Ikorodu City FC of Lagos midfielder, Sola Adelani has revealed that the basic strategy he and other players in the home-based national team have learnt under Super Eagles’ technical adviser, Eric Chelle, is how to play like warriors and lions.
Sports247 gathered that, despite two unconvincing draws with lowly rated Zanzibar (0-0 and 2-2) in their build-up friendlies played this week, Adelani believes Chelle has fired up the lads to win this year’s Championship of African Nations.
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Adelani disclosed, “The coach always says, ‘If you are not a warrior, you can’t play football.
“‘If you are doing like a small girl or a lazy boy in the field, you don’t want someone to hit you or you can’t be hard, then you can’t play football.’
“He also tells us that we must be like a lion if we want to play under him.”
Adelani went on to disclose that he has personally developed a liking and admiration for Chelle, mostly because of how the Franco-Malian tactician relates with him on a cordial level and gives him useful success tips.
The soft-spoken youngster added, “I like the coach, because of the way he talks to me. He will say, ‘Sola, when you have the ball, go one-on one.
“‘Even if you lose the ball, that’s not a problem. Just go one-on-one and come back for it. If you lose the ball, always chase it back. Just keep marking one-on-one with the opponent.'”
The gritty midfielder then turned his focus on the general picture of things in the CHAN Eagles, who he declared are all ready to win the second-tier national teams’ continental competition for the first time for Nigeria.
“The boys are ready, because, for the past two or three weeks of training, we’ve been picking up.
“Even when we make some kind of mistakes, the coach lets us know that mistakes do happen in football. So, you just have to improve more and, once the competition starts, give yourself all out,” Adelani declared.
Sports247 reports further that Adelani and his colleague will now turn their focus fully on their first match of CHAN 2024, as they battle cup holders, Senegal on Tuesday; after which they will face Sudan and Congo in their group.
