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Critical: – Do not have the types

ULLEVAAL (Dagbladet): – It is of course mixed!

This is how national team coach Lars Lagerbäck (72) answers when Dagbladet asks what feelings he is left with after the last week.

Three matches in six days ended with a 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland last night. But the most important conclusion after these days:

We are not going to the European Championship finals next summer.

– It is incredibly sad that we did not make a better playoff, Lagerbäck says about the Serbia match on Thursday.

Even though it was three points, the atmosphere at Ullevaal was not on the roof late last night. The performance in the Nations League match was rather weak. And the victory came after an own goal.

The most striking thing is how the team and individual players have fluctuated in their performances in the last three matches. And former national team coach Egil Drillo Olsen (78) is in no doubt:

The Armed Forces is Norway’s weakest link.

– There is not much going on with the players who are there. But the back four does not work well enough, says Drillo, who was an expert for TV 2 during the match yesterday.

<img itemprop="image" data-defer="view" title="1-0: Stefan Strandberg and co. celebrates the victory goal. Photo: Bjørn Langsem” alt=”1-0: Stefan Strandberg og co. feirer seiersmålet. Foto: Bjørn Langsem” class=”” srcset=”https://dbstatic.no/72952774.jpg?imageId=72952774&x=0&y=6.7538126361656&cropw=100&croph=85.403050108932&width=534&height=306&compression=70 640w,https://dbstatic.no/72952774.jpg?imageId=72952774&x=0&y=6.7538126361656&cropw=100&croph=85.403050108932&width=632&height=361&compression=80 1024w,https://dbstatic.no/72952774.jpg?imageId=72952774&x=0&y=6.7538126361656&cropw=100&croph=85.403050108932&width=688&height=393&compression=80 1240w” src=”https://dbstatic.no/72952774.jpg?imageId=72952774&x=0&y=6.7538126361656&cropw=100&croph=85.403050108932&width=688&height=393″/>
1-0: Stefan Strandberg and co. celebrates the victory goal. Photo: Bjørn Langsem
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– We have had to pay for this against good opponents. Fortunately, Northern Ireland was not good enough to give us the problems we tend to have. But they could have scored them too, so we are struggling in the back four. It is the weakest part of the team we have.

Drillo continues:

– If you look at the history of the Norwegian national team, the back four has mostly been the best team, so it’s a bit special. It fluctuates a bit. We do not have the types now that can lift the layer part where we would like it to be.

Against Northern Ireland, the back four consisted of midfielders Kristoffer Ajer and Stefan Strandberg, as well as defenders Omar Elabdellaoui and Birger Meling.

Meling has done well after replacing Haitam Aleesami at left-back. Ajer has still had to change partners. In recent matches he has played with both Tore Reginiussen, Even Hovland and Stefan Strandberg. Ajer himself has had to endure criticism that he is not boss enough.

Thanks to the own goal of Northern Ireland’s Stuart Dallas, Norway has put itself in a position where the team can win the group in the Nations League. Both Austria and Norway have nine points. Romania follows with four points, Northern Ireland has one.

DANGEROUS OF THE COURSE: Fredrik “Blakern” Larsen thinks Erling Braut Haaland is angry after the match against Northern Ireland.
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This means that a lot is at stake in the matches against Romania and Austria in November.

After the missed European Championship opportunity, a group victory is what can save the autumn from ending up in ruins. Group victory means an extra opportunity to get to the World Cup finals in 2022.

– The European Championship playoffs against Serbia we can almost just forget or displace. Of course, we can learn from what happened, but the effort was poor. Then we got a very good match (against Romania) and a match that we controlled very well (against Northern Ireland), sums up Lagerbäck.

Drillo thinks it is striking how individual players swing – not only between matches, but also in matches.

<img itemprop="image" data-defer="view" title="WORK WINNER: Martin Ødegaard and Omar Elabdellaoui congratulate each other on the match. Photo: Bjørn Langsem” alt=”WORK WINNER: Martin Ødegaard og Omar Elabdellaoui gratulerer hverandre med kampen. Foto: Bjørn Langsem” class=”” srcset=”https://dbstatic.no/72952776.jpg?imageId=72952776&x=7.0478723404255&y=4.3824701195219&cropw=91.489361702128&croph=78.08764940239&width=534&height=306&compression=70 640w,https://dbstatic.no/72952776.jpg?imageId=72952776&x=7.0478723404255&y=4.3824701195219&cropw=91.489361702128&croph=78.08764940239&width=632&height=361&compression=80 1024w,https://dbstatic.no/72952776.jpg?imageId=72952776&x=7.0478723404255&y=4.3824701195219&cropw=91.489361702128&croph=78.08764940239&width=688&height=393&compression=80 1240w” src=”https://dbstatic.no/72952776.jpg?imageId=72952776&x=7.0478723404255&y=4.3824701195219&cropw=91.489361702128&croph=78.08764940239&width=688&height=393″/>
WORK WINNER: Martin Ødegaard and Omar Elabdellaoui congratulate each other on the match. Photo: Bjørn Langsem
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– Look at Martin Ødegaard: He is so brilliant in some situations, but made some ugly mistakes against Northern Ireland. We have a lot of players who have a little too much distance between their highest and lowest level, the TV 2 expert declares.

He believes it is about Lagerbäck being able to lift the players.

When asked by Dagbladet what he will do next week, Lagerbäck answers:

– Now it will be partly to analyze the matches we have played. And then we will follow the players until we take out the next squad. We will also analyze the opponents we will face in November.

The match against Romania will be played on November 15 at the Arena Nationala in Bucharest. Three days later, Austria is waiting at the Ernst-Happel Stadium in Vienna.

Group must be won. If not, “Project Lagerbäck” can hang in a thin thread.

NATIONS LEAGUE

Austria 4 3 0 1 6 4 9
Norway 4 3 0 1 11 3 9
Romania 4 1 1 2 4 8 4
Northern Ireland 4 0 1 3 2 8 1

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