Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Asante Kotoko, Jarvis Peprah has cautioned the Porcupine Warriors to be vigilant and guard against all forms of complacency ahead of their second leg game against Coton Sport of Cameroon at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium on Sunday.
The former management member says he has been a witness to a regime where the team has performed so well in a way matches at the continental stage, but failed to perform in the return legs of those matches; so the team should be psyched up to avoid such an occurrence.
“Dr. Kyei, George Amoako and the experienced people in Kotoko should do their best to solve that complacency problem by looking for a psychologist to deal with any psychological problem likely to affect the players on the day.”
“Kotoko must be very careful in the second leg in Kumasi because they are not yet qualified; Osei Kofi can testify to this. He [Osei Kofi] once led Kotoko in this same African competition as the head coach of the team; he did very well in the away game so we thought the return leg in Kumasi was a foregone conclusion; so the then FA in an attempt to make the qualification easier added to the technical team experienced coaches who were under the sports council, but it did not work; Kotoko were eliminated. The same thing happened to us against a team in Burkina Faso, so we are not done yet.” He said.
A section of the supporters ahead of the first leg in Cameroon heavily criticized the head coach of the team, C.K Akunnor for non-performance which some went ahead threatening to sack him if he fails to qualify to the group stage of the competition; this Jarvis says the coach should learn from.
“CK Akunnor should not be complacent after all the criticism he received from some of the supporters ahead of the first leg. He should by now have identified the loopholes in his tactics, what makes the team concede when playing at the Baba Yara Stadium and rectify.” He added.
Kotoko won 3-2 in Cameroon against Coton Sport which has handed them an advantage in the second leg of their CAF Confederation Cup playoff.