Startsida Fotboll Mer läsvärt Säsongen 2004

Kommentaren

Allsvenska tränarna svarar på frågor

Richard Money, AIK
(intervjun gjord lördagen den 27 mars på Karlberg)

The first game of the season is only a week away. What are your feelings now, how would you characterize the status of your team at the moment ?
Well, I think the most important thing for us right now is to keep the players fit and ready, you know we’ve had some small injury problems, but apart from Andreas and Arash who are longer term problems (which we knew about)I think everybody else will be available for the first match. So, in summary, I’ve got a strong group to pick from now which is important.

If we go back to the 26th of October 2003, the weeks prior to that and the weeks that followed. What were your thoughts when you sat down to plan this preseason? Was there something in particular that you wanted to change in comparison to the previous preseason?
Well, the first thing that we needed to do, in my view, was to manage the players better than we had done last year. I arrived at the club as a new coach with five or six long term injuries and I was very anxious to make sure that this wouldn’t happen this year. There have been one or two minor problems along the way to be sure, but as I already said, thankfully I think we’re almost there. When I came last year I think we played too much football in January so we spent most of this January working with strength and endurance work and I think that’s beginning to come together just now.

Are you happy with how the team has responded to it all? Do you feel that there are things that have been particularly successful and parts that might have been better done a bit differently?
I think we probably played too many games in the beginning of February, especially because of the fact that we had picked up one or two small injuries and it gave us a problem because the group was small. If we’ve had the group together as it is now I think it would have been OK.

There is a constant debate about the Swedish preseason and perhaps especially about its length in time. What are your thoughts about this?
Well, for sure it seems a long while since we played in October, that’s for sure, but I guess there’s not a lot we can do about it to be honest. I guess the weather dictates what we can and what we can’t do. Three months is a good time to prepare but I think it can almost be too long because I think you end up trying to leave the football up to the end of the preseason and then everything gets thrown in at the same time.

The preseason friendlies, how did you plan those? For instance, AIK is probably the one allsvenska team that has chosen the fewest really tough opponents. Is this deliberate and what are the reasons in that case?
The first few games, really, we planned just to get all the people on the pitch and sometimes all that planning goes astray because of injuries. We played four games here in Stockholm and I just wanted to get everybody playing. Then I think we’ve played the toughest preseason game of everybody, Esbjerg, and that’s pretty much our yardstick really. We went to Denmark and had two really tough games, then we came back and had one more game here and then we went to La Manga and played two tough matches there too. When we came back we just wanted to put everything together really in the last two games but then, you know, again we got one or two injury problems, so I mean, I think the team we will play against Sundsvall, no one’s seen it yet to be honest.

To continue on the choice of opposition: without looking at the names of the teams that you’ve faced so far, how did you go about selecting these opponents. By the way they play, by strength or any other specific factor/factors?
No, I guess it’s pretty much tradition that we play the Stockholm clubs and I think they’re useful workouts, then we wanted to go to Denmark because we hoped we could get on grass but it didn’t work out that way. And OK, you could play FC Köpenhamn and Bröndby that everybody tries to do but we felt that Esbjerg would be tougher. Then we went to La Manga where you’re pretty much given the opposition depending who is there. We went to Öster because we hoped we could get on grass and it worked out that way which was good and again we’re going to Norrköping for the same reason.

Fans from all clubs look very closely at the preseason results but you have previously said that performance is much more important than the results. With only a week and one more match to go before Allsvenskan, are the results becoming increasingly important or is the only vital factor still the actual performance on the pitch.
Well I hope that no one misunderstands me, results are always important to me, I don’t want to lose any game and I certainly don’t like conceding goals. We’ve had one or two problems in the back-line, injury-wise, all pre-season, but I’m not too worried because I can see it all coming together and when everybody is fit we got good competition now. And let’s be honest, we should have won in Öster, under normal circumstances there’s no way we would lose that match : we conceded three bad goals but we know why we conceded them, we missed two penalties, we missed a handful of chances in the second half, and that’s not going to happen on Sunday.

Apparently you were spotted watching a game between Malmö and Kalmar the other day: how closely have you been monitoring the other allsvenska teams’ preseason?
Well, I think it’s important to try to see as much as you can, I’m not saying that I’m going to be at Hammarby tomorrow because I can see them against Malmö next week but I want to see every team as soon as I can. If I get the opportunity, then I’ll be there.

How well do you know Sundsvall by now, for instance?
I know how they are going to play, and I’ll try to see them sometime this week.

Final question: eight days to go, how will you prepare yourself during this last week of the preseason?
I think it’s a question of trying to get and keep the players sharp in their minds, and ready to play and then, as the week goes on, it’s just a case of getting the players ready and psyched up, prepared to play.

Text: Johan Florén
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