news expert Carl-Erik Torp believes that Leo Skiri Østigård and Andreas Hanche-Olsen in Norway’s central defense must take their share of the blame for Norway not winning the game on Friday night. – Our stoppers are cowards with the ball. The team needs them to either thread passes up through joints or take the ball higher up the field themselves, in order to create a surplus. This is a problem for Solbakken’s team, says Torp. – They kept a clean sheet, isn’t that more important for stoppers than contributing offensively as you are calling for? – Primarily yes, but in today’s football, and with the way Solbakken wants to play, stoppers are needed who spread security in the building game. That they create and give overall and a dilemma for the opponents. That way, the creative offensive players get better conditions to create chances, answers the news expert. THINK THE STOPPERS ARE COWARDS: Carl-Erik Torp and Jesper Mathisen. Photo: Montaje Bildbyrån – Started from behind Torp gets full support from expert colleague Jesper Mathisen. After the match, he said the following on TV 2: – This was another very disappointing international match for Ståle Solbakken’s Norway. There was far too little pace, both in ball and movement. And it started all the way from the back, with cowardly stoppers who didn’t dare bring the ball forward and provide better working conditions for those in front of them, said Jesper Mathisen on TV 2. Watch the highlights from the match here: Hitting back: – Leo Østigård wasn’t too cheap available to the press after the end of the match in Almaty on Friday evening, but fellow stopper Hanche-Olsen has little left for criticism. – We are keeping a clean sheet, so we are doing our main task. If they blame us for that too, that we don’t score goals, then of course we have a responsibility and can certainly do more. But there are probably other places where the shoe is pressing today, says Hanche-Olsen to news. – It’s not like there is one solution to everything, and then suddenly we score four goals. I feel it will be a bit too cheap, he adds. – What would you point to yourself? – I wanted to point out the efficiency. It is a little below where we usually are. We have many great chances that we can put away. And then we get caught a bit on counterattacks and are not quite good enough in the recovery game at times, I think. But the Norway stopper also takes a dose of self-criticism for not feeding the midfielders more than they did with balls on Friday night. – Taken as a whole, perhaps we could have brought the ball forward more, but that was the main problem today, I don’t know if I fully agree, he says. Kept a clean sheet: Leo Østigård and Andreas Hanche-Olsen contributed to Norway keeping a clean sheet against Kazakhstan. Photo: Vegard Grøtt / BILDBYRÅN The stoppers are also criticized on news’s player exchange. Kristoffer Løkberg gives 3 to both, with the following assessment of Hanche-Olsen: “Should, like his stopper partner, take more responsibility for creating superiority from the back”. Solbakken: – Not their skills National team manager Ståle Solbakken was asked a direct question by VG about the topic when he stood up for the journalists in Almaty after the match: – Shouldn’t the stoppers be able to hit a few more passes through the joints, take the ball with them, put on pressure ? You don’t see it at all? it came from VG’s journalist. – In some phases they could certainly have done it, and been better at it, but in many ways their expertise is not that. I think they solved it sensibly, because we didn’t lose any balls, replies the national team manager. Berg: – I was very clear Midfielder Patrick Berg says that the stoppers’ contribution with the ball became a theme before the start of the match. – We had a lot of focus on that beforehand. We were a bit unsure whether they came in 5-3-2 or 5-4-1. When we got the lineup before the game, we saw that they started with one striker. Then I am very clear that then much of the responsibility for play will be placed on the stoppers. That they play two against one striker and in that sense have very good opportunities to take the ball past the one striker. So it was something we talked about in advance, Berg tells news. – How do you think it was resolved? – No, of course, in retrospect we could have solved it much better. But it is not just their responsibility alone. It is a collective responsibility, so I don’t think we should put all the responsibility on them, replies the Glimt captain. WARNING: Patrick Berg gave notice ahead of the match about the importance of the stoppers’ contribution with the ball. Photo: BILDBYRÅN Sørloth: – Something we have to work on Alexander Sørloth also believes that Norway must improve in that part of the game. When asked if Norway are good enough to create an advantage from behind against low-lying opponents, the Spain pro replies: – It is something I think we have to work on. In particular, get some speed, get the press joint played. But it gets a little syrupy at times. At the same time, we create chances, and today we should manage to score at least one goal. We also have to work on set pieces, the quality of that was too poor, at least with the head strength we have. – Do the stoppers have to dare more, so that Martin Ødegaard doesn’t get so low, for example? – Yes, it is something we have to work on, of course. But there is one point. We manage to create chances at times anyway, but it is something we have to get better at, replies Sørloth. – They seemed unsafe Carl-Erik Torp was not convinced by what he saw of Norway’s stopping pair in general, not just with the ball. – They seemed unsafe. The division of labor seemed unclear, they were in each other’s beds several times. They were in the same duels, so it doesn’t seem comfortable. There is a concern for Ståle Solbakken after this match, Torp believes. – It’s not like we have any big difference in our tasks. Our task is first and foremost not to concede goals, and we are not doing that today. So we deliver there, answers Hanche-Olsen. He is primarily disappointed that Norway has to go home to Oslo with only one point in the bag. – It feels very, very frustrating, of course. We had hopes of three points and a win, but unfortunately we didn’t get that, he says to news. Published 07.09.2024, at 07.57
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