Yepowura Alhaji M.N.D. Jawula, former Chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has criticized Black Stars coach Milovan Rajevac’s overly defensive strategies at the just ended Angola 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.
The Black Stars won silver on Sunday after going down to Egypt 1:0 in an interesting, highly competitive encounter in Luanda, and Jawula, who was a member of a large contingent of supporters flown to Angola to support the Ghanaian side, thinks Milo’s over-concentration on defensive play contributed a great deal to the team’s inability to lift the trophy.
Speaking to myjoyonline.com after the final match, Yepowura Jawula said it is time coach Milovan Rajevac listened to others' opinions on the African game rather than insist on having his way.
“The coach should begin to listen to other opinions, you know, because at the end of the day this is African football, he is not long enough into African football, we understand our continent and our game, perhaps a bit better than him. Technically he’s ahead of us, he is a good coach technically but, there is one other aspect which is African football and which could be quite decisive and I think the time has come when he should have a big listening ear.”
“I was not very comfortable with the way he had over-flogged his defensive strategy. Yes it made sense because initially he had to take his time, definitely the first match, the way it went against La Cote d’Ivoire, it was risky, he had to do something. He scores a goal, he covers the back and he does a few things. And it appeared that with a bit of luck we had managed to sail through, but then it’s time now for him to vary, to play what some of us want to call the multi-system - you play defensive for a while and then you find a way again to open up. And really in this particular match today when he opened up in the last 15 minutes or thereabouts, it was very exciting soccer, our boys expressed themselves and it was quite a beauty. Perhaps, to me, if Adiyia, who to me is the best U-20 player in the world had been given a better opportunity, the score could have been different," he said.
Jawula was however not disappointed at all with the Black Stars’ silver winning exploits, given their history and the odds they faced. If he has any disappointment, it is only because Ghana failed just to lift the cup.
“Well, I’m disappointed because naturally we came to lift the cup and to take it to Ghana but today I think was their best performance and we all know why we lost; I think personally that the coach had overdone his defensive strategy and that definitely cost us”.
