Norway had several chances of qualifying for the Euros but they never lived up to their expectations. Haaland is the best striker in the world and Odegaard is a top midfielder and captain, for both the national team and one of the best teams in the Premier League. Norway is still managing to feed Haaland, with an insane 27 goals. What gives, terrible tactics or synergy issues?
Norwegian here.
We have good players going forward, worse players in the back. Not only do we have Haaland and Ødegaard. We also have great talents like Antonio Nusa (Club Brugge) and Oscar Bobb (Man City), Alexander Sørloth (Villareal), Jørgen Strand Larsen (Celta Vigo), Fredrik Aursnes (Benfica), Sander Berge (Burnley) along with Ola Solbakken, Jens Petter Hauge all in midfield or forward. We have some good ones in the defence, especially Kristoffer Ajer (Brentford) and Leo Skiri Østigaard (Napoli), but they don’t always get a lot of playing time. We have Birger Meling and Julian Ryerson as fullbacks who are decent too. Other than those we not only have few good options, but also a lack of young talent. It’s even worse in goal. Our nr.1 is Ørjan Nyland who until this season wasn’t even the nr.1 at his club (RB Leipzig), but who luckily have been playing for Sevilla this season.
So, yeah. We are not really balanced enough to see the matches through.
Was at the game last night and Bobb stood out. He is terrific, didn’t realise he was at Man City.l