“No, I just have the track of all results in all sports from this year, I can’t see why he should not be nominated.”
this is the sound of the words from the Mads Mensah Larsen, who was part of the men’s team of handball, which in January won the gold under Nicholas Jakobsens management.
It gives the national coach a nomination for this Year’s Coach 2019, as B. T. awards along with the consulting Coachers.
Mads Mensah Larsen know Nikolaj Jacobsen better than most players. For, besides to play on the national team under him, has Mads Mensah Larsen also had Nikolaj Jacobsen as a coach for several years in the German Rhein-Neckar Löwen.
He emphasises that there is both a trænermæssigt and a human aspect of Nikolaj Jacobsen’s way to be the coach on.
“He is very clever tactically. He has a clear concept, but he is also ready to adapt its concept, according to which players he has available, and he can act during the fighting, if there had to happen something unpredictable,” start Mads Mensah Larsen, before he enters on the person behind the tactical abilities.
“He has a great temperament during the fighting, but you are never in doubt that he is 100 percent. He will it at least as much as his players. It can sometimes be a bit extreme, and it has sometimes been a bit over the edge, if you can say it like that.”
At the Danish Handball Federation is very pleased with Nikolaj Jacobsen’s abilities as a coach. And the team he will play Morten Henriksen looks just on the temperament, Mads Mensah Larsen is talking about, as an advantage.
“It is a balance, I think is one of the things that fit well. When you learn Nicholas to know as a person, I also think it is easier to accept the claims he makes. Conversely, is it the case that everyone who meets into landsholdslejren, have the ambition. I do not think he is unfair in what he does. He is good to distinguish,” says Morten Henriksen.
The hot guy with the krammere
When Morten Henriksen is talking about a balance, it is also the pleasant side of Nikolaj Jacobsen, he believes.
“He has it here Danish humor. A good and warm being, as I perceive, both players and leaders are happy. He creates the good preconditions for that it is wonderful to come into the national team. Both to fight in the red-and-white jersey, but also because you have it well together, and there is a good atmosphere,” he says.
Concrete for Mads Mensah Larsen leads, for example, that when the fiery coach on the sidelines is finished, it’s almost a different man, you are talking with.
“So is he twice as good to come with praise, or a hug afterwards, if that is what the players need. This is not how you get a sour man out on the sidelines. There follows the equally positive the other way, when the battle is over, whether you have done it good or bad,” says the Danish national team.
This brings us to WORLD cup triumph in January.
Denmark won all 10 matches at the finals and was not seriously under pressure. Nor, when they met France in the semi-final and Norway in the WORLD cup final.
Mads Mensah Larsen felt never, that the national coach did something specifically different prior to a group match in the conditions of the WORLD cup final.
“It is clear that the longer one when entering in the tournament, the more coming on. He delivers really very constant,” says Mads Mensah Larsen.
To Denmark was to triumph on home soil, however, was a tough task for the national coach, remember Morten Henriksen.
“There is no doubt he is under maximum pressure, is tired and strained, but I think really, he was to maintain focus. And then he is surrounded by competent people, as he also is good to use. I think it is just as important. That he is aware of the people around him,” says the DHFs team he will play.
And then there was krammeren.
After the WORLD cup finalesejren was Nikolaj Jacobsen clearly happy. Hugged all the players and coaches. Anyway, it looked as if Mads Mensah Larsen got a little longer and a little closer squeeze of the national coach.
He remembers it not as anything special, but can see that perhaps there is something to it.
“For me it is not as such a moment with Nicholas. It was just the culmination of it all. So it is clear, that when you are not only together one month in January, but also along all the second time in the club, then you are just a little closer to each other and by how much it has filled in along the way. So that is why there has perhaps been a little extra in the hug there,” says Mads Mensah Larsen.
the Winner of this Year’s Coach of 2019 will be announced on Thursday 5. december. In the days leading up to the awards you can read portraits of all four nominees. Piotr Wojewski, Casper Jørgensen, Anders Lund and Nikolaj Jacobsen.
