AFCON 2021: How Eguavoen’s philosophy lifts pressure off Super Eagles striker Taiwo Awoniyi

To the untrained eye, Taiwo Awoniyi did not have a great game in Nigeria’s 1-0 win against Egypt because he failed to score or assist, but that is not the case at all.

Awoniyi performed well enough for a player making his first Super Eagles start, only his second cap and most notably his AFCON debut against the seven-time winners.

He did well enough to occupy the attention and absorb the physicality of Egypt’s brutal centre-back duo, Ahmed Hegazy and Mahmoud Hamdi.

That may not seem like much to the average football fan but Augustine Eguavoen appreciates it which will serve as a massive morale boost for Taiwo Awoniyi going into the game against Sudan.

“We are not gonna build our team around one person scoring goals, that’s why we try to assist one another, we’re not looking at one person to be a point man, it’s a collective effort,” said Augustine Eguavoen in his pre-match press conference for the game against Sudan.

The gaffer’s comments take the pressure to score off Taiwo Awoniyi and encourage him to keep doing whatever he can to help the team against Sudan but much better than he did against Egypt.

Augustine Eguavoen’s follow-up statement showed that he is not absolving Taiwo Awoniyi of the goalscoring responsibility, just that a goal is not the ultimate requirement to stay in the team.

“The responsibility of every striker is to score goals but where that one is not coming, we’re looking for assists. I’ve always told them to have confidence, all the boys, whoever can find himself on the scoresheet, then that’s fine enough” Eguavoen added.

Taiwo Awoniyi would have to improve on some things from the previous game in this encounter against Sudan if he wants to continue leading the line for Nigeria.

He missed one big chance in the 47th minute against Egypt and even though it was more a great save than a bad miss, Taiwo Awoniyi should still have scored.

In that game, Awoniyi won just one of his eight aerial duels, which is poor for someone his size, but also understandable against the brutal Egyptian centre-backs. However, he must improve on that against Sudan. 

Another thing that could be better against Sudan is the partnership with Kelechi Iheanacho, if they both start in the next game. Against Egypt, Awoniyi was too far away from his strike partner on many occasions especially earlier in the game.

To be fair, that was their first game together at senior level so understandably they need time to work on the partnership but it must begin with Awoniyi becoming more aware of Iheanacho’s position and movement against Sudan.

Only Robert Lewandowski, Patrik Schick, Erling Haaland and Anthony Modeste have scored more Bundesliga goals than Taiwo Awoniyi this season, which means he is very good at putting the ball in the back of the net. 

He needs his first Super Eagles goal to boost his confidence as soon as possible but whether or not that happens against Sudan, Awoniyi can rest assured that his place in the team is safe as long as he keeps helping the team and satisfying the manager.