Football: Olsen's grand plan still up in the air

PREMIERSHIP Old Trafford test will reveal whether Wimbledon have understood new manager's philosophy

JASON EUELL is on the ball by the corner flag. Two Derby County defenders are around him. He wriggles, twists, but loses possession. As Derby advance upfield the action stops. Egil Olsen, manager of Wimbledon, turns from the screen and says: "This bad involvement cost us a goal. It was not his fault, there were many players involved in it, but the Derby equaliser came from losing the ball there."

Olsen turns back to his computer. To redress the balance he calls up another clip, one which demonstrates a "good involvement" by Euell in the same match, an intelligent run into space which led to his winning a corner. Earlier he has called up Euell's match statistics, a breakdown of his good and bad involvements, such as the times he won and lost possession. Euell emerges in credit, and not just because he scored.

Football by numbers? Not quite, but one wonders what Bill Shankly and Sir Matt Busby would have made of this Norwegian boffin (he was a university lecturer in Oslo) poring over his computer screen to assess his players.

It is easy to poke fun at Olsen, who today takes his team north to face Manchester United. Even as we sat, on Thursday afternoon, in his warm office at Wimbledon's refurbished training ground, he wore his trademark green Wellington boots. He frequently cycles to work, he does not eat English sandwiches because they have butter in them and he is an avowed Marxist.

Yet such eccentricity is hardly unique among football managers. What is unusual is his continued adherence to "direct play". Even Wimbledon, he has found to his disappointment, have been infected by the belief in possession football which has, in his words "invaded" the English game.

This philosophy, pioneered by Wing Commander Charles Reep (who, at 95, still communicates with Olsen) and Charles Hughes, is now widely reviled and rejected. Its influence in the 1980s is blamed for the present lack of play-makers in the English game and the failings abroad of national and club teams for much of the last decade.

Olsen, 57, remains a believer however and, given the chance to explain, he is unnervingly plausible. "It is too simplistic to describe it as just hitting long balls to the strikers and asking the midfield to win the second ball," he said. "Only one-third of the attacks start with 11 opponents between the ball and their goal.

"Many more start from winning the ball in open play in the opponents' half. If you do that the opponents are unbalanced and you should finish the attack very soon. If you instead play two or three square passes it gives them time to recover.

"Possession in itself is no use. Norway [under Olsen, who managed them from 1990-98] played a lot of African teams. They would have 70 per cent of possession but we never lost. In the Champions' League this week Boavista [of Portugal] had most of the ball against Rosenberg [of Norway] but lost 3-0 at home.

"The penetrative style is more effective. It provides more opportunities to score goals and you should concede less. This is because the most dangerous passes are square passes, you are unbalanced if they fail, so with Norway they were forbidden."

One criticism is that this is desperate stuff to watch, but Olsen responds: "I'm not so sure people want to see a lot of passes, people want to see situations in front of goal. Without scoring and chances football will die. I watch football from Brazil on television. It is very slow with lots of free-kicks. I didn't like it."

Ah, Brazil. The proof of the hoofing is in the results and, famously, Olsen's Norway were undefeated in three meetings with Brazil, winning twice. Insult was added to injury when he said Brazil would be better playing penetrative football, a belief he still holds.

"The only way you can convince people this is the right way to play is by winning. I'm not stupid, I know that if we played Brazil 25 times they would beat us most times, but we did beat them. Everybody should see that it should be impossible for Norway to beat Brazil with their football tradition and a population of 160 million people."

Wimbledon's results have been less convincing. They travel to Old Trafford on the back of one win and three defeats from seven Premiership matches.

The problem has been one of changing old habits throughout the team. In attack, said Olsen: "Marcus Gayle and Carl Cort are used to, and like, getting the ball to feet, they want to take defenders on and beat them. I want them to attack the space behind defenders."

Which is where he wants the ball played. Instead, he said, when the midfield win the ball they like to play short passes before, often, laying it back for Kenny Cunningham or Ben Thatcher to launch it forward. By then the opposition have regrouped, so why not launch it forward immediately?

It is clear that some players are happier to do this than others. "Some don't mind. Others have a view on it," he said, adding, "but Wimbledon have a long-ball tradition."

Then there is the defence, who appear as confused as the media at Olsen's request that they adopt a pure zonal marking system, marking only space not opponents. Even though Olsen got a board out to demonstrate it, I can understand their nervousness at going against lifetime habits to adopt what appears a risky procedure.

Having spent his career playing and managing in Norway this is Olsen's first job overseas, having previously reluctantly turned down an offer to manage Celtic for family reasons. He appears to have settled quicker than his team. He lives, with his family, on the other side of Wimbledon Common from the club's Roehampton training ground. His five-year-old daughter, Kine, whose pictures share wall space in his office with shots of Olsen skiing, attends the local Norwegian school.

The oddest moment came the day we met. While filming him on the Common for this morning's Football Focus on Grandstand, the BBC were interrupted by police. "They were almost arrested. Apparently you can't film on the Common," said Olsen.

A Tottenham fan as a boy, but a long-time Wimbledon admirer, he is enjoying the challenge of putting his ideas into action in the Premiership. And this, for all his reliance on long-ball football, is a deep thinker on the game. He regularly attends the quadrennial World Congress in Science and Football, and believes the future is in high-tempo football.

"Football is getting quicker and quicker. If you see the 1970 World Cup Final [when Brazil beat Italy 4-1] now you won't believe how slow it is. At the time we thought it was very good football. Now, you laugh."

More heresy. But back to the nitty-gritty. How long will it take for the team to play the way he wants them to? "They will never do so. They have a different way of thinking. I don't know yet how long it will be before they get close enough to be satisfactory."

It will not just be the Dons' fans who hope they manage it soon. Wimbledon's survival in the Premiership is good for the game, even if their brand of football might not be.