“I’m not sure what’s going on there.”
Roy Keane was a pundit on ITV’s coverage of the World Cup game between Nigeria and Croatia on Saturday evening, and he wasn’t impressed with the Super Eagles.
Before the tournament began, Nigeria were tipped by many to advance from Group D in Russia, a tough group which also contains Argentina and Iceland. They may still reach the last-16, but they will have to drastically improve in their next tie against Iceland on Friday.
In their opening group game, they fell to a 2-0 defeat and didn’t pose much threat to their opponents. A first-half own goal from Oghenekaro Etebo and a penalty from Luka Modric put Croatia top of Group D.
On ITV, Keane was highly critical of Nigeria’s display.
He said it appeared as they though had no game plan, that they had shown no “desire” or “belief” and that their performance was “really poor.”
Keane wasn’t finished yet though. During the same half-time segment, he was baffled by Nigeria’s decision to form a huddle. Many teams, such as Celtic and the Republic of Ireland – both of whom Keane played for – form a huddle just before kick-off.
However, the former Manchester United captain couldn’t understand why Nigeria got into a huddle at the end of the first-half.
“I’ve never seen it happen before, I don’t think,” Keane said when ITV showed footage of the huddle.
“It’s as if they’ve said the warm-up is now over. I’m not sure what’s going on there. Honestly, they should do that before the game. It’s as if they’re not reacting to what’s going on. They need to liven up.”
Then, at full-time, Keane called the team “lazy” and compared their attempts to defend a corner to “cheating”.
Keane: "Lazy. Cheating. I don't understand why these players don't want to defend properly" pic.twitter.com/A9ZBsrmvzR
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) June 16, 2018
