WELCOME MR. KWESI APPIAH Article by: Andy Mac-Carthy

It is good to know that the GFA have made a decision to get a new coach without wasting time. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Kwesi Appiah for getting the node to coach the Black Stars. For those of you advocating for Mr. Sellas Tetteh, l think his time would come but let us all put our support behind the man chosen.

There are a few things that l want to bring to the attention of the GFA and certain observations that l want Mr. Kwesi Appiah to take note of.

To the GFA l would first like to thank you for your prompt decision to change the coach. It is a wise decision indeed. Anytime a coach is hired he is given a target to achieve and so the GFA should spell out the target of achievement to Mr. Kwesi Appiah in his contract. The tendency for most football associations to under pay local coaches is often heard of all over Africa. My advise to the GFA is to pay Mr. Appiah a fair and appropriate salary and it should be paid promptly. The era where a coach’ s salary is outstanding for months is past so please make sure the coach is paid on time. Also all the benefits and courtesy’s that was given his predecessor must be made available to him. Perhaps he has a house in Accra and so might not require an accommodation but it must be provided. The ex-coach had a chauffer driven car and was given fuel allowances so let Mr. Appiah have the same as well as all the other perks that come with the job. Also note that a proper contract written by lawyers is needed here.

To Mr. Kwesi Appiah, the first observation has to do with the just ended Cup of Nations. The Black Stars don’t have the players to move the ball from the midfield to the attack. I know some people do not want to hear the name of Kevin Prince Boateng, but this problem is what Kevin Boateng took care of during the World cup in the absence of Stephen Appiah. He was a connecter between the center (midfield) and the forwards. Stephen Appiah was very good at linking the midfield and the attack it was not funny at all. One other player who was good at moving the ball forward, offensive minded or linking the midfield well was Laryea Kingston. Unfortunately, neither Kevin Prince Boateng, Stephen Appiah nor Laryea Kingston is the reason why l am writing this article so let us move on.

I just want to make a little suggestion to Mr. Kwesi Appiah and the GFA about Kevin Prince Boateng since his name has come up. Ghanaians gave a mandate to the GFA to handle the football administration of the country. I want to state here that if Mr. Kwesi Appiah as a coach and the GFA as administrators feels that Kevin Prince Boateng is good enough for the team then they should by all means find a way of bringing him back. Some Ghanaians may not be happy with him because of various reasons, but if the coach has a strong belief or a reason to believe that Prince is needed then Mr. Appiah must convince him to come on board. Afterall, if he fails as a coach with or without Kevin Prince Boateng, he would still be fired. I am also pleading with Ghanaians that we should allow the coach to choose his own team to fulfill the mandate that has been given him. If Mr. Appiah has a free hand to choose his players and if he fails (which l am not hoping he does)then we would have every reason to fire him accordingly.

Coming back to the issue under review, we need creative players who can move the ball forward (offensive minded) to the attackers. Agyemang Badu and Andre Ayew are two of the players who can do this job. Of the two Andre would be better because of his dribbling skills. However, it would be in our interest to get more players who have the offensive mindedness of players like Abedi Pele, Tony Yeboah, Prince Polly and all the others. So Mr. Appiah you need to act decisively. By the way, I just want to take this opportunity to commend Agyemang Badu for doing so well in the way he shoots the balls from outside the penalty box. One other player that was good with this kind of shooting was Sulley Muntari but we don’t see much of him these days. Andre Ayew is doing a fantastic job and l believe he is one of the few that can help us fix this problem if Mr. Appiah hears me out and gives him that role. All that he has to do is sharpen his dribbling skills and learn how to avoid falling down on every challenge. Perhaps Mr. Abedi Pele can tutor him a little in that area. (I am not comparing father and son here) Do you remember the goal Andre scored against Tunisia? He dribbled well and stayed on his feet to score the goal. I remember there were a couple of times that Abedi Pele’s jersey was almost pulled from his body but still found ways of staying on his feet.

The other observation has to do with playing long balls upfront for the likes of Asamoah Gyan to get to. I think that way of getting the ball to the strikers is not working and the use of the wings are not effective. Holding on to the ball in the center as we did against Zambia when we had not scored a goal does not make any sense either. To solve this problem we need to go back to the same point above, “MOVE THE BALL FORWARD”. The coach must be able to get the midfielders to move the ball forward. If it means doing the same thing that was done during the time of Sam Johnson. Maybe the coach can try some of the defenders in the midfield perhaps there may be one or two that can do the job well. If we don’t get the ball in a proper way to the attackers, there will be no goals. This holds true even if we bring in the most prolific striker in the World into our team. Some few years ago, during the era of Shamo Quaye and Joe Debra, a coach (whose name l don’t want to mention here because he is not the reason for this article) realized that the Black Stars had a lot of midfielders and not much strikers so he introduced a defender by name “ Foyoo” to the attacking role. The coach taught him a few things that make great strikers. This experiment worked so well for the Black Stars and yielded a lot of dividends to Sam Johnson and the nation.

I realized that Ghana invited a few new players for the game against Chile in Philadelphia. As much as l agree that every Ghanaian player should be given a chance to play in the team if they merit it, nothing will be achieved if the players upfront don’t get the ball from the center to score. There will be no goals whether it is Asamoah Gyan or Dominic Oduro, if they don’t get the ball from the midfield in a proper and timely way. Mr. Appiah l hope you can fix this.

Coach Appiah, also note that the way we play the first half of games as if there is nothing at stake only to come back in the second half or when we are down, to play like the game just begun must stop. We don’t have to waste the whole of the first half in every game only to come back and play well in the second half or when an opponent scores against us. That was the way we played against Zambia. Why didn’t the Black Stars play the same way they played after they conceded the goal in the first half? Were the Black Stars trying to take the game to the penalty shootout? Lol! Someone give me an answer here. Mr. Appiah, this is where motivation comes in. You have to be a master strategist and motivator to get them to change this attitude. So over to you Joe Lartey.

Once again l say congratulations to Coach Kwesi Appiah.

Andy Mac-Carthy. Carthyandy@yahoo.com