Smith plans to go one match at a time

By David Kyei

Returnee coach, Johnson Smith, says his plan in his new role to take Kotoko through the rest of the season is to go one match at a time.

He also says that it is too early for anyone to sing his praises and that the real work is to get Kotoko into the first four on the league table where Kotoko would be able to participate in continental matches.

Speaking to Kotoko Express on the team’s way to Kumasi after successfully guiding Kotoko to record her first win in four year in Tamale, Smith, says the work he has to do with the team at the team is so enormous that keeping a balance between team morale and player co-operation will also be another important elements he would be tackling.

On the match itself, the shy and gentle former national star says he went into the match with an agenda to halt the goals that Kotoko has been conceding lately in matches.

“This meant that I had to have a plan that will make my defenders make less mistakes by places solid midfielders in front of them”

“When the midfielders do their work well as assigned, less pressure would be on the defenders and this will give them the room to organise themselves to properly cover up”.

“Per my defensive pairing of two players who have not been so regular in recent times, I chose to people whose strengths cover for the weaknesses of the other and so there was a perfect understanding between them”.

“Mutalabi used his strength and commitment to stop opponents when assigned to perfection, whilst Anokye remained the skilful player with the touch to tidy up the back,” he explained.

He says all these plans worked well because the players shared in his opinion during the team meeting that enough was enough for the string of poor performances.

“I drew the attention of the players to the fact that fans had lost confidence in them and so it behoved on all of us to end the defeats. I also told them to use the RTU match to start the image redemption because that was a match many had lost hope in.”

“We therefore had to give the fans a surprise win as an Easter package”.

At a point in time in the game, Kabiru Moro was shifted to the right wing and that he played so well that, Coach Smith shared his reason for making that movement:

“Kabiru was having a fantastic game as a fighter striker. He successfully won the battle over Dan Coleman in the first round and so when Coach Razak shifted him to the left back to bully Edward Affum, I also shifted Kabiru on him to give him an equal measure of fight”,

“I became happy when Kabiru worn him out for Yaro to finish up with a very good goal by also beating him”

“I am not over emphasizing on our success over Coleman; however, football is a game that opponents come in with particular clubs being their main weapons. Coleman was their main weapon at the back so when we maid minced meat of him, it became apparent that we were on our way to victory”, was his answer when his attention was drawn to his over emphasis on the outplaying of Coleman.

Another introduction was the giving of full assess of play to diminutive Godfred Ofosu.

“Ofosu is an intelligent player who makes up his shortfalls in size with skills and speed. I therefore has been sticking to him because he has got a good crossing abilities that will be of advantage to us when he gets out of his match-rustiness.”

“At the moment, I am going one at a time so having dealt with RTU the next step is to beat Liberty in Kumasi. We are going to prepare for them and I am sure we would be ready for them by the weekend”.

“What I ask of the fans is for them to continually pray for the team so that we get the right kind of luck to win more matches for them for our general good,” he concluded