The 2020/21 Ghana Premier League season is expected to kick off November 13th this year as announced by the Ghana Football Association but what should be a great source of worry is the attacking department of Maxwell Konadu’s side.
The Porcupine Warriors had the 12th best attack as the team coached by Konadu scored 14 times in as many matches in the 2019/20 season that was eventually cancelled due to the Covid-19. With the pedigree and amount of resources available to the Kumasi-based side, this was really a poor return.
As many as eleven teams did better than Asante Kotoko in the area of goal-scoring. Inter Allies of Victorien Adebayor recorded 22 goals. Liberty Professionals scored 21. Medeama scored 18 times, Elmina Sharks 17 and Aduana Stars did not do bad either with their 17 goals with Yahaya Mohammed scoring 65% of those realizations.
Even King Faisal who were rooted at the bottom of the league standings managed to bag 17 goals thanks to on-loan Kotoko attacker Osman Ibrahim who led the scoring charts at the club of Alhaji Karim Grusah.
Last season Konadu worked with Songne Yacouba, Naby Keita Laye, Richard Arthur and William Opoku Mensah. Yacouba the biggest player among them failed to score a single goal before he was sidelined from the team following the uncertainty on his future at the club. Naby Keita could not guarantee the goals. Opoku Mensah managed to bounce back from a difficult start to score twice in six starts but it was not enough.
The Kotoko gaffer will clearly be working again with William Opoku Mensah this season as well as the new signing who joined last season – Kwame Poku – but the future of Keita and Arthur in Kumasi remains uncertain.
The Ghanaian giants missed out on targeted names like Yaw Arnol ( went to Ashantigold) and Joseph Esso who picked Dreams FC as the best destination after leaving Hearts of Oak. Meanwhile Kotoko believes they could still land Safiu Mumuni who according to his personal manager has several juicy offers coming from abroad.
Kotoko will participate in at least three competitions in the coming season and it is the attacking area of the team that is likely to receive the biggest attention which the Kotoko fans will expect to see improvement.
