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This hurts, Lagerbäck
PAINFUL: Sander Berge and Norway had a real blast against Austria. It does not bode well before the meeting with Serbia in a month. Photo: Bjørn Steinar Delebekk
(Norway 1-2 Austria) Lars Lagerbäck should be happy to have Martin Ødegaard behind. Because this was neither good nor promising for the Norwegian team, before the meeting with Serbia. It just hurt to watch, even though Erling Braut Haaland scored again.
This is a comment. The comment expresses the attitude of the writer.
It doesn’t help to have three of the best strikers in European football in the stable when they’re not getting the ball. We could never see if the duo Joshua King and Erling Braut Haaland worked together, because they just ran there, without the ball. Martin Ødegaard can change this. Hopefully the Real Madrid player will be ready again for the game with Serbia.
Fortunately, we saw the first sign that Alexander Sørloth and Haaland have something together, as they combined well and secured the reduction to 1-2. That was the positive that Lagerbäck can take with him.
But it was too late when the reduction came. Norway lost their first home game, their first to Lagerbäck, in four years. And there was a lot to address here. The match MUST be a scare shot for the Swedish coach of Norway.
Ten months in football is a long time. Especially when no matches are played. In the first round in Ullevaal on Friday night, for long periods it seemed that the players of the Norwegian national team had never met before.
And after a very good fall in 2019, this was nothing but regrettable. Norway found a good opponent, better than the one we met in the previous Nations League, naturally since Norway moved up a division. But Austria is no better than Spain or Sweden, with whom Lagerbäck’s team played evenly a year ago.
The first half was extremely disappointing. Norway created zero and nothing in 45 minutes. The only positive was that Austria didn’t create the whole world either, despite a huge advantage in the game.
In my first round notes, the following was stated:
“10 minutes: Norway runs in the middle”.
“15 minutes: Norway does not receive the ball”.
«20 minutes: This is not good. Zero attacks so far. “
«25 minutes: Norway still without the ball. Morten Thorsby is used as a kind of Jostein Flo from 1994; will receive plays in the air. “
“30 minutes: this is not good …”
«35 minutes: 0-1 – after the post. Ajer too late, Jarstein no chance. Should Thorsby have had a free kick? In any case, well-deserved leadership for Austria. “
40 minutes: Norway already looks tired, and that’s what it looks like when you don’t have the ball. Norway had already placed bets on the opponent’s half? Not.”
«45 minutes: something has to be done. There must be changes here. Stefan Johansen has never been an advantage player, and Thorsby doesn’t work as an advantage, at least not today. King and Haaland have no balls to work with. Then it will be twisted. “
«47 minutes: pause. Excited for what Lagerbäck is doing now. It has not hit the team selection directly. “
The second part started, without Lagerbäck having changed. I wanted to give the 11 who started another chance. Norway tried to push higher, like Austria. In my notes, I wrote:
“No change – weak”.
When it comes to pressure: the difference is that Norway did it a bit old-fashioned, one by one, while Austria used the more modern variant, where several players press at the same time for short periods. Also: Very inaccurate how many times a Norwegian won the ball.
Lagerbäck had a setback to make changes. A totally wrong penalty (“hands” on Sander Berge) led Austria to a 2-0 win after 54 minutes. Then came the substitutions, first a strong Martin Linnes for a weak Morten Thorsby after an hour. Four minutes later, Alexander Sørloth for a frustrated Joshua King. And finally Markus Henriksen for an injured and tired Stefan Johansen.
But the captain managed to do something very good before he left: he played as a free substitute Sørloth. His post was perfectly received by Erling Braut Haaland, who controlled the post in goal.
1-2, after 66 minutes. Had the collection started?
But again Austria took over. Rune Almenning Jarstein had to act twice to keep Norway in the game. Norway seemed to have nothing to contribute.
The closest Norway got was a header from Sander Berge, in the 82nd minute. There he had scored a better header player.
Lars Lagerbäck left Ullevaal thoughtful. This was a guf from the time he coached Norway at the beginning, in 2017, where there was little voting, the team didn’t stick together, it didn’t clear in their own court when the ball ended up there, and good forwards had little or no nothing to work with.
In a month Serbia will come.
It doesn’t get easier.
COMMENT: VGs Knut Espen Svegaarden. Photo: Hallgeir Vågenes
