Ghana’s new midfield sensation Michael Anaba is seriously knocking at the door of Coach James Kwesi Appiah who will release his squad in the course of the week ahead of Black Stars match against Lesotho and Zambia.
The speculations as to who will make up Kwesi Appiah’s 23 – man squad is very high as the trainer has less than two days to announce his soldiers for the battle and one name that keeps popping out of many a Ghanaian soccer analysts is Asante Kotoko’s midfield Marshall commander, Michael Anaba who has enjoyed an impressive season with the Porcupine Warriors.
Anaba has suddenly become the Mikel Arteta that Coach Maxwell Konadu needed in his central midfield to stringing the passes from his defensive third to the attacking third of the field. Anaba is a good passer of the ball, an excellent game reader, a ball juggler, a good tackler and above all has a good eye for goal which makes him a complete midfielder.
Kwesi Appiah has a lot of injury situations to deal with as players like Sulley Muntari, Andre Ayew, Jonathan Mensah, John Mensah are all out due to injury situations whiles Derek Boateng and Isaac Vorsah are ineligible to play due to suspensions and this has forced coach Appiah to be picking his bone around some local but intelligent players to execute the job for him.
Those who have followed the exploit of Michael Anaba right from his boyhood days with T.I Ahamaddiya and the National Sports College which has produced players like Samuel Inkoom and Abeiku Quansah holds the view that the player plays a commending role in Kotoko’s midfield to the extent that when Anaba has a bad day, you should expect nothing but an awful day from Kotoko.
It is an undeniable fact that Asante Kotoko has the best midfield quartet (Michael Anaba, Daniel Nii Adjei, Fatau Dauda and Michael Akuffu) and to promote our local league, Kwesi Appiah need to include some of these young and talented players in his squad just like the way Italy has the like of Verratti who plays for a lower division side, Pescara in his provisional squad for the Euro 2012 Nations Cup.
By: El-Amisty Nobo/Freelance Journalist