed and puffed for 90 minutes and the physical and technical superiority of our boys allowed them to contain the Equatorial Guineans. However, for all our ball possession, we never really made much of an attempt to increase the scoreline after Joseph Yobo’s fifth minute curtain raiser.

Just as happened in Freetown, we relied on Yobo coming forward for a set piece to score and were it not for the physical advantage we enjoyed in both cases, we may have drawn the two games. Since the 2010 World Cup qualifiers have begun, not once have we carved open an opposing defence with intricate passing and scored a goal worthy of applause.

All our goals so far have come from either headers brought about by poor defending from our opponents or goalmouth scrambles. It appears that our midfielders and attackers do not know each other and are incapable of working with one another.

Looking back to the way we scored goals during the Westerhoff glory years, I find it utopian to even think that today’s Eagles can put together one of those 10-pass moves that will result in a goal. Rashidi Yekini remains Nigeria’s highest ever goal scorer, followed closely by Segun Odegbami. None of the current crop of strikers looks like remotely challenging this order.

Watching our strikers squander chance after chance in Malabo, I kept asking myself what long-term plans Amodu has to address the problem. He came up with a short-term solution during the second half of the game, replacing Ike Uche and Osaze Odemwingie with Victor Anichebe and Obinna Nsofor respectively but alas, it proved not to be good enough.

Although I must admit that both players added some teeth to the attack and excited the crowd with their energy, tenacity and mazy runs, they still failed to add to the tally. One thing that did strike me and one question, which I asked myself immediately after the substitutions, was did Amodu actually take off the right players when he brought these two on?

I was particularly puzzled as to why Yakubu Aiyegbeni remained on the Malabo pitch for 90 minutes despite being the most wasteful of our marksmen. To me, replacing Aiyegbeni with Anichebe as David Moyes does at Everton and leaving Osaze playing out on the flanks looked like a more logical course of action.

However, it appears that Aiyegbeni is an untouchable during the Amodu era and is a player who has an automatic shirt irrespective of form. Is Amodu really trying to tell us that neither Anichebe nor Kanu are capable of playing the targetman role in his 4-3-3 formation just as well or better than Aiyegbeni?

When you look at the workrate, energy, enthusiasm, running and eye for goal that Anichebe brings to the table, I would question whether selection is really based on merit. Would Amodu be willing to throw the position open to competition, inviting the likes of Chrisantus MaCauley into camp to fight for a shirt?

Until we get this important facet of the team right, we are not going to be winning any silverware soon. Teams that do not score goals do not lift trophies. Champions normally have a certain swagger about them, which enables them to create goals out of nothing, shred opposing defences to pieces and finish clinically.

Even the most ardent optimist will admit that our current Eagles are nowhere near as good as this and are in no way pleasing on the eye. Since Amodu took over, we are yet to score one goal that could make a top 20 goals of the season competition.

In all fairness to Amodu he has heeded calls to drop some of his favourites and pick players on merit and subsequently played Uche Kalu and Chidi Odiah against Equatorial Guinea in place of Nwankwo Kanu and Yusuf Mohammed. However, will he be prepared to take this further by picking the entire team based on productivity and current form?

I wonder if Amodu ever looks at Opta Stat Index data to find out how many miles each player runs, who works the hardest, who jumps the highest, who makes more passes, who tracks back more, who makes more tackles, etc. If he does not, I would suggest that the Nigerian Football Association provides him with a laptop computer and the necessary software.

Amodu needs to be told that the 2010 World Cup is too big a prize for his personal sentiments to get in the way of team selection. I for one will be waiting to see what kind of decision he makes when Obafemi Martins returns to the team. I hope that for our collective sakes, merit, team chemistry and unity of purpose remains the sole criteria for being picked.

As things stand, our attack is simply not good enough. Amodu needs to fix the problem if he does not want all those singing hosanna today to start calling for his head tomorrow.