"Ways, how you like it" – how Janne Andersson took Sweden to the last eight World Cup | Marcus Christenson | Soccer



[ad_1]

Janne Andersson remembers a training camp with Halmstad in the 2000s and especially a day when coaches and players had a party together [19659002theyweregoingtoplaycharadesAnderssonasanassistantcoachwassecondandhetakesupthestory:"Igetonthestageandgetalittlenotethatsays"adancingmonkey"I'mgoingstraightveryenergeticallyI'mdoingadanceI'mscratchingmyarmpitsIpeelandeatabanana

"At this moment, I look at the players who are sitting there, completely perplexed and staring at me, I continue a little but after a while I start to get angry and scream at them that it's obvious what I am, so I'm being told to speak.I am now really bored but I still continue for 30 seconds before one of the attackers, Henrik Bertilsson, raises his hand and says: " Are you a donkey? "

" I have now a complete breakdown and I'm starting to scream at him. the other players, telling them how thick they are, and coming out of the scene. I sit next to one of the members of the coaching team who looks at me and says, 'Do not you understand?' "

Andersson, the Sweden coach who prepares his team to face England in the quarter-finals of the World Cup Saturday, told the story when it appeared Sommar A Swedish radio show in which inspiring people talk about their experiences and beliefs An anecdote is revealing Anderson is competitive but able to laugh on his own. there is one thing that is so important to him that it transcends all the rest: respect.

Andersson evoked the story of the monkey / donkey because, he says, it does not matter that & # 39; 39 he was made to look like a fool in front of his entire team because that was done with kärlek the affection, and that there was a deep respect between him and his players, and "respect" underpins everything Andersson does, and is so essential to his coaching philosophy. that it could not work if it did not exist between him and his players.

Andersson took the lead of Sweden after Euro 2016, when a team led by Zlatan Ibrahimovic came out of the group phase. Since then, he has overseen a small revolution, making Sweden one of the most difficult teams to beat in Europe

On their way to Russia, they beat France at home and finished over the Netherlands. In the play-offs, they saw Italy. At the tournament itself, they won Group F ahead of Germany and Mexico before sending Switzerland, ranked 6th in the world, in the last 16.

So how did he do it? "From the moment Janne entered our direction, we were very, very clear," says captain Andreas Granqvist. "We all agreed on the important principles and how we should act, on the field as well as on the outside, that the team is more important than anything else. Seeing him on the field, each of us works incredibly hard, offensively and defensively.This hard work is the symbol of this national team. "

Granqvist is also not a bad symbol for the team. # 39; team. He had a club career far to be brilliant, with periods in Wigan, Groningen, Genoa and Krasnodar, but played as a world class defender for the national team. There are other examples, like Sebastian Larsson, relegated to Sunderland in 2017 and who played for Hull City last season, but who distinguished himself in central midfield during the two play-offs against l & # 39; Italy.

Anders Granqvist

Andersson, of course, is the key to all this. Incredibly engaged on the sideline – he admitted earlier this tournament that he sometimes looks like a "monster" – his energy and beliefs permeate the team. He asks a lot of his players and sets high standards – but he also gets a lot in return.

He is 55 years old and has had a distinguished coaching career in Sweden, starting as a player-coach for the local Alets IK side before joining Halmstad as an assistant coach for the first time in the 1990s. He was then in charge of Laholm, Halmstad, Örgryte and finally of IFK Norrköping, which he led to the Swedish title in 2015. They had not won the best flight Swedish for 26 years.

A year later, he accepted the job The coach of Sweden remembers that he was a little worried about the reaction of the team when he told them that he was leaving . Would they think that he was jumping from boat? Would they be angry?

In the end, the team broke into applause for the coach. They were happy for him. Two years later, he becomes a cult hero





  Emil Forsberg, left, celebrates with Mikael Lustig after scoring the only goal of the match against Switzerland.



Emil Forsberg, left, celebrates with Mikael Lustig after scoring the only goal of the match against Switzerland. Photo: Matthew Ashton – AMA / Getty Images

After Sweden beat Italy in the play-offs a photo of Andersson tidying up the locker room became viral (very similar to the videos of Japanese fans in Russia). His desire to behave at all times comes from, among others, the man from his first club, Alets IK. Carl-Axel Jacobsson had the motto "man gör rätt för sig", which roughly translates to "doing the right thing". "In this club, we do what we need, when we win and when we lose," said Jacobsson. "And no one can come and say we did not do the right thing"

In his program Sommar Andersson talks about the sudden death of Jacobsson at age 59 and his regret not being able to attend the funeral. But the spirit of Jacobsson continues in the Andersson national team.

"I can not stand laxity," says Andersson. "I do not know how many times I've asked players to pick up the tape they use for their shinpads from the ground." They remove their shinpads, take off the tape and put it on the ground. with this! Choose this band and put it in the trash.

"Everyone wins order and that's why it's important for us to have a concept of behavior towards the others and towards others. "

Sign up for the Fiver and receive our edition of the World Cup.

He continued, "We represent something that is bigger than any individual, why does the cleaner have to put things away simply because we can not bother to pick them up ourselves? What right do we have to spit snus [snuff] in the sink so that someone else will take it? People may think that I am manic when I go for it things but being dignified and kind is something no one should become too big for. "

Andersson's values ​​may be considered outdated but they nevertheless feel refreshing. By asking his players to adhere to some basic principles, he has driven Sweden to the last eight of the World Cup. The question now is to know if it is enough to go even further.

[ad_2]
Source link