ICELAND COACH CALLS FOR DISCIPLINE
ANNECY: Iceland co-coach Lars Lagerback has called for discipline among his high-flying team at Euro 2016, saying this week that several players had arrived late for dinner.
“It is disrespectful to your teammates to come 20 minutes late. It’s not a big deal, but still a detail we have to look at,” Lagerback said.
Iceland are on cloud nine after their triumph over England in the last 16 of their debut performance at the Euros. But Swede, Lagerback, wants no lapse in discipline and concentration.
“We told them they shouldn’t be thinking they have done their job by beating England. That wasn’t the 100 percent professionalism which we want to keep up,” Lagerback said.
The statements show 67-year-old Lagerback is the conservative part of the coaching duo he forms with 49-year-old Heimar Hallgrimsson.
By now, the whole world knows the former women’s coach, Hallgrimsson is a dentist by profession.
Lagerback, meanwhile, can look back on various assignments, including coaching Sweden to five major tournaments – also partly in a dual team leadership structure with Tommy Soderberg.
Lagerback was named Iceland coach in 2011 and made the more excitable Hallgrimsson his partner because he knows the football scene in the country inside out.
“It doesn’t matter that we act and think a little differently because we communicate so well,” Hallgrimsson said. “In the end we always agree on the most important things: We will do it like this today. I believe we match very well and thus form one good coach.”
Preparing for France also highlights their differing views.
Hallgrimsson said the victory over England probably means the most because English football is so dear to Icelanders, but adds, “France, we will take as well.”
Lagerback, on the other hand, knows his view is not shared among the team that the duel with France “is even bigger”. It was this thinking which prompted him to enforce discipline.
“We should make sure they (the players) realise this game is more important for us and that we improve in Paris,” he said.
Hallgrimsson said: “Every hurdle will look lower, which changes their mentality and makes their confidence grow, that is important for the players.” But Lagerback added with a chuckle: “As long as they keep their feet on the ground.”
The partnership ends after the tournament as Lagerback has long decided to quit, leaving the team for Hallgrimsson to coach on his own.
“I don’t know whether I will quit football for good. But my time with Iceland is over, I am not getting any younger,” Lagerback said. “Heimar is so sick and tired of me, there is no way back.” – ANA/DPA