Peter Amidu Acquah is a 19-year-old winger who plays for Asante Kotoko in the Ghanaian Premier League. In GPL broadcasts, he is known simply as “Amidu,” so that is how I will refer to him hereafter. He already has 72 senior appearances and has been called up to Ghana’s U-20 team (though he is yet to make an appearance).
Amidu is approximately 5’10″(1.77 m) with a fairly broad build. He plays as a touchline-hugging winger for the most part. Amidu stands out as being significantly faster than average, always a danger to get on the end of balls in behind the opposition defence or into space on the wing. He also has decent, though not outstanding, dribbling ability, so he can take advantage when isolated 1v1 against a fullback. He is a very strong transition passer, moving the ball on quickly to teammates in space to keep the move going. But, despite all of this, his final third impacts are surprisingly limited; he does not generate very many shots. Some of this is due to positioning and his role in the team. Amidu often receives the ball right on the touchline and relatively far away from the goal. He does a pretty good job of getting his team to the penalty box, but is very rarely the one to deliver the final pass or shot. Though it should be said, he does play quite a lot of passes into the box. He also, as mentioned a moment ago, doesn’t have elite dribbling skills. So he can make things happen in space, but when he is up against a more set defence, he has a much harder time getting through. He has a tendency to hold onto the ball for too long, and sometimes his close control leaves something to be desired. His wide positioning also means that he does not receive many passes inside the box, which could be a route to scoring more goals. He is relatively strong, which lends itself to some hold-up play and occasionally being able to brute-force his way through a challenge.
Amidu tracks back quite a bit and is a decent tackler. His decent strength is an asset in physical battles. His defensive acumen, in tandem with his tepid offensive outputs, might make him a candidate to be converted into a wing-back.
Amidu has a lot of traits that would seem to portend a step up. He has played a lot of games at a senior level at a young age, he has a strong physical profile, and is technically quite good as well, at least compared to his current peers. But it’s concerning that he hasn’t been able to turn these traits into more consistent offensive output at his current level. He might make sense as a low-cost gamble for a dedicated reserve league like MLS Next Pro or for a B team that plays at a similar level in Europe. But unless he starts showing great offensive outputs at his current level, I wouldn’t be falling over myself to make it happen.
Target Scouting 