Egil Olsen -
Olsen has sometimes been called a "football professor" for his
scientific approach to the game, and was arguably one of the first
managers to use video analysis of matches. He has collected statistical
data to find out which playing styles are the most efficient. As Norway
manager, he argued that as Norway didn't have the players to beat the
best teams, they needed a smarter playing style than them, and one that
fit Norway's skills. Ironically, his preferred style of football has
historically often been called primitive.
He has found that breakaways played an important role immediately
prior to many goals, and that counter-attacks after breakaways should be
carried out as fast and directly as possible before the opponent can
organise their defense. According to Olsen, only few goals are scored
against what he calls an "established defense". As a large number
of transverse passes or trying to play out an established defense with
short passes and combinations increases the chance of a breakdown
against, often in dangerous positions, his strategy was to make long
passes against an established defense when no direct path forwards could
be found. More precisely, defenders should in these cases play high,
long passes towards attackers or flank players. His use of a player with
good heading abilities as a target man on the flank, such as Jostein Flo, was a major break with the established idea that all flank players should be small, quick and good dribblers.
He is opposed to stationary offensive players, and argues that
offensive runs (also for players that do not possess the ball) should be
carried out as often as possible when one's team has the ball, as
multiple simultaneous runs are very difficult to defend against. He also
holds the idea that breakthrough passes to the area behind the
opponent's defensive line should be sought out very often, and that
frequent offensive runs towards this area is important. He also coined
the phrase "a vare best uten ball" (roughly "to be best at off-the-ball
running", lit. "to be best without the ball") which gained some fame in
Norway. It was originally said about Oyvind Leonhardsen, a player doing an exceptional number of runs during games.
Olsen is also an ardent supporter of zone defense, as opposed to man-to-man marking.
He also argues that players with extreme skills (extremely fast,
extremely good headers, extremely good dribblers, extremely good passers
etc.), as opposed to players with only good all-round skills, are
important in football.
His long-ball philosophy, use of the 4-5-1
system and his teams' often extremely successful defending earned him a
bad reputation of boring football, even during the period when his
results as Norway manager were astonishing. However, later in his first
tenure, Norway showed signs of moving away from this philosophy- notably
in their wins against Brazil in 1997 and 1998.
His thoughts, together with those of Nils Arne Eggen, have had a strong impact on Norwegian football.[citation needed]
Norwegian club sides generally make many runs without ball, play zone
defense and are very focused on fast counter-attacks. The idea of
playing long balls against an established defense, however, has become
increasingly unfashionable in Norway in later years.[citation needed]
He has been referred to as a "communist", for taking the position that all players should be paid the same wages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egil_Olsen