Nigeria coach Justin Madugu has opened up on his rotation policy at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, insisting that managing his squad and keeping fringe players ready to step in would be crucial to sustaining the Super Falcons’ title defence through a potential six-match run, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Madugu pointed to Gift Monday’s patience as an example of what his coaching staff had been trying to instil in players who had seen limited action through the early part of the tournament.
“It’s a long tournament,” Madugu told reporters.
“We are expecting to play six games and given the timing of matches in this competition, you really must know how to manage your players very well. We have the intention of making sure that we manage our players very well, so that we can sustain the performance of the team and not allow the selection of players to drop the standards.”
The coach said his staff had made a point of speaking with players yet to feature to ensure they remained ready to seize any opportunity that arose.
“We keep speaking with the ones that are not playing, just to get them ready, because anything can happen at any time,” he said.
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“You must be in touch with everybody in the team, to make sure that at any stage in the course of the competition that they have to come in, they are ready, not just physically, but mentally and psychologically, so that you can get the best out of them. That we have been doing, and we know in the course of this competition, they will all have the opportunity to also showcase what they can also do for the team.”
Monday’s display against Egypt hands Madugu another attacking option heading into Sunday’s quarter-final against Cameroon, with Oshoala, Uchenna Kanu, Joy Omewa, Esther Okoronkwo, Chinwendu Ihezuo and Folashade Ijamilusi all competing for places in the forward line.
The coach admitted that competition for places had made team selection increasingly difficult.
“Having good players in the team is a good headache,” he said.
“But it’s not easy for us as coaches when you have a lot of players that are good. When you come to team selection, you have to go into a lot of details in trying to determine who does what. With the current crop of players that we have, we have to battle sometimes, argue, discuss, look at a lot of things before we finally decide on who comes in to play.”
