Former Asante Kotoko midfielder Yusif Chibsah has jumped to the defence of Black Meteors captain Daniel Afriyie Barnieh following a recent backlash after a series of unimpressive performances.
The 22-year-old scored vital goals to help Ghana qualify for the ongoing U-23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) but has failed to replicate his form at the tournament.
Many Ghanaians descended on him, particularly after Ghana’s first game against Congo where he got subbed off at halftime paving the way for Emmanuel Yeboah who eventually contributed to all three goals which got Ghana a crucial win.
Yusif Chibsah who played in Ghana’s last appearance at the Olympic Games which was hosted in Athens in 2004 however, believes it is unfair to chastise the former Hearts of Oak player indicating that, factors unrelated to football could be the antecedent to the FC Zurich forward’s setback.
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“It is a whole lot of factors that constitute a player being out of form or losing form.
“If you look at Afriyie Barnieh in the second game against Morocco, when he jumped in, those few minutes he was brought on, his runs were right; at least he did some few good things that showed that he is not entirely out of form,” he told Citi FM.
“Like I said there are a whole lot of factors that contribute to a player’s dip in form, some of them might be external factors, not necessarily football related.”
He added that another factor could be Barnieh’s new environment in Switzerland, where he plies his trade.
“He has had few minutes at club side [FC Zurich], he joined the club, a couple of months ago, he is new to them, and he needs to be integrated slowly, he needs to get used to the system play. It is a whole lot of factors.”
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“It would be unfair to the young man, to judge him outright over a couple of few months, joining a new team, a different country, and different people.”
In their third game against Guinea, Ghana will be hoping to get a win to enable them to reach the next stage of the competition as they aim to qualify for the next Olympic Games by finishing in the top three ahead of the tournament.