The importance of Winners

Now what the hell am I talking about? Of course it's important to have winners in the team! Well, yeah, but the lack of winners in Hammarby right now is starting to take it's toll. And I'm not happy about it.

The composition of a squad is not merely about how the individuals play. Sure, you need a balance between more defensive, physical players and offensive, more technical players. In Hammarby we have both. In fact, I'd say the potential in Hammarby is quite high. However, apart from pure technical skills on the field, another factor is just as important - perhaps more. You can't see it, in fact no one ever has. It's an abstract asset, it's difficult to point out if you have it, but the LACK OF IT is obvious. Yeah, I'm talking about winners.

To have one or preferably several instigators on the field is often decisive. I'm talking about players that see every match over the whole season as equally important. If it's an away game vs Trelleborg or a hot derby vs Djurgården is equivalent to these persons. Why? Because the have a fire inside of them, a need to win at every cost. Every match, every situation on the field, every half should be won in their world.

A problem with Hammarby today is that the Winners attract attention by not being present. in my opinion, there's only one true winner in the squad of Hammarby this year, Mikkel Jensen. And that's a problem, as he has been injured for a long period of time and now he's injured again. We had another winner last year, Sebastian Eguren, but he's currently in Spain and start match after match with his Villarreal. When Mikkel Jensen isn't on the field we have 11 anxious players running around, most of them looking unhappy and quite lost. It's as if they're wondering what the hell they're doing there in the first place.

If that wasn't enough, the lack of attitude in some individuals are painfully apparent. The thing is, no one ever became a good football player by performing very well in some matches the season before and the season after doing nothing. It's hard work every training and every match the whole year around that make a player brilliant. If not, you're just mediocre. And as painfully as it's true, that's the situation in Hammarby today.