Niko Kovac praises new Borussia Dortmund signings Justin Lerma and Takata Yamamoto: “The lads have potential.” | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund head coach Niko Kovac praised new signings Justin Lerma and Takata Yamamoto after both scored in a pre-season friendly win over Rot-Weiß Oberhausen yesterday. Dortmund defeated their opponents 1-3 away. Lerma – who featured in Kovac’s starting XI – opened up the BVB scoring with a 1-1 equalizer shortly before the first half drew to a close. Yamamoto – introduced at the half – added his own tally in the 78th-minute. 

Lerma (18) remains something of a longer-term prospect. The Ecuadorian teenager is by no means slated as a replacement for more established BVB attackers such as Julien Duranville and Karim Adeyemi. Kovac effectively bade farewell to Adeyemi in his post-match comments yesterday, emphasizing that the Dortmund front office was “actively working to find adequate, and perhaps even better, replacements for those who have left us.“

Yamamoto (also 18) isn’t even meant to play for the BVB first team. The Japanese teenage talent – acquired on loan from Gamba Osaka – will spend the year working with the Dortmund reserves. Kovac freely admitted that he himself possessed little knowledge about one of his newly procured players. 

Kovac praises Justin Lerma and Takata Yamamoto

“I didn’t know of him before either,” Kovac said when asked about Yamamoto. “But he brought some good stuff to the table today. I saw quite a few promising moves. We’ll look forward to working with him. For now, certainly with the reserve team, but that doesn’t mean the door to the first team is closed. On the contrary, it’s open, and we’ll be keeping an eye on him.”

“You can see they have potential,” Kovac noted when discussing both Yamamoto and  “They both have their strengths, but there’s also room for improvement. The lads need to learn quickly what we want. They should demonstrate their skills. That’s why we signed them.”

GGFN | Peter Weis