Super Eagles third assistant coach, Usman Abd’Allah believed the old and new players invited for the US tour against Mexico and Ecuador are bonding very well and there is a sense of camaraderie within the team.
The former technical adviser of Enyimba and Wikki Tourists, who was recently appointed to assist Jose Peseiro, also added that the new head is very comfortable working with the local coaches appointed by the Nigeria Football (NFF) to assist him.
“Things are moving very well, I think the integration of the old and new players are going on fine,” Abd’Allah said on NFF Tv. “There is a lot of bonding and unity between the players and the technical crew . The new coach supports us very well and anything he does we do it together.”
He added: “Every training session we have to sit for an hour to program the training together, we give our own views and he listens and inputs them into his plans.”
Abd’Allah, however, admitted that the team were not comfortable playing with a three-man defensive formation against El Tri of Mexico on Sunday, adding that the coaching crew are working on defensive and offensive strategies.
“We are currently undergoing different forms of training,” he said. “Unlike the last game (against Mexico) we started with a back three, I don’t think most of the players are familiar with the back three formation, so we opted for the back four formation which we changed and as you can see we improved in the second half.
“So that is what we are doing, we are working on the defensive and offensive mode.”
The Super Eagles are in the United States on a training tour as part of their preparations for the upcoming 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Sierra Leone and São Tomé and Príncipe later in the month.
