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Two weeks after the firing of Otto Addo, the Ghana Football Association have moved swiftly to replace him, appointing experienced Mozambican-Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz as his replacement.
In the end, Otto's sacking came down to a lack of goals, but for Ghana, Queiroz's appointment with two months to go till the FIFA World Cup, is more about keeping them out, not putting them in.
They needed someone with discipline from front to back, and the former Manchester United, South Africa, and Portugal mentor was deemed the man for the high-pressure job.
In recent months, the Black Stars have spectacularly failed at both scoring and defence, which is why according to sources, the decision to fire the former Black Star Addo was made with so little time till North America.
The numbers were grim.
Over their last five games, the Black Stars won zero, scored two and allowed 11 goals, working out to an average of 2.2 goals allowed per game. The run includes those last two games, a 5-1 loss to Austria and a 2-1 defeat to Germany.
Stretching to the last 10 games does not make for easier readying. The Black Stars scored 14 and allowed 12. That number was helped in large part by a 5-0 win over Central African Republic, and included a 1-1 draw with Chad.
Player ratings from those matches reflected systemic defensive failure. Against Germany, center-back Alexander Djiku, expected to anchor the backline, received a 4 out of 10 rating from YEN.com.gh while his partner Jonas Adjetey received a 3. Midfielder Thomas Partey, Ghana's most experienced outfield player, was rated 3.5, with specific concerns raised about his defensive mobility against quick transitions.
It was clear there was a problem and the GFA did not trust Addo to fix it. These are the issues that the 73-year-old Queiroz, who has built a four-decade coaching career on defensive organization, is expected to fix.
At Manchester United, where he served as Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant from 2002 to 2003 and 2004 to 2008, he was at the heart of the 4-3-2-1 system that led to a haul of three Premier League titles and the 2008 Champions League victory.
At the time he stated: "The final product is to defend well, avoid goals. If we need to defend with 10 players behind the ball, we are going to do that."
At first glance, this might seem like a betrayal of Ghana's swashbuckling, attacking style that produced the likes of the maestro Abedi Pele, Tony Yeboah and more recently Michael Essien and the free-scoring Asamoah Gyan.
But in reality, without an AFCON title since the majority of Ghanaians have been alive, the Black Stars have achieved little of note garbed in that attacking toga.
Their most significant accomplishment so far has been reaching the World Cup quarterfinal in 2010. It is for that reason, whether by accident or design, that this appointment carries a direct historical parallel. That quarterfinal run in South Africa was achieved under a coach who employed the same defense-first principles Queiroz is known for.
Milovan Rajevac, the Serbian coach who led that campaign, deployed an adaptable 4-5-1 formation built on positional discipline, defensive compactness and rapid transitions. Ghana scored more than one goal in only one match at the tournament, the 2-1 extra-time victory over the United States in the Round of 16.
In the group stage, they beat Serbia 1-0, drew with Australia 1-1 and lost 1-0 to Germany, advancing on four points and a defensive record built on organization rather than attacking volume. As expected, it led to some criticism back home.
Former Black Stars striker Prince Tagoe, a member of that squad, addressed the criticism directly in a March 2026 interview on Sporty FM: "We didn't really care about the criticisms of the one-goal project under Milovan Rajevac. At the end of the day, we were winning and taking our bonuses."
They were eventually eliminated by Uruguay on penalties in the quarterfinal and defender Samuel Inkoom, described Rajevac's tactical approach: "Rajevac is a very disciplined coach, he loved tactics. Our gameplan for Uruguay was that we stay. He also wanted us to press, and that's how we got the first goal."
Despite this mythological love of attacking football, Rajevac remains widely regarded in Ghana as the last coach to give the Black Stars a functioning tactical identity. One of defensive structure with pace on the counter. It was not possession football, and it was definitely not the open, swashbuckling style often associated with Ghanaian football culture.
Queiroz's tactical template maps directly onto that model. With Iran, where he served as the longest-tenured coach in the country's football history from 2011 to 2019, he qualified them for the 2014 World Cup as unbeaten group winners, conceding just two goals in their final eight qualifying matches and winning most games 1-0.
At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Iran played the most defensive football at the tournament, earning them a 1-1 with Portugal and a slim 1-0 loss to Spain in a group containing both Iberian heavyweights.
Against Spain, the team set up in a 4-5-1 out of possession with the line of engagement at the halfway line, dropping into a 6-3-1 when under sustained pressure.
Iran held just 22% possession across the 90 minutes against Spain, relying on counter-attacks and set pieces as their primary attacking weapons. They almost profited from it but for a VAR-disallowed goal in the final minutes that would have earned them a famous draw.
Even during his spell in Egypt, one of Africa's best teams and undisputed Nations Cup royalty, Queiroz did not deviate. At the 2021 the Pharaohs reached the AFCON final. On the way, they defeated Ivory Coast on penalties, Morocco 2-1 and host nation Cameroon on penalties before losing to Senegal in the final, also on penalties. It was not pretty by any means, just effective. Until it wasn't.
The data shows a consistent thread across borders: Queiroz's teams concede fewer goals after he takes charge, even though the attacking output is dependent on the quality of the individual talent available in transition.
This is largely because every player knows his job off the ball and has subscribed to Queiroz's way of thinking. They are positionally superb off the ball. After those 11goals, Ghana will gladly take that, and thank you very much!
It is exactly what they want, and need. The issue however is that, with the World Cup in less than two months and just two friendly games to play, whether Queiroz has enough time to implement these principles. And whether he has all of the pieces he needs to do so.
Already there is an issue. Mohammed Kudus, the most technically gifted transition player in the squad, is seemingly out of the World Cup. The 25-year-old suffered a hamstring injury that will sideline him for at least three months, so his return seems improbable.
That dependency on transition quality makes the injury status of Kudus the most consequential variable in Ghana's World Cup preparation. At the 2018 World Cup, Queiroz's Iran counter-attacking model relied heavily on Sardar Azmoun and Mehdi Taremi as the primary outlets in transition.
Without Kudus, Ghana's equivalent options are Manchester City's Antoine Semenyo and captain Jordan Ayew of Leicester City. Both are capable, but not the same.
Defender Mohammed Salisu is also confirmed to miss the World Cup, further reducing Queiroz's options at center-back, the position most critical to his defensive system.
Beyond tactics however, will be Quieroz's personality and how that meshes with Ghana's organizational fault lines.
Institutional conflict is a consistent pattern of Queiroz's coaching record. He qualified South Africa for the 2002 World Cup, then resigned before the tournament after a disagreement with the South African Football Association.
He lasted one season at Real Madrid before being dismissed. At Manchester United, his tactical authority prompted Roy Keane's departure in 2005. During a visit to Nigeria in 2011 Keane told me: "I walked into the office at 9am. By 9:15, I was out."
He was not at all happy with Queiroz and later said during ITV's coverage of the 2018 World Cup that "one of my big regrets is that I probably should have ripped his head off."
Keane is not alone. Queiroz exiled experienced goalkeeper Mehdi Rahmati from the Iran national team after Rahmati questioned his authority, a decision that was seen as controversial at the time but reinforced the hierarchy Queiroz demanded.
His relationship with the Iranian Football Federation was repeatedly strained across eight years. His contract with Qatar lasted 12 matches before mutual termination.
The GFA's own recent history presents a specific challenge. According to reports, an initial Executive Council meeting on April 10 to finalize the coaching appointment failed to reach a decision due to low attendance, with only six members present and the president joining virtually from abroad.
Queiroz is on a four-month contract, as both sides hedge their bets, which should be short enough to keep them in the honeymoon period through the World Cup. Hopefully.
The Mozambique-born tactician demands professional infrastructure, clear authority over selection and tactics, and timely fulfilment of contractual obligations. At every previous stop where those demands were not met, the relationship broke down.
At reported monthly wages of $100 000, there is clear incentive for both sides to deliver on their respective obligations. Ghana want World Cup progress and potential $20 million windfall if they reach the quarterfinal and more if they reach their semifinal target. Queiroz would earn himself a two-year contract at about double the current monthly wages. Win-win.
One thing Quieroz has been known to do is build a siege mentality within his squad, similar to his compatriot Jose Mourinho. He demands an iron mentality of his players, and prefers industry to style. Dissent will be put down quickly but warriors are welcome.
There are 60-odd days until their opening match. The last time Ghana appointed a defensive-minded foreign coach on a short timeline before a World Cup, they reached the quarterfinals and came within a penalty kick of the semifinals. The numbers from that campaign and from Queiroz's career track record support the logic behind this appointment.
Now, it is up to the GFA to provide the professional structure Queiroz has historically required to function, and to be fair, there isn't really enough time for them to muck it up.
