The Black Stars hopes of starting the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) on a good hit a snag last weekend as they fell to defeat against Cape Verde.
Ghana endured a late collapse as substitute Gary Rodrigues scored in additional time in the second half to claim all three points for the Blue Sharks.
The defeat raised lots of concerns as Ghana is yet to win any of their last four group-stage games on the continent.
Speaking on Joy SMS, Joy Sports’ Daniel Koranteng spoke extensively on where he feels the team was let down in Sunday’s opener.
According to him, a player like Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer was always going to struggle in the game considering what was expected of him.
“The role that was given to Königsdörffer, I think he was set up to fail. Not necessarily him playing as the No.10 but how they asked him to play it because when we were pressing from the front he went to join [Antoine] Semenyo in a 4-4-2 and the gap between them was so huge,” he noted.
“When you are pressing with a front two, the middle block must also follow and close that gap because every coach tries to create patterns that will force the opposition to create spaces in between their lines. That is how everybody punishes teams. Allowing your front two to go forward and press and leaving the middle block stationed in the middle zone, allowing all that place then the press is basically useless.
Even on the break when he picked up the ball, he was too isolated. Even if you put a specialist No.10 there, that specialist will struggle because what it means is that he has to turn and take on about three or four players before he will be able to find a teammate. So structurally, we were poor.”
Koranteng also added that Baba Iddrisu’s involvement was limited after he was cautioned early in the game needed to be taken off.
“Baba Iddrisu got a very early yellow card and from then he started playing very safe because no sensible player will want to rush and show a spike of passion and end up being sent off. From that moment, he should have been taken off because [of] his lack of attitude on the pitch, which I understand, impacted Ashimeru on the day,” he continued.
“As a proactive coach, we take him off, bring in Salis who is fresh and can also do the defensive job and then you revert back to what you were doing.”
After Ghana’s equaliser through Alexander Djiku, the four-time African champions seemed to have gained the upper hand and were chasing the winner.
However, a series of substitutions effected by Chris Hughton dropped the team’s tempo and Koranteng believes that was also one of the reasons for the performance.
“The third one also, I understand why certain players were selected on the day but the game is played in phases. The way the game ended isn’t the way it started. So when you start a player like Jordan Ayew, up until the point where Djiku scored the goal, he had created the most chances and was doing really well,” he added.
“At that point, Ghana had momentum there was a certain intensity in the game that we needed to continue because that was what was upsetting the Cape Verdians. On the right-hand side, Paintsil’s pace was terrorising them, Semenyo’s pace when he switched with Jordan was terrorising them.
“When we drew it at 1-1, we had one big chance to go forward 2-1 when Semenyo went on the left-hand side and took on 2-3 players, crossed it to Joseph Paintsil who missed on the far post. That was a very good opportunity. Straight after that chance was missed, I really don’t understand how the coach takes off those two players who were involved in creating the best opportunity for Ghana on the day and then replaces them with players who will come and slow it down.
“Look, if it was important for Dede to come on, at 1-1 if you look at your bench and need someone who could come and knick a goal, there are two things. It’s either you are sticking Dede up top, taking Jordan off to bring more pace, attacking through the wings and swing in as many balls as Dede to attack.
“In the first half, the sequence that led to Ashimeru’s goal [which was eventually ruled out] came from a cross, the goal we scored came from a cross, Semenyo swinging it across for Paintsil came from a cross. Most of our very good chances came from crosses so we were right when we did our homework with Cape Verde. They struggle with crosses.
“You have someone as good as Dede in the box, why would you bring him on and keep him in and around the box but not in the box? It just sucked the luck out of the team, not because they are bad players but the timing of the substitution, not reading what the game needed and applying the right players to effect it. That is where the coaching let us down.”
The Black Stars now sit bottom of Group B with no points after the first round of games and face Egypt in their next fixture.
The game against the Pharaohs is set for Thursday, January 18, at 20:00 GMT.
Source: JoyOnline