Black Stars must improve on first-half performances - Augustine Ahinful to Otto Addo

Former Ghana international Augustine Ahinful has urged Black Stars head coach Otto Addo to find a solution to the team's slow start to matches which has seen them concede a number of goals in the first halves of recent matches.

Augustine Ahinful believes coach Otto Addo has to reverse the situation where the Black Stars have always been better off in the second half of matches. He noted that the team must be able to have a strong start and a good end to matches.

"The two games that we played (vs Mali and vs CAR), we had two different halves. If I say two different halves, it means that in the first half, our performance is different compared to what we do in the second half," he said.

"In the future, I hope that we can begin with the second-half performance that we have observed in the last two games. With some of the countries, when we go behind, it might be difficult for us to come back.

"Like the coach said, we should blame him for the performance of the first half; not that he made any mistakes, but he probably overthought what he wanted to do. So his approach in the first half has always been different compared to what we have in the second - in Mali, it happened, and in Kumasi, it happened," he told JoySports.

In the first game of Otto Addo's second stint as Ghana coach, the Black Stars went down by a goal in the first half of their 2-1 defeat to Nigeria. The team also conceded in the first half of their 1-1 stalemate against Uganda in their second friendly match.

The predicament continued into the World Cup Qualifiers, where the Black Stars conceded the first goal against Mali. The team had to come from behind to win the game 2-1 at Bamako.

In their 4-3 win over the Central African Republic at home in Kumasi, the Black Stars scored first goal but lost the first half by 2-1.

JNA/EK