The tactician believes the Islanders are better positioned than his side because of the number of foreign-based players
Harambee Stars head coach Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee has picked one advantage he believes Comoros enjoy ahead of the November Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers.
Mulee has already assembled a provisional squad to train ahead of the double-header but has pointed out the Islanders enjoy the advantage of having more foreign-based players than his side.
When Comoros head coach Amir Abdou picked his previous side, the squad was dominated by players doing trade in lower European divisions. There was no star name in the squad though and the only one with a European club competition experience was El Fardou Ben Nabouhane of Crvena Zvezda in Serbia.
Kassim Abdallah of Al Raed FC, Martigues’ Nadjim Abdou, and Fouad Bachirou of Nottingham Forest were the other players among the abroad-based ones.
“When you have not had a competitive tournament and your opponent has players playing in the European leagues it is quite a task,” Mulee told reporters after conducting his first training session.
“Comoros have no player playing at home and even they do not have a domestic league now and that becomes a big disadvantage for Kenya.”
The majority of the players summoned are from the Kenyan Premier League and have not been active for over seven months now since the coronavirus pandemic struck.
Mulee is aware of their match fitness issues but has pegged his hope on the few active stars from foreign leagues.
“I want to see how the players who are playing in Kenya are doing although I watched them in the leagues and in the continental matches,” he explained.
“It is a good thing to have the players coming in and we have had our first training session where it has given me the opportunity to see who is where.
“Of course you know they have not had the season going since March and it means they have not played any competitive game apart from the one against Zambia.
“It was nice to beat Zambia but it is better to come and see where we are, who can go on and make the cut for the Comoros game because that is what we are training for.”
Michael Olunga, Victor Wanyama, Johanna Omollo, and Ayub Timbe are the players who failed to show up for the Zambia friendly due to travel restrictions and Mulee has revealed what he will do should they fail again.
“But you never know what might happen if we will have all of them coming it will be very perfect for us and if they will not then we will try and make a combination,” the former Tusker coach concluded.
“But we are going to use the players who are very active right now mostly the foreign-based ones, that is the plan for now.”
Kenya will be looking for a maiden win in Group H after 1-1 draws against Egypt and Togo.
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