HENRIK LEHM – We are growing as a team:

Inter Allies’ matchday three fixture against Hearts of Oak on Sunday evening ended in 1-0 in our favour.

Here is what Henrik Lehm had to say after the match when he faced the media:

QUESTION: It is your first win of the season, what is your take on the game?

LEHM:

First of all, we always have to look at the whole game. And to be honest, you can see how old I am-grey hair. After one minute, I had a heart attack, you know, we could have been behind 1-0, 2-0. We are such a young team. 

We still have a lot to learn but after that, I think that we started playing better football than we had done in the two first two matches. The things we are doing, the practice starts showing in the game. 

And of course, I’m very happy for the win. I’m very happy that we had the first goal and I’m very happy that the players for me today, they really worked hard for me, It was a teamwork today.

QUESTION:

We saw you beat one of the top giants in Ghanaian football Accra Hearts of Oak and we saw you cut of runs from Ovouka and Larry of Hearts of Oak. 

Was that the approach looking at the way you played and the fact that you got that 1-0 win?

LEHM:

Well, of course, I saw the game on Tuesday and you know, I was watching it and then it was good for me that they lost the game in overtime 2-2 because you always know when the team does that, they don’t have the same energy when you meet them again. 

And of course, I looked at how they played, for me, they have some really, really good players, some really fast players. 

And of course this week we practice how we could defend against good players. So my defence, we have played three games and they scored once and that was a penalty. 

So I’m very satisfied with how we defend as a team and also to say, I really like my goalkeeper a lot. He’s in really good in these three games. 

So I think our defence did very well today, but we practice it. Yes, we did.

QUESTION:

Are you worried a bit about the lack of clear cut chances and lack of finishing touch from Aso?

LEHM:

You should ask this guy(Abanga) what I’m doing in practice- 90% is how to make goals. We all know that the people who make all our goals last year when I was here, they’re not here. And the season it’s been so short, we didn’t have time really to find a lot of strikers. So my answer is yes.

QUESTION:

Coach, just before your first game, you talked about how your team was really young and you needed to, to work extra hard, to get them to shift before the first game of the season, you played three matches. How would you assess the group of players you have and what do you think the potential chances are in this season’s league?

LEHM:

Well, I like working with this team because they’re young and they really want to learn, you know, when I ask questions, in the beginning, no one answered. They just look at me, why is this white man asking questions? You know, but now they start answering my questions. Now they start coming really and said ‘Henrik if I do this, I do that.’ 

So when you have a team like this, we will grow, we will definitely grow. And you can see, I use some players already from the Academy. Collins had played a lot and we have a lot of good young players coming from the Academy, also practice Academy. 

So for me, Inter Allies is a club that’s very interesting for us in Europe because they bring so many young players up and you can see from the last time I was here, seven of those players, I helped most of them to Europe. So of course, when we send so many players to Europe, it takes time to build a new team. 

And I think we’ve built it from the bottom. That’s how I built a team like I build the house. I start from the bottom when we can defend, we put more on for the offence and there, we still have a lot to learn.

QUESTION:

So coach now you’ve won a game, does it give you a positive sense of where you want the team to go at the end of the season?

LEHM:

I saw the boys down in the dressing room. I’m sure it gave him so much energy, you know, I love when they’re singing and dancing and I’m so happy. 

It gives the whole team energy. You know, if we had lost and we practice tomorrow morning, you know how everybody meets in like this? 

You know what happened down there two of them were kissing me, you know, I’m not used to that. So, of course, it gives energy to everybody.