The Black Stars boss has criticized the Ghana fans who were unhappy with Ayew’s performance against Nigeria.
Ghana drew 0-0 with Nigeria in the first leg of their World Cup qualifying tie on Saturday. The Black Stars were not able to break the deadlock at their home stadium while most of their attacking players spent a quiet night.
Otto Addo decided to substitute his side’s striker, Jordan Ayew, in the second minute of injury time. However, a section of Ghana fans booed the 30-year-old as he left the pitch to be replaced with former Bayern Munich youngster Kwasi Okyere-Wriedt.
In a post-match interview, Addo spoke about fans’ reaction to his late substitution.
“The booing I think is for me [for my substitution decision], no problem. I think it’s normal,” Addo said (via Goal). “I think Jordan played well and had a very good performance. Especially in the first half, he had lots of one against ones.
“Defensively he played outrageous, was very good, how he recovered… I am very satisfied.“
He added: “But, in the end, I don’t know if they [fans] don’t see it but he was very tired. And the other thing, what they might not know is that we [technical team] have been working over the last month observing a lot of matches, me and my staff.
“The whole squad we watched three, four matches of each player before we invited them [players] and we know exactly what they are capable of.”
Ayew has scored only two goals for the Black Stars during the past two years. Let’s see if he can bounce back from his first-leg performance when Ghana meet Nigeria again on Tuesday.