Should Super Eagles coach Peseiro stick with his 4-4-2 formation against Zimbabwe?

Nigeria head into the game against Zimbabwe under massive pressure after falling to pick the maximum points against Lesotho on matchday one of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

José Peseiro has some decisions to make ahead of tomorrow's tie and one of them might be whether to stick with his favourite 4-4-2 formation.

The Portuguese football tactician admitted after the game against Lesotho that  his strikers were not used to playing with a partner up front in their clubs.

However, that does not hold water because more often than not players play a different role for their clubs from that of their national teams.

Instead of abandoning his favoured formation, what the 63-year-old should be looking at is the choice of the two strikers to be selected.

Apparently, Victor Boniface and Terem Moffi are the first-choice strikers available for tomorrow's tie and both played for more than half an hour together against the Crocodiles and were not impressive as a pair.

Thus, it would be wrong to start the Bayer Leverkusen ace and his Nice counterpart at the same time.

The way forward is to use Moffi or Boniface and a player who is capable of playing the number 10 role or a winger comfortable playing as an inside forward.

Therefore, Peseiro should try using Ademola Lookman or Kelechi Iheanacho up front as they have played in a two-man attack for Atalanta and Leicester City respectively in  previous seasons.

Another alternative is to use Joe Aribo who I would choose if I were him as the Southampton midfielder has shown previously that he can play comfortably with a striker.

Aribo demonstrated this recently in the 3-2 win over Mozambique where he partnered Moffi and was at the centre of the majority of the Super Eagles attack in that encounter.

Therefore, Peseiro is advised to consider tweaking his selection of the two central forwards rather than abandon his favoured 4-4-2  formation. 

Abdulkareem Abdulhamid

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