Chapter 736: Egoists?
Jason had wanted to go back to sleep after, but Osimen and Iwobi were not having it and dragged him out of bed.
They had been sent up to come call him in the first place as there was a celebratory dinner planned for him who had won the Champions League so they were definitely not going back without the person who was to be the star of the party.
So, against all his tired complaints and groaning, they dragged him to the elevator and headed to the floor the dinner was taking place.
All Jason’s complaints and tired groans stopped after he was dragged into the hall where the other players who had been called up were waiting.
Surprisingly, they were not the only ones there, as a few of the training staff and even a few other old Nigerian players who had retired from the national team were there.
There seemed to have been much more thought put into the party than a mere surprise dinner party and now Jason was thrown into the center.
Glancing back at Osimen who was wearing his Champions League medal like it was a bling chain, Jason thought, ’So this was what you meant by I’d need the medal,’
’But then, why are you the one wearing it and not me?’ he thought further but was soon pulled into the party.
Tired as he was, he could not deny that he was pleasantly surprised and felt his heart warm up to the fact that people were celebrating him.
Since he was the first Nigerian player to win the Champions League since 2013, at least this much was expected, now that he thought about it... but before it happened he hadn’t even thought about it.
The party went on for a while and Jason got to meet some of the older retired Nigerian players who had come around for the party.
It was a fun night, but by the time Jason headed back up to his room and he hit his bed, he wasn’t awake for a full minute before his consciousness disappeared.
***
The next day, Jason joined the other Nigerian players who had been called up for the international break and they had some light training done so as not to exhaust them before the match.
The major focus of the training was on the tactical setup of the team since that was usually the issue for the players.
Mostly, it was tactical training and scrimmages to increase the familiarity of the players with each other.
Since the players were usually playing for different teams all over the world, each with their own tactical setup, bringing them together and playing them even in the same positions they played in clubs couldn’t bring out the best of a player most times.
Muscle memory, team chemistry, and player ego always bumped into each other at the national stages and this was why it was usually not a rare occurrence for a national team with the best players in the world not playing at their full capabilities.
This was most national teams usually played the most used tactics in their domestic leagues.
The Spanish national team adopted its tiki-taka style of football.
The Germans used their gengen high press style.
The Italians mostly adopted three-defender formations with strong tactical defending as the foundation of their tactics.
Netherlands used their 4-3-3 formation... And so on.
For countries with well-developed leagues and an optimal football industry, most of their players were brought up in the country or played in their leagues.
Either one or both of these occurrences made it easy for the players to be familiar to the type of football that was mostly played in their country.
However, in countries that didn’t have that much of a developed football industry like most African countries, didn’t have a signature playing style.
Throughout history, Africa has produced many iconic players, but they’ve never had an iconic national team that is known for something on the world stage.
Most of the players from African countries were the products of the footballing academies in other countries hence by the time all these players are gathered for the national team, they were all products of different playing styles.
Since they played in different clubs, there was usually low symmetry between them which was usually what the national team managers tried to reduce however, it was easier said than done.
There was usually never enough time for the players to get used to playing with each other and the moment a little symmetry started being built up, the players had to go back to their own clubs and played a different type of football.
This was why it was not rare to see national teams with top level players performing terribly below the level anyone would expect of them.
Added to this was the issue of the players’ egos, and this one in particular was not limited to only African nations.
Due to the issues with familiarity, most national teams usually had a very simple plan and this usually worked especially well whenever there was one player who was a lot better than the rest.
The tactic was very simple... give the ball to that one player and play around him.
In Poland, they did it with Lewandowski.
In Argentina, it was Messi.
In Brazil, it was Neymar.
In Portugal, it was Ronaldo.
Normally this tactic usually worked as long as the players had a huge respect for that one player, but there was another side to this coin.
This situation could lead to some egoistical player on the team trying to outplay the one player who was to be the focal point of their tactics.
And if there were more than one such egoistical player?
Utter chaos on the field.
Unfortunately, with a team like the Nigerian national team, it was geared for that sort of chaos.
There was no particularly famous Nigeria defender, but the forwards on the team had been making waves in the football world lately, so naturally, the team was more geared towards attack than defense.
The problem was that most of the forwards were considered to be around the same level so with their egos clashing everyone would always try to outplay the others which usually led to each forward trying to put on a distinctive individual performance.
In the end, they mostly ended up losing the ball most of the time and forcing the team back on the defensive as they tried to score exceptional goals.
This was a problem before Jason joined the national team and the reason this problem didn’t rear it’s ugly head during Jason’s first matches was because he had been overly unselfish with the ball and since he was controlling the tempo of the game, he usually had the ball most of the time.
Since no one thought of him as much of a competition at that time, he had played how he wanted, giving the ball to the players in dangerous positions, there wasn’t much fooling around.
However now that the other players began seeing him as a competitor, Rohr could already foresee the chaos that might ensue on the pitch if he didn’t do something to curb the issue.