Alviro Patterson wrote: Sounds like watching Bradford, can't beat bottom of the league sides who set their stall out but often fare better against opposition of more quality.
Probably very similar types of leagues too, as the teams are now all fit as fiddles, and the gaps in the league are governed by the odd player with a level of increased skill or touch that creates the better chances in mostly scrappy affairs. Most Norwegian teams play a really energetic pressing game, and the technique to find the gaps in the press isnt there, so they can create stalemate situations in most equal matches when the away team just wants a point.
But those teams that simply show no ambition and say "play through us" often looks unpenetrable when the better attacking team have to knit tight passing, or are forced to switch the ball quickly to gain space. It makes it very hard for teams like Rosenborg who start committing more and more men forward because they feel like a point is not good enough... twice they had one centre back isolated on the break, and twice they conceeded.
A good example of how a tiny difference in a side makes so much of a difference can be seen in Stroemsgodset... sold a 16 year old wonderkid who wasnt a finished article, but had a range of passing in tight space that no other player in the league has ever had, and they go from a dominant force to mid table obscurity despite reinvesting money in his transfer to improving all areas of the starting line up.