CAUSES ATTENTION: Several footballers have noticed the calm demeanor of Norway’s national team manager Hege Riise. Photo: Bjørn S. Delebekk / VG
AUCKLAND (VG) British football stars were taken to bed by Hege Riise’s toned-down management style. She herself is ready: She uses her voice when needed.
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– She had a very different leadership style than what both I and perhaps Fran (Kirby) are used to. She is quite quiet and introverted. The assistant was more dominant, something I had not experienced before, said Kim Little when she was an expert for ITV when Norway met Switzerland on Tuesday.
She is the captain of Arsenal.
Hege Riise took over from Phil Neville in 2021, leading Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics. There they went out in the quarter-finals against Australia.
– I think we were all a bit shocked when she was hired, to be honest. Not because of her CV, because what she has achieved is incredible, but you have the language barrier and you are leading in the Olympics. We didn’t quite know what we were getting into, said Fran Kirby in the same broadcast.
Kirby was surprised by Riise’s way of leading.
– She was a slightly quieter person, and let the assistant manage most of the meetings and the tactical matters. It was a different kind of leadership. She wasn’t the one who burst in and shouted orders or the one who gave the big speech to call the troops into battle, it was much more calm and “chill”, says Fran Kirby.
INJURED: Fran Kirby is teammates with Maren Mjelde and Guro Reiten at Chelsea. The forward is not with England for the World Cup due to a knee injury. Photo: Steven Paston / Pa Photos / NTB
During the match, the players were asked if they think Riise is more loud and clear in the Norwegian dressing room, with the pressure that follows. Then they answered this:
– I’m not sure, I think it’s her nature (to be calm and quiet). I think maybe the changes are a little unusual for her. It surprises me a little. I think the changes say more about her, says Little, referring to the fact that Riise dropped Caroline Graham Hansen from the starting eleven before the match in Switzerland.
Kirby believed that the changes were for running power.
– It may be a bit uncharacteristic of her, but she is the manager and feels it is the right thing for the team, says Kirby.
Riise far confirmed that she has a slightly more toned-down leadership style than normal after she was hired last year.
– I certainly have a voice when I feel it is needed, me too. But I like a calm approach and the coaching staff have complementary skills. We must be very clear, and that is perhaps the most important message: Clarity in everything we do, she told VG in August:
Now the Norwegian camp explains how Hege Riise and the assistant coaches lead the team.
– Hege has a calm style, while Monica is a bit more fiery. They each have their own way of communicating, and I think it’s very nice to have a bit of both, says goalkeeper Cecilie Fiskerstrand to VG.
Guro Reiten, who is teammates with Fran Kirby, and who himself has had Knudsen and Riise as club coaches together with Fiskerstrand, elaborates:
– I think the communication is good. It is clear. Hege is of the quiet type. And Monica is more the one who takes command and talks more, says Reiten.
Vilde Bøe Risa believes the coaching team is clear.
– We have simple guidelines for how to play. You can see that on the pitch, that it is clear how we want to play, says Risa.
Assistant coach Monica Knudsen believes that the duo has a lot to gain from having worked together in the past, and that it makes the team stronger.
– It is a very strong and well-functioning team. We have experienced a lot together, so there is very little that surprises us. In that sense, it is quite unproblematic to take what comes, says Knudsen.
– How do you distribute the roles between you?
– Hege is the boss. She makes the final decisions, while Ingvild and I have tasks such as preparing training, working with analysis, contributing to match plans and making things clear, so that we can make priorities and decisions before we take action. There is a lot of work behind it to get everything in place. We spend a lot of time on the PC, preparing the team and the preparations as best we can, says Knudsen.
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Photo: Bjørn S. Delebekk / VG Photo: Bjørn S. Delebekk / VG Photo: Bjørn S. Delebekk / VG
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Published: 28.07.23 at 11:11
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2023-07-28 09:11:24
#England #star #stunned #Riises #leadership #style #bit #shocked
