KOTOKO COACH SITTING ON POWDER KEG?

Kumasi Asante Kotoko coach, Paa Kwesi Fabin, is under pressure to perform, but he insists he will need some time to put the team in winning shape.
Going down unbelievably 1-3 to Liberty Professionals last Sunday, which sent them down to 10th placing on the league table, the coach admitted it had been difficult so far but pleaded with the entire Kotoko family to give him time to get the team on track.
The best coach in the last season, whose entry into Asante Kotoko was touted as one of the best things to happen to the two times Africa champions, said he entered Kotoko few days to the league and noted that what was even serious was the fact that he met a bloated team that was difficult to deal with.
“I came to Kotoko to meet 48 players which was too huge a number to deal with, and I did not have the luxury of time to observe them.
“As you see I have been rotating the players, but after some time, I am about to settle on 18, and this is the team I am going to use,” he told the Graphic Sports yesterday.
The coach may be justified in his explanation, but it is difficult whether the impatient supporters would accept his explanation, especially as the league was becoming keener by the day.
Lying 10th on the Glo Premier League table with six points from five games is uncharacteristic of Kotoko, and the supporters are already murmuring in disagreement over the performance and asking the coach and the players to buck up before they react.
Reports from the Accra match against Liberty Professionals, which Kotoko lost 1-3, spoke of a near-nasty situation as angry supporters of the Porcupine Warriors turned their fury on the players who had to be escorted into their bus under heavy police guard.
And Fabin insists that the supporters were justified in their action because the performance last Sunday was highly abysmal.
“They played as if nothing was at stake,” the coach said of his players and warned that any player who does not show commitment to the Kotoko cause, could only find himself on the sidelines.
He was surprised that after doing everything to prepare the team for the Liberty match, the players went to the pitch to fumble and tumble.
“We cannot continue to play this way. The time is now to get serious action and I promise the fans that very soon they will see a different Asante Kotoko”.
Asante Kotoko is the only Ghanaian side that will be participating in Africa this season, but their performance so far does not portray them as a side ready to conquer the continent.
Their supporters would want to see a very serious team that could rub shoulders with the big guns on the continent.
The coach was expected to submit his report on the Liberty Professionals match to management yesterday.
The Kotoko management had expressed confidence in the team and were giving him all the support to deliver.
Mr Fabin promised that the next game against Real Tamale United would see a better stuff from the team and asked the supporters to remain calm.