Episode 8 with Jonas Giæver

The Football Pod

Today’s guest is Jonas Giæver, a Norwegian-Moroccan journalist and television pundit. Jonas works for Dagbladet, one of Norway’s largest daily papers, but regularly features with news, analysis, transfer stories and more for the Guardian, Metro but also football magazines ranging from FourFourTwo to Josimar. We caught up with him after the group stages of the Euros and began discussing the tournament in general, starting with the absence of Norway, before moving onto Jonas and Abel’s disappointment in Turkey’s performances. We discuss why Denmark have been everyone’s favourite for obvious reasons, but Jonas also explains the reasons behind Hjulmand’s relentless attacking football with some standout performers. Jonas also gives us his surprises of the tournament and a discussion on Hungary follows. Why have some of the favourites like France, Portugal, Spain or Germany been inconsistent or unimpressive? After mutual agreement on Italy - although Jonas takes a shot at the lazy narrative surrounding them - we transition into the difficulties in coaching. A tournament such as the Euros, with all the extra challenges of this current iteration, is always a very different beast and thus we wonder if the managers are holding back, unable to make adjustments, or whether we should evaluate them on different criteria. "Really good teams seldom win tournaments, they are either won via moments of brilliants or because they have the best players" - is the phrase Jonas uses to guide us towards the tactical segment, where some of the listener questions are answered about the success of wingbacks, back three/back five formations becoming a trend, the lack of set piece goals, etc. The chat wraps up with England and wonder whether despite underwhelming performances on offense, they might be "the France/Portugal of 2016-18" before going out on a limb with some hot takes! We hope you enjoyed this fun and casual conversation with one of the hardest working guys in football journalism and one of the most original voices in football media.