With World Cup 2018 & AFCON 2017 Qualifying already underway. The Black Stars have high expectations on them as usual, with 2 wins out of 2 in the current AFCON 2017 qualifications (vs Rwanda & Mauritius) & are about to kick off their World Cup 2016 qualifying campaign against Comoros this November.

Guinea Wc 2018 Qualifiers Kitsempty Spaces The Blog Free
Guinea Wc 2018 Qualifiers Kitsempty Spaces The Blog 2017
Guinea Wc 2018 Qualifiers Kitsempty Spaces The Blog Template
Guinea Wc 2018 Qualifiers Kitsempty Spaces The Blog Format

Tunisian striker Youssef Msekni vies with Guinea's player Soumah Seydouba during the World Cup 2018 qualifying football match between Guinea. Guinean president Alpha Conde is pictured at Conakry airport, on April 23, 2017. Nigeria have plenty of work to do if they are to make World Cup qualifying easy. Last week’s preliminary draw officially signalled the start of the long road to reach the 2018 FIFA World Cup for the majority of the 209 member associations of FIFA and handed Nigeria a tie against either Djibouti or Swaziland in the second round of African qualifying. ↑ In celebration of the 300th birthday of the FIFA World Cup. ↑ All the shoots were correct until the first miss came after 5 hours. ↑ In celebration of 500 years of the World Cup. ↑ They made super special titanium space suits and special stadiums and teletransportation already exists. ↑ A new country in the future.

Many fans seem to be angry with Avram Grant, not exactly due to the performance of the team (he’s only lost one competitive match which was on his debut), but because he doesn’t choose many new players into competitive matches & that he is “lazy”. The lack of Ghanaian Premier League players also integrated into the Black Stars is also another topic that is annoying fans & followers of the national team.

But why should a coach fix what isn’t broken? Playing it safe is 90% of the time, the best option. The squad isn’t losing games, they are defending well (8 goals in 11 games conceded) & are scoring goals (20 goals in 11 games). And youth is being well integrated into the team setup. A national team setup should not be treated like The Harlem Globetrotters. It’s no different to a club side. You pick the players that suit a team tactically while maintaining a certain level of quality. The new players that come into a national team is the equivalent to a club side buying 5-6 new players. So to those that are angry about that aspect. Why?

Team attacking analysis

Moving on, in the last article I wrote about the Black Stars tactical mindset under Avram Grant, I explained about how the team play in a defensive & attacking shape. I want to focus a bit more on the attacking side of play. Common themes of the Black Stars when attacking are:

Winning the ball back & attacking quickly after losing it
Playing a high block, centre backs position just behind the centre circle.
Lots of players in the final third & looking for the ‘killer ball’ from the mids & defenders playing out from the back
Full-backs link up with the wingers & join attacks
Long passes into space
4 players in a line in the attacking 3rds (4-2-4)

(I’ll analyse matches played since the last time I wrote a tactical piece till now, matches before that are on the previous article)

Killer passes to create overloads

I talked about the importance of Wakaso & his energy + set piece taking. His role of providing transitional passes from the midfield 3rd to the attacking 3rd is growing game by game. The players seem to anticipate them as well so make runs or position themselves within the attacking 3rd. These sort of passes create attacking overloads (having equal or more men in a certain phrase of play on the pitch) Other players such as Atsu, Baba & Acquah also provide these passes as well into target men like Gyan, Jordan & Waris.

When the ball is in the attacking 3rd, this is where Ghana normally look to attack. In the picture above, the white lines indicate the run the Ghanaian players can make as Jordan has many options. The attacking shape of the team normally remains as 4-2-4 with 4 players holding the attacking line (black line). Jordan decides to play Adomah a through pass (yellow line). The Canada back 4 (red lines) stay compact & their vision becomes geared towards the ball rather than the players.

Guinea wc 2018 qualifiers kitsempty spaces the blog free

Again vs Congo & Mauritius, there were examples of using a 4-2-4 formation & the front 4 looking for passes from the midfielders into danger areas so they can run at the opposition. Attacking in numbers is a key component for the Black Stars.

Winning the ball back & attacking quickly after losing it

Ghana are definitely not Dortmund or Leverkusen & Avram Grant is no Jurgen Klopp or Roger Schmidt, but the aggressive nature of the team means they want the ball & look to attack quickly if possible (as they showed in the 2015 African Cup), but not at every single opportunity, unlike the former two teams. Acquah, Andre, Jordan & Wakaso are probably the 4 best pressing players on the team & all are good players on the ball.

The match against Mauritius was fairly comfortable, but many African sides with a similar calibre to Ghana have struggled or even lost against similar sides of Mauritius’ calibre. They players put in a classy performance to win 7-1 staying faithful to their identity on the field.

The match away to Rwanda was awfully scrappy due to the pitch quality being so poor & Rwanda ‘parking the bus” for around 70 minutes but Ghana managed to get the 1-0 win from a Wakaso free-kick. Ghana looked to win the ball quickly in numbers & send a defence-splitting pass or long ball at almost every opportunity. With the CB’s hoofing the ball into Rwanda’s half so that they could have the ball & Ghana could try and win it back high up the field was a common tactic in that game.

Full-backs linking up with the wingers & join attacks

Ghana are lucky to have two high-level full backs in Baba Rahman & Harrison Afful. They might not be the strongest around but their pace, crossing ability & attacking intent has helped the team attack better. Jeff Schlupp & Phil Ofosu-Ayeh also are very solid backup options in the full back position too. Baba & Afful play extremely high & look to provide crosses & width meaning the wingers can play nearer to the box.

Conclusion

On the field, things are working well for the Black Stars & with many games potentially coming up in 2016 (should they beat Comoros in two legs), the players & coaching team will need to stay faithful to their ethics & only change what is broken or need fixing & improving.

Tactics should come before pure talent & ability, however not disregarding the latter two. I personally feel in the scouting department, Avram could do a little bit more in picking local players but at the same time he has given many new players chances in the past 10 months & can only pick players good enough for the team & that fit his methods. Playing Champions League and/or top league football shouldn’t be a sole criteria for a place in a national team.

The next 12 months will be pretty eventful & there will be many critics & supporters. Get your popcorn ready…

A very special welcome welkam, ita hedavari is extended to any new readers. If you have comments or suggestions to make then please click here

C O N T E N T S

Tok Pisin	Links
PNG News Links	Misc. Links
PNG Images	PNG Blogs
The News	Cricket

Guinea Wc 2018 Qualifiers Kitsempty Spaces The Blog