VALLE (Dagsavisen): Geir Bakke comes straight from a strategy meeting about next season as a guest on Dagsavisen’s podcast Trikkeligaen.
2024 started tough in the Obosligaen. Then came some important upswings in May, before “everything” went smoothly in Vålerenga throughout the summer and autumn.
– I think we should be a little proud of the expectations and the pressure we have been under. We have done the job, and we should be a little proud of that, says the Vålerenga coach in the Trikkeligaen.
– Although everyone expects (that VIF would move up), the Obosliga is tenacious. I think every single game has been tight and has been up and down, but we have mostly been better over the long 90 minutes.
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– Wants a fast-paced team
Promotion was already secured a month ago, but what can you expect from the team in the Eliteserien?
– I just hope that we have a good winter and develop further within the style we have built up now. We must be humble considering that there may be matches where we have to pay a little extra attention to the opponent. Sometimes you really have to be quite satisfied that the matches start with one point, and then you can start from that, believes Bakke.
But the VIF coach makes no secret of the fact that the team must have an offensive attitude also in its first season back at the top level.
– We have to be a little tougher in the face when we believe that we are capable of taking the lead and having the games more on our terms. We want to get out there on that pitch and attack, score goals and be productive. We want a fast-paced team.
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– I think we should be very humble
– Where does Vålerenga stand in the Norwegian football hierarchy right now? asks presenter Haakon Thon.
– We are newly promoted, answers Bakke.
– But is that where you envision yourself to be in 2025 as well? I don’t want to believe that fighting for life in the Eliteserien is the goal, even though it is often the goal for newly promoted teams.
– Now there is Vålerenga talk again. Since it is Vålerenga, so hopefully we will be wanted high up in the table. Also from the media and the environment, because then you get more to write about if you get something “to chew on”, says the VIF coach and continues:
– But I think we should be very humble in the beginning of the season we are about to enter. We have to train well, we have to have some new players in, of course. And we have to keep the group injury-free.
The 55-year-old points to several factors for VIF to succeed in the return to the elite series.
– We must increase the intensity of our game – both offensively and defensively, and we must be able to stand it over time. If we manage to do that, then we must be prepared to bite. That is what the goal is. But to think that things will happen by themselves…it never does in football.
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Want the playing style to be recognised
In the Obosligaen, VIF has dominated – especially at home – with offensive football in the longitudinal direction, quick turns of the game and high tempo. Bakke and the coaching team want to further develop and improve this to an even greater extent in 2025.
– What I am satisfied with is that we have improved in the processing phase. We manage to establish our basic play in the opponent’s half. We have been quite quick in our game changes and are the team with by far the most posts and traffic in the boxes.
– It is not only about the fact that it is Obos, but also that we have been aware of those things. We are very happy with that, continues Bakke.
– We want to become even more raw in our offensive marking, so that we can have recoveries higher up the pitch even more often. And that we move even faster with simultaneity in our pressing game. That we are able to maneuver our opponents where we want, so that the end product of the opponent is caught in our bag.
He wants VIF’s presence and style of play to be well recognized in the Eliteserien.
– We hope that people will see that Vålerenga is playing – no matter who we meet and what approach we have to the games. A bit like you see that Bodø/Glimt is playing. I hope that people will see that we have a register to play on, that we are adaptable, but also that Vålerenga is playing.
Hear more about Bakke’s ambitions for 2025, VIF’s training program this winter, the transfer from Lillestrøm last year and much more in the episode.
On Saturday, Vålerenga plays its last home game of the season when Start hosts Intility Arena at 16:00.
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