Switzerland-based Nigeria coach advises Nigeria U17 coaches to upgrade themselves

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

Anthony Adeyemi has admonished head Coach of Nigeria’s national U-17 team, Nduka Ugbade, and his caching crew to go and upgrade themselves after they failed to lead the team to the FIFA U17 World Cup.

A 2-1 loss to Burkina Faso in the quarter-final of the 2023 U-17 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) meant the record U-17 World Champions will not participate in this year’s World Cup.

And the Switzerland based Nigerian coach blamed the Eaglets’ technical crew for the team’s exit, stressing that the players were individually good.

“Our failure to qualify for the U17 World Cup is very sad. We went to Algeria with very talented players. The players were individually very good but in football, coaching has a big role to play.” Adeyemi told AfroSports.com.

“The team kept making the same mistakes that saw them concede goals at the group stage. The shape of our defense was poor all through and it is obvious the coaching crew had no plan B and C depending on the opposition.

“One thing is clear, you can not give what you don’t have. My advice to the technical crew is that they should go and upgrade themselves. The technical input from the bench was poor.

“They didn’t read the games well even when we paraded players with individual quality. For me, given the kind of players we have, we should have beaten any team out there in Algeria.”

Nigeria scored five goals and conceded five goals at the tournament but falter in the quarter final stage.

It defeated Zambia (1-0) and South Africa (3-2) in the group stage and lost 1-0 to Morocco in its second game before crashing out to fellow West African side, Burkina Faso in the quarter-final.