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Ready Or Not: Havard Nordtveit

135 guns July 30th, 2010

And so we’ve arrived at the final entry in the Ready Or Not series.  Unless I’ve forgotten someone.  In which cases, the chances are that such a distinctly unmemorable player isn’t going to make it.  If you missed any, the other reports are:

• Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
• Jack Wilshere
• Henri Lansbury
• Jay Simpson
• Wojciech Szczesny

Thanks to Richard Champion, who saw more than half of Nordtveit’s Nuremberg games, for the following.

How big an impact did Havard Nordtveit make at FC Nuremberg?

To be fair, his impact was modest. Nuremburg’s situation in terms of quality, personnel, and tactics dictated that he play as one of two holding midfielders, which were never allowed - by tactics or lack of possession - to get forward.

Nuremburg, while not laden with an abundance talent, did at the season’s start have a number of decent, competent CB’s and RB’s, such as Andreas Wolf, Dominic Maroh, and Dennis Diekmeier, but had a dearth of central midfielders. Thus, due to his versatility and long-range passing, Nordtveit was often paired with Juri Judt in front of the back four.

Due to him starting nearly every match before their winter break, he was clearly better than whomever they had on the bench, but he rarely stood out, save for a couple of key performances such as at Champions League side VfB Stuttgart.

During the winter break, though, a great many changes occurred at the club. Dieter Hecking replaced Michael Oenning as manager and brought about an aggressive transfer period for the small club. Nuremburg loaned from Bayern Munich the (initially) much-heralded Brazilian CB Breno and German U-21 international DM Andreas Ottl as well as Senegalese international DM Mickaël Tavares from Hamburg. Suffice to say, all three became regular starters for the club pushing Havard to the bench.

In fairnesses to Hecking and Nuremberg, these signings probably helped keep them in the Bundesliga, but also meant that Nordtveit almost never got on the pitch, particularly since a club finishing one position above regulation is almost always throwing on attackers, not defenders, at the end of matches.

What are his main strengths and weaknesses as a player?

Havard was put into a difficult situation playing out of position in a foreign country where he didn’t speak the language, but it is rare that a 19 year-old defender gets as much playing time as he did in a top league. At his home club of FK Haugesund and in the Reserves at Arsenal, Nordtveit exclusively played as a CB. Then during his ill-fated excursion to Salamanca - from which he left early, despite not being able to even play in Reserves matches until Jan. 1 due to conditions of the loan - he was played out of position as a DM. It was due to his distaste for how and how little he was being used, along with tumult internally and with Arsenal that he left.  Then during his loan spell at Lillestrom he played a majority of his matches at RB and a minority at CB. I state all of this as context for his time at Nuremberg where he was returned to his less-favored position of DM.

Therefore, it is hard to judge Howie’s time in Germany. To me, he clearly isn’t a midfielder. He lacked confidence, which created uncertainty in whom to mark, when to get forward - which he basically never did - and an overall lack of aggression. When situations arose where he clearly had to provide a tackle or header, he did relatively well, but he often wasn’t assertive enough to put himself into positions to do so. You can tell by looking at him, that if his future/final position is to be in the center of defense, he will have to increase his strength. Also, based on his performances at Nuremberg, a greatly heightened sense of aggression and assertiveness. His strengths are his excellent long-range passing, good height and heading ability, and sense of comfort with the ball at his feet.

What is his best position?

At this point, it is likely right-back or center-back, though in time it will likely be CB. To play as a CB in the Premier League, though, requires a level of strength and aggression he has simply not shown to this point, but his very promising start to this preseason hints at significant progress in these areas.

Which top flight players does he remind you of?

Well, there are not a great deal of top-flight CB’s with good pace, height, and long-range passing with comfort on the ball, yet not an overly aggressive style of play or muscular build, but German international Arne Friedrich comes to mind. Not many may be terribly familiar with him other than his starting performances at CB for Germany’s attractive and largely successful World Cup run this summer, but he has all those attributes and has also started at RB also for the German national side in previous tournaments.

Do you think he could be an Arsenal player?

As an Arsenal supporter and Nordtveit fan, I have to say my opinion was mixed based on his time at Nuremberg. He came to Arsenal with a fair amount of fanfare and expectations and quickly established himself as captain of the Reserves. But one terrible loan in the Spanish second tier, a successful one in the not-much-fancied Norwegian top league and what started as a decent, though hardly superlative, loan in the Bundesliga will have had to been go down as a disappointing spell for the player and Arsenal.  It’s hard to know what to think. Yet, to have done all this - as a defender - before turning 20 has to count for something and I believe his early performances this preseason are hopefully revealing his quality and potential. Thus, I’ll say that he has at least a 50:50 chance to be a starter at Arsenal.

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So there we go.  My personal opinion is that Nordtveit is absolutely guaranteed to be part of our first-team squad, as we currently have less centre-backs than I have fingers on my right hand.  Or my left, for that matter.  Still, as ever, I put the question to you:

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