It was in connection with the latest national team gathering that Lagerbäck had a hot quarrel with Alexander Sørloth.
The striker was pissed at Lagerbäck for the tactics in the playoff match against Serbia, which Norway lost 1-2.
"Incompetent as a coach"
"I can accept that there is disagreement regarding football.
But Alexander came with accusations that were not about how we play football, which was that Per Joar Hansen and I are incompetent as coaches both in terms of leadership and football ", says Lagerbäck in a statement from the Norwegian Football Association.
"After 30 years in international football, I have never experienced a player cross the border in this way," Lagerbäck continues.
The captains support Lagerbäck
The league captain is also self-critical, as he did not control himself but told Sørloth that he was not so cocky in an international match in Cyprus where Sørloth made a serious mistake and was benched in the match afterwards.
“The choice of words came after a heated discussion and I regret it.
It was an attempt to make Alexander understand that he has to adapt to the team ".
The Norwegian national team captains Stefan Johansen, Omar Elabdellaoui and Joshua King stand behind Lagerbäck.
"It should be high ceilings, but in this case the player went too far.
We are happy that he apologized to the national team squad and the national team management ", they say in a statement and continue:
"We support the coaching team 100 percent."
ARCHIVE: Hard Norwegian criticism of Lagerbäck after the European Championship miss (October 9, 2020)
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Hard Norwegian criticism of Lagerbäck after the European Championship miss Photo: Bildbyrån