Mariano Barreto doesn’t want Kotoko to make same mistake again
Asante Kotoko appointed Portuguese coach Mariano Barreto to help revive the club and bring glory days by changing the style of play and providing results.
Mariano Barreto is off to a decent start at his new club; he’s unbeaten in his first four games as the head coach of the club. His side have registered 2 wins and 2 draws in 4 games and have scored 7 goals, conceded only one goal, and keeping 3 clean sheets in that period.
Amidst the positive start at the club, the Portuguese coach revealed that he’s trying to change the mentality of the entire team and make them unbeatable, and intends on doing this by bringing the best out of every player.
Barreto stressed the importance of not relying on one player to help the team win games.
Asante Kotoko depended heavily on Kwame Opoku in the first round of the Ghana Premier League, the striker scored more than 40% of their goals, and the entire team tends to struggle whenever he doesn’t score or isn’t in the team.
Mariano Barreto is trying to change that mentality of depending on one player to get results for the club. This comes after Asante Kotoko settled for a goalless draw against Great Olympics on Friday without the services of in-form Brazilian attacker Fabio Gama.
The Portuguese stressed the fact that his style of play and philosophy doesn’t depend on the performance or output of one player as he believes everyone will be involved in getting results for the team.
“I didn’t miss Gama. Kotoko isn’t a one-person team. Kotoko isn’t Mariano Barreto, Razak Abalora, or Gama. If one player is out, another player will come in and do his best.” he said
He also stated that Fabio Gama isn’t the only important player at Asante Kotoko
“Everybody is talking about Fabio Gama. But one of the best players in the Ghana League, his name is Okrah” he added.
Mariano Barreto clearly doesn’t want Asante Kotoko to make the same mistake of depending on one player to get results for the team as they did with Kwame Opoku. He believes the club has good players that can step up, perform and get results when called upon.
