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In the midst of all the drama surrounding the Norwegian men’s team in recent days, there was a man who was conspicuous by his absence. Lars Lagerbäck was the first to leave Gardermoen on Sunday morning. The image of Lagerbäck in solitary majesty with a suitcase and a mask on his way to the departure lounge at Oslo airport is the last we have seen of him since the game against Romania was canceled.
In hindsight, the congratulations to the national emergency team also come from that side, but the achievement in Vienna was anything but their merit. Lagerbäck’s team, of course, have shared what they had of the analysis and the preparations for the match with Smerud and the gang that went down to Vienna, but externally, both Smerud and NFF have been concerned to convey that it is the substitute who eliminated the team. Several people worked hard to assemble a powerful troop that could travel to Austria, but Lagerbäck was not one of them.
Maybe it was a good idea. Perhaps Lagerbäck has thought that Smerud should be allowed to take control from the start, and not have the Swede hanging on him as some kind of quarantined seventh parent in the house. The reality was that Lagerbäck had to watch the last international match of the year from the couch, while the previous two were never played.
The time has come to assess the future of the national team and Lagerbäck. But how the heck will Terje Svendsen be able to evaluate Lagerbäck’s efforts this fall?
After the defeat against Serbia and the subsequent noise within the national team, this selection period should give us the answer as to whether Lagerbäck is the right man for the future. In the pot were the two crucial qualifying points, promotion to the Nations League and an additional path to the World Cup.
With the pot full in all three games, Lagerbäck would have had every reason to be quite pleased with his own efforts this year. The group victory in the Nations League does not make up for the losses in the Eurocup playoffs, but it would have been a huge boost for Norwegian football. Had he also managed to drive the Norwegian boat to level two in the seed pits for the World Cup qualifiers, it would have been a solid patch on the wound.
Instead, we are left with many more questions than answers. National team football is taking a break until the World Cup qualifiers begin in the spring. Lagerbäck is under contract until the World Cup qualifiers, but it is not natural that he will be Norway’s leader when the national team meets again in March.
If Terje Svendsen is not sure if Lagerbäck is the right man for the long term, it would be natural to make a decision now. The Nations League is over and the World Cup qualifiers won’t start until March. It is much more advantageous to make a change on the coach’s side now than in the middle of a qualification.
The problem is that, as an employer, it is almost impossible to give Lagerbäck a proper evaluation after the year he has left behind. Half the year disappeared with the crown, and the fall was much more complicated than expected due to the same pandemic.
Lagerbäck and the rest of the team failed when it reached Serbia the most. But if Terje Svendsen still thought Lagerbäck was the right man after that loss and the resulting conflict, it’s hard to imagine that he has changed his mind now.
The three fights that could have been the taunt now have no value as a basis for evaluation. The preparation match against Israel was to be the match that brought the national team together after a turbulent period. It was canceled a few hours before the start of the match.
The burden for the game against Romania was very dramatic and confusing for all parties, culminating in the fact that Lagerbäck and the national team were stopped on their way to the plane. The group final against Austria, where Norway’s second-best men came surprisingly close to triumphing against all odds, took place with the Swede as a passive television viewer.
What will probably be decisive now is Lagerbäck’s personal motivation. The last week must have been very frustrating for the 72-year-old. All his jobs for this year disappeared in a few hectic days. It’s one thing to lose a soccer game. Something very different is being deprived of the opportunity to carry on the fight. It’s like training a whole year for a marathon and then being stopped on the side of the race completely out of nowhere.
It would not be surprising if their motivation has suffered a serious setback. If that’s the case, I think he’s going to be open about it. Much can be said about Lagerbäck, but he does not seem to be a man who is afraid to tell it exactly as it is.
If, on the other hand, our director of the Swedish national team has the enthusiasm to start a new classification for the championship, Terje Svendsen is expected to give him another chance to reach a forgotten championship.
The gradebook for 2020 ended with three wins and two losses, as well as a lack of assessment basis for the pre-Christmas exam.
It is not very good, but there is also no basis for iron marks. In any case, the evaluation is not complete based on what has been achieved, and no less important than what you never had the opportunity to do.
