Give Otto Addo a little credit - And hereâ??s why Ghana needs patience, not panic

Otto Addo is not fit for the job. He didn’t steer the Black Stars to the next Africa Cup of Nations, some say, and even when the team wins, "we don’t play nice football, look at the potentials of our players, he has no tactical acumen. He is a scout not a coach".

Calls for a change are loud and easy to sell. But easy isn’t the same as fair. Before the next round of finger-pointing and calls for dismissal, pause. Look at the record, the context, and what Addo has actually delivered: stabilising a wobbling team, getting results in a difficult World Cup qualifying group, and restoring some tactical structure to a side that has been starved of continuity. Those are real achievements, and they matter. Our expectations are out of place.

First, the blunt numbers. After a terrible run that ended Ghana’s long AFCON streak, Addo has the Black Stars sitting on 19 points from eight World Cup qualifying games: six wins, one draw and one loss, with a +11 goal difference, top of CAF Group I. A 1–0 home win over Mali, hardly flamboyant, but decisive, put Ghana in the driver’s seat for a route to North America in 2026. That’s not lucky; it’s effective.

The team missed AFCON. Yes and that painful fact is true, and it must be confronted. Ghana failed to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, ending a run that stretched back two decades. That outcome is a black mark on the county’s record and cannot be dismissed. But it’s one tournament in a much longer story and it didn’t happen in a vacuum. The AFCON setback exposed deeper problems: administrative instability, squad turnover, injuries and of course, diminishing returns of players who were in the twilight of their careers. Systemic failures have crippled every coach who has tried to build something lasting and the evidence is there to see.

Ghana’s national team coaching chair has been a hot seat for years; changes, firings and reappointments have been frequent enough to be a structural handicap rather than a corrective measure. Short-term sackings and knee-jerk managerial switches destroy continuity the one thing international sides need when trying to build a cohesive identity. Addo’s reappointment in 2024 followed Chris Hughton’s exit; it was not a magic reset but a pragmatic choice to bring back someone who knows our culture and style of play.

The complaint that “we don’t play nice football” is aesthetic valid if your metric is style, less convincing if your metric is qualification. International football is unforgiving: tournaments and qualifying groups reward results over romance. Addo’s team is producing the results that matter now, wins and a top spot in the group, and that pragmatic approach is what will likely get Ghana back to the global stage. Critics who demand samba football while ignoring points on the board are arguing style at the expense of substance.

Addo arrived (again) with little time and a tangled squad situation: very young and inexperienced players, goalkeeping issues, injuries and absence, as well as a domestic federation under pressure. His work has been to steady selection, tighten defensive shape, and create match plans that suit the personnel not to assemble a preseason-prepared project. How many days does he have to work that magic? Such approaches take time, extensive preparation and practice. He has tried. Hasn’t he?

The improvement in defensive organisation and set-piece management, subtle, ugly but necessary and it is visible in the recent qualifiers. That sort of repair work rarely impresses pundits but wins games.

Addo was part of the Black Stars’ staff that navigated the 2022 World Cup cycle; that institutional knowledge is valuable. Reappointing a coach who understands the players, the dynamics, and the scouting networks is not a sentimental choice, it’s a practical one when the margin for error is small. There is no guarantee that a new coach would fast change things. We should know this, at least we have tried that approach and it never worked, Grant, C.K, Milo, Chris etc. Otto has a better record.

Yes, the AFCON failure is inexcusable at the collective level. But placing sole responsibility on Addo ignores the chronic churn and organisational problems that left him trying to produce a tournament-ready team from an incomplete blueprint. The system failed the coach as much as the coach failed the system. The AFCON collapse pointed to leadership and structural issues across Ghana football, not just tactical naiveté.

Fans prize style and they should, I am a huge fan of Pep-esque football, champaign, samba, tiki-taka but at national level, style is often a luxury. Winning, qualifying, and getting the team back on a sane developmental track should be the immediate priorities. Addo’s pragmatic approach is a bridge: stability first, then a plan to layer aesthetics back into the play once the fundamentals are secure. Have you not realised that we have had better results from a 3-back defensive set up than any other system of play?

That prediction is premature. Right now Addo has the Black Stars in pole position in a tough group. If Ghana qualifies, then the question is whether he can take them beyond qualification. That’s a different test; one he should be allowed to attempt rather than be dismissed from before the attempt is complete. Current standings suggest he’s at least earned the right to try.

If you want better football from the Black Stars, demand systemic fixes: coherent technical direction from the Ghana FA, smarter scheduling, youth development and a calmer environment for coaches to implement long-term plans. If you want beautiful, controlled possession football, insist on a program that supports a coach for multiple qualifying cycles not his immediate removal after one tournament setback. Rapid dismissal of coaches has cost Ghana more than any single coach’s tactical preference ever could.

Give Addo a little credit now for what he’s done, and demand bigger, smarter reforms from the people who have actually been running our game into repeated crises.

 

By: Edward Gyasi

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