West Africa Football Academy (WAFA) coach John Killa has stated that his side’s consistent poor run in away games is more of individual player errors than of team tactics.
The Dutchman’s continuously altered side lost 2-0 to Bechem United on Sunday as they continue to find a remedy to their poor form away from the Red Bull Arena in Ghana’s elite division. He is of the opinion that player faults have played a major role to WAFA SC’s disappointing travels.
Speaking after the game, the coach who saw his 10-man team lose again in an away game feels they were less expectant of a red card so early in the game and that changed the game.
“Our preparations before the game was not that we expected a red card but when the red card came, it was a mistake. We received a penalty in addition to the red card and at that moment, I had to reorganize the team. I think the boys did well especially in the last 10 minutes of the first half where we created some free kicks, not too many but the game was changing and you have to organize your team very well if you are playing with 10 men,” John Killa said in a post-match interview.
“We were waiting for the equalizer in the second half because we knew that we had some chances coming between the second half only to see a poor marking from a free kick by our right defender Boateng cost us the game. 2-0 was very difficult to get a good result here so very disappointing,” Killa added.
On the dismissal of Kennedy Boateng, Killa agreed with the referee and says there was no other better decision that could have been taken.
“Of course. If he is playing one-on-one and there is nobody behind him then he needs a red card but I think there is no other possibility than giving a red card.
On the poor run of results away…
“We had a draw against Hearts so we are not always losing away. It’s just a process with a lot of young players. We missed our left defender who went outside the country and is not coming yet and we still have some players with long injuries but we have some new young players who need some more time to adjust.
Killa believes that the isolated mistakes by players are contributing to losses in away matches and good results can be recorded when individual player excellence improves. He thinks that the team tactics has been perfect and not that their defeats are due to them coming second best always to their away opponents in the campaign.
“The games that we lost was not because of a better side of the opponents. It was more that we made individual mistakes. The second goal was caused by the right defender’s inability to defend and they scored. It has nothing to do with team tactics. If your players especially defenders make mistakes and strikers punish you, you can only hope that your defenders do better next time. We lost Chelsea 1-0, we lost Aduana because of a penalty 1-0. They are not big losses. We are losing individual quality and not team tactics.
WAFA SC are still winless away from home after 10 match days in the 2015/16 Ghana Premier League.
