I am not just a 442 diamond coach, says Eric Chelle

Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle has dispelled talks that his philosophy lies solely on the 442 diamond formation, www.aclsports.com reports.

The Malian has been under fire from a section of Nigerians in recent times following his insistence on employing the diamond system often seen as unsuitable to Nigerian football.

However, during Nigeria’s win over Rwanda on Saturday, Chelle made some tactical adaptions in-game like a switch to plain 442 at half time and later changing to a five-man defence for the final five minutes of the game.

ACLSports Chief Football Writer Fisayo Dairo then asked Chelle afterwards what changed and why he switched from his beloved diamond thereafter. After a bit of general laughter, he replied:

“If you watch a lot of games involving my teams. If you talk about what my philosophy is, we have the 442 diamond and we have the 442 flat.

“If you watched the AFCON, against Ivory Coast, at the last stages, I had five defenders. So, this is me.

“I changed because in that situation, we needed to be strong in defence, this is why we had five defenders,” said the former Mali coach.

Nigeria face the Bafana Bafana on Tuesday in what is their most important game yet in this qualification series without star striker Victor Osimhen but Chelle says he is focused on the players he has at hand and a strategy to get a good result.

“About this game, I am focused on my players, I am focused on our game plan. I know that the team of South Africa are a very good team. They have lots of good players and a very good coach.

“We know that it is a big game and I am happy to play this game as well as the players and this is the moment for us to have a great game,” said Chelle.

Tuesday’s match will hold at the much vilified Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, starting from 5pm Nigerian time.