“One more word, it’s direct!” – VG

VG has spoken to various sources in and around the Norwegian national team after the recently concluded meeting, with matches against Serbia, Romania and Northern Ireland at Ullevaal Stadium.

The 1-2 defeat in the Eurocup playoffs against Serbia last Thursday caused strong internal turmoil. There were frequent meeting activities, even in groups and teams, and the temperature was high.

Although the team fought back with a bubbling 4-0 victory over Romania three days later, dissatisfaction with the leadership of the national team was expressed in subsequent meetings.

After management invited the players to share their comments, disagreements between parts of the player group and the coaching staff surfaced during a team meeting on Tuesday, the day before the 1-0 win over Ireland. from North. Among other things, a fiery scene took place between forward Alexander Sørloth and assistant coach Per Joar Hansen.

According to several sources with whom VG has been in contact, the meeting raised an overly defensive style of play, too low pressure and too little adaptation to opponents, where the national team coach, Lars Lagerbäck, was also present.

– It was high temperature. And that’s fine, as long as it doesn’t turn into a fever. We must have it under the roof, because we operate at the highest level, so ultimately, it’s about winning. So it’s only natural that there is an incredible amount of excitement, national team assistant “Perry” tells VG.

Evaluated in groups

Expectations were high ahead of the fateful match against Serbia at Ullevaal Stadium on Thursday 8 October. A victory would send Norway into the playoff final against Scotland, where a further victory would secure the country’s first European Championship final in 21 years. An Erling Braut Haaland in canonical form stole the headlines both in this country and in Serbia before the deal: “God will help us against Haaland,” Serbian coach Ljubiša Tumbaković told a press conference in Oslo the night before the game.

Norway were coming off a 5-1 win over Northern Ireland and were a tough favorite. It ended with total Serbian dominance and a 1-2 loss to Norwegians after extra innings.

– I do not feel involved in the game at all. It’s just not good enough, a disappointed Haaland told TV 2.

– It’s because the team didn’t play well, Lagerbäck replied.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning, several meetings were held at the Thon Hotel Storo in Oslo, both with and without the coaching staff. Serbia’s game was “quite processed”, midfielder Stefan Strandberg was able to say at the press conference just after the 4-0 win over Romania.

Lagerbäck described an evaluation that was “quite negative” about “what we did, what we did not do and what we should have done”.

In the days following the 1-2 loss, the national team management took the initiative to gather the players into groups of five and five to collect their written comments to the management.

– We haven’t done it very often. It was so they could think a little and think, Lagerbäck said at a news conference Sunday night.

– What came of that?

– They had to put a series of points around three main topics in which we had some sub-questions: it was what attitude we had talked about before the game, how we should play defensive games and similar attack games. They were allowed to sit down and talk a bit about the topic in five different groups and explain it in writing at various points.

When asked what came out of group work and how the mood was in the team, Strandberg replied that he didn’t want to get into that specifically:

– Of course we keep it between us, but I think we need to ventilate a bit. There was a lot of excitement and frustration after the Serbia game. I think it helped in this fight here. We put our thoughts a little on paper.

“One more word, it’s direct!”

The 4-0 victory over Romania showed a completely different Norwegian face. Haaland scored a hat trick, Sørloth scored one. Sometimes it was party football, but right after the end of the match, the Serbia match was still far ahead on the players’ forehead.

Martin Ødegaard, who threw two passes on goal, told TV 2 that he was “a bit sad that we are doing it today and not against Serbia”, while striker Alexander Sørloth summed it up like this:

– I sit down and am a bit cursed after the game. We see how good we can be.

From the outside, it might seem that Romania’s match was good medicine, but even after the victory, the critical evaluation on the Norwegian field continued. Various sources tell VG that some players, including Sørloth, assumed with management that they believe the team should push higher, play more offensively, and approach different opponents in different ways.

This was brought up for the first time in a meeting with a small number of people, based on the evaluation that had been planned by management, before it was carried out to a meeting with the whole team on Tuesday, the day before the game against Northern Ireland .

At the meeting, which was attended by around 30 people, including Lars Lagerbäck, Alexander Sørloth must have gotten a very clear message from assistant coach Per Joar Hansen. Three independent sources claim that Hansen said the following to the council:

“One more word, it’s direct!”

When VG confronts Per Joar Hansen with this information, he responds as follows:

– We had discussions, but what is said internally in the meetings, we keep to ourselves.

– How would you describe your relationship with Sørloth?

– Very good. Zero problem.

VG has been trying for two days to get a comment from Alexander Sørloth, without success.

– It shut down properly

Lagerbäck and Per Joar Hansen are said to have left the room at some point, while Captain Stefan Johansen is said to have tried to calm things down.

– The disappointment was great after the Serbian game. It was positive for us that the players were so committed. They made clear what they thought was not working so well and we made it clear that we thought the defensive game was not that good, says Per Joar Hansen.

– It’s very good that they exploited us correctly. It is not dangerous at all. If Norway wants to play well, everyone must be on the same page. That means good defense and a compact team, as we saw against Spain and Sweden last year, he says.

The day after the heated meeting at the player’s hotel, he was ready for the game against Northern Ireland. 75 minutes before kick-off, it was confirmed that Lagerbäck made two changes to the starting line-up: Rune Almenning Jarstein and Alexander Sørloth were replaced by André Hansen and Joshua King.

After the 1-0 win on Wednesday night, VG asked Lagerbäck questions about the reason for Sørloth’s bench.

– There were purely football reasons why I wanted “Josh” to have a chance. I think he has been very motivated and very focused. He has received several training sessions and has had a very good start in previous matches. It was kind of interesting to see how he and Erling worked together. When we have three forwards, it’s natural to let “Josh” have a chance early on, replied the boss.

– How did Sørloth react to that?

– I have to think about … they put the team on … no, I don’t think he said anything in the morning. He didn’t tell me anything, at least.

Here you can see Lagerbäck’s reaction to the question:

On Wednesday, Norway beat Northern Ireland 1-0 after an own goal by Stuart Dallas. Sørloth was replaced by King in the 65th minute.

Per Joar Hansen denies that the accident had anything to do with the Sørloth dispute the day before.

– I can deny that one hundred percent. We have had meetings with Sørloth, Haaland and King that when we have three games in a week, we would like to roll a bit on the tips, he says.