After turning in numerous star performances in the midfield engine room for Nürnberg, Håvard Nordtveit has been tipped to build a career from the middle of the park by his Under 21 manager, Øystein Gåre.
Nordtveit has been nurtured into the defensive midfield role during his time in the Bundesliga and although he is currently out of the team at the moment, there is no doubt that the 19-year-old has been one of the revelations of the campaign. The combative starlet is yet to fully hone his new style for his national team, but Under 21 coach Øystein Gåre believes maintaining his form will see Håvard make waves on the national front.
“He has played very well in this position. As long as he is playing in Germany, I actually think that position suits him better than being a central defender. It would be no surprise if Håvard eventually ended up as a midfield player.
That just tells you how good a footballer he really is. At this point it will just be an advantage to be tried out in different positions.”
Whether Nordtveit is recalled by Nürnberg’s Michael Oenning for this weekends game is another matter, but it would certainly be a surprise if he was left again. Håvard’s much talked about passing range added to his good tracking and excellent tackling, the Norwegian could be the answer to Arsenal’s long-term midfield problems.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Or back-up for Song perhaps.
May be he is a good DM for a physical Norwegian league or a slow bundesliga. I dont think he has the pace to succeed as a DM at Arsenal. He will play as a CB who attacks to add variation and surprise the opposition, much like Vermaelen.
Do you think he will be given first team opportunities next season?
I think Arsene sees him as Vermaelen’s long-term CB partner to be honest
well, I wouldn’t get too carried away just yet. nuernberg is shockingly bad at the moment and this doesn’t help him. I also would be careful with the phrase ‘star performance.’ I saw the game against bochum, a team that is itself not a shining light in the bundesliga: nuernberg lost at home 1-0 and harvard did not particularly stand out, I think he was substituted after 70+ minutes. The ‘kicker’ – Germany’s authoritative football magazine, who rates players’ performances after every game awarded him a 5.0 for this game (the best you can get is 1.0; 5.0 is unfortunately the worst possible rating – to be fair though, the kicker rating is quite harsh, ratings lower than 2.0 are rarely given). the ratings for the other 4 games he featured in are 4.5 (against Hannover), 2.5 (against Stuttgart – a game in which he was indeed superb), 3.5 (against boruusia moenchengladbach) and 4.0 (against Bayern Munich). his average rating in the league is thus 3.9 (he got a 4.0 for the only cup game so far). while this is not entirely bad, it is quite a bit away from making him a ‘star performer.’ But hey, he is 19 and lots of time to improve even more and I trust Wenger’s judgements on players. I’m just pointing out that ‘star performer’ is probably not the right phrase to use at the moment.
What long-term midfield problems?
Interesting developments, and very nice for Arsenal to have these ball playing centerbacks that can also do a job as DM, or come off the bench and play a two DM platform to protect those 1-0 leads (of course, the opposition will just go route one on set plays and equalize anyway).
Coquelin versus Nordtveit for the back up DM (after Denilson, of course, backing up Song; or is Nasri Song’s deputy? Or Eboue?). Watch this space.
I was thinking we could probably do with recalling nordtveit for some defensive cover at some point given djourous injury.
Switching to midfield might not be the best idea for nordtveit or arsenal. We have a tonne of talented young central midfield players, but we could do with a bit more competition in the CB department imo.
i dont agree with kv one bit on his view.. A cb needs pace, while a dm doesnt.. U’ve got it backwards.. J is usually very good in his ratings of players, but i do believe this time hes gone a bit over board in his rating of nordtviet.. Definetly not yet a star performer for nurnberg.
He is at Nuremberg for the whole year so we wont be able to call him back.
Off topic but did anyone catch Watford against Sheffield Wednesday?
Lansbury scored his first two goals for Watford and made another for Harley. He also ran the show in a CM role and linked up really well with Cleverley of Man Utd. Those two were a class apart from the rest. Naturally, HL claimed the MOM award.
Lansbury took his goal really well but more importantly he looked fantastic.
I really like Nordtveit, but I’m uncertain whether this is helpful or not. I see his long-term position as CB, but his main shortcoming right now is his lack of strength. This should be solved in time, but right now, he is probably not strong enough to play CB in the Bundesliga and certainly not the EPL. I think he’s a smart player, very good passing range, solid in the tackle and a good leap on him as well as his good height (188 cm). He’s not really suited for DM, because he’s not really that aggressive of a player, is very uncertain of when to close down or not and almost never ventures forward (could be a result of conservative tactics or more uncertainty). That should improve with more playing time at Nurnberg and it is certainly better for him to be playing regularly in a top league, than playing for Arsenal reserves. I have high hopes for him and hopefully all these switching of positions (CB, RB, and DM) will be a long-term benefit and not an impediment.
Yaniv, I agree that a CB must be mobile or else it will make him vulnerable to the counter attack. But a DM needs pace to track back if he does not have good positional skills. The CB wont go beyond the half line whereas a DM can also support the attack by going front. Take the example of Flamini, he combined pace, stamina and positional skills.
kv: this is the arsenal, of course a cb will go past the halfway line!
Considering Silvestre, Senderos and Gallas have their contracts run out – with only Gallas likely to be offered a new one – before the summer, I expect a new first choice CB to be bought, Djourou to come back as 3rd choice and Nordtveit to come back as 4th, with either Ayling or Bartley going on loan.
Developments in other positions never did Toure, Gallas, Djourou or Vermaelan any harm, can only do wonders for him understanding positionally as well as how to help command the field (remember Wenger saying that it is best to lead from the back?).
I have not seen enough of the lad to think of my opinion as an educated one, I have only been going off of YG, a certain rival and the words of his coaches. But you can’t help but hope they have hopefully learnt from the experiences of Senderos in doing this and making the lad fulfill his destiny.
P.S. many great centre backs don’t have pace. Possibly the best one of the past decade – Nesta – certainly always prided positional sense over needing speed.
kv
Denilson is slower than Nordveit but he has good statistics playing in the middle so I don’t get your criticism of Nordveit as a DM.
P.S. many great centre backs don’t have pace. Possibly the best one of the past decade – Nesta – certainly always prided positional sense over needing speed.
Samuel said this on October 24, 2009 at 8:41 am
True, but he was no slouch. In fact, he was quite quick in his prime.
We Do not need a nother Middy’, though a CB would be nice.
If he is that good then he is a keeper. Lets see how he performs when get plays with the big club. Then you will know for sure. http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
I have watched him play DM for Nurnberg a he isnt really made for it. He doesnt really break up play, he basically has little impact on the game. He doesnt cover a whole lot of ground. It might change with age but he looks more of a centerback than a DM.
Center backs dont need to cover as much ground as def mids. Simply because they have a partner to cover the middle with. How Arsenal play with all the attacking, the def mid is force to close down counter attacks fast and cover alot of space, and these are thing Nordveit definetly isnt good at. He is more of a Makelele holding mid type rather then an Essein.
Why is he not currently playing for Nurnberg? Is he injured or struggling to get into a poor team?