Ghana coach Akwasi Appiah has jumped to the defence of Dominic Adiyiah, saying the Arsenal Kyiv striker ought not to be heavily criticized.

The 23-year-old has failed to live up to his huge potential since bursting onto the scene as the best U20 player in 2009.

A big money move to Italian giants, AC Milan, after achieving greatness at youth level proved extremely costly to his young career as he failed to make even a single first team appearance for the Rossoneri.

Subsequent loan spells at Reggina, Partizan and Karsiyaka did little to resurrect the dwindling fortunes of Adiyiah.

His call up to the Black Stars for this month’s 2014 World Cup qualifiers thus stirred subtle controversy.

With his inconsistent form in Ukraine with Arsenal Kyiv, many believe the former Heart of Lions hit-man ought to be far away from the Black Stars team.

But Coach Akwasi Appiah says his extensive monitoring system permits him to select Adiyiah who many believe is way past his glory.

He said: “I honestly don’t like discussing individual players. All I can say is that I have data on every player we do a lot of monitoring.

“The thing is that he doesn’t play as a striker at his club, and therefore, his lack of goals.

“People complain about his lack of goals without referring to how he plays at his club.

“We had two games against Sudan and Lesotho and many forget that he was one of the scorers in our first leg game against Lesotho.

“Aside from that, his energy and drive and the way he hustles defenders for me is more important.

“We ought not to destroy our own with these negative comments, but rather keep encouraging the boys.”