Lagos — Nigerians have been calling for the removal of Super Eagles Head Coach, Shaibu Amodu, despite qualifying for the World Cup and placing third at the just- concluded Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. The call is premised on the fact that the team is not doing well. The process to get a new coach is on, but our Group Sports Editor, Peter Edema, examines the reasons for the call, asking: Is Amodu truly the team's problem? Find out more

Calls for the removal of Shaibu Amodu as Super Eagles head coach, reached a crescendo during the group stage of the just-concluded Africa Cup of Nations in Angola where the team finished third.

After Super Eagles lost its opening match 3-1 to the Pharaohs of Egypt and its unimpressive 1-0 wins over Benin Republic Squirrels, Nigerians simply did not want Amodu again to head the team. Even, when he achieved a semi-final target given him by his employer, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), there was no relenting in the call for his removal.

But the NFF did not help matters after the continental tourney, promising to overhaul the team alongside its coaching crew.

NFF said in a statement that overhauling the team had become inevitable for a better performance of the team in future international assignments.

"We will take a critical look and make changes to the technical team and the players," the statement noted, adding, "There is also the need to inject fresh legs into the team in order to engender keen competition for places. Our goal is to make necessary changes that will lead us to a creditable performance at the FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa this June."

To make good its threat, the NFF, according to an insider, has shortlisted five foreign coaches to take over Amodu's job, though he may be allowed to remain with the team to the World Cup as assistant coach.

For the apostle of foreign coach for the Super Eagles, the end is near for the Edo State- born coach.

However, there is paradox in the entire scenario. Why should Nigerians clamour for the removal of a coach that qualified their country for its fourth World Cup appearance, a coach that did not lose a single match all through the qualifiers?

"Amodu is suffering from fixation on players and style," says Editor of Soccer Star, Kunle Solaja, at a forum in Lagos during the week, adding, "Amodu's over- dependence on certain players despite evidence that they are not fit points to a fundamental error in him as a coach."

Amodu's reliance on his 4-3-3 formation - all through the just- concluded Africa Cup of Nations and even througho - easily made the team vulnerable.

Even since the exit of Austin J.J. Okocha, he has failed not only to get a replacement for the midfield star, but also to produce a creative pivot in the team.

To underscore this fact, Yakubu Aiyegbeni fired the first salvo after his poor performance against Egypt became the topic of the day.

"But when you have four, five defensive midfielders in the team, who can't get the ball over to the strikers, what can you do? We do not have an Austin Okocha or a Sunday Oliseh.

"We have been struggling in most of our games because we do not have a creative midfielder which is not the case, for instance, at my club where there are players who can create openings for strikers.

"It has been really very difficult for us and even the best strikers in the world would struggle in such a team," Aiyegbeni said.

If Aiyegbeni's defence was not an indictment of the coach, hear Osaze Odemwingie's comment after the team crashed out of the gold medal chase losing to Ghana 1-0.

Odemwingie attacked Amodu's tactics for the semi-final encounter, insisting they were too negative.

The Lokomotiv Moscow striker said, "He started with a lone striker, just like the Ghana team. This did not help us because we had too few chances. He should have changed things quickly but he did nothing, yet we knew Ghana would play with their backs to goal.

"We had three defensive midfielders who don't create goals (chances). In these circumstances we couldn't cross or create chances. There was no logic in our game and that's why we could not win."

Continuing he said, "We played as individuals not as a team and I think we need more tactical flexibility than to play a 4-3-3 all the time. We need to play more attacking football," Odemwingie said.

Amodu's disdain for home-based player, refusing to give any of them the opportunity of fighting for a shirt has irked Nigerians who are unable to fathom a reason why a home-based coach would discriminate against home-based players. There was also the call for the inclusion of young players, hungry for success, players who want to make name for themselves, but the coach thinks otherwise. Rather than look for enterprising players, he filled the team with bench warmers.

Because of this fixation, he hurriedly dropped eight players prior to the team training camp in Durban, South Africa. A decision Taiye Ige, said was too hasty.

"By this decision, he, Amodu, did not create any sense of competition in the camp. In Durban, everybody behaved in such away that it was fait accompli as he went to camp with almost the number of players needed for the Nations Cup.

"Even Amodu himself realised, though late that, an Dele Adeleye would have made a lot of difference in the defence than an Obina Nwaneri or that the Bayelsa defender, Chibuzor Okonkwo, would have made a lot of deference than a Yusuf Mohamed," Ige said.

But to the former Gombe State Football Association Chairman, Shuaibu Gara-Gombe, Amodu is not the problem, but just a fraction of it.

"The problem is holistic and whatever happened to the team in Angola is just telling us what Nigeria is today.

"Amodu is just a fraction of the whole, the country, the supervisory authority, that is, the Sports Ministry, the administrators of the game, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the coach, the players and the public are all part of the cause of the failure that was witnessed in Angola.

"When you analyse all the four sectors, which make up the whole, each of these units has one fault or the other.

"If each of these units will do the right thing, correct its mistakes, only then can we have a functional Super Eagles.

According to him, "It is unfortunate that a country about to celebrate its 50 years of independence, is yet to have a workable constitution; still trying to adopt proper national values and vision; still trying to provide adequate power, water, roads; still not sure if the military will return to power or not.

"When you have such problems, no sector, sports inclusive, can function properly. We have a National Assembly, which has oversight functions but prefers to be selective and not proactive," he said, adding, "no country can function properly under this situation.

"The leadership of the Sports Ministry, which supervises sports in the country, is the worst ever in recent times. We expect clear-cut policies, modern, realistic and achievable. Unfortunately, when the present leadership of the ministry came on board, they started with the unattainable policy of concession, though it is dead.

"The ministry has provided poor supervision of the game inasmuch that when the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was changing its status that is against the laws of the land and the constitution, the ministry was busy fighting the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC. There is poor supervision of the football sector.

"The sports ministry is expected to protect government interest and the constitution of the land as far as sports is concerned, but it has failed in this regard.

"The present board of the NFF came into being under controversial circumstances. There is no accountability, no clear-cut youth development programme, no clear-cut national teams transition, poor information management, no trust between it and the public, in short, they operate like a cabal. This NFF has the highest number of coaches' turn-over, inconsistency of rules there; employs coaches that are not qualified. So under such circumstances anything can happen," he said.

On Amodu, Gara-Gombe said, "he is just not competent enough to coach the team. Amodu believes in certain players, and that without them there can be no Super Eagles. You can only teach what you know. And what will an incompetent coach gives, a mediocre team?

The public, according to him, is impatient. It wants to win at all times and under such situation, the coaches are put under undue pressure.

A former sports broadcaster with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Tayo Balogun, does not also believe that Amodu is the problem.

"Amodu is part of the problem, but the main problem is the administration that threw up a coach without giving him a mandate.

"They did not tell Amodu to have a blend of youth and old players. A semi-final and World Cup qualification is not mandate but a brief. The fact the Nigerians were calling for his sack despite qualifying for the World Cup indicates that they were satisfied with the team's performance. Unlike the Egyptians, they did not qualify for the World Cup, they were not happy, but did not call for the sack of their coach.

"Whereas it was because Amodu wanted to qualify at all cost, he was too cautious and almost boomerang at the end of the day. This explains why he went to Tunisia for a draw when a win was possible," Balogun said.