The Black Stars are finally back in business this Thursday, when they continue their push for a spot at next year’s African Cup of Nations. Should the Chris Hughton led team come away with all three points, it would end a perfect week for Hughton and his charges as they book their ticket to Cote d’Ivoire for next year’s tournament.
Hughton has had a positive impact on the side since he was appointed successor to Otto Addo, but the Ghana boss still needs a handful of his existing players to step up their level on Thursday to provide that all-important quality and depth.
Here’s a look at four Black Stars players who need to reach another level to make a title challenge possible…
Inaki Williams
Talent isn’t the issue because he has proven for Atletico Bilbao that he can make game-changing impact at the national team level. With 8 appearances for Ghana, Williams has been a shadow of himself and has yet to find the back of the net.
The whole Ghana attack will need to step up, but Williams is really the one who can and will set the standard for what the Ghana attack should look like. If the 29-year-old steps up, the rest of the attack should follow suit and be in better shape throughout the game.
Baba Iddrisu
Iddrisu is a good player and his improvement over the last couple of weeks has earned him a return to the team after being overlooked in recent call-ups. The hard- tackling midfielder finally looks more settled and now needs to find a degree of consistency in his game to be the midfield anchor.
His passing is sometimes wayward and his shooting is often atrocious. But on his game, Fred is a tenacious ball winner and some more fine tuning, consistency and improvement has the potential for him to be Hughton’s main volante.
Baba Rahman
Baba Rahman is widely recognised as one of the best left-backs to feature for the Black Stars in recent times, but his marking skills and positional awareness when defending crosses was a reoccurring weakness in recent outings that directly led to the Black Stars conceding goals on multiple occasions.
Defending forward has never been his strength, although he has been getting better in that respect, and that would be okay if the offensive side of his game was more complete. But at the moment it isn’t and he can’t survive on just being good offensively than his actual job of defending.
Joseph Paintsil
Paintsil’s offensive output will be crucial if the Black Stars wants to be successful. His ability to drop deep help with the link-up play, and bring his teammates into attack. Otto Addo received a lot of backlashes from majority of Ghanaians for refusing to name the forward in his World Cup squad.
Fast forward to now and, just like the Black Stars, he's been nowhere near good enough.
