Herbert Addo parted ways with Hearts this week, after Herbert winning 16, drawing 12 and losing 10 in 38 games.

In his wake is a legacy of barren strikers.

Before Addo was Mohammed Pol, and before him, David Duncan. One key difference in their tenures was that Hearts were, at least, getting some goals from strikers.

In the case of Herbert, the goals have been deathly absent.

Addo's immediate past record after an impressive season with Inter Allies had put him in a good position, after charging them up the league table into the top six when relegation was looking certain for the Tema-based club. Herbert even got them to the FA Cup final, where they lost to Kotoko.

Between the time Herbert took over, in July last year, and when this season started in January, Addo had the luxury of five months to build a crack team.

He had been one of the coaches excited about the extended period of inactivity.

“For me the fact that the league has not started is quite positive because it gives my team the chance to play a lot of practice matches as we seek to know each other more.”

His comments came in the wake of the massive player overhauling Addo supervised in the hope of building a winsome Phobian side for the future.

He brought in close to ten players, including Foovi Aguidi, Issah Mumuni, Soulama Abdoulaye and Kwame Kizito. Others were Hamza Mohammed, Leonard Tawiah, Seidu Mutawakilu and Isaac Oduro as well as Vincent Atinga.

Why they haven't been scoring?

For him, tinkering was not the problem as he remains adamnt that he offered the talent at his disposal an outlet to shine.

“When I came, all the players were given the chance. Everybody had a very good chance to showcase what they’ve learnt, what they’re made of, and so on.”

“I didn’t have problem with the players. I always selected those I was convinced were prepared to die for Hearts of Oak, and that has been the practice since the season started,” he told Angel FM in midweek.

But watchers say the players must also take the blame.

"Look at Fiamenyo," says Amos Majeed, a supporter of the club.

"We were all hailing the guy and he was scoring. Suddenly, he couldn't score even one goal. What was Herbert supposed to do?"

Indeed, after Fiamenyo got eight goals between January and March, the striker could barely score again. With five goals in their last six games, whoever is given the nod would have to teach the team how to score - and fast.

Eddie Ansah, formerly the goalies' trainer, will handle the Phobians against Aduana on Sunday. It's crunch time for him, knowing the team has scored just 22 goals in 21 games this season.

Aduana will want to take advantage of Hearts’ troubles to compensate their loss to AshGold last wekend. The Dormaa side are still in the haunt for the title and a win could see their chances boosted especially when Ashantigold face a trick test in Kpando. 

Aduana (4th) last five games: L W L W L
Hearts (12th) last five games: L D D L W

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