2014 World Cup: Ghana coach must name 23-man squad not provisional 30, says Atuobi-Yiadom

Published on: 17 April 2014
2014 World Cup: Ghana coach must name 23-man squad not provisional 30, says Atuobi-Yiadom
Kwesi Appiah

By Patrick Akoto

Popular Ghanaian football analyst Samuel Atuobi-Yiadom has urged Kwesi Appiah to avoid inflicting World Cup heartache on his fringe players by naming a squad of 23 instead of a 30-man provisional group.

The Black Stars trainer will reveal his provisional squad for the tournament on May 13 before they head to a training tour of USA.

They will engage Honduras and the Netherlands in pre-warm up friendlies before he settles on his final 23.

Rather than choosing 30 players for the training exercise and drop them at the latter stage, Samuel Atuobi-Yiadom, nicknamed, arrow sounds’ wants him to settle on the final men to avoid acrimony.

“In my view as long as there are no serious injury circumstances, he should name 23 and suggest to the other players that they are on standby, he told GHANAsoccernet.com

“Rather than take 30 to USA and then on the eve of final submission of names, you call them and say by the way, you’re not one of the 23, you were just one of the 30.

“That in my view will not be the right approach. We have done that in the past and has resulted in huge acrimony.

“To avoid the situation of being leveled with all sort of allegations, he should name a straight 23 by the May 13 deadline and then when there is the need to make any change, he does so before the final submission of names.

"Naming large pool of players always creates problems for the coach and put unnecessary pressure on him.  It’s something I want him to consider.

“In any case the fact that we have always named large pool of players in the past does not mean we can’t change.”

As the days winds down to the naming of a final squad, many Ghanaians are anxious to find out which players will make the final cut to the South American country.

It will be recalled Laryea Kingson had an altercation with former Serbian trainer Milovan Rajevac after he was dropped for the 2010 edition of the tournament in South Africa- an incident which ended his career at the international level prematurely.

England manager Roy Hodgson has opted to name a straight 23-man squad instead of  provisional 30 while some other participating countries are tossing with the same ideas.

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
Learn more