Doha: Al Gharafa captain Lawrence Quaye believes the pressure will be on El Jaish as the two teams face off in Round 5 of the prestigious league next week.
In an interview with the qsl.com.qa, Quaye was upbeat ahead of the big match against El Jaish.
Quaye is the beating heart and natural leader of Gharafa, having spent most of his career at the club. We got the lo-down and here is what he thought about his oponents, the new Head Coach at Al Gharafa, the team’s tactics and his upbeat outlook for the season ahead.
Q: Your team Gharafa has had a very good start to the season, how are the new signings settling in?
A: I think we are doing quite well, if you consider the many changes that were made to the team, we brought in many new players and despite the short amount of time we’ve had to gel, we have actually done really well.”
Q: What’s different this year with regards to the squad?
A: I think it’s a more balanced than in previous years, if you look now at the players we have brought in, most of them have fitted in right away. In the past we brought in players and they needed some time to get used to the league and to the club but this season, we have had very few problems.”
“So far we haven’t conceded a goal in the first three games of the season, so our defence too had a bit of an overhaul over the summer and I think its working. We have improved defensively and this gives the team more confidence when attacking. So yes, I think we are more balanced and this has given the team more options generally speaking.”
“We brought in Anderson from El Jaish and Madi form Al Sadd and Aden Ali Aden Umm Salal and so far it’s been pretty good for our defence.”
Q: In the last round you were instrumental in setting up the winning goal against Al Arabi, how important was that game for your side?
A: Yes, it was very important for us, if you look at the recent head to heads between us and Arabi in the last three years; we haven’t been able to beat them. They were somewhat of a bogey-team for us, so we were very focused on getting a positive result against them this time and we did just that.”
“Five years ago when we had that Championship winning side we used to beat everyone, but more recently it has been difficult to beat Arabi in particular, so it was a crucial win, psychologically speaking.”
“It’s also important to remember that they too were unbeaten until we played them.”
THE PENINSULA
