Salomon Kalou says the time has come for the Ivory Coast to stop relying on individuals and start focusing on the collective as they start their Africa Cup of Nations campaign against Guinea.
After near misses in 2006 and 2012, when the Ivory Coast lost finals to Egypt and Zambia respectively, Herve Renard's men begin their latest attempt to win Africa's showpiece in Tuesday's Group D clash in Malabo.
They will be unable to call on Drogba in the latest edition of the tournament, with the country's record goalscorer having announced his international retirement last August.
Werder Bremen forward Kalou, a former team-mate of Drogba at Chelsea, feels the current crop of Ivory Coast players have the chance to prove they are not over-reliant on the talent of certain individuals.
"It's clear that, when you lose a major asset like Didier, people don't see you as favourites so much because they reckon you're less strong without him," Kalou told FIFA.com.
"But we're still a solid side and we can be even better collectively and win the tournament. At certain times in the past, perhaps we relied too much on our individual players to the detriment of the team.
"In a few of the easier games, that was enough for us to win, but each time we faced better organised sides like Egypt or Zambia, we had trouble getting through.
"They were well organised and had a strong team, and we tried to respond to that with the talent of our individual players. It caused us a lot of problems."
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