The David Duncan effect…

Coach David Duncan.

Every effort must be made not to unnecessarily sing praises to Coach David Duncan. We shouldn’t as well eulogise the players for their impressive 3-1 win over Bechem United on Sunday. Indeed, it is necessary that the Porcupines don’t get complacent. They ought not assume or think that, they have suddenly found the antidote to all their problems.

That’s the clarion call from most discerning observers, which is good. But in exercising that restraint, certain things can’t be overlooked simply because of fears of being complacent.

One of those things is the David Duncan effect. As a journalist employed by the club, it maybe be irresponsible on my part if not unprofessional not to examine moves Coach Duncan.

The coach has been tasked to halt Kotoko’s declining form. The readiness to talk about Coach Duncan and the newsworthy things he does or says will naturally stay with me. Therefore it’s right to do the appropriate commentary when it matters to do it. Thus the subject I’m looking at is: what was Coach David Duncan’s influence Kotoko at Bechem where they Michael Akuffu (two goals) and Amed Toure scored to give the Porcupines a deserved healthy win?

Unlike the Eulma-Kotoko Champions League encounter where Coach Duncan had no prior training session with the team, this time, he had some reasonably good time to prepare.

He prepared the team for some days – not for a week. He was in Kumasi in the middle of last week. He consequently couldn’t have had enough time working or training before Sunday.

Yet as a coach who knows his job and has been around for years, the new trainer didn’t need a lot of time to determine which player best fits which position. He settled on what I felt was the best that he could assemble in the week. His deployment of the players on the field was quite perfect and his instructions – watching from afar – went well.

I don’t think Isaac Amoako was really tested but it is fair to point out that, there were tricky situations the highly experienced goalie saved at Bechem. He scared me when he rushed out once but didn’t firm control of affairs. I enjoyed watching Christopher Bonney and skipper, Amos Frimpong on the right and left sides of defence. Ahmed Adams and Abeiku Ainooson partnership in central defence was almost faultless.

It saddens me that, the team doesn’t have Ahmed Adams as part of the squad for Africa.

Adams hadn’t been recruited when the deadline for the Africa registration closed. The fine performance Adams continues to exhibit explains my sadness. In midfield, Owusu Jackson, Richard Mpong, Emmanuel Asante all gave a good account of themselves.

Amed Toure and Michael Akuffu, by the fact that they scored, stood out as the best. The contributions of Obed Owusu and the substitutes Prince Baffoe, Eric Donkor and Akwasi Acheampong weren’t that negligible. So Coach Duncan and his players performed well.

But exactly what changed so much that, the team that has drawn in their last three league matches this time scored three times and were not the least daunted when they conceded a goal minutes after they shot into the lead? That was the type of question I posed to Coach David Duncan during an interview in the team bus.

“I don’t know what they were doing previously that was churning out that kind of results. I however don’t think Michael was doing anything different” he stated. “I [think] the players were low in confidence, that psychological part or component of the game [was missing]” added the knowledgeable Kotoko coach.

Coach Duncan is right. Psychology plays a monumental role in all fields of human endeavour. Maxwell Maltz, an American surgeon and author of Psycho-Cybernetics (1960), which was a system of ideas that he believed could improve one's self-image said: “Realizing that our actions, feelings and behaviour are the result of our own images and beliefs gives us the level that psychology has always needed for changing personality” – in this case, a team.

If we are psychologically unfit, the result we produce in an assigned task more often than not turns out to be bad. Duncan expressed this point better when he said that, Kotoko could’ve the best players on earth but if the confidence of these players is low they would achieve very little.

According to Duncan, the deficiencies in Kotoko’s psychological makeup before his arrival affected the team’s competitive spirit, commitment and determination. In summary, what the Coach Duncan has done within the short time is to literally inject the players with a heavy dose of mental strength. He’s lifted their psychological capacity. That is the David Duncan effect.