rosenthal Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Who's the Norway manager now, surely not still Olsen?! The quality of Norway's squad is now lightyears away from what you had in the late 90s, Ronnie Johnson and Henning Berg in defence and a strikerforce of Carew, Flo, OGS and even Stefan Iversen. Now you have experience players like Hangeland and Riise in their 30s and probably about to retire, pretty sure you also had Pedersen in your last squad last seen on Barnsley's bench! You just don't produce decent players anymore compared to the 90s when you were regularly had regular premier league players, not compared to what Denmark churn out and even Iceland now even if that is a golden generation. Norway has gone in a new direction, sacked Olsen last fall and has hired a manager in Hogmo that want the team to have more of the ball and dominate play (tactics arent that far off how City line up these days). Remain to be seen whether that style will also bring results, his team has looked very bright so far but luck haven't been on his side. Been open and soft in defence and not clinical enough infront of the oppositions goal. Mats Daehli from Cardiff and Per Ciljan Skjelbred from Hertha Berlin as their creative midfielders gives hope for the future, however they need to find more goals as their strikers tend to struggle for game time at club level. Pedersen who you mention could be good, but he struggle with injuries and has a poor attitude to follow. More likely is Stuttgart striker Abdellaoue to find the net again, his move from Hannover to Stuttgart set him back a bit, Stuttgart only played with one up front - Ibisevic. But he's playing again now. Norway will aim for the third spot and play offs, while hoping they can push Croatia who obviously have more talent in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vandaq Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Abdellaou has been bad for some time now, but he might suddenly pop up. Ola Kamara had a great season last year, but he has joined Austria Wien. Not a bad club but you want someone at a better league if he is to be your main striker. Pedersen has never really kicked on, I always liked him but it seems like its not gonna happen. Guldbrandsen is also a young one I doubt will reach far as well. There are many younger players in Norway now that looks promising compared to what we have had in some time. Dæhli is the new favorite of them. Sakor is supposed to be great but it`s very early so who knows. I am not gonna bother mentioning every name but I do have my doubts. I think Høgmo(Hogmo) has the right idea and is going in the right direction, but there needs to be major overhaul at the top before we can really progress. I also believe that many of the players who might looked talented will never make it, because literally every nation has a lot of them but few rise to the very top, and we are certainly not overwhelmed with choices even if it looks better now. Hoping for the best but based on recent results there is not too much to be excited about. Guess I will see how it looks when we first meet Italy, that will surely be a memorable win.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted February 25, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted February 25, 2014 what happened with Gibraltar? They were originally drawn in Spain's group. Whether there's a Uefa rule about contested border or whether they just realised 'uh oh, that could be dodgy', they were moved to Germany's group. Gibraltar-moves-group-in-Euro-2016-qualifiers-draw-over-political-tensions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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