It runs deep in the fabric of the Nigerian team. Perhaps that’s why it is never paid as much attention as is required. It is not for the pedestrian follower or ordinary lover of the game, but for those with a special eye to see beyond the superficiality of the surface discussions on the senior national team and its present state. Why have the Super Eagles not been flying as high and as well as they used to, the way that has now been recognised as traditional or cultural to the team? We have said it in the past that Nigerian football, the best of it, is based on three key elements: the first is wing play - fast breaks from defence to attack using very quick and athletic runners down both flanks. The second is a hardworking midfield of two made up of hardworking non-stop runners with the ability to set attackers free with their lofty launchers behind opposing defences! The third is a creative midfield (or central defence), that dictates how the entire team plays (Keshi and Chukwu did it from central defence, Henry Nwosu, Haruna Ilerika and Jay Jay Okocha did it from attacking midfield positions). Those are the key elements in the well established style that defines the Super Eagles from the early 1970s. Every other element can be made up of a little bit of this and a little bit of that. The team will still look more or less the same.

So what has happened to this basic standard and philosophy?

The issue of a midfield general has been adequately discussed in the past. It is beginning to sound like a broken record. The country is still searching for the creative genius to replace Jay Jay Okocha. Because of the effectiveness of the front runners when freed down the flanks what Jay Jay did from the midfield could also be done from the heart of the defence with some great movements up field and some pinpoint passing over long distances in the manner of Franz Berkenbauer, Christian Chukwu, Stephen Keshi and even Sunday Oliseh were masters. Mikel cannot do it. He is not the creative midfield conductor the country’s searching for. Nigeria’s great challenge is how to get the best out of this extra-ordinarily gifted midfield player who’s playing at half his capacity up till now because an effective role has not been found or created for him.

The greatest shortcoming of the Eagles is the failure to exploit its greatest strengths - speed, power, athleticism and its left flank! The Eagles left side has been very ineffective since the failure to find a suitable replacement for Emmanuel Amuneke. The Eagles used to fly best using both wings – Adekunle Awesu and Babaotu Mohammed; Segun Odegbami and Adokie Amiesimaka/Felix Owolabi; a whole army of right wingers (Wole Odegbami, Clement Temile, Pius Ikedia, Emmanuel Okocha) complimenting left wingers (Humphrey Edobor, Chris Ohenhen, Folorunsho Okenla); Finidi George/Tijani Babangida and Emmanuel Amuneke. And many more down the generations. With most players being right-footed, getting good right wingers has never been Nigeria’s challenge. The system keeps churning them out. The same cannot be said of the left side. Yet that is the side that is even more critical for the Eagles to play well. The greater strength on the left side is the winger. Once Nigeria had a great left winger any ordinary player, even a right footed player, would play well at the left back position. Let us go down history lane. When Awesu was the best left winger in the continent of Africa, Samuel Ojebode, a right-footed player, was left back! He was rock solid at that position. When Felix and Adokie were effectively keeping teams busy down the left flank, Okey Isima, another right-footed player, converted from midfield, made the left back position his private property. He looked great and comfortable. Even Johnny Orlando, the weakest full back to ever wear the colours of the Nigerian team effectively manned the left back position because of the effectiveness of Chief Justice and Owoblow! When Amuneke was busy striking terror in the hearts of opposing right full backs, Ben Iroha, another right-footed player, converted from attack for lack of a natural left-footed defender, was effectively manning the left back of the Nigerian defence. This spate of conversion of players to the left back position means several things; 1. With the right condition upfront it is not a difficult position to play although it is a challenge filling it with natural left-footed players. 2. There is a dearth of natural left-footed players in Nigeria and with full backs it is even worse. 3. With an effective winger on the left wing the left back position becomes easy to manage, and adds to the attacking options of the Eagles. I am the second highest goal scorer in the history of Nigerian football simply because there was an endless service of goal-scoring crosses coming from Awesu, Owolabi, Ojebode and Adokie on the left flank! My head did the rest of the damage.

So what am I saying? In Taiye Taiwo Nigeria has one of the best, most gifted, most lethal and most natural left backs in our history. Watch him play in the colours of Marseille and marvel at how good and effective he really is. Going forward he is better than Ashley Cole and his shots on goal are as deadly as Roberto Carlos’s. His left foot is a weapon of mass destruction. Defensively, he is obviously weak, but that is exaggerated by a coach’s failure to support him with a good left winger that will irritate opposing defenders so much that Taiwo would have time and space to put to full effect his WMD and still look as solid as many others before him had looked. The problem is not Taiwo but the lack of a winger to provide more attacking options for the Eagles so that the team can fly!

Every time I watch the Eagles play these days it is obvious that the present improvisation down the left flank is not only one of the major causes of the Eagles poor showings, but also why the entire team looks less effective, less attractive, and very weak defending. The rest of the team spends the entire time inadvertently making up for the weakness of the entire left flank.

Just as no bird can affectively fly on one wing, so have the Eagles not been able to fly using the right wing only. The greater danger now is that an average coach with any sense of tactics can easily, as already has been done during the Africa Cup of Nations, identify this weakness and use it to render the Eagles less effective, less beautiful to watch and a shadow of their old self. The answer is not to look for a more effective defensive left full back, but to go back to the domestic leagues, the academies, the higher institutions, the secondary schools and look for players with a good left foot, that can sprint down the left flank and provide crosses that will make the Eagles look good and soar high once again!