A member of the senior national team of Nigeria says Victor Osimhen didn’t play as the top striker for the Super Eagles in the 2-0 win over Cameroon in the round of 16 game at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Despite not getting among the goals, Osimhen was simply unplayable in the win and set up the assist for the first goal scorer by Ademola Lookman, who grabbed a brace in the game.
Osimhen chased every ball down and was the first line of press for the team. His all round display earned him lot of praises especially how he tracked back to help out in defensive actions when Nigeria had to in their half.
Explaining a player in the team said, their game plan was executed perfectly by Osimhen who was told by head coach Jose Peseiro to play away from the box and drag defenders out of position for Lookman to play in the box.
He said Moses Simon the third player in the attack on paper was saddled with the job of covering up in the midfield for Alex Iwobi, who was also given the freedom to roam into the box when we went to oherload the box.
” When you are on the bench you see it clearly. I was on the bench and the execution of the role assigned to Simon, Lookman and Osimhen left me stunned. Osimhen wasn’t in the box like other games. His job was to pull the defenders away. The striker role was left for Lookman”, he said in an exclusive chat.
” Simon is meant to defend in the middle for Iwobi when he goes into the box to stop a counter. Many didn’t know that Osimhen wasn’t a number 9 in that game per say, it was Lookman”.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman