Erik Hamrén has found himself lacking efficient strikers - but warns against overemphasising shots-on-goal statistics.



"We've clearly had too few goalscorers, this was obvious last season. If you want to be a top team, and a contender for honours and championships, you need many players with goalscoring abilities. In modern football midfielders are often in scoring positions. If you look at Stabæk, last year's league champions, they had many midfielders among the scorers. When I took the league trophy with Aalborg, midfielders were scoring quite a few. There needs to be more of them in Rosenborg as well."

"Simply put: we scored too few goals. We can't blame this entirely on the strikers, but on the whole team. I have hopes that we will improve in that regard this season."

What are your thoughts on the efficiency during pre-season?

"I haven't kept a tally on every goalscoring chance during these matches, but it's been a mixed bag for sure. During some games we did well. Keep in mind that you do harder, more physical training throughout the winter, and will often be more tired in the January and February friendlies than in any other time of the year. That's why I choose not to stress these matches too much. Still, I hope we can build on the fine performance against Viking."

Last season you often made much of the sheer number of chances, but were they all big chances?

"Often you have to look at the whole game. Many teams - sometimes at their respective home pitches, but particularily here at Lerkendal - are very defensively oriented and will often concentrate on hitting us on the counter. They'll be more happy to keep a clean sheet and grab a draw. If they can also score one, they'll be more than happy. This makes it more difficult for us."

"It's harder to face a really defensive side because most teams are really well organised nowadays, as you can see in any league. Thus it's harder to find the really big chances, whereas our opponents may have fewer chances, but with bigger scoring potential. This makes it appear that they have an easier time bagging a goal."

"This is exactly what we will have to handle if we want to become a top ranking team - putting the chances. If you look at the match against Viking: If they had grabbed the first goal - they had plenty of opportunities and the first half was pretty even - we would have had a different match entirely. This is why it's so important to score the first goal in modern football, particularily for the best sides. the other team will have to open up a little more, which gives opportunities for even more goals."

"So I agree with you: we have more than our share of chances, but these aren't necessarily as huge as the ones our opponents have. This is something we're trying to improve upon."