At least I know he is out of form (unlike you who needed someone to feed you in). If he is on form he is the bomb. Problem is he had injury and club issues and has hardly played for two years. Some people believe he is past it (like jusnang). I don't belong to that group and I believe he should play (possibly start) for Ghana. Besides the argument isn't that the Ghanaian midfielders are better than the German (never said that). I said they are better in specific areas. I hate kindergarten mindreaders. Check my earlier correspondence and you will have proof that I did not: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1363137 He is my third choice rightwinger (not midfielder) behind Kingston and Owusu-Abeyie. I have Rahim Ayew and Draman behind KPB, as well as Andre Ayew. Andre Ayew ONLY because he is not a right winger and should not play in that position. In general I rate him higher than only one player in the Rajevac 30-man list: Haminu Draman (Rahim Ayew is very flexible and can play in varying positions, so I prefer him over KPB). I'm sorry but even before the Essien injury I didn't even have KPB in my squad. And I just proved it. That doesn't change the fact that he is probably first choice on RW for Rajevac. By the way I just noticed what crap people will write on the web and pretend to read other peoples mind. Here is my assessment of Ghana's chances BEFORE the Essien injury: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1403276 First of all ANY MIDFIELD in the world would be hurt with losing Essien, who is the best DM in the world and one of the best midfielders in the world. You can't replace that. Its comparable to England losing Lampard, Spain losing Xavi or Argentina losing Messi. Second of all not only Essien is out but also his backup Agyeman-Badu is out. That leaves only 1 class DM (Annan) in a system with 2 DMs. Third of all I am more worried with the John Mensah situation. His injury problems hurt Ghana way more than Essien does, because Ghana lack class defenders to substitute him. Exactly. They won the Youth World Cup by being the best team at the tournament and reached the ACoN final with a reserve team by playing as a TEAM and without ESSIEN. ATM my lineup would be: [LINEUP-4-5-1] Gyan, Muntari, Kingston, Annan, Asamoah, Appiah/Kumordzi, Addy, Vorsah, Mensah/Paintsil, Paintsil/Inkoom, Kingston [/LINEUP-4-5-1] BTW: Nice game and very convincing win over Hungary, even if the PK was a gift.
Even if Essien is out of World Cup, Australia can't stop the great Muntari! It is actually hard to predict whether Serbia can edge Ghana.
Since I have a real life, a job and other obligations, it is impossible for me to watch all football games played in the world. On the other hand, even I was following the Serie A religiously, I wouldn't have seen Appiah play a lot Seriously though, since Ghana was announced to be a group opponent for Germany, I checked all their players out and saw that he didn't play for his club most of the season, and no matter what the reason for that is: if a player doesn't get any playing time, his form will suffer tremendously. If Christiano Ronaldo hadn't played for like 2 years, I wouldn't be too scared of him anymore as well. If a player still gets called up for his NT, allthough he has practically not played any club football for the past 2 years, it shows a serious lack of depth, and I would be worried about that as a Ghana fan. Now you have to excuse me but I made this quote a bit bigger because I dont want you to "read over" it. I am afraid I will have to remind you a statement you made not too long ago: check your post here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=20603489&postcount=253 You have clearly stated in the past that Ghana has a better midfield than Germany, but I see that now that Essien is injured, you are trying to weasel your way out. That is exactly what I meant when I said you seem to be getting nervous. Why should this prove that you don't rate KPB? My suspicion is and always was that you pretend not to rate KPB because he was rejected by the German NT (not only for his character, obviously) and it makes you look stupid arguing that Ghanas midfield is better than Germanys when Ghana fields a guy that is not good enough to play for Germany. But since this is just hunch from my side, for which I don't have any proofs, we don't have to discuss that topic ad infinitum. Thanks for bringing that up, I found a true gem in there: Now Ghanas midfield is not just better than Germanys, but the best in the world sorry, that made me literally lol. The big difference is, England, Spain and Argentina have other players of similar quality to substitute the players you mentioned. Whom does Ghana have to substitute Essien? I can feel with you, Germany has lost 3 of their 5 first choice central midfielders due to injuries. So, in the Germany-Ghana game, both teams will have similar problems with injuries I wouldn't worry too much if I was you, after all Ghana has the strongest midfield in the world, they will keep the ball away from their defense. Thank you a lot, alhough it was just a testing game and the result not important at all. I hope Löw can draw new conclusions from this testgame reagrding tactics and form of his players.
Or maybe it just shows he's an icon... besides he hasn't played lately (he wasn't at the ACoN). Also weird to hear it from a fan of a team fielding Klose... Ok. Caught me. In that case I stick by it (although I would cut out 'by far', as that was in the heat of the argument) - Ghana has the best midfield in the group, even without Germany. TRUTH: The only reason I toned it down is because I know that statement would irk people like you and I have enough of conflict on bigsoocer. Stop it, kindergarten mindreader... You empathy is pathetic. I never said I don't rate KPB. I just said I rated others more. You're the one that tried to prove that I rate KPB higher than Asamoah, Kingston and so on. I proved you wrong and now your trying to wriggle out instead of conceding this point. Utterly pathetic. Hmmm... changing history? Jerome is less talented and makes the German team. KPB dropped out due to his bad habits, not his playing abilities. Arguably is key. You don't have to agree. I'm sorry but Argentina has no midfileder on Essien's level. Spain or England has no midfielder of similar quality to fill in for Lampard or Xavi.
He said while his heart is with Germany, he had to make a RATIONAL decision to represent Ghana which I think is smart thing to say. After all good decisions are made with the head.
Breaking up play and disrupting the flow of the game. Given that right now the backup to the backup to the backup of Essien is probably guaranteed a first XI spot in DM due to injuries I'm not sure about that statement now, as I am yet to be convinced by Derek Boateng.
With Ballack you would have overrun Ghana with that kind of destructive input Without him you can't compete...
Well, let's hope there will be enough German players left to play the KO matches then. Some more input from Ghana and there won't be any German midfield left.
I'm quite sure you will do your best to go for John Mensah's ankle and knee. That would sound like a typical German tactic.
Typical German tactic is to destroy the whole country, not just one player. Didn't you learn anything???
I really cant remember any German player who injured any other player with intention. They had never played dirty. Their toughness usually meant that they run for 90 minutes, that most of their players are strong and disciplined. But never, never dirty. Football officials were something else