Peseiro admits Super Eagles striking partnership of Osimhen and Awoniyi need time, training to gel:: All Nigeria Soccer
Manager Jose Peseiro has admitted that the Super Eagles’ striking partnership of Taiwo Awoniyi and Victor Osimhen needs time and training to gel.
Awoniyi and Osimhen started a game together for the first time in their international careers as the Super Eagles hammered Sao Tome and Principe 6-0 on matchday six of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Both players accounted for four of the six goals scored by the Super Eagles on Sunday with Osimhen helping himself to a hat-trick to finish the AFCON qualifiers in double-digits.
Peseiro had an embarrassment of riches of center forwards for Sunday’s game, with Kelechi Iheanacho and Victor Boniface comfortable playing in that position and a fifth out-and-out striker in Gift Orban could not make his debut due to a training ground injury he suffered in the days leading up to the game.
The Portuguese football tactician correctly noted that Awoniyi, Osimhen, and Boniface are employed as lone center forwards in their respective teams and can form a formidable partnership at the international level if given time.
When asked to rate the performance of the Osimhen and Awoniyi strike partnership, Peseiro told reporters at the post-match press conference: “It’s not easy to create combinations. Even the players play alone in the team, Taiwo plays alone, and Osimhen and Boniface also do.
“You want to play with two strikers but it’s not easy to coordinate with them. You need time and training. I told you yesterday that I need to call the best players every time to build the team.
“People complain I don’t call this player. I can take the best players, good players, but you cannot improve the team if you change every time.
“I’ve trained one team for a year, sometimes you cannot improve the team if you have four days for training the team. I need to take advantage of the best players to improve the spirit and organization.
“If you repeat more times the team to play you can reach the big level ”
Nigeria had ten different scorers in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers: Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman, Terem Moffi, Moses Simon, Taiwo Awoniyi, Samuel Chukwueze, Emmanuel Dennis, Oghenekaro Etebo, Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi.
Ifeanyi Emmanuel
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