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Grim prospects? Lars Lagerbäck on training in Ullevaal this week. Back to the left Erling Braut Haaland. Photo: BJØRN S. DELEBEKK
ULLEVAAL (VG) has raised Norway from 83rd to 44th in the FIFA rankings in three and a half years. But Lars Lagerbäck has struggled to defeat the best nations in the same period.
Serbia arrives in Ullevaal on Thursday night as the 31st best national team in the world according to the FIFA ranking, and a verification of the results with equal or better ranking as a semi-final opponent of Norway in the playoff of the European Championship broadcast by TV 2 does not give immediate optimism:
After the entry of Lars Lagerbäck from 2017 inclusive, Norway have faced opponents from the “top 31” 11 times. The result is just two wins, five draws and four losses.
– Not good enough, Lars Lagerbäck reacts even when VG presents these figures:
There will be no draw against Serbia: if the teams are at the same distance after the ordinary 90 minutes, there will be 30 minutes of additional innings and any penalty shootouts.
But the tie was the result of matches against Sweden and Romania in the European Championship qualifiers last year. 7-7 in four matches against the competitors for second place did not hold out to go to the European Championship as the second best team behind group winner Spain.
– These are games that we normally win. But there we are again passive. We give away. We are not cynical and smart enough in those fights. It lacks efficiency in both boxes. It’s no more difficult than that, Lagerbäck believes.
No coach on the Norwegian team was better against the best nations than Egil Olsen. Especially at home in Ullevaal. Drillo scratched Italy, Holland, England, Brazil, Denmark, France and Portugal.
– He was interested in putting his finger in the ground and said that we know better players than us. You can make up for a lack of skills by being smart. As a problem of height, the soccer teacher says at the age of 78 and begins with a lecture:
– That high pressure on good teams is offensive and attractive, while low pressure is cowardly and defensive, is a solid misunderstanding. If you lie low and with a pure zone defense, you seal well from the back. Then you can use your strength in counterattacks for all it’s worth. Teams you struggle to create when balanced, where you have to focus on transitions and the dead ball, says Drillo.
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He becomes a studio expert for licensee TV 2 during the biggest Norwegian international match in five years. Now it offers the opponent’s assessment.
– Serbia is not so good. The last five-six-seven-eight games have not been very impressive. They’re better on offense than defense, and having switched to the baseline is never wise, you ask me. I see this as an advantage for Norway. Because then they become more goal-oriented, says the former head of the Norwegian national team.
– At the level of Zlatan
With Erling Braut Haaland, Alexander Sørloth and Martin Ødegaard in all likelihood on the field early on, Drillo finds it unlikely that Norway will not score.
– And then it’s about not letting goals in. At his best, Martin is very good, and the forward pair are complementary too. And Haaland’s final abilities he had hardly seen before. He’s on a level with Zlatan, says Drillo, who also doesn’t pay much attention to Lagerbäck’s stats against nations in the top 30, noting that there aren’t that many games.
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Lars Lagerbäck himself believes that he can use numbers as an alarm clock, but also in a positive way.
– We have only lost one match in 2018 and 2019. If those statistics are correct, we will not lose any more in 2020 (after Austria’s defeat). We are trying to deliver some amateur psychology, says the Swede.
