I am aware that the first thing most of you will say after reading the heading to this piece is, ‘There he goes again….the eternal critic…”, and maybe with good reason too. Ghana’s Black Stars are currently ranked the number 1 side in Africa, and placing third at the 2008 African Nations Cup and reaching the final two years later, plus a penalty kick away from a potential World Cup semifinal place would paint a picture of progress. Indeed, the Black Stars have done well, no doubt about it, and of course, the logical conclusion to make is that Ghana will probably be tagged as one of the favorites for the 2012 edition in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, especially since defending champions Egypt are floundering in the qualifiers, failing to win in three games and with just a point as well. That is not to say that the African Champions will not qualify, but sometimes it is easy to conclude that Ghana will have an easy road. This piece is to provide an insight into the team at present and proffer ways of keeping the team on its toes as well as improving the team set up.

GOALSCORING – BANE OF THE STARS

Goal-scoring remains a problem for the Black Stars and steps are needed to redress this particular issue. I will limit it to competitive games since that is where reputations are made or broken. Ghana has not done badly in the 2012 qualifiers so far, scoring 6 goals and conceding none in three games but in our last two tournaments, Ghana has not managed to score more than 1 goal within 90 minutes. That particular statistic proved to be Ghana’s undoing in Angola when, after admirably matching the Egyptians in the final, failure to score cost Ghana the trophy. Again, failure to convert chances created in the World Cup quarterfinal against Uruguay proved pivotal in Ghana’s elimination, because the Black Stars again failed to score more than once within 90 minutes. Goran Stevanovic has shown that he is prepared to allow the players to express themselves on the field even though they have to remain tactically alert and whilst it is heartening to note, he has to find a workable solution for the possible absences of lead striker Asamoah Gyan because the current supporting cast of Prince Tagoe and Dominic Adiyiah seem to bottle it against top level opposition. Both Adiyiah and Tagoe scored against Congo in the 2012 AFCON qualifier, but Adiyiah in particular spurned a chance to put Ghana ahead against England and Tagoe also could not do much when he came on in the second half. The Black Stars coaching staff will have to put a monitoring system in place both home and abroad to get new striking talent into the team and give them game time in a bid to improve our options upfront because scoring more goals will only improve Ghana’s chances of winning something for the first time since 1982 and personally, I don’t buy the idea of just including local strikers in the squad without giving them a few minutes of game time that will allow a proper assessment to be made. Bring new strikers in, give them some game time and then they can be properly assessed as to whether they can make the cut or not. The likes of Emmanuel Clottey and Nathaniel Asamoah should get some playing time. This is of paramount importance and the sooner the technical bench of the Black Stars started to work on this, the better the Black Stars will be.

REDRESSING THE ATTACKING BALANCE

In my view, we still have issues regarding who attacks for the Black Stars down the right. This became apparent during the World Cup last year when Prince Tagoe failed to live up to expectations as a right-sided attacker. Eventually Ghana has to use Samuel Inkoom as an emergency right winger and to some extent it worked, but the modern trends of football will tell you that even in a conventional 4-4-2 formation, the pattern of play devised by any coach will be expected to reap, at the very least, decent attempts on goal by players attacking on the flanks. Indeed, the 4-4-2 formation is not as rigid as it used to be in the past and so it can easily morph into a 4-2-3-1, 4-5-1, 4-2-1-3 or 4-3-3 to suit the game situation when needed. Clearly Ghana needs new options down the flanks; what I would call a goal threat down the right. My humble opinion is that we already have at least two players more than capable of playing perfectly in that position and I will go as far as naming the two that I have in mind.

The first is ex-Hearts of Oak striker Samuel Affum, who has improved greatly on his mobility over the last couple of years and expends a tremendous work rate level whenever he plays. He is currently performing quite well in the Egyptian Premier League and his ability to skillfully take on players means that he is a very strong candidate for the right attacking role. The other is Affum’s strike partner last season at Hearts, Mahatma Otoo. The Black Satellites captain has game intelligence and also loves attacking from the flanks and like Affum, also works very hard to not only score goals, but also create opportunities for his team-mates and he is also another option for the right attacking slot. Either of these players will do a better job than Inkoom, who to me is an excellent full back who should be allowed to play in his favoured position (I will come to that soon). With Andre Ayew, who has had an excellent season at Marseille, attacking from down the left, with Opoku Agyemang as a backup, the Black Stars will suddenly have more attacking options and that will allow Gyan for example to stay centrally upfront, instead of always foraging for the ball down the wings.

MISSING INGREDIENTS IN PATTERN OF PLAY

I will be the first to agree that Ghana has an embarrassment of riches in midfield, as far as personnel is concerned, but there are two major ingredients missing from our game which result in many man-of-the-match awards for goalie Richard Kingston. For clarification please read on. The two ingredients I am talking about here are movement off the ball and pressing. Barcelona’s success in the Spanish La Liga and in Europe is all down to these two attributes. Players like Lionel Messi, David Villa and Pedro Rodriguez work very hard during games in terms of their movement without the ball and indeed that is why top class midfielders like Xavi and Andres Iniesta will always give needlepoint passes that will create goals. A prime example is Pedro’s goal against Real Madrid on Tuesday night, which came as a result of excellent movement off the ball by Villa and Messi, who both took players with them and created space for Pedro to receive Iniesta’s pass for the goal. Excellent movement off the ball from Manchester United players resulted in the 4 goals scored against Schalke 04 on Wednesday night at Old Trafford. Funnily enough, one of the goals scored during the recent Glo Premier League match between Heart of Lions and Asante Kotoko in Kpando was as a result of good movement off the ball from Ahmed Toure which resulted in the Ivorian striker taking players with him and allowing strike partner Nathaniel Asamoah to take on defenders to score a great goal. I used the phrase ‘funnily enough’ because movement off the ball is not a part of the Ghanaian game.

Movement off the ball involves moving as soon as you release the ball into space to make yourself available to receive a pass and my good friend, Nana Kwaku Agyemang says that triangular movement by players increase options for the player holding the ball in terms of passes made. Unfortunately, our Black Stars players tend to stay close to the players marking them and so it reduces options for whoever has the ball in terms of releasing passes and that also limits the ability to create enough space to cause damage to the opposition. Simply put, our movement off the ball is not good enough! One major reason is that movement off the ball requires tactically aware players who are also athletic and fully fit. Such attributes mean that players of a certain age limit are required to work very hard to make movement off the ball quite effective but the question that needs to be asked is whether, despite the many players we have in the midfield area for example, we have the players who can work very hard on movement off the ball.

Many did not understand former Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac’s preference for younger players in the Black Stars but he was justified in doing so because football has evolved so much that now, every player, no matter the level of sheer skill and talent, has to have an appetite for hard work to succeed at the very top. This is because players who just rely on skill to play end up being closed down so quickly by younger and fitter opposing players. That is pressing and I will come to that in a moment, but clearly, most of our players are sometimes too slow and that slows the pace of the game and in addition we are yet to perfect movement off the ball.

Movement of the ball is linked to the second ingredient which is pressing and with that, the Black Stars have been found lacking. In most of our games, we end up sitting too deep and as a result, we rather invite the opposition to attack us. This results in Ghana’s defenders being forced to work overtime and the reason why I mentioned earlier on that Richard Kingston almost always turns out to be one of Ghana’s best players in most games because he is constantly under pressure to make saves. Pressing involves every player in the team putting pressure on players on the opposing team and it involves harassing the opposing player into making mistakes, closing out space and generally pushing a high line to keep the opposing team on the back foot. A classic example is the Ghana game against England. The Black Stars were overrun in midfield in the first half because Anthony Annan sat too deep and that invited wave after wave of attack from the English midfield. When Derek Boateng replaced Annan in the second half, he was pressing from a much higher line and you could see the way he was harassing the English players. His performance lifted the Black Stars and ultimately, that resulted in Gyan’s equalizer. All I am saying is that the Black Stars have to press higher up the pitch to force the opposition to make mistakes, instead of always sitting deep to invite attacks from the opposition. This will ease the pressure on the defence and on Kingston as well, and can also result in more goals for Ghana in the long run. Pressing high up the pitch is a must-have attribute for any team that wants to be successful and that is why I will again use Barcelona as a shining example because all their players, from Villa, Messi and Pedro through Xavi, Busquets and Iniesta to the likes of Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol always press high up the pitch. Many thanks to Nana Kwaku Agyemang, who gave me a crash course in movement off the ball and pressing higher up the pitch and that is why I am able to share these technical thoughts.

MIDFIELD – AN ASSET OR A HINDRANCE

Following on from the earlier discourse on movement off the ball and pressing higher up the pitch, perhaps the questions to ask now is the sort of personnel in midfield that the Black Stars will need in midfield to implement the two important attributes and in my view, Anthony Annan has to up his game otherwise he could lose his starting place in the Black Stars to either Derek Boateng or Emmanuel Agyemang Badu. Oh, I almost forgot news reports which indicate that Michael Essien seems to have ended his self-imposed international break. Even though I will still say that he has to fight for his place in the team, and so should everyone else for that matter, he probably is Ghana’s best option in terms of not only protecting the back four but also pressing higher up the pitch. My only worry regarding him is that he has not had a very good season by his own high standards and so he has a lot to do to return to his previously brilliant levels. So in my view, he has to compete with Derek Boateng, Agyemang Badu and Annan for that defensive slot but whoever wins that battle has to have the dexterity to not only protect the back four, but to also press higher up the pitch. The other central midfield slot is a straight fight between creative talents Kevin Prince Boateng and Kwadwo Asamoah, with Sulley Muntari as cover from the bench. Kevin has had a fine season with AC Milan and is tactically aware enough to track back, ghost into goal scoring positions from deep and he also has an eye for a pass, not to mention a very good work rate level. I am a bit concerned about Asamoah, who in my view has not worked hard enough to fulfill his huge potential, even though he is an ever-present for Udinese this season. He is talented, but needs to work hard to increase his performance levels. I opt for Muntari starting from the bench because the Sunderland midfielder has lost pace and might not be able to put too much work in to keep Ghana’s midfield ticking right from the start. He will be best suited to a role off the bench where his lethal left foot can not only spray some passes around, but also fire shots to trouble the opposition.

Creatively, I think Heart of Lions playmaker Gladson Awako should be looked at and other options include Hearts of Oak’s Theophilus Apoh and Kotoko’s Michael Akuffo. When Spain won the world cup last year, none of the starting midfielders were up to 30 years, and this clearly shows that youth should play a major role in selection, since a lot of hard work has to be done in midfield. Should Stevanovic decide to go for a 4-2-3-1 formation, then Asamoah could be moved further forward to support the lone striker, otherwise, as I stated earlier on, either Tagoe or Adiyiah will have to improve to partner Gyan up front or any new striker brought into the squad that would be considered good enough to play for the Black Stars.

DEFENCE – SUPERFICIALLY SOLID, BUT………..

On the surface, Ghana’s defence looks solid but there are cracks at the seams that need to be fixed and very soon. These days defenders are also required to be pacey in order to stand up to attacks from speedy and wily forwards, plus an ability to read the game and intercept dangerous balls. My main concern is with John Mensah. He is a superb reader of the game and when fit, he brings organization to Ghana’s defence, but full fitness on a consistent basis has proven to be his Achilles heel. For me, we need to plan for a replacement for him so that he is gradually phased out of the team after next year’s African Nations Cup because he is being over-relied on and the fact that he has put off corrective surgery on his back for so long has not improved the length of his recovery from injuries. Fortunately, I think we have a ready made replacement in Jonathan Mensah, who is younger, fitter and also reads the game quite well, but will need to leave Granada for another team where he will get regular playing time; something that will benefit him. Isaac Vorsah has had a good season with Hoffenheim and should be Jonathan’s partner in central defence, even though he is prone to loss of concentration and should be worked upon to improve. If John Mensah can be kept fit, then he should play, but I think next year’s tournament should be his swansong, beyond which we should look to the younger Mensah to take over. Lee Addy’s horror show against England drove home the point that he is probably better suited to centre back and so he should provide cover for either of the Mensahs and or Vorsah. Personally I think Karim Alhassan should have been made an option for the Black Stars at least a year ago, and it would be hypocritical for anybody to suggest that he is not above the age limit required for the African Youth tournament because he is, even though CAF records would have us believe that he turned 14 just last Saturday, 30th April. He is an excellent option as cover for central defence and so is Ashanti Gold’s Henry Entsir. The left back position continues to pose problems for the Black Stars. I remember mentioning last year before the World Cup that Hans Adu Sarpei was a short term solution and so it proved. He was taken apart by Antonio Valencia in the recent UEFA Champions League semifinal between Schalke 04 and Manchester United in Germany and he is getting on in years, so I believe his days with the Black Stars are over. David Addy is good offensively, but has to work on his defensive duties and his poor disciplinary record in the Portuguese top fight points to a weakness in his game; ill timed challenges. Daniel Opare is a right back who has managed to adapt to playing at left back for Standard Liege in the Belgian top flight and showed that he could be an option at left back during an impressive second half performance for Ghana against England. I think that Utrecht’s Nana Akwasi Asare is another option and he could also bring dynamism to the role and Berekum Arsenal’s Alfred Arthur is another option, as is Kotoko’s Gideon Baah, when he recovers from his leg break fully. John Paintsil and Samuel Inkoom remain Ghana’s options at right back, but long term, we need to get a third option that is considerably younger than these two because Paintsil and Inkoom will soon be nearing the twilight of their careers. In my view Ashanti Gold’s Michael Boakye could also be looked at. Collectively though, Ghana’s defence needs to be stronger that it is in order for it to be used as a platform for winning trophies.

GOALKEEPING – TO DIVE OR NOT TO DIVE…………

Richard Kingston has the distinction of being the most capped Black Stars player ever on 87 caps, but he also has the dubious honour of being Ghana’s most overworked players in recent matches, pulling save after save. Playing time with Blackpool in the English Premier League has benefitted him and he showed good reflexes against England, and as vital as I think he is to Ghana, we need to get a strong second choice goalkeeper because he is in the twilight of his career. I once asked on facebook whether Manchester United, which is looking to replace Edwin Van Der Sar, will not consider taking him on and I had a variety of well-researched responses. One respondent told me that until he was dropped to the Blackpool bench following the return of Ian Holloway’s first choice goalkeeper Matt Gilks, Kingston had conceded 45 out of the 66 goals Blackpool had conceded at the time. Also, in 20 games he had kept only 2 clean sheets. You might point out the relatively easy penetrability of the Blackpool defence, but these are pretty damning statistics and clearly we cannot rely on him for too long. Controversially, even though he has bags of experience, I don’t think Sammy Adjei is the man to be Ghana’s number 2 between the sticks because he is way off his best. For me, the likes of Berekum Chelsea’s Ernest Sowah, Aduana Stars’ Stephen Adams and Asante Kotoko’s Isaac Amoako need to be given games because fielding Kingston in friendly matches is a recipe for disaster in my opinion. Long term planning should be employed in this regard.

I will end by saying that it is time to get Ghana to win something for the first time since 1982 and so as I always say, let us continue to be realistic and not sentimental in doing team selections because whether we like it or not, football has undergone a revolution and youth, energy and an appetite for hard work should be some of the criteria that should be taken into consideration in selecting a winsome squad.