Egil Olsen

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Egil Roger Olsen
Personal information
Full name	Egil Roger Olsen
Date of birth	April 22, 1942 (1942-04-22) (age 66)
Place of birth	Fredrikstad, Norway
Playing position	Manager
* Appearances (Goals)

Egil Roger Olsen (born April 22, 1942), nicknamed Drillo, is a Norwegian association football coach. Born in Fredrikstad, Norway, he is best known as a highly successful coach of the Norwegian national football team. He has since been coach of the Iraqi national football team, his recent departure from which has caused considerable attention.

He coached the Norwegian team from 1990 to 1998, guiding them to World Cup final tournaments in 1994 and 1998, Norway peaking as number two on the FIFA ranking. He worked from 2005 to 2007 as an analyst for Vålerenga I.F. before joining Expekt.com. Olsen was a formidable bandy player while playing football.

Olsen was a successful player with 16 caps for the national team, earning the nickname "Drillo" from his dribbling skills.

In June 1999, the then 57-year-old Olsen made his appearance in English football when he was named as manager of Wimbledon F.C. He remained in charge for less than a year, and was sacked just before the club slipped out of the Premiership, having been top division members since 1986. He has since returned to Norway.

Olsen was a member of the Norwegian Workers' Communist Party (known as AKP(m-l)). He is also known for his immense knowledge of geography trivia.

In late May^{[year needed]} Olsen rejected an offer to coach the Iraq national football team citing a busy schedule. However the Iraqi football president vowed not to give up on his signature and on 17 September Olsen signed a three years contract. In February 2008 the Iraqis fired Olsen without telling him, he had tried to contact them by several means but got the message when a new manager was installed, this action on the Iraqis part was very unexpected and their reason was said to be that they did not believe Olsen was strict enough.

Contents 1 Football philosophy 2 Playing career 3 Managerial career 4 Iraq NT Results under Egil Olsen

[edit] Football philosophy

Olsen has sometimes been called a football professor for his scientific approach to football, 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 breakdowns, losing/gaining the ball, played an important role immediately prior to many goals, and that counter-attacks after breakdowns 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 philosophy was to always make long passes against an established defense. More precisely, defenders should in these cases always play high, long passes towards attackers or flank players (and never short passes along the ground to central midfielders, as is often seen in international football). 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 (bakrom (backroom) in Norwegian) should be sought out very often, and that frequent offensive runs towards this area is important. He also coined the phrase "å være 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 Øyvind 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.

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 over the latest years.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Playing career

• Østsiden (1958-65)
• Vålerenga I.F. (1966-67)
• Sarpsborg (1968-71)
• Frigg (1972-74)
• Hasle/Løren (1975)

16 caps (1964-71)

[edit] Managerial career

• Frigg (1972-74, 1978-79, 1981-83)
• Hasle-Løren (1975)
• Østsiden (1976-78)
• Norway U21 (1979-85)
• Fossum (1983-84)
• Lyn (1986-88)
• Aalesund (1989)
• Norway U23 (1990)
• Norway (1990-98) - 91 matches; 51 victories, 26 draws, 14 losses. Goal difference: 181-63.
• Vålerenga (1998-99)
• Wimbledon (1999-2000)
• Norway U19 (2003-04)
• Fredrikstad (2004-2005)
• Vålerenga (2005-2007) (analyst)
• Iraq (2007-2008)

[edit] Iraq NT Results under Egil Olsen

Date	Opposition	Result	Score	Scorers For	Scorers Against	Competition
October 16, 2007	Qatar	L	2-3	Emad Mohammed Ahmed Salah Alwan	Sayyed Ali Bechir Sebastian Quintana Saad Al-Shammari	Friendly
October 22, 2007	Pakistan	W	7-0	Mahdi Karim (4) Nashat Akram Jassim Ghulam Emad Mohammed	-	World Cup Qualification
October 28, 2007	Pakistan	D	0-0	-	-	World Cup Qualification
January 24, 2008	Jordan	D	1-1	Ahmad Mnajed	Mahmoud Shelbaieh	Friendly
January 31, 2008	United Arab Emirates	W	0-1	Hawar Mulla Mohammed		Friendly
February 6, 2008	China PR	D	1-1	Hawar Mulla Mohammed	Zheng Zhi	World Cup Qualification

Preceded by Jorvan Vieira	Iraq national team manager 2007-2008	Succeeded by Adnan Hamad
Preceded by Ingvar Stadheim	Norway national team manager 1990-1998	Succeeded by Nils Johan Semb

v • d • e Norway squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup 1 Thorstvedt • 2 Halle • 3 Johnsen • 4 Bratseth • 5 Bjørnebye • 6 J. Flo • 7 Mykland • 8 Leonhardsen • 9 Fjørtoft • 10 Rekdal • 11 Jakobsen • 12 Grodås • 13 By Rise • 14 Nilsen • 15 Løken • 16 Sørloth • 17 Eggen • 18 Håland • 19 Strand • 20 Berg • 21 Rushfeldt • 22 Bohinen • Coach: Olsen

v • d • e Norway squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Grodås • 2 Halle • 3 Johnsen • 4 Berg • 5 Bjørnebye • 6 Solbakken • 7 Mykland • 8 Leonhardsen • 9 T. Flo • 10 Rekdal • 11 Jakobsen • 12 Myhre • 13 Baardsen • 14 Heggem • 15 Eggen • 16 J. Flo • 17 H. Flo • 18 Østenstad • 19 Hoftun • 20 Solskjær • 21 Riseth • 22 Strand • Coach: Olsen

v • d • e Wimbledon F.C. – Managers Henley (1955–71) • Everitt (1971–73) • Graham (1973–74) • Batsford (1974–77) • Gradi (1977–81) • Bassett (1981–87) • Gould (1987–90) • Harford (1990–91) • Withe (1991–92) • Kinnear (1992–99) • Olsen (1999–2000) • Burton (2000–02) • Murdoch (2002–04) • See Milton Keynes Dons F.C. (2004–)