Brede Hangeland works as a expert on Norwegian TV2 these days and have written an article on Roy. Brede worked with Roy both in Viking(Norway) and Fulham.
He wrote the article 13 sept. 2017, and I think he was spot on and deserves some credit.
I found the article very interesting when I saw it back in september and it made me feel that we still had a chance to survive.
I have have tried to translate it to english with some help from google.
I apologize for the bad english, but I have tried my best.
I hope some of you will enjoy it.
The original article is here: bredehangeland/2017/09/13/hodgsons-siste-kapittel/
"Hodgson's last chapter
13.9.2017 - by Brede Hangeland
In December, I had dinner with Roy Hodgson in London, along with Mark Schwarzer, Danny Murphy and Old Fulham Assistants Mike Kelly and Ray Lewington.
It was the "young lads" Schwarzer, Murphy and Hangeland who took the initiative for dinner, the purpose of course was to mimic old times and to discuss today's Premier League, but also to find out if our old coach was finished in the game.
This was just over five months after England's EC exit against Iceland, and one could understand if Roy Hodgson was finished with football after the bad ending as an English national team coach.
The national team coach job is the ultimate position for any English manager, and after a long and meaningful career, it might be natural for the 70-year-old to quit a job that is very demanding, even for men of their best age. Roy was, however, quite clear: "I've got one more job in me".
Long-year assistant Ray Lewington explained that Roy had come to this conclusion shortly after the EC exit. It was simply not an option to quit with the Islands match as the last memory.
Since that time, Hodgson and Lewington have been waiting for an opportunity which finally arrived this week when Crystal Palace got enough of Frank de Boer and sent him out the door with the dubious credit of having the shortest managerial job in the Premier League on his CV (four matches).
When Roy Hodgson is now embarking on the training field in Copers Cope Road in South London, the circle ends for a man who has been on an adventurous journey in international football.
Hodgson was in his time a youth player at Crystal Palace. The player career was limited, but inspired by his old friend Bob Houghton, Hodgson has traveled around the world with his well-known ideas about zone defense and a hands-on approach in the training field.
National team coach for Switzerland, Finland and finally England - it's still as club coach he has spent most of his time. Clubs like Udinese and Inter Milan have benefited from his services, in addition, he has a bunch of experience from the Premier League with Blackburn, Fulham, Liverpool and West Bromwich Albion. The Scandinavian link is also strong, with a number of jobs in Sweden, a period in FC Copenhagen and in Viking (Stavanger, Norway) here at home.
It was in Viking I first met Roy, the summer in 2004.
By Roys standard, we were a bunch of very limited players who met him at the training field at the old Stavanger stadium, and it was not free for him to air his frustration at times.
None of us will forget the time he stopped the training, gathering the players in a ring and rattled with some coins in his pockets while saying:
«I could be in Monaco, smoking a cigar. But here I am, pushing myself for pocket-money».
There was generally enough of more or less ironic gold grains and eruptions from Hodgson, but the most important thing was of course the expertise and work morale he brought to the training field.
In all my years as a professional football player I have never met a man so until those degrees know what he is doing as a football coach. The philosophy is crystal clear, the methods well-known.
Hodgson drills the team down to the smallest detail.
Several years later, when we were reunited in Fulham and Roy had enough time to complete a project, I saw the final result of this.
We were a collection of players who were individually average compared to the Premier League and European top level, but collectively we became very strong.
In Roy's video meetings, our 11 players were marked in the picture as yellow dots. As the training progressed, the distance between the players' actual movements and the yellow dots became shorter until the interaction and the simultaneous movements were perfect. A football symphony that went up in a higher unit under conductor Hodgson.
I played CD with Aaron Hughes in these years, and by the end we almost stopped communicating on the pitch.
Countless hours of drilling on the training field almost made talking during the match redundant.
We knew each other's tasks and patterns of movement in every situation as if it were telepathy.
It was this long-term improvement that made little Fulham able to beat the mighty Juventus 4-1 at Craven Cottage.
While Cannavaro, Trezeguet and Del Piero lay on the grass and wondered how to beat such a tight and well-organized 4-4-2, we were on our way to the European League finals.
Despite stories like this, there are shared opinions about Hodgson.
Many people remember the failed time in Liverpool, as well as a bit bitter and beaten man after the disaster against Iceland.
These people overlook an undervalued point in the football:
The coach's ability to influence the team hangs inextricably with the player material available.
Big teams have player-power and external expectations about style and formation, Hodgson needs loyal players and time and space to complete his project.
As in Fulham, where every player who worked under Hodgson has him as his best manager ever.
Or as in West Bromwich, where Hodgson led the team to the highest ranking in the top division in 20 years.
There are few who know that Hodgson's major problem in Liverpool was that Fernando Torres would not do the defensive job that Hodgson demands from his strikers,
or notice that the English national team that lost to Iceland, either in formation or in style, resembled a Hodgson team.
What about Crystal Palace then? There are undeniably many things to remind you of Fulham and West Bromwich in southern London, and much will depend on how the players responds to Hodgson's methods.
The training on Copers Cope Road will consist of well-known but monotonous methods:
Team tactical exercises, training with one side outnumbered, specific game patterns. Again and again and again.
I remember the winter of 2008 and hour after hour with the same in Fulham. Players who started to whisper in the corridors that it might be time to play just a little five-a-side or a square on training, but eventually ended with this as the results began to come.
Jump a couple of years ahead and the same exercises were done to the point every single day with top quality, knowing that the next major scalp in the Premier League or the European league was taken because of this training.
And here is one of two major questions for Crystal Palace and Roy Hodgson.
Will the results be fast enough for players to accept that Hodgson's methods work?
In the shift from Frank de Boer to Roy Hodgson, Crystal Palace again makes a U-turn, and everything - training, man-management and game style - changes radically.
The players of the old school, like Dann, Ward, McArthur and Delaney, will recognize themselves in the methods.
Whether Hodgson can convince types like Benteke and Zaha will determine a lot.
The second question for Crystal Palace and Hodgson is of a more tactical nature:
How does Hodgson's formation stand against Premier League's favorite 3-4-3?
The revolution that Antonio Conte has started in the Premier League, with 3/5 at the back and a trio on top has often proved tactically superior to 4 at the back in the last year. 4 at the back has the following choices:
-Use the fullbacks against the players in the Pedro / Hazard positions, and risk Moses / Alonso to be free in the flank position
-Use your own central midfielder against Pedro / Hazard and get too low and close to your own goal.
This is one of the moments Hodgson has to figure out in today's Premier League, doubting he is leaving the back 4 he has used for a lifetime.
One thing is at least certain, Hodgson and his old weapon carrier Ray Lewington are currently working methodically with Crystal Palace.
After four losses and zero goals, Palace needs structure and system, clear division of responsibility and a clear game pattern. They will get this.
Whether they get the results only time will tell. The Premier League is relentless and the start has been terrible both on and off the pitch. In Roy Hodgson, however, Crystal Palace has employed an old champion who has something to prove. I wish the master all the best!"
He wrote the article 13 sept. 2017, and I think he was spot on and deserves some credit.
I found the article very interesting when I saw it back in september and it made me feel that we still had a chance to survive.
I have have tried to translate it to english with some help from google.
I apologize for the bad english, but I have tried my best.
I hope some of you will enjoy it.
The original article is here: bredehangeland/2017/09/13/hodgsons-siste-kapittel/
"Hodgson's last chapter
13.9.2017 - by Brede Hangeland
In December, I had dinner with Roy Hodgson in London, along with Mark Schwarzer, Danny Murphy and Old Fulham Assistants Mike Kelly and Ray Lewington.
It was the "young lads" Schwarzer, Murphy and Hangeland who took the initiative for dinner, the purpose of course was to mimic old times and to discuss today's Premier League, but also to find out if our old coach was finished in the game.
This was just over five months after England's EC exit against Iceland, and one could understand if Roy Hodgson was finished with football after the bad ending as an English national team coach.
The national team coach job is the ultimate position for any English manager, and after a long and meaningful career, it might be natural for the 70-year-old to quit a job that is very demanding, even for men of their best age. Roy was, however, quite clear: "I've got one more job in me".
Long-year assistant Ray Lewington explained that Roy had come to this conclusion shortly after the EC exit. It was simply not an option to quit with the Islands match as the last memory.
Since that time, Hodgson and Lewington have been waiting for an opportunity which finally arrived this week when Crystal Palace got enough of Frank de Boer and sent him out the door with the dubious credit of having the shortest managerial job in the Premier League on his CV (four matches).
When Roy Hodgson is now embarking on the training field in Copers Cope Road in South London, the circle ends for a man who has been on an adventurous journey in international football.
Hodgson was in his time a youth player at Crystal Palace. The player career was limited, but inspired by his old friend Bob Houghton, Hodgson has traveled around the world with his well-known ideas about zone defense and a hands-on approach in the training field.
National team coach for Switzerland, Finland and finally England - it's still as club coach he has spent most of his time. Clubs like Udinese and Inter Milan have benefited from his services, in addition, he has a bunch of experience from the Premier League with Blackburn, Fulham, Liverpool and West Bromwich Albion. The Scandinavian link is also strong, with a number of jobs in Sweden, a period in FC Copenhagen and in Viking (Stavanger, Norway) here at home.
It was in Viking I first met Roy, the summer in 2004.
By Roys standard, we were a bunch of very limited players who met him at the training field at the old Stavanger stadium, and it was not free for him to air his frustration at times.
None of us will forget the time he stopped the training, gathering the players in a ring and rattled with some coins in his pockets while saying:
«I could be in Monaco, smoking a cigar. But here I am, pushing myself for pocket-money».
There was generally enough of more or less ironic gold grains and eruptions from Hodgson, but the most important thing was of course the expertise and work morale he brought to the training field.
In all my years as a professional football player I have never met a man so until those degrees know what he is doing as a football coach. The philosophy is crystal clear, the methods well-known.
Hodgson drills the team down to the smallest detail.
Several years later, when we were reunited in Fulham and Roy had enough time to complete a project, I saw the final result of this.
We were a collection of players who were individually average compared to the Premier League and European top level, but collectively we became very strong.
In Roy's video meetings, our 11 players were marked in the picture as yellow dots. As the training progressed, the distance between the players' actual movements and the yellow dots became shorter until the interaction and the simultaneous movements were perfect. A football symphony that went up in a higher unit under conductor Hodgson.
I played CD with Aaron Hughes in these years, and by the end we almost stopped communicating on the pitch.
Countless hours of drilling on the training field almost made talking during the match redundant.
We knew each other's tasks and patterns of movement in every situation as if it were telepathy.
It was this long-term improvement that made little Fulham able to beat the mighty Juventus 4-1 at Craven Cottage.
While Cannavaro, Trezeguet and Del Piero lay on the grass and wondered how to beat such a tight and well-organized 4-4-2, we were on our way to the European League finals.
Despite stories like this, there are shared opinions about Hodgson.
Many people remember the failed time in Liverpool, as well as a bit bitter and beaten man after the disaster against Iceland.
These people overlook an undervalued point in the football:
The coach's ability to influence the team hangs inextricably with the player material available.
Big teams have player-power and external expectations about style and formation, Hodgson needs loyal players and time and space to complete his project.
As in Fulham, where every player who worked under Hodgson has him as his best manager ever.
Or as in West Bromwich, where Hodgson led the team to the highest ranking in the top division in 20 years.
There are few who know that Hodgson's major problem in Liverpool was that Fernando Torres would not do the defensive job that Hodgson demands from his strikers,
or notice that the English national team that lost to Iceland, either in formation or in style, resembled a Hodgson team.
What about Crystal Palace then? There are undeniably many things to remind you of Fulham and West Bromwich in southern London, and much will depend on how the players responds to Hodgson's methods.
The training on Copers Cope Road will consist of well-known but monotonous methods:
Team tactical exercises, training with one side outnumbered, specific game patterns. Again and again and again.
I remember the winter of 2008 and hour after hour with the same in Fulham. Players who started to whisper in the corridors that it might be time to play just a little five-a-side or a square on training, but eventually ended with this as the results began to come.
Jump a couple of years ahead and the same exercises were done to the point every single day with top quality, knowing that the next major scalp in the Premier League or the European league was taken because of this training.
And here is one of two major questions for Crystal Palace and Roy Hodgson.
Will the results be fast enough for players to accept that Hodgson's methods work?
In the shift from Frank de Boer to Roy Hodgson, Crystal Palace again makes a U-turn, and everything - training, man-management and game style - changes radically.
The players of the old school, like Dann, Ward, McArthur and Delaney, will recognize themselves in the methods.
Whether Hodgson can convince types like Benteke and Zaha will determine a lot.
The second question for Crystal Palace and Hodgson is of a more tactical nature:
How does Hodgson's formation stand against Premier League's favorite 3-4-3?
The revolution that Antonio Conte has started in the Premier League, with 3/5 at the back and a trio on top has often proved tactically superior to 4 at the back in the last year. 4 at the back has the following choices:
-Use the fullbacks against the players in the Pedro / Hazard positions, and risk Moses / Alonso to be free in the flank position
-Use your own central midfielder against Pedro / Hazard and get too low and close to your own goal.
This is one of the moments Hodgson has to figure out in today's Premier League, doubting he is leaving the back 4 he has used for a lifetime.
One thing is at least certain, Hodgson and his old weapon carrier Ray Lewington are currently working methodically with Crystal Palace.
After four losses and zero goals, Palace needs structure and system, clear division of responsibility and a clear game pattern. They will get this.
Whether they get the results only time will tell. The Premier League is relentless and the start has been terrible both on and off the pitch. In Roy Hodgson, however, Crystal Palace has employed an old champion who has something to prove. I wish the master all the best!"
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire