U20 AFCON: Satellites coach blames absence of domestic football for poor show in Niger

Ghana coach Jimmy Corbblah has blamed his side’s poor performance against the Young Eagles of Mali, on the absence of domestic football, insisting his side would have been dominated by local-based players.

Jimmy, despite having the free hand to select the players he wanted and sounding overly confident before their departure to Niger, now claims the players he selected for the tournament were not the right players.

The Ghana manager who has come under huge criticism after his side was knocked out of the competition believes a dominant local-based side would have done better than the players he selected for the tournament.

But the absence of domestic football meant he had no option but to rely on foreign-based players.

“It affected us,” Jimmy said after the defeat to Mali.

“We should have used most of the local boys because if you look at the competition most of the teams are using most of their local boys,” he added.

The coach whose tactics have been exposed to massive scrutiny, leaving several unanswered questions, further explained that he had no option than to pick a side dominated by foreign-based players for the tournament due to the absence of domestic football.

"but because our boys (local-based players) are not fit, and there is no competition in our country, we had to rely on the professionals (foreign-based players) who are young boys in Europe.

“They couldn’t come early and had no choice than to organize them and bring them.

He, however, sounded optimistic that the team has a brighter future.

“I’m very convinced that in future, things will not be the same,” he added.

Jimmy Corbblah started preparing for the tournament in August 2018 and is on record to have engaged in close to 30 friendly matches within the period.

Meanwhile, Deputy Coach of the Black Stars Ibrahim Tanko put a team together, dominated by foreign-based players, less than fourteen days for the Ghana U23 to beat Togo 5-2 on aggregate.