Viking FK visited Rosenborg on the 11th matchday of the Norwegian Eliteserien and was very unlucky to lose 3-0 against one of the bigger sides in their League. Viking set up in a 4-3-3 with Joe Bell as their defensive midfielder. They away side tried to play it out the back against Rosenborg and relied on their creative wingers to create chances.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, re-watch
- D – Below average in this match
Henrik Heggheim
Player profile:
- Nationality: Norwegian
- Age: 19
- Date of birth: 22/04/2001
- Current club: Viking FK
- Career: Viking FK
- Position: Centre Back
- Preferred foot: Right
The 19-year old centre back Henrik Heggheim has broken in the first team of Viking FK this season and it was pretty clear why. The 6’1” tall defender played as the right centre back next to Viljar Vevatne and played with a lot of confidence and showed he has a lot of potential.
Heggheim mainly has to improve on the physical aspect of his game in my eyes. He is quite tall and did good in the air and also has quite a bit of pace, which helped him a lot defensively as Viking played a quite high defensive line. But you can see that he isn’t the strongest defender. Since Heggheim is still very young this isn’t a weird thing and he can surely get stronger as he gets older.
Defensively Heggheim did a great job for his team. He is quite a presence in the air as he has a good jumping reach. On the ground he won 80% of his duels, which is an impressive statistic. Heggheim defended very smart and put in some good tackles. However I think he some extra aggression in some duels, could really benefit him. His pace also helped him to catch up with attackers. As I said Viking played a quite high line, but at times Heggheim would push up even further and help his team pressing, quite risky behaviour but with Joe Bell covering for him he was fine.
His qualities on the ball impressed me the most. Heggheim played with so much confidence and was really calm on the ball. His short passes were fine, but he also showed his beautiful long pass multiple times. Under pressure Heggheim didn’t panic at all. He always stayed calm with an opponent right behind him and still managed to pick out the right passes. Heggheim also wasn’t scared to dribble past his opponent and carry the ball up the pitch.
Heggheim made a couple of mistakes, but always tried to recover. He was working very hard and always gave 100%.
Rating: A2
If Heggheim can improve physically I’m sure he can play on a higher level than Norway. He made some mistakes during the game against RBK, but I’m sure he can overcome them.
Zymer Bytyqi
Player profile:
- Nationality: Kosovar/Norwegian
- Age: 23
- Date of birth: 11/09/1996
- Current club: Viking FK
- Career: Sandnes ULF, RB Salzburg, Sandnes ULF (L), Viking FK
- Position: Right Wing
- Secondary position: Left Wing
- Preferred foot: Right
Zymer Bytyqi played as the left winger in the front three for Viking FK with Berisha as the striker and Ibrahimaj on the right. Bytyqi was the most involved attacker from Viking, but didn’t play a particularly good game.
The end product was really missing with Bytyqi. The left winger liked to cut in to the middle from the left and did so multiple times, but couldn’t follow up the dribble with a good shot or assist. There were also multiple times where he didn’t cut his outside and beat his man on the outside. He then put in a cross with his left, but these weren’t really accurate. Bytyqi got a lot of support from his left back Pereira who created a lot of space for him, but he barely gave him the ball.
Bytyqi had three shots this game and only one of them hit the target, but was an easy save for the goalkeeper. His shots weren’t really powerful and didn’t look like a big threat.
On the ball Bytyqi showed his main strengths. His technique is really good and he easily passed his opponents. He showed some glimpses of class, with an incredible pass with the outside of his right foot. The winger is also quite fast and agile, making him a real threat for his direct opponent.
Rating: B1
For the Eliteserien Bytyqi is a solid player, but he has to work on his end product if he wants to succeed on a higher level.
Joe Bell
Player profile:
- Nationality: New Zealander/English
- Age: 21
- Date of birth: 27/04/1999
- Current club: Viking FK
- Career: Wellington Phoenix (Y), Virginia Cavaliers, Viking FK
- Position: Defensive Midfield
- Preferred foot: Right
Joe Bell played as the most defensive midfielder in between Furdal and Lokberg. Bell played a good game and was a really useful midfielder for Viking FK against Rosenborg. He did well intercepting twelve balls and winning 67% of his defensive duels.
In build up Joe Bell got the ball a lot. If Heggheim didn’t lead the build-up it was mostly Bell. His short passing was really good and he played some decent long balls as well. The 21-year old was quite strong on the ball and didn’t get pushed of the ball easily by his opponents. Bell played really safe most of the time and didn’t really dribble a lot with the ball.
The biggest flaw in Bell’s game is his pace, which got displayed a couple of times. He got dribbled past really easily a couple of times and made an obvious foul one time, which resulted in a yellow card. In the final ten minutes of the game the midfielder looked quite tired and he couldn’t cover the ground he normally covered.
Rating: B2
Bell’s technique and passing were fine, but his lack in pace and stamina seemed quite worrying to me.
Adrian Nilsen Pereira
Player profile:
- Nationality: Norwegian
- Age: 20
- Date of birth: 31/08/1999
- Current club: Viking FK
- Career: Viking FK
- Position: Left Back
- Preferred foot: Left
Adrian Nilsen Pereira played the full 90 as the left back for Viking FK against Rosenborg BK. Pereira kept making runs forward over- and underlapping the left winger Bytyqi, but he barely got the ball and was mainly used to create space.
The 20-year old left back mainly struggled defensively against Rosenborg, with the best of example being his role during the opening goal. His direct opponent, Helland, got the ball on the edge of the box and easily dribbled past Pereira before hitting the back of the net.
Pereira struggled with the pace and strength of Helland and didn’t win a single defensive duel against the right winger and got outmuscled by him quite easily.
On the ball Pereira did okay, but he was still to sloppy with his passing. During the game he got a passing accuracy of 74%, failing some passes which he shouldn’t fail. His crossing didn’t look that great either. He only put three crosses in, which didn’t create any danger.
Rating: C
After arguably playing the best game of his career against Sarpsborg 08, Pereira really didn’t play that well against Rosenborg. Technically he seems to be alright, but he was very vulnerable defensively this game.
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