There was plenty to discuss in Otto Addo’s post-match press conference on Thursday. The discussion was dominated by factors that led to the loss to Angola, missed chances and the quality of the Baba Yara pitch. 

The boss was also asked about the game in general, lessons learnt from the game, and plan for the remaining matches. Here is a full transcript…………….

On his thoughts on the game

First of all congratulations to Angola – they did well, they changed the tactical formations. We saw it before the game, they started with three central defenders so we knew they will play differently. They took a high risk pressing us very, very higher. I think you could see that their energy in the first half, they lost a little bit of power. We still created chances because they played in the last line – one against one. Sometimes it was just one against one defender, sometimes it was Antoine, Jordan, and Fataw, three against three and yeah, surely there we could have done more. In the second half, I think we took control. We controlled the game, we created a lot of chances, or even half chances where I think we have to try and take faster decisions to shoot earlier a little bit. I like that they play like a team, but sometimes a little bit more egoistic in shooting will be good. The goalkeeper did well. Congratulations to the goalkeeper, he saved some really good goals and at the end, I mean at least, I think we deserve the point at least. It was a little bit unlucky and yeah, you can just hope that I don’t like to do this, but on this pitch, to be honest, the guys did really well. In a second half, to control the game, they did it. You have to work on the pitch to get better, because it’s very difficult. And then mistakes can happen.

On losing at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium for the first time in 24 years

I does not feel good.

On lesson from defeat

Surely, we have to be more clinical. I saw a lot of situations where we could have shot earlier, we should have been a little bit more egoistic. Even though I don’t like if a player has a better position and you don’t give him the ball, I don’t like it. But this game, I think there was a lot of situations where we could have taken shots and we passed to the next one, passed to the next one. Also, I think the players that did that all, they tried everything, we control the match and this is also football. I was a player myself. I had bad games when we won and sometimes you play good and you lose. This is football.

On late changes

I know that if I would have changed earlier, people would have said, why did you change. Whatever you do, I know when you lose, you’re the bad guy. But I take it. After the game, everybody knows more and maybe we could have done better in changing. I’ll think about it I’ll take it home and think about it but like I said the second half to be honest was really, really good. We had the right positions. In the first half we had some problems, I talked with Alidu Seidu, he was too high so he had to come back. We took better positions in between the lines and the player played well. We break them down to the half and we didn’t allow too many counter situations even though there were some which were also dangerous and yeah, like I said, football is sometimes like that. We were lucky maybe a little bit even though we deserved to win in Mali. But there we scored a goal and won and today Angola scored a goal. Bit I can just repeat myself, I think at least a draw would have been deserved.

Problems in the heart of defense and midfield

No, because the quality is there. I think even though we lost I saw that the quality is there, Mumin was unlucky that he couldn’t clear the ball at the end but he made some mistakes before so it’s not only him. The grass is also not that good but besides that he made a really, really good game and sent a lot of good balls in between the line, won a lot of duels so you know they’re young boys and I know they will develop and surely we will have to learn all of this to be more clinical and at least to get a point at least out of this match.

On the pitch

Bumpy, the height and all wasn’t good enough

Absence of key players in Central defense and its effect

Do you think you have a major problem in defence. But surely we lost today 1-0. And we have to look also not only at the goal but also on the chances we allowed. But I said it I think the last time against the Central African Republic. It depends on the start and the back line. Sometimes it’s more also the midfield, sometimes it’s the front, the way we are pressed, the way we attack, we don’t have to allow them to play clear balls into the last line and we have to avoid these situations where they have a one-on-one situation at the box and so we have to be more compact, we have to work on that I know it was not easy, the players all played in Europe mostly and we’re tired but the same for Angola and today I think they were lucky at the end but yeah like I said we have to learn out of it there’s a lot of things to learn in a lot of situation and just to be clear I don’t want to blame this loss on the pitch even though it was not good but against Central African Republic it was also not good and we won so we have to do better this year.

On Angola switching tactics before and during the game

I mean we took different positions when we saw that they played the five back. I think like I said we did quite well Angolans taking high risk in the first half as they pressed us and this allowed us to have a situation where we had one of one runs We didn’t use them well, the last pass, the last shot was not clinical enough. And in the second half I think we controlled them but we were a little bit unlucky to concede the goal.

I can’t really say much bad things about the second half, just like we have to score. In football sometimes it’s like that, if you don’t score, sometimes at the end you get punished but we are still in the race despite the defeat.

On positives going into the next game against Niger

The second half makes me very confident. The good thing is that it’s all still in our own hands. We play against all the other teams in our group and it’s all in our hands. We will not depend on anybody to qualify, at the moment and this is the good thing, this is a positive thing and I guess like it has been said there’s a lot of positive things to be taken out of the second half but surely at least we should draw this game and we have to learn to be more clinical, to make earlier shots and to be a little bit more egoistic it’s a thin line because I don’t want them to be too egoistic. But we have to get out of this and we will discuss the game tomorrow morning. I will show them a lot of clips and hopefully we will learn for the next match.