{"id":21191,"date":"2022-06-03T19:17:11","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T19:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/uncategorized\/ghana-coach-otto-addo-explains-decision-to-start-gideon-mensah-at-centre-back-against-madagascar"},"modified":"2022-06-03T19:31:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T19:31:10","slug":"ghana-coach-otto-addo-explains-decision-to-start-gideon-mensah-at-centre-back-against-madagascar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-coach-otto-addo-explains-decision-to-start-gideon-mensah-at-centre-back-against-madagascar","title":{"rendered":"Ghana coach Otto Addo explains decision to start Gideon Mensah at centre-back against Madagascar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Ghana. <\/strong><\/span>Ghana coach Otto Addo has revealed that he played Gideon Mensah in the central position against Madagascar rather than his preferred left-back position in order to maximise his effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>This was following Ghana&#8217;s 3-0 victory over Madagascar in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old Bordeaux defender was paired with Daniel Amartey of Leicester City and went on to earn a clean sheet against Barea and top Group E.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He played well against Nigeria [in the World Cup qualifiers] and in free training,&#8221; the tactician said after the vital win.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Especially when I know that we are the favourites [against Madagascar] and we have the ball more, I feel more comfortable if somebody can move with his left foot.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Actually, our number 6, Baba [Iddrisu], was mostly free and it is more difficult, from the left side, to play to him with the right foot.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So if we have a natural left-footer, we can use that space more and we can play Baba much easier than a right-footed player. That was the reason why I decided to play Gideon there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Addo further exuded the confidence he has in the player, &#8220;I know he is capable of good defending, he made some good tackles as well. Gideon is capable of so much more and maybe he doesn\u2019t know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\">Ghana<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Ghana. Ghana coach Otto Addo has revealed that he played Gideon Mensah in the central position against Madagascar rather than his preferred left-back position in order to maximise his effectiveness. This was following Ghana&#8217;s 3-0 victory over Madagascar in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier. The 23-year-old Bordeaux defender was paired [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":21190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[5092,5096,6095,429,7285],"class_list":["post-21191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-ghana","tag-decision","tag-ghana","tag-madagascar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ghana coach Otto Addo explains decision to start Gideon Mensah at centre-back against Madagascar - Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ghana coach Otto Addo has revealed that he played Gideon Mensah in the central position against Madagascar rather than 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