Manchester City star Oscar Bobb was torn to shreds by Norwegian manager Starre Solbakken after Tuesday’s game against New Zealand.
Norway defeated Israel 5-0 on Saturday, maintaining its 100 percent record in World Cup qualifying and taking the lead in Group I ahead of Italy.
This game earned Bob his 13th cap as Erling Haaland went on to score another hat-trick, pushing his goal difference to a ridiculous +26 after just six games.
A video subsequently emerged of the 22-year-old being criticized by City team-mate Haaland during training. “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, can you please run?” Haaland said.
And his poor work rate against New Zealand was highlighted by Solbakken in a brutal public dressing down by the Norwegian manager after the friendly.
“He was very bad in the first half. He lacked everything. He was very bad in the first half,” Solbakken told reporters via VG.
“He takes too long with the ball, his positioning is weird, he doesn’t press well. He’s been practicing that in training and he’s been very good at it.”
“But if you ask Oscar, he will say that the first half was the weakest for the national team. I think the second half was the second weakest.”
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But Solbakken claimed that this performance was substandard for Bob and that “it’s nothing to worry about.”
Solbakken added: “We’re not wasting any energy on that. He’s performed very well in almost every game, both high up on the pitch and off the pitch. I’m not worried about that.”
Bob later acknowledged that the manager’s thoughts were reasonable, replying, “That’s a fair assessment.”
Haaland was left out of Norway’s squad for the match against New Zealand, along with other “players with a particularly demanding fixture schedule”, but was asked about his chances of playing in next summer’s World Cup before departing.
“I don’t want to say too much about it (the possibility of a World Cup),” Haaland said. “I’m just focused on winning the next game. That was my mindset in the last game and it’s still the same.”
Read more: Erling Haaland’s outrageous stats to match Dimitar Berbatov’s Premier League goals
The striker, who has already scored 21 goals for club and country this season, recently spoke about his fitness, saying: “I think first of all it’s about preparation. Getting ready for the game. As I’ve said many times before, you can be physically ready, but you also need to be mentally ready. To be honest, I think you can get better with kids. It actually cuts off communication more than ever.”
