Finidi Attacks Peseiro's AFCON Tactics Following Ghana's victory

“Osimhen ran too much alone..."

Legend of the Nigerian Super Eagles Finidi George has delivered a harsh assessment of former boss Jose Peseiro's strategies at AFCON 2023.

Former Super Eagles winger Finidi George was blunt while evaluating the team's prior failures at the Africa Cup of Nations under Jose Peseiro, following Nigeria's thrilling 2-1 triumph over Ghana in Morocco.

Finidi was assistant to Peseiro during the recently concluded AFCON 2023 where the Super Eagles made it to the final against Cote d'Ivoire.

Finidi describes the Super Eagles' strategy

Speaking to the media following the match against rivals Ghana, Finidi emphasized a crucial tactical change that, in his opinion, helped Nigeria defeat their West African rivals.

The Olympic gold medallist from Atlanta '96 said, “We played with a 3-5-2 formation.”

“But at the AFCON, it was only Osimhen and we felt he was doing too much running alone.”

Finidi, who played for the three-time African champions and amassed 62 caps, seems to embrace a strike tandem in order to give the Napoli striker more assistance.

Starting the game against Otto Addo's team, the Enyimba and Eagles manager went against the Ivory Coast system, with Kelechi Iheanacho and Cyriel Dessers heading the attack.

“I wanted some other player in a strike pairing,” the former winger for Ajax and Real Betis stated. “We could see once a player gets the ball, there was an opportunity for a pass.”

The 52-year-old was blunt in his assessment of the necessity of adopting a more offensive mentality when facing the Black Stars.

“We had to take some risks, but we had to get something positive going forward,” he added.

Will the Nigeria Football Federation adopt a two-striker system moving forward, as suggested by Finidi?

Time will tell, but the Super Eagles supporters will surely disagree with the renowned wide receiver's opinion.

Today, Finidi and his Eagles will be back on the field for game two of their Moroccan tour against the Eagles of Mali.

When Nigeria takes to the pitch, it will be intriguing to watch if the former Ajax player keeps the same shape.