‘It’s not a tactics thing, it’s a doing thing’

Jonas Eidevall provided an honest assessment of our performance in our defeat to Barcelona on Thursday night.

Our head coach was understandably frustrated to concede four goals – but believes that we could have posed a greater threat in counter-attacking situations.

We spoke to Eidevall after the final whistle and here’s what he had to say:



on what he thought of the performance…

I think we were working very hard and we started in actually a pretty good way in the first half before we conceded the first goal, so it’s very frustrating that we did that, and obviously it’s from a mistake by us. If we compare this game to the other game we played against Barcelona, it’s actually much more controlled in this game even though we lost 4-0. But we’re hurting, and the result is obviously not good for us. We need to keep working here in order to develop and do better next time.



on the first goal we conceded to Barcelona, and whether it was avoidable…

I think with that chance, probably most teams would score off it, so it doesn’t help to give (the chance) to Barcelona.



on what his message to the team was ahead of this game…

Going into the match obviously we know that it requires a lot of hard work and a lot of talent to do the right work at the right moment. In order to work at the right moments, we have to understand how we work together. Like I said, there were a lot of spells here at the game where we were doing really well, and if you look at the goals that we conceded today, they all come from situations where we could have defended a little better, or they come from mistakes and we lose possession - that’s (something) we can work on. The structure around it, it’s not a problem today, and that’s because the players worked so well.



on our need to create greater quality on the break, and whether it’s a mental thing…

No it’s a doing thing. It’s one of those things in football that you can’t talk about on the tactics board. If you freeze frame pictures from when we win the ball against Barcelona, you would see there’s so much space if you played out all of the angles. Because all their players go towards the ball - and so obviously anyone can stop that picture and say ‘just play the ball out diagonally’. So then it becomes just a matter of time and space, and if you’re able to execute that pass or maybe two spaces that open up that space. That’s not about the tactics board, that’s about doing. That’s about creating exercises in training that gives us less time and space, that forces (us) to execute faster, that forces us to think faster, that forces us - almost on an instinctive level - to get that pass forward into that space. That’s obviously what we need to work on, and that is what is so fascinating about football - sometimes it’s a tactics board thing, but this was not, (this was) about doing. The only way to get better at it is to practice.



on the team line-up and his thinking behind his selections…

Lots of factors. Obviously one of them is a game plan, and how you think you want to start the game, and sometimes how you want to finish the game. Then obviously other factors as well, because we played a tough game here last Sunday, we played a tough game today, and we keep having a tough schedule as well. We have a good depth in the squad, with lots of quality players - for me it’s about trying to pick them at the right times.



on his message to the fans…  

You’re amazing. You feel so proud playing in front of fans for that because when it’s 0-0, everyone can believe, but even when we were down and we are losing 3-0, I told the players at half-time that this is a really important moment for us as a team because it’s tough for us right now. We would be here now at the turning point saying how do we handle that that adverse situation and I think the fans helped us with that as well, they cheered us on all the time and they gave us energy and it was so needed. When we can be together in tough times like this, then we will celebrate even harder when we win together.