Kwesi Nyantakyi reveals what led to Black Stars poor performance at the 2021 Afcon

Former Ghana Football Association [GFA] capo, Kwesi Nyantakyi believes the failure to include Ghana U-20 players in the Black Stars led to the team’s failure at the just ended 2021 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] in Cameroon.

Ghana who were hoping to win the fifth continental were bundled out of the tournament for the first time since 2006.

The Black Stars after three matches played had just a point and finished 4^th in Group C, making it the worst performance of the team.

Milovan Rajevac after the shambolic performance has been sacked by the Executive Council of the FA.

But Mr Nyantakyi, who is a former FIFA Executive Committee member speaking on GTV Sports Plus’ ‘Saving our Passion’ program on Thursday revealed that he was expecting Milovan Rajevac to implement the same ideas he used during the 2010 World Cup by blending young and experienced players ahead of the tournament.

“I was surprised Black Stars didn’t have six or more players from the U-20 team that won the CAF Youth Championship in Mauritania. When we played in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, we had seven players from the U-20 team that won the World Cup in Egypt and look at our performance.

“The likes of Andre Ayew, Agemang Badu, Jonathan Mensah, Samuel Inkoom, among other players had just won the FIFA U-20 World Cup but Milovan had faith in these young players and insisted they must play.

“I was surprised Milovan didn’t do that this time around and I think that was our problem. We need these players because football is for the young players and if we want to go far, it’s about time we need to blend young players with experienced players to have solid Black Stars just like how we had in 2010.

“Stephen Appiah and Sulley Muntari who were key players were coming from the bench because of the energy level of the young players,” he added.