Otto Addo and his Black Stars face their toughest test before the World Cup in a friendly against five-time World Champions, Brazil.
The manager will be under scrutiny with a focus on his ideas and system for the World Cup in Qatar.
Due to a lack of talent in certain positions, the manager has been cautious in his formations since taking over as the Black Stars coach.
However, things have changed and now he has a large squad full of talents in every position and can switch his cautious system up for an all-attacking system that can go toe-to-toe with Brazil on Friday, September 23, 2022.
Otto could put together an Arsenal-style team with Thomas Partey as the single pivot, with the Black Stars playing with far more fluidity than the team’s static, direct, and rigid style.
Partey is no new to the single pivot role as he has excelled in it at Atletico Madrid and now at Arsenal, it appears as his best role.
Just like Partey gives Arsenal balance and his sole duty is to orchestrate the play and give the Gunners dominance, the technical team could create a similar scenario in the national team for the midfielder to bring out his beast mode and increase the level of the team.
At Arsenal, Arteta plays one ball joggler who doubles as a good playmaker in Martin Odegaard and a ball winner who is also good at picking passes in tight spaces in Granit Xhaka along with Partey in a midfield trio.
Otto Addo could recreate the aforementioned trio with Mohammed Kudus, Daniel Kofi Kyere, and Thoams Partey. The perfect fit would be Jeffrey Schlupp for Kyere but the former is not in the squad.
Primarily, Kudus and Kyere are very good skimmers but in the midfield trio with Partey, Otto Addo could task Kofi Kyere to be a bit more defensive and complement Partey while Kudus hover in and around the opposing area and offer more attacking link.
Kyere has an incredible defensive attribute which only comes to bear when he plays in a double pivot. A bit of his work rate and ball recoveries can come to bear when he plays in the Xhaka-like role. In the same vein, Kudus can flourish in that role, hence, they could swap as and when needed.
With the trio in a 4-3-3 system against Brazil, this is could the Black Stars could look on paper against Brazil: Jojo Wollacott, Alexander Djiku, Daniel Amartey, Tariq Lamptey, Gideon Mensah, Thomas Partey, Kudus Mohammed, Daniel Kofi Kyere, Kamaldeen Sulemana, Osman Bukari, Inaki Williams.
