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There is no sun in Bodo from early December to early January. We are in the north of Norway and despite what you may think, it is not that cold. The average minimum temperature in January is -3. The local team, Bodo / Glimt, has been competing for the strongest club title in northern Norway with Tromso since its inception. Their derby is called “The battle of the north” and it is played on May 16; The two teams were not allowed to participate in the Norwegian national championship until the 1970s. Bodo is within 700 km of most of the Elite opponents and each trip is an adventure. Until the 1990s, when there were still no indoor facilities, the team trained on icy and spike pitches. On the best days on the sidelines it is possible see the installation of a giant troutwhile in the stands fans support the team by waving giant toothbrushes, the old symbol of the club.
In the past two years, however, Bodo / Glimt (literally: Bodo / Lightning) is making his story less exotic and sporty more interesting. He finished second last season and showcased some of the hottest youngsters in the league, including Hakon Evjen, winner of the Youth of the Year award and traded to AZ for 2.5 million. It is this year that Bodo / Glimt has become the most interesting story for those who frequent the nerdy bubble of soccer twitter. All this thanks above all to technical director Aasmund Bjorkan and coach Kjetil Knudsen.
Called “Atalanta of Norway”, it has all the characteristics of a fetish team: it plays an ambitious and offensive football, it comes from obscure geographical coordinates to world football and its legend grows with its statistics.
After 19 games, Eliteserien Glimt has 53 points, remains undefeated and has scored a monstrous 67 goals, an average of 3.5 per game. However, Glimt has no off-scale means for opponents: his team at Transfermarkt, despite recent raises, is worth two hundred million less than Rosenborg and Molde. His most valuable player, Zinckernagel, is worth just one million euros. If the Bodo is destroying the Elite, it is thanks to the brilliance of its game proposal.
If we want to stay with familiar examples, Bodo is more like Sassuolo than Atalanta. A team, therefore, that expresses solid principles from the game of positions. The two centrals, but also the goalkeeper, marked the game with courage and ease. They have no qualms about taking the ball to the opponent’s half, or attracting pressure to their own, with the departure of Patrick Berg, the manager, from Lavolpia. The game progresses through the central 4-3-3, with short and quick exchanges, with wings that stay wide and receive the ball only in the last 30 meters and in one-on-one situations. Against the closed defenses, the low outsiders soar to widen the opposing lineup, with the wings squeezing into a triangle along with the mezzala on their side.
But it’s the offensive wingers, Hauge and Zinckernagel, that make the Glimt so dangerous. Her technique in speed, creativity in finishing, danger in dribbling. If we’re writing this article, you know, it’s to talk about Jens Petter Hauge, the player who stole his eye in the Europa League preliminaries against Milan. He served a wing assist after missing Kessié with a double step, his trademark move; he then reopened the game at 1-3 with a violent shot from a right-back that left Donnarumma impaled. After the game Rossoneri became interested in Hauge: a story that refers to football from a different era, more naive, where without large scouting networks and video platforms the best way to get to know the players was to play against them. The fairy tale of the young man from the outskirts of football who shyly shines before a European giant. The negotiation seems already finished, the player goes to Milan and has already handed over Ibrahimovic to the microphones; «I feel like I’m ready for the big step. I want a team that gives me the opportunity to play and a coach who has faith in me and helps me grow, “he said about his departure to Italy.
In fact, for a few months now we have been talking about Hauge, who was the co-star of Haaland’s now legendary 9 goals against Honduras in the U-20 World Cup, serving him 4 assists. This year, after the sale of Amor Layouni (to an Egyptian team, to say how the Norwegian market works), he became an owner and exploded. Exploded is an understatement: Hauge scored 14 goals and served 9 assists in 19 games. A few days ago he received his first call-up for the Norwegian team. At the end of July, when it had just started to wreak havoc on the Eliteserien, the Club Bruges tried to buy it, but decided to reject the offer. He had too much fun playing on the Bodo / Glimt. A few weeks before he had gone to the stadium to see him. Tommy moller nielsen, Manchester United’s all-time scout for Scandinavia, but Hauge hadn’t shone: “It wasn’t my best match, unfortunately, so it’s a bit disappointing,” he lamented.
23 – Jens Petter #Hauge He has participated in 23 goals in 18 appearances this season in the Norwegian top flight (14 goals + 9 assists), only Philip Zinckernagel has done better (27). Sparkly. pic.twitter.com/mmhYXAhPoG
– OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) September 28, 2020
Against Milan, however, he did not miss the opportunity to shine. In addition to goal and assist, he was a constant source of Glimt’s game: he touched twice as many balls from the other offensive end, served three key passes, completed 5 dribbles, often confusing Calabria. He altered wide catches on the sideline with others in the left half space, where we can see his middle position. From an action in that corridor, sliding in tight spaces, the action of the potential 3-3 was born, frustrated with one minute remaining.
Wyscout font.
Having no major game-building tasks, Hauge retrieves some balls to get back to goal. After the first check, you can afford to lower your head and aim for the direct marker. He is not a complex or thoughtful player: his greatest value is the intensity with which he tries to become dangerous every time he faces one. It is not a capricious dribble, with a great game of feints, and the way the man jumps has to do with the changes of direction and rhythm, with the way he cuts the race trajectories by sliding between the bodies of the opponents. . It doesn’t look fast, but it has a compact and controlled running style. Like other Scandinavian players (Kulusevski above all), he has a solid background in Futsal.
When he receives too far from the goal, perhaps from behind, he does not feel comfortable: he rarely tries to consolidate possession, or is satisfied with an interlocutory play. He often tries to dribble when he really shouldn’t, losing balls that seem absurd and presumptuous when seen on replay.
In the last meters, however, his ambition is a virtue; his readings are refined and his ability to create numerical superiority is almost innate. Even against tight defenders, in narrow corridors, he does not lose the pleasure of accelerating and looking for spaces in which to run, despite not being too technical in the touch of the ball.
This, for example, is not an action that makes you tear your eyes out, but it is interesting because of how Hauge takes the initiative and manages to create spaces within a very closed defense.
He has excellent vision of the game and rarely becomes lazy on high and slow crosses; its typical action is to enter the field through close exchanges; or look for a low, closed cross after entering the area. When you converge to the center, the mezzala on your side always slides away, knowing you have the sensitivity and the time to serve it. It remains to be seen if it will be able to maintain this efficiency in the last step even in limited times and spaces.
Hauge, however, is a player of transitions, therefore ideal for Pioli’s Milan, a vertical team that loves to arm their offensive players in spaces. It could be the ideal reserve for another kinetic and thoughtless footballer like Ante Rebic. For Milan it will be important not to hold them responsible for too many tasks, especially if they differ from the definition of the game. Hauge does not seem like a player made to think: he must receive in the last meters and play instinctively. His game is, in a way, the opposite of Saelemakers, a disciplined winger who cares about making as few mistakes as possible.
Hauge’s is a good story, but it can be the indicator of what in this article is called “lazy rectruitment” (a purchase of pirgro) because it is conditioned by the emotional situation: “There is always the risk of overestimating certain games. An example of this type of mistake is buying players who played well against their team. A type of bias, says the article, frequent especially in Italian football, which however also has its brilliant cases, such as that of Sabatini who bought Josip Ilicic in a former Maribor-Palermo.
The idea, however, seems to be to leave Hauge in Glimt until the end of the season. After that, Hauge will have to familiarize himself with a completely different level of play, against opponents that he will no longer be able to dominate athletically as he does in Norway, against better defenses by not giving him spaces, to take his measurements. Lately the Norwegian school is becoming more and more interesting, although so far it has produced mostly physical forwards like Haaland and Sorloth, while generational talent Martin Odegaard left the country to train in Spain at just 16 years old.
Technical footballers coming from Scandinavian leagues often find it difficult to establish themselves in Europe, especially in the five major leagues: Elyonoussi, Pione Sisto, Skov-Olsen have failed or are failing, albeit in different ways and with different redemption possibilities. Robert Skov, the top scorer in the Danish league two seasons ago, had to transform into a full-back to adapt to the Bundesliga (attacking winger, almost shadow forward). Hakon Evjen, Bodo / Glimt’s top talent last year, has barely seen the field at AZ Alkmaar.
Hauge seems even less technically talented than all of them, but athletically and mentally, he seems like a more prepared player. His ability to “snatch” speed, to create pauses in the game’s rhythm, can be invaluable in Italy. At a limited cost, leaving every possibility of making mistakes, it really seems like a fun bet for Milan.
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