Friday’s defeat to Austria was hardly surprising.
Not the performance. The margin, maybe, but when you play as badly as Ghana did, that result should be expected.
It is the sort of outcome years of mismanagement and strange decisions deserve.
The Yirenkyi experiment
Otto Addo’s dedication to playing Caleb Yirenkyi out of position is simply inexplicable.
It is perhaps why, in all nine months of this ultimately flawed experiment, Otto Addo has not been able to explain the rationale behind it.
Yirenkyi is, for all intents and purposes, Ghana’s best midfielder this season. None of his teammates comes close to his performance levels. Some of his peers have and continue to struggle for game time.
Thomas Partey plays sparingly at Villarreal. Kwasi Sibo had not been active until the turn of the year, when Real Oviedo hired Guillermo Almada.
Lawrence Agyekum does not match up, and Francis Abu has been injured. Ashimeru Majeed has also had problems with injuries.
So this is not a team littered with quality central midfield options. That is why it is strange to see the country’s best midfielder, Yirenchi, being thrown away.
Yirenkyi needs to play in central midfield to build partnerships with Sibo, Partey, or whoever Otto Addo picks.
In that regard, Friday was a missed opportunity.
The Partey problem
Since 2017, Ghana’s midfield has relied on Partey’s invention and craft as much as his thrust. Friday was a rude reminder that those days are over.
While his intelligence and passing ability are still great, Partey no longer has the legs to run the show by himself.
What he needs are capable legs around to complement and learn from him. In not platforming Yirenkyi and his likes to take over from Partey, Otto Addo is making the same mistake successive coaches made in failing to replace the legendary Asamoah Gyan.
Otto Addo has been in charge of the team for over two years, yet it is hard to point to areas of improvement.
Stunted growth
The team has no semblance of an identity. It is hard to identify what our best combinations are in any phase of the game. The closest you will come to is that center back pairing of Alexander Djiku and Salisu Mohammed.
In terms of what the team does with the ball, it is difficult to find Ghana’s best central midfield combinations or best attacking combinations. That is because, over time, there have not been any choreographed patterns of play.
So while you may have a certain consistency in the player selections, it does not necessarily translate or manifest in the way the team plays in terms of the way the team attacks.
When you watch the Black Stars, there are no choreographed patterns. The only noticeable patterns exist on paper: the formations.
Otherwise, there has simply not been enough consistency in how Ghana plays.
If Otto Addo is going to lead Ghana to the World Cup, he has to ditch this dysfunctional setup and the attempts to shoehorn Ghana’s best players into whatever this is.
Otto Addo’s job is to position the team’s best players in positions and game scenarios that allow them to use their skill set to influence the game in Ghana’s favor.
Unfortunately for Ghana, Otto has spent two years doing exactly that.
Right tools, wrong guy
Antoine Semenyo is having a world-class season. When Manchester City needed someone to get their title race back on track, he was the man Pep Guardiola turned to. His pace, trickery, shooting, and ability to find teammates in dangerous areas have been evident.
In Ghana colours, however, Semenyo, like most of Ghana’s attacking talents, often looks lost.
The man who rips Premier League defences apart for fun receives the ball in areas where he has too much to do, or is forced into defensive actions.
On Friday, Abdul Fatawu Issahaku experienced the same. He was mostly seen chasing opponents as cover for Caleb Yirenkyi.
When he had the ball, it was often in impossible positions. In the end, his pace, dribbling, and ridiculous shooting ability were rendered useless by Otto Addo’s backward methods.
He simply did not know what to do with Issahaku and Semenyo’s attributes.
It was painful to watch.
Sadly for all of us, Otto Addo is likely to lead Ghana to the World Cup.
If that is the case, a lot has to change.
It appears impossible, but Ghanaians have to hope that he somehow develops the competence to coach this team well.
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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