Riemer: "The boys need to start believing in themselves"

INTERVIEWS After the game against Antwerp, Anderlecht coach Brian Riemer cited two major working points for his team. The first: he wants his players to kick at goal more often. The second: Anderlecht must learn to reward themselves.


"For God's sake, shot at the goal," Riemer told his post-match press conference. "I really don't understand it. In my career, I often had to tell players not to kick, but to play out the attack. Here I almost have to force them to kick though. We get into good shooting positions so often and we have players with so much quality: Yari, Benito, ...

"We have to stop punishing ourselves. In the seven games I've been here, we often found ourselves in situations where we should be able to control," Riemer said. "Those are the two lessons I learnt today."

"I saw things that pleased me"

"We dominated in the first half and controlled the game. We often got into favourable positions around Antwerp's penalty area, as was our plan. Our high pressing was also good. I saw a lot of positives, especially before half-time," Riemer recalled. 

"After half-time, the game was more open. Unfortunately, after a while it was too often about the referee's decisions instead of the match itself. Focusing on the performance, I saw things that pleased me".

"Second yellow Raman was stupid"

The Anderlecht coach also talked about Raman's exclusion. "I am disappointed. It's a pity we couldn't keep the advantage of one man more. I thought the first yellow card was very severe. The second one was just stupid. He said he forgot he already had yellow. That can happen because of the intensity. But of course we want to avoid that."

Raman will now miss one match due to suspension. Now we really have to look for a striker," he laughed. "Without going into details, I can say that a lot is going on at the moment. Jesper is working very hard there at the moment."

"But it's about more than transfers. We have a lot up front in and around the box. The boys just have to start believing in themselves, because if you don't shoot, you don't score."