"I AM NOT STUBBORN, I AM JUST BEING PRINCIPLED” – SUPER EAGLES COACH, SUNDAY OLISEH

Newly recruited Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh has said his being principled is sometimes mistaken for stubbornness. The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder while speaking in an interview with Journalists in Abuja maintained, “there is a difference between being stubborn and being principled. If you are stubborn without reason, it means you are a mad man. It is principle when for example, you refuse to smoke when everybody is smoking, then I would rather die with that stubborness of not smoking. On the other hand, I grew up in Europe and in Nigeria when Nigeria was not as it is now. We grew when Nigeria had hardship. I might be stubborn as you say but I am more principled and I am growing old. I am over 40 now.”

The former Super Eagles playmaker also revealed the style the team would adopt under his managerial reign, “my style will depend on the kind of players at my disposal. The style will be individual player related and we don’t have these players and for that reason, we have to have a team style of play and that means we have 11 players on the pitch where every player would not only be told what to expect from him but would be chosen for that particular position based on certain qualities that he has. For example, you cannot play in our attacking line up if speed is not one of your your strongest points. That is something we are hoping to do.”

“The 3-4-3, 4-2-4 is just what we coaches use in deceiving people. The reality is that we get to the field we animate that formation. How we animate is to use what we have to achieve. If for example, we are playing Argentina, let us be honest, they are way, way better than us, we cannot go out there and be audacious enough to say we are playing with a pattern that is attacking and offensive. Even the Germans don’t do it when they play the Spaniards. Our playing pattern is based on who we play. We can’t expect me to ask my defender to start attacking from the back and we concede a goal and lose. The pattern we are going to play will be passing game coupled with other tactics based on opposition and the pitch.”