“Hard to come to terms with”

BORÅS/STOCKHOLM. Elfsborg fell against Kalmar FF this Monday.
Borås’s Johan Larsson is not at all satisfied.
– It is not approved, so much more cannot be said about it, says the team captain after the match.

Elfsborg has had a tough start to the Allsvenskan this year. After three rounds they had picked up four points.
On Monday, they played against Kalmar FF at Borås Arena.

Then it ended with zero points for last year’s second in the table.

The match winner was Kalmar’s Simon Skrabb after a dream goal in the 55th minute.
Elfsborg was then unable to replicate and Kalmar won 1-2.

Elfsborg team captain Johan Larsson was not satisfied. But already looking ahead.

– There are two more games here within a week, so it’s important not to break down too much, even if it’s really sour and tough right now. We have to accept the situation and somewhere try to take it further forward.

What don’t you feel is working today?
– I think it’s going a bit slowly overall. I think Kalmar play slowly and we are on the verge of winning the ball a few times centrally in the first half, we are almost there.
– Then we have a good start to the second half, with goals straight away and get an injection with Noah (Söderberg) and Ahmed (Qasem) who were substituted. We became straighter and a bit more aggressive and we win the ball more in the 50/50 situations.
– What feels sour is that they have two situations in which they score. It’s hard to come to terms with.

Jimmy Thelin has stated that Elfsborg in all matches, except against Västerås SK, had bad periods after conceding a goal. There, the Elfsborgs coach gets the support of the team captain.

– I think we are good when we score 1-1 and are good when we press afterwards. Then the goal comes out of nowhere – a turn of the game and then a ball diagonally towards the back of our penalty area… it’s a great goal by Simon Skrabb, it’s just a hat off.
– But in some way, it’s like we are abandoning everything that has worked in the first 10-15 in the second half there. Then we start playing long from Marcus (Bundgaard) or Terry (Yegbe) up against (Lars) Saetra who is 2.90 tall… that might not be a recipe for success in this type of match.
– So it will be a bit of everything in one card and much longer balls. The forcing phase starts a little too early, I don’t know when they score the second goal, but it feels like it’s a long time and it’s something we have to take with us and work on.

Four points in the first four games. How do you see the Allsvenskan start overall?
– It is not approved, so much more cannot be said about it.
– We have had periods that have been good, but no continuous 90 minutes that have been good enough for us to have all three points.
– So sad, but we have all the conditions to turn this around. We have a good group that is ready to do the job. Now that’s what it’s all about.

Is it possible to pinpoint what you need to improve?
– But that’s what Jimmy (Thelin) was into. We’re not going to keep a clean sheet for the next 36 rounds, we’re going to concede goals, so we have to learn to deal with those moments.
– We have to accept that sometimes the opponents have the ball and sometimes we have to push the games a little more than we can handle at the moment.

How do you feel about your own contribution? Would you like to be more involved?
– Yes, I always want to be.

***