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Egil “Drillo” Olsen doesn’t have much left for Christmas and is enjoying his retirement with television football. He also has tips on what Ståle Solbakken’s Norway should look like.
– We went up with a points record and a scoring record, and then we went down again the following year. So for those who say that a coach is not trained until you have been involved in promotion and relegation, they trained me very quickly, says Drillo about the 1972 and 1973 season as game coach at Frigg while sitting in the room of TV. It is in Kringsjå in Oslo.
NTB meets with him just over a week before Christmas to talk about what year the national team has been and what’s to come. He seems to have low shoulders when it comes to holiday stripes and expectations and traditions that belong to the holiday season.
– Are you happy for Christmas?
– No, I have nothing to do with Christmas. Siggen (Sigrun Vedelden, his wife journaln.anm.) Is more traditional from a bourgeois setting. I’m from the fattest working class. I celebrated Christmas, but it was nothing special, says Drillo with a familiar style.
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Christmas is celebrated at home in Kringsjå or at Haglebu’s cottage. Most likely it is in the cabin due to the gray climate of the capital.
– The cabin is 940 meters away. There is a lot of snow, he points out.
In Haglebu, fortunately for the couple, there are also two televisions.
– Siggen and I are so different with what we are going to see. She is not watching a Spanish soccer game that I can see. Then watch another silly show instead.
Worse when it came
Of course, he has closely followed the six men’s matches of the national team. When asked how he wants to sum up the year of the national team, theoretically he goes to work, as always.
– Three wins, two losses and a draw are “like this” against a moderately good opponent. It is not so fermenting. You can hear 13-6 of goal difference. None of the six games was against floggers, says Drillo.
The biggest downfall was obviously the Serbia match, where it once again went awry in a decisive match. Norway’s path to the European Championship ended with an unsuccessful 10th consecutive qualifying match.
– Then he applied. Then we played our worst international game in a long time. A little funny. Get some uniformity and be able to stay on the top level, then it looks good. And it seems exciting with good young players that we haven’t had in like a long time, he says.
– Best central
Because Drillo is positive about what is to come. Two players in particular make the man who coached Norway for two spells look forward to the World Cup qualifying rounds in 2021: Martin Ødegaard and Erling Braut Haaland.
Ødegaard, who has often been used on the right side in midfield four of former national team coach Lars Lagerbäck, should be even more involved, Drillo believes.
– I think Ødegaard may be the most central. He has taken clear steps defensively and has become much better. I mean we can also use creative power more centrally than on the edge.
– He has that look and releases the ball in the correct tenth of a second, he adds.
The first meeting of the national team occurs in March. Then Gibraltar away against Turkey at home and Montenegro away. Drillo believes that Norway cannot live on less than seven points here.
New captain?
Drillo believes that Solbakken’s greatest task will be to gain control of the four behind. New employees Brede Hangeland will also help with the support apparatus.
– We lack what we were strongest at before: midfielders who stood out and were not only good, but at the top of Europe, he says.
Drillo believes that midfielder Kristoffer Ajer is a possible captain candidate for Solbakken’s Norway. Stefan Johansen got that job permanently under Lagerbäck.
– I have somewhat disagreed with the captains we have used so far. You don’t have to be the best on the team, but you should have relative confidence in the team. A captain who sits half a game on the bench or retires early, I think that’s unfortunate, he says and also points to midfielder Sander Berge as a captain’s subject.
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good friends
The retired coach is active and has a new exercise bike in the living room in front of the TV. He says it is used diligently, also in connection with football matches. It is used mainly in Spanish, English and Norwegian soccer. Getafe and Atlético de Madrid are among the teams that inspire him the most at the moment.
Drillo notes that he and Solbakken are good friends and also had a lot of contact when Solbakken coached FC Copenhagen. Drillo is no stranger to sharing his advice with his former student, but he doesn’t think he needs it:
– This probably controls Ståle better than I do.
(© NTB)
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