Denmark coach Hjulmand: what is he tinkering with this time?

Sometimes his players have wondered what he's doing again.

“He thinks about football around the clock,” says captain Simon Kjær.

When the Danish professionals had a question during the international matches before this European Championship and their coach sat lost in thought in his dressing room at the Danish Football Association (DBU) in Brøndby, they wondered: What is he tinkering with this time?

In fact, Kasper Hjulmand already started to analyze possible and established opponents of the upcoming European Championship on the international match dates last March. He was himself, not a member of his staff. So it happened that four months ago Hjulmand outlined the strengths and weaknesses of the Czech team; Danish newspapers have just reported on it. Hjulmand finds it astonishing that this is the subject of reporting. He finds this form of preparation normal.

This Saturday (6 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship, on ARD and MagentaTV) Denmark will play in the quarter-finals in Baku against the Czech Republic, and you will see what Hjulmand's meticulous preparation brings to the team.

The Danes can rely on a coach who has always done the right thing when it comes to coaching and changes.

When things started shakily in the round of 16 against Wales, Hjulmand moved his center-back Andreas Christensen to the sixth position in midfield.

What followed was the gala at the remarkable 4-0.

"For us this EM is not over yet"

It shouldn't come as a surprise that someone at this level is a football expert. The special thing about Hjulmand at this European Championship is something that also surprised the team - they haven't known their boss that long; he has only been Denmark's top coach for almost a year. Simon Kjær says: “We knew he knew everything about football. But he has shown that he is much more than a football coach. "

Kasper Hjulmand found the right words in the difficult hours and days after Christian Eriksen's cardiac arrest.

He did the right thing, and he paved the way for the shocked team back into the tournament.

Also by giving a rather unadorned, but very confident look to the further course of the tournament soon after the 0: 1 at the start against Finland with all the known circumstances and the unfortunate 1: 2 against Belgium: “This EM is not yet for us over. ”That sounded very daring.

But with decisive changes - Mikkel Damsgaard for Christian Eriksen, later Kasper Dolberg for Yussuf Poulsen - Hjulmand laid the foundation for the convincing victories against Russia and Wales.

If a team sees that what the coach is doing is bearing fruit, it can grow into a conspiratorial unit.

Hjulmand also got the players behind him because he didn't appear as a know-it-all two weeks ago. “He also needed help himself,” says defender Joakim Mæhle of the 49-year-old man from Ålborg. Confused, sad, afraid, angry - anyone who saw Kasper Hjulmand in the video conferences of the DBU experienced a man with a wide range of emotions. He didn't pretend to have an answer for anything. He changed his mind. He was empathetic, communicative - but at some point Hjulmand took the path towards everyday life, towards football. At the latest for the game against Russia it was time. Who knows, maybe this intoxicating 4: 1 paved the Danish way into the final.

The enthusiasm at home is also so great and paired with the inevitable comparison with the European Championship in 1992, because Hjulmand's team is playing excitingly. Quite different from the times of prevention football, which his predecessor Åge Hareide had performed. The Norwegian strictly adhered to the motto

and the Danes were the team with the fewest shots on goal at the World Cup in Russia three years ago. This is one of the reasons why the Danish Football Association chose Kasper Hjulmand as his successor. Attacking possession football should be played from now on.

Hjulmand successfully demonstrated this at FC Nordsjælland in Farum, north of Copenhagen. Between 2011 and 2014 and then again from 2016 to 2019, Hjulmand coached the FCN. His work in Copenhagen was interrupted by an unsuccessful time at the Bundesliga club 1. FSV Mainz 05. He underpinned his reputation as a fine person there, too.

In 2012, FC Nordsjælland won the Danish championship on their artificial turf pitch.

The FCN is known throughout Europe as a training association;

Mikkel Damsgaard grew up there.

However, there are numerous unfavorable stories about the club.

Because the background of the young, talented, well-trained team is a tough economic one - players should be sold at a profit in order to give the English owner of FC Nordsjælland, the Pathway Group, a "return on investment".

In Denmark, the cooperation between the FCN and the “Right to Dream Academy” in Ghana is viewed critically.

The way in which African talents are treated there on their long journey to Northern Europe should not always be for the good of the young, to say the least.